Yesterday's Craft Show, New Sea Glass Jewelry...

Yesterday's show went fairly well. I wasn't expecting much from the show and while it was a bit slow, the people that did attend were spending money. All of the vendors at the show seemed to do ok and I sold a few pieces of sea glass jewelry yesterday... 4 or 5 pieces sold from my Etsy shop and 1 of my Art Fire creations also found a new home.

It's good to see that while people are being cautious about spending, they are opening their pocketbooks. It is even better to see that people have continued to support the handmade community and also have continued to buy handmade gifts for others. I think it's a great sign for our community going into the spring and summer months!

So it's back to the crafting table. I wrapped several pieces of sea glass and will be taking pictures shortly and I think I'm going to give in and place one of my 2 red sea glass wrapped necklaces in my Etsy shop. It won't be the piece that I listed in my previous blog... instead I'll opt to place the beautiful red nugget that was found in Puerto Rico. I'll have a couple necklaces and one or two of my new sterling silver sea glass bracelets to add to my shops.

I'll post a few images (probably on my other blog... creationsbyrobinseaglass.blogspot.com) later today... off to check the lighting for my product shoot : )

til next time...
R

PS- image of my 2nd red sea glass necklace added!!

Craft Show On Saturday, GoodBye Blue Sea Glass Heart...

The blue sea glass heart-shaped necklace I listed last weekend sold this week (image in a previous blog post) and shortly after I revised my Facebook Etsy-mini, I was contacted on Facebook about the necklace and the piece was purchased the following day. Facebook is a new promoting outlet for me and I use the site to catch-up with old friends and keep in touch with family members, so I'm happy to see that it can also be successfully used for promoting my handmade sea glass jewelry.

I'm doing my first show of the year tomorrow in Waretown, NJ. The "All About Waterfowling Day" show is held at The Lighthouse Center for Natural Resource Education and it's a growing family event. Hopefully the weather turns out as predicted...sunny and low to mid 50s, rather than the cold rain which turned to snow earlier this morning.

I've cancelled all of my spring shows this year, hoping to wait for bigger summer opportunities to vend at. This was a last minute decision... it's local and it's for a good cause...plus there will be a few fellow EtsyNJ members at the show and that alone is a great reason to do a show! If you are anywhere near southern Ocean County tomorrow, stop by with the family...there will be much to do and the grounds are beautiful.

I'll be showing many new creations that are targeted for future shop listings and for consignments and at tomorrow's show, these pieces will be offered at the lowest price you'll find them at for the rest of the season!

Hopefully, I'll have some info about where my handmade sea glass jewelry will be during the summer. I'm still ironing out some details, but by next week I should have everything ironed out and can start mentioning which boutiques and gift shops will carry my sea glass creations.

The new image above is slated for one of my B & M shops this summer and will be available at tomorrow's show. It's my first ever red sea glass necklace and it was so very hard not to keep it for myself... SO very hard...lol

til next time...

R

One Treasury Featured All Week.... New Jewelry Creations!

Earlier this week, I received a convo from a fellow member of the EtsyNJ street team. She was making me aware that one of my sea glass necklaces were included in her current treasury. Cool!

This treasury was picked up by the site ByHand.me and featured there for a few days. The it was featured on the Found-Handmade.blogspot blog that features items found on Etsy, ArtFire, 1000 Markets, etc

Last night, I found that this very same treasury is now one of the featured treasuries on the byhandgallery blog. http://byhandgallery.blogspot.com/2009/03/etsynj-and-youperfectly-green-together.html

Pretty awesome! And quite a bit of exposure from one treasury!!

I've been spending quite a bit of time getting ready for next weekend's craft show and for the space I'm probably renting in a gift shop at the beach this summer. I've spent a good part of the weekend at my craft table wrapping a bunch of sea glass and now I'm waiting on a couple of silver deliveries to add necklaces to wrapped pendants and to finish up some other works in progress.

I just finished wrapping a light aqua/dark cornflower heart-shaped piece of sea glass and the image is above.

til next time...

R

More Opportunities as Spring Approaches...plus new Etsy Creations

After a busy weekend, most of it spent away from my craft table, discussing the possibility of consigning items or renting space in a busy Long Beach Island gift shop, another opportunity presented itself.

On Monday I received an email about contacting a reporter for the local newspaper. He is researching info about Etsy and he was looking for a few crafters in the readership area to interview. Abbie (from http://www.Abbieroad.etsy.com) gave me a heads-up about the possibility of being contacted and sure enough...

I called him back and did the interview over the phone, while discussing my Etsy shop. His angle appears to be how the internet is influencing crafter, specifically those with Etsy shops. He mentioned Facebook, Twitter and seemed very interested in how the EtsyNJ team communicates through team websites, our yahoogroup and the Etsy forums. We talked about sea glass, how eco-friendly plays a big part of many Etsy member's lifestyles, etc.

It was quite exciting to have this opportunity. About 50% of my craft shows are in the area covered by the newspaper and it's actually how I find out about many of the smaller, local craft shows. Hopefully, if the article is published, he'll send me a heads-up so i can buy the paper : )
(tho a link to the online paper would be better...lol)

I did get to my crafting table on Sunday and made several new sea glass necklaces, a couple of which have already found their way into my Etsy shop (the above image is the new Pale Seafoam necklace) I also created another Teal, a light blue piece and my first ever red sea glass necklace.

I'll be adding a few pairs of earrings during the week, and plan on cleaning up my Art Fire and 1000 Market shops a bit for the weekend. Both shops have been neglected and I'd like to see if a few new items would bring some momentum to these shops.

Not much on the craft show schedule... tho I did add a show in Waretown for March 21.
The Waterfowling Day show should be a fun show, with quite a bit to do for families. The show is held at the Lighthouse Center for Natural Resource Education in Waretown, NJ.
The grounds are beautiful and eco-friendly event should be a lot of fun...come check it out if you're in Ocean County on 3/21!!

'til next time...
R