ReCap of the TRIS Craft Show

Last week's show was not a great one for me. I did make a little money, but overall, it wasn't a sea glass crowd. (I was not able to attend because of a change in hours at my job, but this is my hubby's description of the show.)

That's not to say the show was not a good one overall. Foot traffic during the show was steady, though not overwhelming. There seemed to be very few periods where the traffic appeared to be sparse...and that is a great sign for a first year show!

Several vendors looked to be quite busy and the crowd seemed to appreciate the opportunity to purchase quality handmade goods. Despite being a bit slow at my table, I did have the opportunity to talk about sea glass with a few people who never experienced it before. These people never noticed sea glass on the beach before, and are excited about keeping an eye open for it on their next trip to the ocean.

Several people went through the "Pure Sea Glass" book that I always have with me at shows, a few had questions about rarity and I did hand out several dozen business cards. The show gave me the opportunity to say hi to a couple customers that have purchased from me in the past, one of which was actually wearing the necklace she bought 2 or 3 years earlier!

My hubby also had the chance to speak with several members of the EtsyNJ team, many of which he had never met before. Several of the Etsy team seemed to have a very good show.

Overall, it was not a bad show, in fact, it is one that I will hope to do again next year. The show's promoters did a great job getting the word out, and the community responded with a nice turnout! There was a great deal of help available to vendors during the set-up and breakdown. And most importantly, the selection of handmade items was very diverse and of good quality.

Congrats to the promoters of the TRIS show...a job well done!

The Advantages of Being A Street Team Member...

In my other blog, I recently blogged about how the sea glass community is a different breed, because we are constantly sharing ideas, information, etc. I compared it to a few instances where jewelry-makers questioned me about who I use for supplies, business cards, banners, etc. In these instances, I either hardly knew the person, or didn't know them at all, and when I asked them who they purchased their components from, they couldn't seem to recall. So basically, they were just picking my brain on the how, when, where, and whys of my little operation...but weren't bringing anything to the table to share. After re-reading that blog entry, I realized that I did have several great relationships with fellow crafters...members of the EtsyNJ street team.

EtsyNJ is simply a large group of crafters from New Jersey that sell their handmade creations on Etsy.com. I have been friends with some of these members for nearly 3 years and the friendships have been invaluable to me in my crafting business.

Much like the sea glass community, the many of the members share information about craft fairs, suppliers, share their experience about consigning (what gift shop is good,which to avoid) etc. We plan to do shows together, so we can watch each others display during the show and in some cases, our children that play with each other during some of the shows. A couple members of the team have even hosted their own shows, and they were very well supported by the EtsyNJ team. One of the team's members opened up her own brick & mortar shop, JerseyMade, which offers handmade goods from over 20 members of the EtsyNJ street team, along with several other area crafters! And we've donated our handmade goods to help raise money for several charitable causes over the years.

There are many more advantages of being a member of this street team than those listed above. EtsyNJ has has group advertising in both the print media, and on the internet, and the power of many working together to benefit the whole team has proven to work time and time again.

Being a member of EtsyNJ has certainly helped my online sea glass jewelry business. Having the opinions and feedback from members has helped to avoid unpleasant situations/shows, find little known suppliers and it has helped me expand my business into gift shops and galleries in and around the area. If you are a member of Etsy, and you haven't joined a street team local to your area yet, you should consider doing so. I'd like to say, that the positives far out-number the negatives...but I really can't think of any negatives when it comes to being a member of the EtsyNJ team.

Being a member of a street team will help you grow your business...it's helped me tremendously with mine.

'til next time...
R

New Spring Creations, St Patty's Day, Spring-Summer Craft Fairs

In my last blog update, I blogged about winter doldrums, slower than usual sales and my plan to look back on what worked in 2009, what didn't perform up to expectations and how I would plan ahead for my busy selling season.

I'm really glad I used my "down-time" to put together a game-plan for the coming year. Just when you think winter will never end, spring is quickly forcing winter out the door. The snow piles are dwindling (no they are nowhere close to being gone, at least not yet) and many have already turned their attention to spring. With St Patrick's Day looming, followed up quickly by Easter, I found I needed to get a few ideas into gear because all of sudden, there are requests from some of my brick & mortar shops, my Etsy shop needs replenishing.... and this year I didn't have to scramble for solutions.

I spent most of Sunday creating jewelry, and planning out my displays at one of my local consignment galleries. In addition, I created a couple of green sea glass pieces just in time for St. Patty's Day... these will go into my Etsy shop during this week and I began working on a few items for my 2nd B&M shop, as I look to load up on what seems to be selling well there.

In the meantime, it's time to start considering what shows I will do during the spring and early summer. Once again, I hope to cut back on my shows (unless hubby wants to do them solo this year ...lol) The Handmade Faire is a MUST-DO show and OM Baby has so much potential. Those are two shows I try to pencil in to my calendar every year. There are also a couple local shows that seem to make sense for my product line, that I really need to be attending and in early summer, there are a couple of sea glass festivals that I would love to attend.

I'm hoping to limit my spring/summer shows to 5 or 6, so I can concentrate on my online shops and the shops I consign to. I'm also going to be looking at several possibilities to consign my sea glass creations over the next few weeks. I'd like to add 1 or 2 new opportunities for the warm weather, but it'll probably be tough to limit the amount to just a couple stores.

So in the matter of just a handful of days, it seems everything and everyone went from winter shut-ins to "let's get this party started". Thankfully, I'm more prepared this year than in previous years and I'm able to get product out where it's needed while things are still on the slower side.

Finally, I've actually followed through on a couple of my business New Year's resolutions : )

'til next time....
R

A Recent Purchase From the Shop of 2nd Life

Even though plastics bags are great for cleaning up after the dog, they really are just more garbage going into our landfills. We bring our canvas bags when we go food shopping, but the re-usable bags the stores sell are often so small, that after a half gallon of milk, and 2 or 3 small items the bag is pretty much full.

So when I saw the bag 2ndLife created, I knew I had to have one! The owner of the Etsy shop 2ndLife, Anna-Mari, creates bags in multiple colors. The bags are hand painted by her and the bag is HUGE!!

I just received it yesterday and took it with my to my local food store (which also happens to sell re-usable bags for $15 each) to pick up several items...and it all fit into the bag! What I bought yesterday would have filled my old bag and then some...I actually would have needed two of my older re-usable bags.

If you are looking to support the go-green movement, re-usable grocery bags are a great way to live the the Go-Green life. The bags Anna-Mari of 2ndLife are huge and at a terrific price! Anna-Mari ships to North America (she lives in Finland) and my bag was delivered in less than 5 business days (Finland to NJ in 4 days is pretty awesome!)

Take a look at 2ndLife shop for reusable bags and her other beautiful creations!


til next time....
R

The Science of Handmade

One of the biggest promoters of how to sell handmade items online is at it again. Timothy Adam of Timothy Adam Designs is creating a new site, "Handmadeology- the Science of Handmade".

If you are a member of Etsy, it's pretty hard to imagine that you don't know of Timothy Adam Designs. Besides being a talented handmade metal artist, he's just as well known for his tutorials on how to drive traffic to your shop through well-planned promotions, both on Etsy and outside of the site. Once again, Timothy is willing to share his knowledge and experiences of selling handmade items online.

Handmadeology can be found at http://handmadeology.blogspot.com/ or you may click on the banner at the top of the right panel.