Little hoops

One thing I've made since the beginning of time is little 14k gold wire hoops. The shapes have changed over the years but it's the same basic idea and it's something little I've become known for. Plus it's what I tend to wear between shows since I don't have to take them out for weeks if I don't want to. Just a little hoop with some character.

These little hoops now sell for $72. With the price of gold skyrocketing upward, I thought I better do a time study and go through the pricing since it's been a while. What I discovered was shocking. I need to be charging $101 a pair for my little hoops based on today's costs! Holy crud!!!

So what do I do? During these tough times I've been selling a lot of pairs at my shows and am planning on putting them on Etsy for the holidays. But what do I charge? How much will people be willing to pay? What can I sell them for where I make a profit and yet it's still a good price for my customers? What a dilemma...

Etsy Workshop

I want to sell my jewelry on Etsy. The problem is that there's a learning curve and all kinds of things to be aware of and different ways of doing things and on and on. I'd love to say that I don't have time to deal with it but that wouldn't really be the truth. I chose not to take the time to learn it all. But I still want to sell on Etsy.

Luckily, there's help for people like me! Thanks to Jon and Patricia Hecker, I don't have to take the time and effort to learn it all on my own. They have culled all the information I need into a 90 minute workshop which they are presenting. Luckily, they brought it to Kalamazoo the night before the Garage Sale Art Fair!

Although they've been helping me get my Etsy site up and running all along, I still came away with 2 full pages of notes. All kinds of things to do or use. What I really loved were all the little tips and tricks that they've picked up over time. Pat spends time on the different forums and came up with all kinds of things I had never even considered which will help my site get noticed and hopefully sell more work. Once I actually get work up there!

So look for my jewelry on my Etsy site soon!

This is their official disclaimer - “The term ‘Etsy’ is a trademark of Etsy, Inc. This workshop is not endorsed or affiliated with Etsy, Inc. It is being conducted by two experienced artists who have maintained a steady presence on etsy.com”

Etsy, part 2

Where would I be without my friends... I certainly wouldn't be writing that I have my Etsy site up and running without their help so big thanks to Patricia and Jon Hecker and Luann Udell. They nicely picked apart what I wrote for my profile, changed it around and left me sounding way better than I would have on my own. Then I borrowed other words from them to just get the darn thing up there!

The next step is to get into the studio and see what I have to sell on Etsy, get it photographed and up on the site! I can't wait to get back to work!

Etsy

I'm feeling old right now. Never, ever did I think that changing with the times would be anything but easy but for some reason I'm spending way too much time kerfluxing about Etsy.

For those who don't know, Etsy is a site online to sell handmade items and supplies. It's a GREAT place to shop and wonderful to know that you're supporting other small craft type businesses. I've gotten great, unique gifts there and of course some wonderful things for myself. Every experience dealing with buying on the site has been positive and the people I've met have been great.

I joined a group on Etsy called EtsyWestMichigan. Suzanne at Bliss Candles (wonderful candles) passed along the information that the group existed when I was buying one of her great candles for my nephew. This group is really active and also actively selling. I swear they all have their act together even though some are very new businesses! So, what is my problem???

They want you to write your "profile", just like on blogger. If you notice, I don't have a profile here either. How in the heck do you write about yourself??? And what are all my policies???

At this point, Etsy is looking overwhelming but I just have to get over it. I want to sell more online and I don't want to sell on my website, so this is the perfect solution. I just have to buck up and get it done... I'll post when I succeed. Wish me luck please!

simplifying my work

I've been trying to simply things in my studio, my work and in my business. But this is an example of what happens.

When making my mixed metal jewelry I generate a lot of small scraps of 22k and sterling. So I designed a line of jewelry originally called "Bits and Pieces", then changed to "Sticks and Stones". The piece to the left is an example. It also comes oxidized so the silver is black which is my personal favorite.

So this seemed to be the perfect way to use up the little gold scraps! Except, it became really popular (that's the good news) so I started having to cut up big pieces of gold to make the little pieces (that's the bad news). Totally defeating the purpose of making the line to begin with!

So, because I'm trying to simplify things, I'm dropping this whole line of jewelry and closing it out. I've taken it to 2 shows and quietly told people about it's "special pricing" since I'm not going to use big signs saying CLOSEOUT! I'll take it to Cleveland By-Hand in mid November and then to Etsy!

This has been so much fun that I'm starting to eye other pieces, saying to myself that it's time to retire these designs - LET'S CLOSE THEM OUT! I mean, let's simplify...