Planning the Spring /Summer Calendar, Building Up Supplies, Meet & Greet With Organizers...

It's funny how trying to build your business takes so much time away from doing the actual crafting! Besides being the only therapeutic part of the process, it also takes the least amount of time. When I'm not trying to meet a deadline, I still love to sit at my craft table and get lost in my work.

The after-holiday slow down brought a much needed break from what was a furious holiday rush. For the most part, I've been able to step away from my table and really plan out my next moves. Because this past holiday season wore me down, I needed the longer break and chose to not do my usual spring craft shows. With a slow economy, it just didn't make sense to do the shows this year, when in past years, my success at these shows were marginal...at best.

The first move was to concentrate on building up my sea glass supplies and talking with some of the bigger sea glass collectors around the world. I've picked up several great tidbits of info from these long-time collectors and found that many of them also make sea glass jewelry (and their collections and creations are incredible) Along the way, I receive an application to be a vendor at the North American Sea Glass Association's 2009 Festival. Just to be considered is quite an honor, but I don't believe it is something that I'm ready for (unless I share table space with another vendor...or two) My sea glass collection is not nearly as vast as many others and the sea glass I find on the New Jersey beaches is often not jewelry quality.

I've made several purchases and a trade or two with/from some well known collectors. My hubby and I currently have sea glass covering our dining room table. We are going through the pieces to eliminate shards that are not prime pieces, planning out what I feel the better pieces can be used for, making a large pile for future bracelets (which means hubby gets to fire up his drill and flirt with electrocution ...lol) and trying to figure out which pieces I'm going to keep for myself : )

The reason I'm starting my summer plans in early March rather than mid-April stems from a long meeting I had yesterday with a facility where I'll be renting space for my sea glass jewelry. The opportunity to sell on one of the major NJ beaches is something I've been contemplating all winter long and the selling opp that presented itself this past week far exceeds what I had hoped for. When all the small details are hammered out, I'll announce more...but I'm very excited because this feels like a great opportunity, though it may prohibit me from looking for a 2nd location.

This selling opp also comes with a possible summer craft show that has huge potential! Along with the another possible beach/resort show in July and a pending application for an early June show, my limited summer schedule could be filled already. It appears that my summer could be very busy!

Now back to the table to play with my sea glass and then off to my crafting table...I have some work to do : )


...til next time...

R

Spring Fever Fling

Members of the Etsy NJ street team are holding a Spring Fever Fling Sale! For the first 2 weeks of March, more than 30 shops will offer various types of sales in their Etsy shops. To see all the participating members shops, click on the banner in the right hand column---------------->

I'll be offering free shipping for every sale, along with a gift with each item purchased. I'll also run a couple of special blog sales to coincide with the Spring Fever Fling Sale.

If there is something in my shop that you've had your eye on, keep checking back to my blogs (my sea glass blog is creationsbyrobinseaglass.blogspot.com) because you never know how crazy this Spring Fever may get...and you never know, it may just spread to my other online shops too!

'til next time .... and that may be sooner than you think ; )

R

Spring (and beyond) Plans

A sluggish economy has forced me to reconsider some of my late winter /early spring plans for shows. I've decided not to move forward with the shows I had penciled into my schedule, deciding to hang onto the funds I have earmarked for show fees.

Instead, I'll hold off a few more months and wait for some of the bigger shows and festivals held in the late spring/early summer. Historically, the warmer weather often sparks the economy in a sluggish economy.

During these economic times in the past, people abandon plans for extensive travel and tend to stay near their hometowns. Local resort areas like the beach tend to become more crowded during these times, and a lot of overflow from people staying near home, spills over into local events...like craft shows and local festivals.

Despite my online shop showing total sales increases for both January and most likely February, I've noticed an alarming trend of low numbers of new visitors to my shops and a steadily decreasing number of overall visitors. I may be wrong, but I really don't think it's a good time to invest the time and money into March shows... at least not based on the numbers I've been seeing.

So, I'll focus my attention to future shows and continue to work at improving my craft and product line. Besides maintaining my online shops, high on my craft to-do list, is placing my handmade sea glass jewelry in a few local boutiques and I've already set the wheels in motion on getting into a B & M shop.

I also have a stack of spring /summer applications to local area shows & festivals that I'm researching and I hope to add several new shows to my summer schedule.

Now if the ocean would serve up several choice pieces of sea glass the next time I'm there... a girl can hope, can't she?


til next time...

R

Stretching Myself Too Thin... How Much Is Enough???

I started selling my handmade items on Etsy over 18 months ago and at the end of 2008, I branched out (slightly) to 1000 Markets and Art Fire. I also have high hopes of having some of my sea glass jewelry creations in a few B & M boutiques for this spring/summer. Recently, I also received an application to be a vendor at the 2009 North American Sea Glass Festival. That two day event will probably have more than 5,000 paying customers in attendance (last year's festival in Delaware, attracted nearly 4,000 on opening day)

Unfortunately, sea glass is a commodity that is in high demand and the quantities are diminishing quickly. The amount of people looking for sea glass on the local beach in NJ has more than quadrupled each of the last 2 years and with two young school-aged boys, I don't have the opportunities to travel abroad to more exotic locations that are known to turn up jewelry-quality sea glass from time to time.

It's quite a conundrum... I'd love to be behind the displays at the Sea Glass Festival, but I really don't think my inventory could withstand the 2 day event. Certainly, having sea glass in 3 online shops (though limited to 4 pieces ea in 2 of the shops) is beginning to stretch my inventory and adding future inventory to place in a few local B & Ms, will really thin out my dwindling supplies.

But...ohhh, to have the opportunity to sell my jewelry at THE prime show, what handmade artist could ever ask for anything more? It may be awhile before the Festival is back on the east coast again... what to do, what to do....

Highly sought after authentic component, dwindling supplies vs the chance at selling at a show geared entirely for your specific niche creations... what would you do?

'til next time....
R