It's Been A Long Time

I have been away from this blog for quite a long time. Sadly, Superstorm Sandy has changed the face of seaglass hunting on the beaches I often frequent. Long Beach Island beaches were torn apart by Sandy. Even though the island has been successfully pieced back together, it appears that it may be a long time before my favorite sea glass hunting grounds begin to yield great pieces (and those great pieces were few and far between in recent years) Though we don't frequent the beach as often as we once did, we hope to get to the beach more often towards the end of the summer as the tourist season begins to grind to a close. Speaking of grinding to a close... my shop at Etsy.com has been closed for the time being. The joy of finding sea glass on the beach, spurred the idea of creating handmade jewelry with those finds. Sandy essentially closed the my favorite sea glass store and while, the store has reopened (the beach, the towns)the shelves remain barren. Maybe one day things will change...I'll keep looking and hopefully, I will have some new finds to post soon. 'til next time, R

Listening to My Customers

Listening to your customers can often breathe life into a shop's bottom line. My Etsy shop sales were rather disappointing. My inventory had stagnated, views were low and there was really nothing happening with my jewelry. Rather than just continuing on with my current inventory lines and hoping for a positive holiday sales season, I chose to try to figure out how to turn my sea glass inventory into new product line.

Several customers requested sea glass anklets and these creations proved quite challenging. Trying to avoid making something similar to my bracelets, I eventually decided to take a few pieces of sea glass that were marble and egg-shaped and drill through them length-wise. We had a few casualties along the way, losing a few gorgeous pieces of sea glass that suffered blowouts, but some pieces (like the image above) came through the drilling process perfectly. In hindsight, I'm not sure if I will create many more anklets with this type of drilling, but I will still make them like this...

I also had a few requests for necklaces that were a bit more subtle. I have made custom pieces for customers using smaller pieces of sea glass and people who visited my table displays last season showed quite a bit of interest. So I delved into my sea glass collection and pulled out several tiny pieces- all measuring 1/2" to just short of 5/8" in length and wrapped several. The "Petites" have really turned the momentum around in my shop... my views have increased and my bottom line has improved.

Both of these items came to fruition after listening to customer suggestions. They have allowed me to expand a stagnate inventory and give customers that visit my shop, a few additional options. When it comes to sea glass, you can't always give the customers what they want, if the ocean isn't providing the needed "gems". But in these cases, I'm glad my collection contained what was needed to make my customers happy! 'til next time... R

Sea Glass Anklets & New Creations

For quite some time, I have received many requests for sea glass anklets.

Creating them didn't seem like a big deal, but my first pieces, like the image above, resembled some of the sea glass bracelets that I made in the past and I wanted something different for the anklets. I wanted to "introduce" a new line, with a new look. I wanted a bigger piece of glass, something bold. Most of the sea glass I find in the US is flat and rather than drill two holes and connect the sea glass on two sides to the sterling silver, I wanted something different.

I have several gorgeous pieces of English sea glass that are just too big for me to consider using them as the focal bead of a necklace. These pieces resemble marbles or are egg-shaped and would be very tough for me to wrap. I decided to drill these thicker, bulkier pieces right down the middle, from top to bottom and use them for my anklets. English sea glass, for those of you that aren't familiar, is also referred to as end-of-day glass. Before plastics replaced glass in many commercial uses, there were many glass factories in the UK and several were located near the ocean. At the end of the day, all the excess was dumped into the ocean. Several different jobs might get mixed into the same barrel and into the sea it went, where it would spend the next several decades, tumbling about and turning into some of the most beautiful examples of sea glass. It is truly amazing how mother nature can take man-made garbage and turn it into something so very beautiful.

Some of my customers are loving my new anklet creations. And some of them want to wear them as a bracelet, while others say they will wear it both ways. I think they look great as an anklet, and that is how I wear my piece. And I'm now on the hunt for an knock-out piece of English sea glass to create another one-of-a-kind treasure for myself. While I'm posting images, check out this bold and brilliant piece of dark red sea glass....

'til next time... R

Craft Show- Tips and Trends

At my most recent show, my hubby pointed out several things he observed during the show. Some of these observations were trends he noticed before and in the next few events they seemed to prove themselves as situations I wanted to create or avoid. Hubby is a people watcher and he'll often at shows, whisper to me that a certain person is going to buy something. The most bizarre thing is, he does it as the person is leaving my display and more often than not, he's correct because they come back and make a purchase!

The observation that he finds that often leads to a sale is- a crowd at the display and the bigger, the better! When I have several people standing in front of my display tables, it seems that more people see the crowd and get drawn in, like moths to a porch light. Others become curious and just have to see why there is a crowd at my display tables. Because two pieces of sea glass are rarely alike, my jewelry creations are essentially one-of-a-kind creations. And large crowds at my display make those right in front a little antsy, especially if they "love" one of my items. I have watched people have conversations with each other, almost justifying a reason why they are going to make a purchase... upcoming birthday, Put it away for a Christmas present, this is her color, etc. Sometimes it seems like the person feels that this could be there last chance to make the purchase and if they walk away and come back, "their" piece of jewelry will be bought by someone else. So crowds, especially a large and getting bigger crowd, will often facilitate a purchase and there is nothing better than a large group of people seeing someone make a purchase. I rarely make jewelry at a show. It's often just too hectic and I never liked the pressure of doing it in front of people. At my most recent show, I pulled out some jewelry-quality pieces of sea glass and decided I would try to wrap a couple. The foot traffic at the show was good, but sales were slow and hubby has always encouraged me to make jewelry at the show, "on-the-fly". With my hubby and two boys at the tables to talk with anyone who came to my display, I was able to start wrapping without interruption and just got lost wrapping jewelry. I had a nice flow going and after turning several pieces of sea glass into pendants, I looked up to find I had a large audience off to the side of my table, all watching me do my thing. Several inquired if I would consider making jewelry with a piece of sea glass they personally found on the beach, took business cards, and a couple of them made purchases. One person claimed that after they observed the process of how I chose to wrap a piece, it became more personable watching "the artist" create it right in front of them (wow, I'm an artist in somebody's mind!) Crafters, if you can preform your craft live at a show, seriously consider it- it goes back to my first tip- it draws a crowd to your display and that often results in something positive for you. Business cards are a must and if you feel comfortable, jot your phone number down on a few to hand out to those you feel may be a future customer. I went through a lot of cards in my last show and if only 10% of those people contact me in the coming months, that show will go from "above expectations" to "HUGE!!!" Credit Cards- I always accept credit card purchases and have only been burned twice in several years (both for small amounts, but it still gets me angry because sea glass is one-of-a-kind and I'll never find another piece like the one I just "gave away") This last show, I noticed that about 60% of the sales were credit cards, and that most of the mid-range price-point items were purchased via a cc. The lower end price points were cash purchases and the high-end items didn't sell. If you can, bring all of your inventory to the show. I sold a piece that I have had in my inventory for a couple of years. I know that there have been shows when this piece wasn't included in the inventory, but you can't sell what you didn't bring and luckily, this piece has found a new home...and the new owner was thrilled because it's her favorite color!

I'm happy that some people seemed to be in a purchasing mood at the show and I have made a couple of recent sales in my shop. But I am still pessimistic about the economy. I hope things are taking a turn for the better and that sales and future shows (for you and I) prove to be successful. Perhaps these tips will help you make a few sales and maybe attract a couple repeat customers for your products and business. Looking forward to see you on the show circuit! 'til next time, R