New Year! Same goals!

Happy New Year!

Yes, It's been a while (again!). But, I'm back! This time I have a plan, a schedule... let's see if I can keep it up :)

I was just looking over my old posts, especially my goals for last year. While I worked on some of them, I gotta say this year's goals are pretty much the same thing. Make jewelry, get jewelry online, sell jewelry.
To do this, I need to learn a LOT more about marketing.

And one goal I have this year is to get my web site up and running. I have a Weebly site I got last year, but I never really did anything with it.
And, I'd like to have my jewelry on another site besides Etsy. Etsy's great, but it's sooo big, I feel like my jewelry is lost. And they market to a very specific target, who is not me, nor is it my target market. (I actually don't know who it is, supposedly 20-something "hipsters", but when I look at the finds, etc, I don't think I've ever seen anything that would appeal to anyone I know. But, I don't know very many "trendy" people. And the few that I do know are into "designer labels".) So, another venue might have a different audience. I'll have to do some research.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Debby

"Today is a new day"

Updates

I've been neglecting this blog! I should have included constant blogging to my list of resolutions.
But I have a good reason (excuse!).  I've been very busy creating and listing new jewelry for my etsy shop.  It seemed silly to me to link to it when it didn't have enough product.

I joined the 2012 Jewelry-Makers Challenge Team on Etsy a few weeks ago. So far, it's been really fun. It has pushed me to be creative and also to focus on one thing at a time to get it done by the deadline.

The idea is that every week, the captain creates a theme (or two) for us to create something around. I missed the first week's challenge, because I hadn't joined the team yet, but I've done a few.
The second week's challenge was to create earrings that represented one of the elements. I chose water.

Waterfall Earrings

They weren't the easiest thing for me to make, as fringing always seems to go wonky for me. But, overall, I was pleased with them.

In addition to creating the challenge pieces, I've been cleaning out my bead stash. This somehow always leads to stringing for me. I don't really know why. But, since I get inspired to do stringing about once a year, when the inspiration hits, I go with it.  I dig out all of my colored glass beads and just play.  I'm actually very impressed with myself  for how many things I've actually gotten finished. I was whipping them out so fast that when I went to take pictures, I found some that I'd completely forgotten! (Of course, since it had only been about a week, that may say more about my lapsing memory than anything else).

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll get them listed on Etsy, but in the meantime, here's a sampling:

Long, Long Amber Necklace

This necklace is very long, so it can be wrapped two or three times around the neck, or just keep wrapping and it can be worn as a bracelet.

Blue Lampwork Glass with Pink Crystals