New Listings, Valentine's Day Items, and More Sea Glass...plus New Year's Resolutions

As a new year is ushered in, I was finally able to get my Etsy listings back up to 20... only another 8-10 before I finally feel comfortable with my Etsy shop again. The new 2009 listing was a very pretty, quite rare, teal sea glass necklace.

Hopefully I'll have a day or two of sun over the next three days, so I can take pictures of my finished creations. I still have a wonderful Citron sea glass necklace, along with a beautiful, light gray necklace, a few greens and a pretty sea glass bracelet all waiting for images.

The Valentine-themed listing above is just one of two newer pieces that have been listed for Valentine's Day. Of course all my jewelry could be Valentine's Day gifts... but the other piece that was created for the next "holiday" is a pair of copper heart/pink-ish flower cup earrings... very pretty & feminine.

I'm also working on a bracelet or two, where a piece of sea glass shaped like a heart, will be the focal bead on the creation. It's still a work-in-progress, but I hope to have it finished in the next week.

As I usher in a new year, I once again have some CreationsByRobin resolutions (I did pretty well looking back at last years!)...

Once again, I'd like to work more efficiently and spend more time with my family. I also hope to add a couple more craft fairs to my 2009 schedule, both in the summer and fall/holiday seasons.

Smarter promoting and probable print-ad advertising is in my plans for 2009 and the one resolution I kind of failed on last year... blog at least 2 times each week.

Thank you to all of my followers, both from Etsy and those that follow me at my shows. I hope everyone has a happy and healthy 2009 and i look forward to having the opportunity to meet and serve you in the upcoming year!

'til next time...

R

Building Up Store Inventory, Sea Glass, Shop Views

The end of the holiday shopping season has given me the chance to get back to my craft table, organize my supplies and begin building up my sea glass inventory and begin creating/listing some Valentine's Day jewelry.

This holiday weekend I was able to add a new item to my 1000Markets shop and 6 new items to my Etsy shop. My Etsy shop is no where near where I'd like it to be in terms of items listed, but I'm happy about getting a half-dozen items listed this weekend. I'm not exactly sure where I want to go with my 1000Markets shop, since views/sales have been slow there.

I've also signed up to give ArtFire a shot and I'm going to start off that site with a couple of sea glass and Valentine's Day items and see how things progress there.

Speaking of sea glass... Last night was the final full moon of the 4th quarter and we went to the beach in search of sea glass. We made our trek to the beach during low tide, but found nothing near the water and only a handful of pieces along the high tide line. We did find a couple cool pieces of driftwood and a very cool bone of some sort, maybe a whale bone.

Listed above is the lavender necklace I'll be listing on Etsy either tomorrow or Tuesday (depending on tomorrow's weather...I'd like to try a couple of outdoor images, hoping to bring out the lavender color some more)

As I mentioned earlier, shop views have been fairly tough to come by on 1000Markets. I listed a new item and it went 24 hours without a view and last I checked, still hadn't been viewed!

On Etsy, the views more difficult to figure. Many of them are from sellers viewing links in the promo forums. I have received a few hearts for both my shop (all from sellers-which could mean future treasuries) and I did received several item hearts. They were a mixed bag...from those with and without shops.

The one feature I find very interesting on ArtFire is their stats feature. It will be interesting to see where my views are coming from and I wish that Etsy would provide this for their site also.

Maybe one day soon...

'til next time...

R

The Holidays are Almost Over...New Creations, Sea Glass

Now that the gift-giving holidays are almost over, it's time to build up my shop inventories. Today I added a new pair of sea glass earrings, along with a Czech glass copper earring set that is perfect for Valentine's day... copper filigree hearts and pink flowers... and oh, so pretty!

I also have a really pretty sea glass necklace ready to list in my Etsy shop tomorrow. The piece falls into the color category of soft green, but it was very tough to photograph. Depending on the lighting source and backgrounds, it looked anywhere from soft green, to light aqua to baby blue.

A very intriguing piece indeed!

I also have a few more pairs of Valentine-ish earrings to add to my shop over the next week, along with the pieces I created in the photo above. I know the photo quality isn't very good, as I shot this late at night, with little lighting, but... these are some of the nicest pieces of sea glass I've ever worked with and I would seriously like to keep 3 or 4 for myself.

The lavender piece is just exquisite, the citron gem is stunning and the turquoise or dark aqua is a piece to die for (and that one may find it's way into my jewelry box) Even the the frosty white/clear pieces are the nicest examples I've ever worked with to this point. They are absolutely flawless, perfectly smoothed by the surf, egg-shaped, with beautiful personality... showing the coveted "C" markings inside the glass (which indicates an older piece of glass that the ocean has kept to itself - until it was a perfect specimen) & even pieces with inner bubbles.

They are my finest sea glass necklaces to date and most will find their way into my Etsy shop, with 1 or 2 going into my ArtFire shop and another to 1000 Markets. I've been excited by individual pieces before....even to the point where I held a piece back for several days rather than list immediately because I wanted to look at it a little longer... but this collection of 12+ necklaces has me very excited... to the point that I'll be sending out my first ever email to my sea glass customers to alert them to the pieces that are about to debut in my shop.

Of course, I'll have to make a decision about which one (2?) I'll keep for myself : )

I'll add images as each piece is finished...

'til next time...

R

Keeping My Eggs In One Basket, Sea Glass, Holiday Sales & Shows

With only 3 more delivery days until Christmas, it's safe to say my holidays sales have come to a close. I have a few packages in transit and I hope they get there on time... even with Priority shipping, it seems the mail is moving pretty slowly.

With the end of the holiday sales (except for a last minute multiple scarf order later today) I've been contemplating how to approach 2009. With the current economy, I wonder if keeping all my eggs in the Etsy basket is a wise move, or should I broaden my horizons and expand my limited amount of OOAK jewelry to other ventures?

Back in mid November, I opened up a shop at 1000 Markets. I liked that the site is juried and found the site to be visually appealing. At the same time, it has been tough to promote the site much and there seems to be very little traffic outside of those registered on the site. To this point, I haven't made a sale... but at the same time I have only listed 6 items and currently have only 4 listings in the shop (2 of the items sold at craft shows) Right now I don't know exactly how I'll use 1000 Markets in the coming year.

The reason of my future use of 1000 Markets is because I also signed up for ArtFire. ArtFire seems to have quite a bit more outside traffic than 1000 Markets and they have been advertising in the trade magazines. The site does offer a few ways to promote outside of the site when compared to 1K Markets. I signed up for the $7 a month plan (which is scheduled to go up to $20 sometime in 09) I like the idea of ArtFire offering decent stat info and I'm intrested in seeing how that info can be utilized to improve my promoting.

Most of my "eggs" will be kept in the Etsy basket. To think that in 2007, almost no one had ever heard of the site and now just 12 months later, a great deal of my craft show customers not only knew about Etsy, but several claimed to have visited the site. Many others had heard of Etsy, and had questions about what the site was about. I did notice a couple of "follow-up" sales the week or two after a show.

All of this leads me to believe that the branding of the etsy name, in the publics eye, is underway. People are more secure in ordering handmade items from the site and in my opinion, Etsy may have a huge year in 2009. Since I feel I've done very well with Etsy, my main focus will remain on my shop there.

I don't see the popularity of any of the online sites coming close to rivaling the Etsy name in the coming year. I have been building a nice little following on the site, especially in the Sea Glass category. So while i may spread my "eggs" out a bit more this coming year, the bulk of my work will remain where the public seems to be looking...Etsy.com

I just received a new batch of necklaces, so I will probably be adding a few more wire-wrapped sea glass creations over the next few days (as long as I can get one semi-sunny day to photograph the finished product) I'm also experimenting with sterling silver bracelets and I have several pieces of sea glass drilled and ready to go.

Yesterday was a bust for sea glass hunting. My hubby hit the beach at low tide and found the combo of wind and cold to be too much. Beach reconstruction during the week buried whatever was lying on the beach and blowing sand covered up whatever the tides left behind yesterday. I wish we had the money to spend for a trip to Puerto Rico...it would be nice to do a little sea glass hunting on a warm sunny beach (not to mention lying in the sun, soaking up some warm rays) but I think I'll have to wait for spring and summer to hit any warm sunny beaches this coming year.

Holiday sales were very good compared to last year on Etsy. I seemed to have follow-up sales right after shows and a couple repeat customers and word-of-mouth sales. New listings sold quickly compared to last season. All in all , a big improvement compared to 2007.

To all of my followers... if i don't get back to my blog this week... have a Happy Holiday and a happy and healthy New Year!

'til next time...

R