All My Eggs In One Basket

The world of Arts and Crafts is super-saturated with jewelry designers/makers.  I've known this for years but it never became more apparent than after I lost my one and only source of  selling.

 Years ago I used to do the art shows and fairs, granted it was a lot of work to haul everything from my  vehicle over to my assigned booth location and then hassle with getting the tent set up, the tables in place and then arranging an assortment of displays and all the various pieces of my work.  It was easy to envy those who didn't have all those little bits and pieces to fuss over, seemed as though they were able to get in at the last moment, set up and were ready for business in a matter of minutes; likewise they packed up at the end of the event and were long gone whereas I was still packing up boxes of jewelry and displays and still had to face hauling tables to my car and taking my tent down. 

Having my jewelry in a shop or gallery was a lot less work, a lot less hassle, but not totally hassle-free.  Occasionally a jewelry tag went missing and the jewelry was sold with the wrong ID number. Then it required detective work to figure out what piece was actually sold and at what price.  That's when I decided I did not wish to have my jewelry spread out all over the county.  Yes I know that having all my eggs in the one proverbial basket was not a good idea but the thought of trying to keep tabs on a number of items placed in several different shops overwhelmed me. 

When my one and only resource had to relocate her shop and decided to discontinue having an Artisans Gallery, I was forced to look around for other venues.  That's when I was truly struck by how saturated the market was with handmade jewelry.  Shop after shop, boutique after boutique, gallery after gallery met with me and shook their heads saying they already had far too much inventory from local jewelry makers and just could not take on any more.

To be continued ....

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.

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

 

Missed The Trend ?

above ... Swarovski Crystal Aurora Borealis Eternity Circle

There are times when I create something and think it is beautiful and will sell in a heartbeat, it is always a a rude awakening when I find obviously that no one else feels the same way.

I meticulously wove these Swarovski crystal Eternity Circle together and loved the depth and dimension of the piece in general.  When I took them out into the sunlight the sparkling effects were beyond amazing ... especially with the Crystal aurora borealis pendant. 

above and below ... Sapphire Blue Swarovski Crystal pendant on handcrafted kumihimo braided cord.

However they seem to gather little attention and I don't understand why.  I think most of you beaders and jewelry makers are all aware of the price of Swarovski Crystals (these are 6 mm) so making a piece that uses over 80 crystals is not cheap.  I priced it about as low as I could but maybe I'm underpricing them and people expect these true Swarovskis to cost more ?  Or maybe they're passe, unhip and outdated ... though I thought circles, representing eternal love, was in ... I somehow missed when they went out. 

Have any of you jewelry maker - beaders created pieces that you thought would go like hot-fresh baked bread and instead sat around your inventory like old, stale biscuits ?