One Great Advantage of Craftinest.com

Update June 2, 2014-  Unfortunately Craftinest is now no longer online.  No one knows what happened.  Though Craftinest did post on their facebook page that a fire had destroyed much of their sites equipment and they held out a promise to us that they would repair the damage and get the site back up and running . . . that promise is yet to materialize.   As I update this post is has been about 9 months since anyone has heard from Craftinest. Craftinest has not bothered to update their facebook page nor notify any of their many shop owners as to what is going on. All our emails are returned as undeliverable. We have pretty much given up hope that Craftinest will repair the fire damage and reestablish their website. 

Personally I believe that they grew too quickly and the inundation of so many artists and crafters overwhelmed them and their sites capacity to handle such an influx of shops and traffic.  The loss of Craftinest is sad as it held forth so much potential . . .  but sometimes things are simply not meant to be.

 

***********

 

When I first sent off my application to apply for an online Craftinest Storefront, I figured they'd be a marketplace much like Etsy or Artfire, only without the supplies vendors and vintage shops. However Craftinest is more like a hybrid between these standard marketplaces and having to construct one's own website. . . minus all the HTML hoopla. With a Craftinest store the search engines call up your shop and not the marketplace. This was explained to me by Samantha in the correspondence that I've copied and pasted below:

Hi Anna,

Our format is definitely different from Etsy (and it’s many clones) with more of an ecommerce website format. Each store is basically its own mini-ecommerce website... with the mall being the central hub to bring all stores together.

As for your store domain, it is only available in the following two formats:

Sub-domain: http://almostprecious.craftinest.com

Sub-directory: http://www.craftinest.com/almostprecious

Sub-domains never use the www in front of it. However, if someone types in http://www.almostprecious.craftinest.com , the browser will automatically forward to the proper http://almostprecious.craftinest.com  format. So you can use either.

One thing that I did want to add to the whole store domain issue is that Etsy only forwards the request for your store domain to their own etsy.com address. At Craftinest, the store domain is an actual sub-domain that persists throughout the buyers experience.

On Etsy:

http://www.almostprecious.etsy.com forwards to http://www.etsy.com/shop/almostprecious

http://almostprecious.etsy.com  forwards to http://www.etsy.com/shop/almostprecious.

And the item listing URL’s don’t include the store domain at all. . .

http://www.etsy.com/listing/156715014/red-jasper-acorn-earrings-olive-jade

Whereas at Craftinest:

http://www.almostprecious.craftinest.com forwards to http://almostprecious.craftinest.com

http://almostprecious.craftinest.com stays on http://almostprecious.craftinest.com

And the store domain is included throughout your entire store. . . including item listings, categories, info pages. I’ll use another store as an example with an item listing URL of http://twolittlewitches.craftinest.com/find/1399-Bunny-Rabbit-Kids-Wall-Art-Print-for-Kids-Room-Girls-Children-Decor-by-Two-Little-Witches

So as you can see, your store domain is more present with Craftinest. In fact it’s more useful when you look at the results in search engines. To see for yourself, type in “Almost Precious Etsy” into Google and you will notice one result for your store - www.etsy.com/shop/AlmostPrecious.

Now try using the sample store from above by typing “two little witches craftinest” into Google. Not only is the store domain presented as twolittlewitches.craftinest.com , but there are several results since all listings and categories use the store domain too.

Hope that helps... Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

And welcome to our little nest.

Samantha

The Craftinest Marketplace

So now you can see why I was impressed about the Craftinest marketplace and excited about joining their site and why I encourage others to join me there.   :)

Begging For Votes - A New Venue For Selling

 

Update June 2, 2014-  On 8/26/2013 I blogged about a great new website market place for handcrafted arts and crafts items.  The site was called Craftinest.

Unfortunately Craftinest is now no longer online.  No one knows what happened.  Though Craftinest did post on their facebook page that a fire had destroyed much of their sites equipment and they held out a promise to us that they would repair the damage and get the site back up and running . . . that promise is yet to materialize.   As I update this post is has been about 9 months since anyone has heard from Craftinest. Craftinest has not bothered to update their facebook page nor notify any of their many shop owners as to what is going on. All our emails are returned as undeliverable. We have pretty much given up hope that Craftinest will repair the fire damage and reestablish their website. 

Personally I believe that they grew too quickly and the inundation of so many artists and crafters overwhelmed them and their sites capacity to handle such an influx of shops and traffic.  The loss of Craftinest is sad as it held forth so much potential . . .  but sometimes things are simply not meant to be. 

Below is my old blog post of 8/26/2013 -

*********** 

 

I recently ran across a new and upcoming website for artist and crafters called Craftinest .

Yes it is just a baby and has not been discovered and there is always a possibility that it may not make it into the big time the way Etsy or Artfire has.  But the fact that it is new intrigues me and so I took the plunge and filled out my application.

Application?  Why?  Well they say they want to have a website that will be solely for handcrafted items and they wanted it to be innovative, fresh and filled with marvelous artists and crafters . . . well aren't we all marvelous artists and crafters?  Craftinest claims that their site is juried and in order to have a shop there one has to be juried in.  It sounded like this might be a good way to discourage all those bogus handmade shops that are really just resellers in a thin veil of disguise . . . a very thin, almost transparent veil.

Unfortunately Craftinest's jurying process is not done by a devoted, unbiased team of artist and crafters but by the public and I need 100 votes in order just to be considered for their site.  I'm sure you can all see where this is going, right? 

 (Yes, I'm blatantly soliciting your vote - please click here and give me a vote or a heart:
AlmostPrecious - on the chopping block at Craftiness.com

Since Craftinest is so new it is not yet inundated with a barrage of visitors, so those applying for a shop will have to provide their own voters.  I even received an email from Craftinest encouraging me to go on facebook etc. and encourage all my friends and followers to vote for me.  They told me if I can get 200 votes and 4 hearts I'll be automatically juried in. 

That's not exactly how I've had to go about being juried into an art show  -  it was never a popularity contest but was done by a separate panel of unbiased judges that judged on the merit of the artist's art or the crafter's craft, taking into consideration their originality and the quality of their work.

Pictured are a couple of pieces that I entered for jurying, if you click on the photos it should take you to my voting page . . . hint, hint.   :)

 

 

Oh and if any of you decide you'd like to join me on Craftinest please let me know so that I can give you my vote .  :)

 

The Whys and the Wherefores

hand embellished Sodalite Pendant necklace

For the past few days I've been trying to figure out the whys and wherefores of Etsy.  Why do some shops find almost instant success while others languish, floundering in a sea of invisibility ?   Why is it that 2 shops selling almost the same items will have such disparity when it comes to views and sales? 
I've been trying to build up my shop inventory as I've heard that the more items you have the better are your chances of being found by search engines and therefore found by potential customers.  But seems that the past week or two, as I've added more items, my views have fallen from 30 or 40 views a day to about 10 or less a day.

 

I made the black nylon cord adjustable so necklace

can go from very short to very long

 

I recently listed this Sodalite stone pendant that I embellished with sterling silver wire work and sterling silver beads.  The cord has my handcrafted  sliding, macramé clasp on it making  it very adjustable. 

 



After listing I tried promoting, yes  used all the old standards that I could think of :   facebook, teams, etc.   Now, a day later, I find it has a total of 5 views and 9 admirers (meaning  that 4 people must have given it a heart without even clicking on its etsy link).

In the past I tried opening a shop that was just for my jewelry and one shop for other items but found it spread my attention too thin and neither shop was profitable.  This time I had some of my soft textiles listed, such as the pair of crochet potholders-trivets-dishrags.

 

Above trivets etc. in hot pink-red and white are about 9 inches across

Below trivets in crisp white on dark apple green and white on tomato red.

 

 

I also listed some of the cute Ruffled Boas that I made.  My daughters loved the ones I gave them at Christmas and said I should put a few on my etsy shop - they thought they would

sell quickly.

 

 

 

 

 

 They got a number of views and hearts for awhile but have dropped down to zero lately.  So much for my daughters' intuitions.  :D

 

I feel like I'm neglecting so much lately trying to crank start my old etsy shop.  Granted etsy has far more shops now and a lot more unscrupulous resellers selling their items way below market value.  Trying to rid etsy of these shops is like a never ending game of "Whack a Mole".  They "conk" one out and a dozen more pop up.

 

Anyway, like so many mornings before, I took my mug of coffee and went to check on my etsy shop.  There were no orders and I noticed that I had garnered all of 1 shop view since I had turned off my computer yesterday.  How, Why, What ?  Just a whole lot of questions and I haven't an answer.

Happy 4th of July

 

 ! HAPPY 4TH OF JULY !

After reading about Hotlinking I am not 100% sure how to "borrow" an online photo and use it on my blog legally . . . so much for using free clip-art of firework displays. :D

The only thing I could think of using that was red - white- and blue,  was  my own photo of our (what used to be new) flag and this necklace that I have on etsy.  The flag won !  :D

Wishing everyone a Safe and Happy 4th of July.  

Nooooooo !!!

Catastrophe has struck and I am still reeling in shock from it.  When I went to attach the fluorite flower that I had worked so hard to enhance, taking it from bland to beautiful,  I could not get the beading needle to go through the drill hole.  Somehow the epoxy resin that I used to coat the back of the stone flower had filled the center of the hole.  I thought I had cleared all the resin out with a toothpick after I had coated it but either I did not do a good enough job or more seeped in afterwards.
All I know is that I had to try to ream the hardened resin out of the drill hole in order to attach the flower to the bail.   I used a small, diamond coated reaming tool and was being gentle but ... well as they say "a picture is worth a thousand words".

Picture below - how it looked before the accident.

 

 

Picture below - how it looks after the accident.

 

I have thought and thought but haven't come up with any solution to the problem.  I can't try to reattach the broken piece as that would just seal up the dill hole again (but I am thinking about maybe doing that and then using the flower later on in a wire work piece - maybe!)  So now I'm in the process of trying to locate another carved fluorite flower.

 

I had also came up with a pattern that I thought would look nice with the center piece of the necklace.

Photo above and below - I like the rich, old world look of the capped  Amazonite and large  (Lab created) Amethyst beads interspersed with smaller, natural Amethyst beads.

Photo below - Got these little clamps at a home improvement store and at the time they were almost 3 for a dollar.  I find I use them all of the time and wish I had bought more of them.

If anyone runs across a site that sells similar fluorite carved flowers (about 40 mm in size) please let me know.   All I can find, so far, are small little 15 mm fluorite flower beads.



Out of Africa

Out of Africa

4 strands at rest and not twisted together.

Not too long ago I created this multi strand necklace and have debated about exactly what to do with it. It is a beautiful piece created around a precious strand of African tribal beads. These beads had been purchased by someone I knew who had lived a few years in Angola, Africa and it was there that she came across these lovely, handmade beads.

Lucky her, she managed to obtain several strands from the village chieftain.

 

This particular village was primitive and did not have resources such as fancy, electric kilns, or even work tables upon which the bead artisans could craft their beads. Instead of a well equipped studio, these crafters either sat outside on the ground or they sat on the earthen floors of their huts while they worked creating their beads. Their kilns were crude brick ovens fueled by wood fires.

Making beads or a number of other handcrafted items provided an income for the villagers and afforded them a standard of living that provided them with life's basics;  food, clothing and shelter and perhaps not a whole lot more.

Holy - Moly there's a lot of 14 k gold filled saucers beads !

When my friend offered to sell me a strand or two of these marvelous beads, I jumped at the opportunity even though I had not the slightest idea just what I would do with them.  It was months later that I happen to mix them up with some lovely ivory colored freshwater pearls and some 14 k gold filled beads that I realized it was a winning combination.   So if one strand of this combination would be a winner, what would 4 strands be?  A  Jackpot !

Above photo shows the 4 strands twisted together.

 Since the African beads are a lovely rusty red, I decided what better to compliment them than rich, Red Jasper.  And so it was that I used red jasper to create links at the back of the necklace and fashioned an "S" hook clasp using a large Red Jasper bead and  gold filled wire.

Photo above shows the 6 and 8 mm Red Jasper beads and my handmade "S" clasp.

Okay, so what's the problem?  Well, I was more involved with creating a piece of art than something that would fit into my  usual line of jewelry and went out of my ball park on price points.  

The "Out of Africa" necklace contains:

·         2 strands freshwater ivory pearls 

·         1  1/2 strands  of those precious African beads

·         6 feet  of 49 strand, super flexible, beading cable 

·          2  gem grade, Red Jasper 6 mm beads

·          3  gem grade, Red Jasper 8mm beads

·         18  gauge 12 k gold filled wire

·         20 gauge 14 k gold filled wire

·         8 crimp tube beads in 14 k gold fill

·         8   jumprings in 14 k gold fill

And an incredible 162 ,  14 k gold filled 4.7 mm saucer beads. !!!   These beads cost a small fortune and if you look them up you'll find:

·         Fire Mt. Gems' best price (the 200+ level) is 62 cents apiece (.62 x 162 = $100.44 without the $5 S and H fees)

·         Artbead's best price  (for 40+ beads) is 72 cents each (72 x 162 = $121.50)

And so there is my problem.  With so much vested in materials I'm really hesitant to list it on etsy where many shoppers are looking for handcrafted bargains instead of handcrafted future heirlooms.  A part of me says; "Forget it, you'll be wasting your time and 20 cents".  However a big part of me says; "Hey, what the heck!  For 20 cents go ahead and list it, the worse that can happen is that nobody buys it".

I really like the way the choker looks with the clasp worn at the side of the neck.



I would love to hear any experience that you may have had listing something that you thought might frighten a customer away from it. . . or perhaps having something sell that you thought would never stand a chance. . .or how about those things you thought were fantastic but for some reason just never attracted the right person.   Or have you ever made something and then figured out the cost (like I did) and was floored by how much went into materials ?

 

Here's a New Place to Help You with Promotions

So just found out my world isn't all chocolate chip cookies and ice cold milk - whoever made the dStash site has probems that need fixing. Thanks to a comment by Jan of Jan4insight , I have learned that my link goes nowhere. The listing looks great but if people cannot access the link to one's website, what good is it ? :( Maybe someday somebody will fix the glitch but I've a feeling that when they do they'll start charging a fee to list there. lol :D
 

Photo above was the item I had tried to list - listing looked great but the link didn't take me to it or my shop.

Hey there - I have some great information to share with those who are looking for places to promote your handmade items or whatever you're trying to sell. It's a site called dStash and they call themselves a Classified Ads site. It's free and there isn't a lot of information on "how to" but if I can blunder around and figure it out then just about anybody can. :D

You start off on the front page  of dStash and over to the right side there's a bar that says: Publish A New Ad - by clicking that bar it takes you to their listings page where you can choose your category and type in a listings title and a description.  You can add the URL to your product and even a UTube video if you want.  And best part of all is that it is Free.  

Florida Sandhill Cranes

 

 

Today I looked out of our dinning room patio doors to see this sight.  A Florida Sandhill Crane.

Not wishing to frighten the bird I took a few photos through the glass (and also the screening of the patio), so unfortunately the pictures are not very good.

In the dark photo below I took the picture from another window and you can see how the bird towers above the top of our patio table, which is the dark mass in front of the crane. 

 They are big birds and this one was with a mate, probably a female as she seemed to be busy preening for the camera. 

Now that she has all her feathers in place she poses and looks directly at the camera. 

Here's a few facts about our Sandhill Cranes:

 

Males and females look alike, males are larger than the females.

Height 2.6 to 3.9 feet (80 to 120 cm)

Average weight males 10.1 lb (4.57 kg) females 8.9 lb (4.02 kg)

Wing span 5.4 to 6.9 feet (1.65 to 2.1 m)

 

For years now I've been hoping that Santa will bring me a new camera, one that I could capture decent photos of the wildlife that frequent our rural area. But each Christmas all I get is a lump of coal. Guess I need to start being nicer and a lot less naughty.

Later in the day the Sandhill couple decided to visit our neighbor's yard, perhaps they were expecting to visit with the Canadian Geese who've been away for awhile now . . . We think they went to visit relatives in Canada for the Summer. 

Since this is a far as the zoom on my Mickey Mouse camera will get me (and I have cropped the photos as close as I could before they got too grainy)  I  found a photo online that allows one permission to use its images freely.  The photo below is a magnificent one of a Sandhill Crane and its chick.  The little ones are so adorable. :)

 

 

Photo from the files of Wikimedia Commons

 

The Photographer is Dawn Huczek

 

Busy But Getting Nowhere

 

I guess it's just that time of year when it becomes a continuous game of "catch up".  Between trying to promote my invisible etsy shop,  AlmostPrecious and make new creations I find myself rushing to "catch up" with laundry, cooking, cleaning, gardening, grocery shopping etc. etc.

 

So today my unfortunately neglected blog is getting a quick promo post . . . and an apology to all my wonderful blogging buddies -  I'm sorry I haven't been dropping by as often as I should to read and comment on your wonderful blogs.   :(

 

Wish there were someway to make my online shop self-promoting.  :)

Below are a pair of my latest creations - Teddy Bear earrings with pink fiber optic Cat's Eye  beads.

As many of you know fiber optic Cat's Eye beads have motion built into them the "eye" moves smoothly up and down as the bead is moved.  Since these fiber optic beads are top grade "A" beads they have a well defined eye and incredible movement.

Okay now I'm off to try to type up a few more jewelry descriptions for my etsy shop and to take a Gazillion more photos . . . of which only about half a dozen will be good enough to use.  lol :D

 

LOL But Not About the Cost of Sterling Silver

Lately I've been busy trying to create and put items into my etsy shop, AlmostPrecious.  I'm reverting back to selling my handcrafted jewelry after having sold supplies for a couple of years.

Some times I can spend days or even weeks designing and fabricating a piece, other times it can go very quickly.  My latest piece was a simple leather choker but I invested a lot of revenue into Sterling Silver beads and findings.  A tiny sterling silver swivel clasp ended up costing me $6 and believe me it is a small clasp. 

When I calculated what I had invested in parts alone I was shocked to see it was over $20 , I would have liked to have listed it for that amount - unfortunately that would be impossible as I would actually end up losing money. :(

The only up side is that I adore the piece.  It is one of those things that makes me smile (just like my little Frog Prince makes me smile). 

Last year I tried to sell another creation of mine.  

The lovely rose quartz heart and heavy sterling silver pendant cost me a good chunk of money when I first purchased it.  Now with today's sterling prices it would cost at least $40 all by itself without a necklace. 

 

 

Since it is an Awareness necklace I realize it is directed at a specific buyer - someone who wishes to gift a special friend or relative and let them know how much they admire their courage and strength and determination to battle and survive Breast Cancer. 

 I hope that maybe this October (which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month) that perhaps someone will see it and think; "What a lovely gift to give my - sister - friend- mother- wife."  Or perhaps a wonderful soul who battled the "Big C" herself, will wish to own it to let everyone know that the battle of Breast Cancer is far from over.  Someday there may be a cure but today all we can do is support cancer research and "Hope for a Cure".

No Views - Low Views - Relevancy - What's Up With Etsy ?

Above ... from the side you can see how thick and substantial the sterling bail and Awareness Ribbon is. It came from a high end jewelers' supply source and is no cheap pendant.

Etsy has been a strange bag of beans lately.  Views are way down and it is hard to believe that a big site such as Etsy can't generate a healthy flow of traffic for it's many shops.  A few days ago I listed a lovely pendant and after several days it has had only 5 views.  I don't know exactly how Etsy defines it's new "relevancy" system but it does not seem to be working, at least not for a vast majority of Etsians myself included.

Since October is breast cancer awareness month I made up a very special necklace using a beautiful, genuine rose quartz and sterling silver pendant. 

Above ... pretty in pink.

With so much sterling in the necklace, from the heavy sterling pendant, to sterling silver clasp, crimp beads, crimp bead covers, and even jumprings there was a small fortune invested in supplies.

I decided the heart pendant would look lovely on a jet black necklace but instead of going with a simple cord I strung 3 strands of 11/0 Delica jet black, hex cut seed beads and attached them via sterling crimps (and 49 strand 14 weight AccuFlex beading cable). All in all what I'm saying is I tried so hard to make this a truly special piece for a very special cause and I feel so defeated when I see that it has sat there completely invisible to the public.

Photo below ... the back of necklace with solid sterling silver heart clasp.  This clasp is solid, not hollow or concave on one side, it is flanked on both sides by my handcrafted links featuring Czech firepolished faceted beads ... in pale pink of course.

Above ... I forgot about the translucency of the rose quartz and should not have laid the pendant across the jet black seed bead strands as it tends to show through this translucent stone.

I realize that there are a ton of jewelry makers out there and that Etsy has more than it's share of them on their website but still the Internet has a huge audience, millions of people world-wide.  So only 5 views in several days ? What's going on with that ?