A Look Back At 2014

As December speeds us towards a New Year, I find myself thinking back over the last few months.

2014 started with CreationsByRobin still on hiatus. I really had not considered making more sea glass jewelry. The ocean had yet to offer up anything substantial and it seemed like my favorite hobby was dying a slow, painful death. Finding thin pieces of Rolling Rock green glass or Budweiser browns, was not going to be worth the effort...these pieces don't even age nicely...even when rounded by the tumbling in the ocean, these pieces of glass are very thin and when frosted, the glass is dull. Without the sea glass, going to the beach lost a little of it's luster...I mean, if I have to endure the bennies (ok, they're not all that bad) the least I can have is the excitement of possibly finding a nice piece of old glass washing up in the surf.

One one trip, we found something a bit older. Yea, it was brown, but it was thick and well frosted...an older piece of glass that somehow found it's way onto the beach. All of a sudden, the mediocre pieces were looking good (the thin, ugly pieces remained, just that...thin & ugly...lol) and we found ourselves heading to the beach a little more often. I'd like to say, seaglassing started picking up from that point. I would. But it wasn't the case.

What used to be a bad seaglassing day at the beach, was now a pretty good seaglassing day at the beach. A bad day was getting shutout totally...and that did happen often. But there was one other occurrence....the fires were getting stoked. I started fooling around with my sea glass again. It started when we moved into a new place and I wanted to decorate differently. I went with a beach theme. Driftwood, sea glass, pictures of the ocean and beach, lighthouses, etc. When it cam time to decorate my bedroom, the first thing I did was cut-out an area where my crafting table would go.

And just like that, I was back.The shop was reopened, I made new creations and some sales. As fall turned into winter and the vacationers and snow-birds headed for home or warmer climates, we found sea glass. The Atlantic still isn't turning out jewelry quality pieces on the beaches that I frequent, though there have been several that I could consider using for decorative creations. But I and my hubby (my hubby mostly) has been finding colors and unique pieces. Just before Christmas, he came home with 3 cobalt blues and two days later found a cornflower blue and part of an old white bottle top.

Somehow, the glass is finding it way back and knowing that the ocean tosses a few pieces onto the beach before she reclaims them in the next tide, will keep me dreaming of coming across the perfect piece of sea glass. And in the meantime, I will share some of the more special findings with anyone who loves what I create with these vanishing ocean treasures.

Looking ahead to walking the beaches in 2015. I'm excited to see where it will take me.

Happy New Year!

'til next time...
R

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Thanksgiving weekend Coupon codes

I hope everyone had a safe Thanksgiving Day. Getting my footing back in Etsy has been difficult and getting back into the swing of operating an online business has been challenging. There has been some significant changes since CreationsByRobin was last active, both on Etsy and with my sea glass supplier. I'm very thankful that the ocean is once again sharing it's treasures with me and I am thankful to once again have the opportunity to share my creation thru Etsy.

Once again, it's been quite awhile since my last blog entry. I have been blogging on my other blog,
Sea Glass CreationsByRobin ( creationsbyrobinseaglass.blogspot.com ) and there are several images of new creations listed in my Etsy shop, new creations that will be listed soon and new pieces of sea glass that I found on the beach over the last few months (ok...my hubby found them, it's too darn cold for me...lol)

My Etsy shop has 2 discount codes available...one is a 15% for total purchases under $30 and the other is a 20% off for purchases over $30...all purchases come with free shipping. These codes remain in affect thru Cyber Monday (12:01 am on 12/2)

I also have a special blog discount set up.... "Sea Glass By Robin" this is an additional 15% off your remaining total after you apply the Etsy shop discount. To receive this discount, select your purchases, apply your

Etsy shop discount and then send me a convo on Etsy, with the blog code in the subject. I will adjust your total due by an additional 15% and send you a return convo to let you know your order is adjusted.

That is what's new with me. Hopefully, my DH can get to the beach tomorrow and see if anything new has been offered up by the ocean.
There are several new creations for me to list, a few more that need images and a few pieces waiting for me to make into a handmade piece of jewelry.

If you stop by and don't see a new entry, please add my other blog to your list and check there. I try to add something new there at least once or twice a week. Stay safe and enjoy the holiday weekend!

'til next time...
R

What a Great Time For Seaglass

What better time than a perigee full moon? Check out the post I wrote on another blog...

I will admit that I prefer a 4th quarter perigee. But when the moon decides to get this close to our planet, it doesn't matter what month it is (i will have to deal with the bennies and the summer wanna-be seaglassers)

It will be fun to watch hubby mess with the bennies, I'm sure he bring a red  or two with him and say he found them in an area that has nothing. Or maybe he'll just bend down right next to one of them and pretend that he just picked one up right next to where they are or where they just looked.  He's sooo bad, lol

Good luck to all that go hunting this weekend!

My Trip to the Beach

For those who have never had the chance to follow my sea glass blog, just a little background info...

This blog was originally started as a way to introduce sea glass collecting and my sea glass jewelry creations. My blog entries were a sea glass diary of sorts and a way to promote my sea glass jewelry that I sold on Etsy.com and at various craft fairs, shows and local retail stores.
Currently, my shop on Etsy is closed and my jewelry-making days are just a hobby that I struggle to find time for. Sea glass collecting is something that has fallen by the wayside also, as trips to the beach have been rare since Super Storm Sandy. Since Sandy, sea glass on LBI has been rarer than my trips to the beach.

Until yesterday. For those that have followed this blog in the past, you may recall me blogging about an area my DH refers to as "cobalt beach". Cobalt beach is actually a stretch of beach, maybe 3-4 blocks long that has turned up an unusual amount of cobalt blue sea glass, along with several other uncommon colors.

So anyway, after a few disappointing trips to LBI, trips that left me and my family sad about the aftermath of Sandy, yesterday we headed back to stretch of beach that had once been our sea glass goldmine. The one time we visited this stretch of beach since Sandy, we only found a couple browns-not jewelry quality and not the type of browns that I hope to find, but brown sea glass nonetheless.

This trip to the beach started out no different... a large piece of brown that was finished on the outside, but the shard appeared to have been broken recently, so the inside needed more time for the ocean to finish the job. My DH referred to this piece as undercooked, so we found a safe area to return it to the sea. What I did find encouraging was this piece had some thickness to it and that could mean it was an older piece of glass.

For most of the day, I almost regretted returning that undercooked brown because there was nothing else to be found anywhere. Even the stretch formerly known as "cobalt beach" came up empty (again). As the crowds began leaving and the tide started pulling out, we gave it one more walk thru before we called it a day.

Despite several decent sized shell beds, cobalt beach was a disappointing bust... there was nothing to be found other than a few recently shards from recently broken Budweiser bottles (that were picked up and thrown into the trash bin). So we turned and headed back to our chairs and my son wanted one last dip n the ocean. While I kept watch, my DH continued on (in the opposite direction of what was once cobalt beach) & after a few minutes, my son and I went off in his directions where we found several large shell beds containing a lot of small shells, broken shell pieces and lots of stones and zero pieces of glass of any kind.

Shell bed after shell bed yielded nothing. Then my DH doubled back to showed me two pieces. The first was a clear white piece and it was nearly perfect. Well-weathered and frosted, only a recent chip in the edge kept it from being perfect. The 2nd piece was better. Another white, this one perfect and it's jewelry quality (rare for NJ). As a white piece of sea glass, it wouldn't fetch much as a piece of jewelry...but this piece has a tinge of amethyst coloring in it (I'm hoping now that it's been rescued from the sea, it will continue to turn color) Both of these pieces were found within 2 feet of each other, so we went back to the area and I found 2 pieces...one a frosty white- nothing to get real excited and the second a pale blue tear-drop shaped piece...weathered, slightly frosty and without a doubt, jewelry quality. One of the nicest jewelry quality pieces I have ever found on LBI. This one will become a charm for a necklace.
The craziest thing about both of these pieces, is they were found within 10 feet of those that my DH found and before we left the area, a thick chunky amber piece washed up!

30 minutes before we leave, the ocean presents us with a couple of the nicest pieces of sea glass that we ever found on LBI...and all 5 pieces were found with 10-12 feet of each other and there was nothing to be found anywhere else on the beach...go figure!

Hopefully, I can get images uploaded to the blog and show off my finds!

'til next time

Been A Long Time....

Wow! Nearly 11 months have passed since my last entry.

I recently received a couple of emails about my sea glass jewelry and both of my sea glass themed blogs. I haven't done much creating recently, but I received an invite to be interviewed on another crafter's blog...lol.

I doubt my responses would make for an interesting interview, so I declined. But I am hoping my trip to the beach today yields a piece (or three) of sea glass treasure worthy of a jewelry creation!

I miss my blog and would like to thank the hundreds of visitors since my last entry. Here's hoping today's trip to the ocean leads to a blog entry tomorrow!

'til next time...

Trip to the Beach

So, I finally broke down and decided to head over to LBI. Usually, I stay away until after Labor Day weekend. But the day was so nice, the ocean was calling and so was the urge to see if I could hunt down a piece of beach glass.

I went to a familiar area, found that most of the public parking that had been used for beach goers in previous years, now had a two hour time limit. Instead of having 75% of the spaces full of cars, there were a grand total of 5 cars using the 30-50 parking spaces... brilliant! Of course the side streets were loaded with cars and luckily, I squeezed into a small spot.
Now because of this brilliant decision to limit the parking places to 2 hours, the beach was quite empty. And the badge checkers were probably struggling to reach their quotas, so they were all over us as we hit the beach. "Do you need badges today?", "Do you have badges?" The bizarreness of it all fell somewhere between, I was the ice cream person ringing the bell and all the kids (badgecheckers) came running and I was going to a show and these teenagers in the yellow shorts were escorting me to my reserved seats.

So an enforced $15 donation to use a beach in the county I live in and spending several minutes driving up and down streets looking for a parking space because of some brilliantly stupid decision to put a 2 hour limit on parking places, the day didn't start well.

And it didn't get any better... I thought I/we might have a shot at maybe finding something in the surf. The beach was loaded with shells, mostly broken and quite a joy to step on in bare feet. With the tide moving out and a promising shell bed slightly visible, I had hopes. Heck, for the first time ever, I was encouraged when I saw the net-lady nearby...and she had her net with her!

But it wasn't to be. I gave up after 45 minutes. I spotted nothing at all. My DH spent at least another 30 minutes in mid-shin deep water, walking through what I believed was a shell bed and he saw one piece of "heineken green" green glass that needed about a decade more of cooking before it was ready.. Most of the shell bed appeared to be broken shells (no large, whole shells were found) and what looked like washed gravel rocks.

I have plans to go to LBI next weekend for a family get-together and thankfully, it's in another town on the island, because it is highly doubtful that I will ever frequent the town that we went to today. I'm not sure what official had the brainstorm (or was it a brain-fart?) to implement a time limit on parking places, but I guess this person forgot that the reason why people go to LBI is to enjoy the beach and not to go shopping or dining out during the day- besides a large percentage of the stores look like they still have not opened their doors this season.

Sandy really impacted everything I came across on this trip to LBI. The crowds were sparse as they have seemed to be for a lot of the summer. So many stores never opened their doors and many places still look like they need renovations. The things that appeared to have changed, have changed for the worst and one of the most important draws for me, the sea glass, looks like it may be years away from coming back on the beaches that I have visited.

My next trip will be to the northern end of the island and hopefully, very soon, I can head over to the area my DH called "cobalt beach". At least it was a beautiful day....

'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

Review- The 2012 Beach Plum Festival

If you haven't been following my recent blog entries- a quick catch-up... The economy has really affected my small handmade jewelry crafting business and with one of my favorite shows approaching, I decided to make a personal investment. Best case scenario, it would be a good show and I'd make my money back (and hopefully a decent profit) or worse case, I would have replenished my inventory and would put everything into my Etsy shop and gear up for holiday sales.

The Festival- for those that live in the NJ area, the Beach Plum Festival is held every September on Island Beach State Park (near Seaside) The park is gorgeous, the beaches very clean and one of the few beaches in NJ staffed with lifeguards after Labor Day. The Festival attracts several handmade crafters, displays featuring local non-profits and food vendors, along with many displays featuring the topic of the day...Beach Plums (the ice cream and jellies are outstanding, BTW) The show is very well run and receives quite a bit of local media attention. For crafters considering this event, the show always attracts a great deal of foot-traffic- many who plan to hit the beach and stroll in find a great festival in progress. If you have a beach-theme craft or business, this should be a must-do show. An overview of how the festival went for me personally would be- better than expected. I really didn't know what to expect because I was not selling much out of my Etsy shop and other crafters had reported below average sales over the summer. With many fellow crafters cutting back on shows, I didn't really know what to expect. The show started out slowly sales-wise. There was a large crowd right at the start of the festival (perhaps beach-goers) and I had a lot of foot traffic, but very few people looked to be making purchases anywhere. The traffic continued to pour in and I decided to find a few pieces in my collection to make into pendants for necklaces. I began wire-wrapping several pieces and that seemed to draw a small crowd and that seemed to change the "luck" for me, as I starting selling a few pieces. By noon, it was clear I would cover my expenses and make a little money. I'd love to say this was my best year at this venue, but it wasn't. But with the expectations I had coming into the show, I have to admit that I am so happy to have made the investment in myself because it seems that people are beginning to feel good about the economy. And they appear to be looking to buy something different and unique.

I'd love to find another show to do before the holidays, but realistically, I'm probably not going to find a better match for my product than this show. Island Beach State Park's Beach Plum Festival and my handmade sea glass jewelry just seem to be a perfect match for me. But I'll keep looking for the right spot. After the show, I sat with my hubby and discussed how the show went and realized there were a few trends on my sales and a things that helped me make sales that I hope to blog about soon. A few of these are ideas that I will continue to do at future shows and these thoughts might help fellow crafters make a few extra sales at their shows in the future. 'til next time, R

The Economy and Crafting

"May you live in interesting times" is an old proverb that comes to mind when I think of the current economic unrest in the world today. I try not to dwell on it much, but there are many times that the economy has forced me to re-evaluate what is happening with my crafting business.

Rising costs in gas and silver directly impacted my business. People just didn't have money to spend on the pretty necklace they found on my Etsy website or show display. The "I want that" draw that often led to spur of the moment purchases, had turned into "I'd like to have that" and eventually to "I wish I could afford that". My business is not one of necessity. Seaglass jewelry is not an everyday, must-have item. But for someone that lives the lifestyle of using handmade items in their ever day life, they will find a way to purchase an item such as handmade soap- if only because it is better for their skin, or it's because it's eco friendly (or higher quality than many of the massed produced, chemical laden "stuff") So not every crafting business is affected the same way. Some will continue to flourish, while others face stagnating sales because of diminished purchasing power. My sales are way down. (as in WAAAAYYY down) I did a show recently and had to invest some of my own money into my business (a QE of sorts)to be able to afford the show. You'll have to checkout my next blog installment to see if it was a wise investment... but I'll leave you with a "it was encouraging". 'til next time, R

Back Again

Well, it's been a long while. Since my last post, my blog was removed for suspicious activity (guess no activity is suspicious...lol)and I really had not been doing much with my jewelry-making. Last winter's storms wreaked havoc at the beach and the coastal towns were forced to rebuild the beaches and dunes. Great for the home owners and summer beach-goers, not very good for seaglass collectors. Not good at all The economy has also wreaked havoc on the crafting industry- at least in my area of crafting. For a while it seemed like people just didn't have disposable income for sea glass jewelry. When it comes to items that people "need" for everyday life, the money is there, but when it comes to a "want" item, I still think there are many people who can't afford small luxury items. I have several ideas for new posts. Some will touch on seaglass, some on my crafting, and on crafting in a shaky economy. My next blog entry will be about the show I did recently and how it's re-energized me to continue to do what I love - looking for, talking about and making jewelry with sea glass. 'til next time, R