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"

New Environment

I thought I'd show you all some of my new surroundings. Before I do that, however, I need to explain a little of my background.
 I was born in Long Beach, California. At some point, when I was very young, we moved to South Gate, California. Then, just before first grade, we moved to Cerritos, California. From there, I moved to Bellflower, California. I went to Cal State Long Beach. The point is, I've lived, grown up, gone to school, and worked in Southern California my whole life. Until now.
  For those of you unfamiliar with Southern California, I'll explain it this way. I lived in the suburbs on Los Angeles. So, while I was about 20 miles away from L.A., that entire distance is city. It's city for 30-40 miles in every direction from me (except southwest, because the coast is closer than that). There are parks, of course, but generally I've been surrounded by concrete and freeways and buildings and streets and industrial areas and freeways my entire life.

OK, this is where I live now...

View from just outside my bedroom door

View from the backyard, overlooking the valley

I'm not complaining, it's beautiful here. It's just a big change in lifestyle.  I'm used to popping down to the store any time I want to. Going out to get fast food on a whim. Now, the nearest fast food is 20 miles away. And going shopping for anything at a department or discount store involves a trip to Fresno, which is about 30 miles away. So, a trip to Fresno takes planning and usually involves more than one person. We have to coordinate trips and make sure we're hitting all the stores while we're down there, because we may not be back for two or three weeks. So, we go to Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, and wherever else all in the same trip. Sometimes it takes hours!
    I will say though, the trip to Fresno is beautiful. We go from oak tree covered foothills, down to more sparsely covered hills, then to wide open ranch land. We nearly always see hawks flying overhead or perched on the fences, too.

Moved and Getting Back at It

  It's really hard to be creative and productive while in the process of moving! I moved at the end of February, to a completely new environment and away from friends and my familiar city .

  It's now the middle of April (ok, a little past the middle), and I haven't created Anything new yet. (The creative juices are flowing like mad this week though). Luckily, I made quite a few things in January and February to sustain and add to my Etsy shop.
  Here are a few of my new items:

Garnet Glass Earrings

Olive and Black Earrings

Olive and Black Bracelet

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

DJ's Nature

Hello,
Well, after spending a lot of time at my parents' house the past few months, I've finally convinced my brother to put some of his product on Etsy. (He scroll saws, mainly lots and lots of ornaments, but other things, too.) But, because he didn't want to put all of his items up, he didn't want to open a shop of his own. Plus, I had opened another shop last September, but never got a lot of things listed. So, we decided to combine our merchandise into that shop. We decided to also change the name of the shop to DJ's Nature, which was my original name for my crafts and everyone has been selling under that name for years in the Mariposa area. (I had named my new shop Painted Iris, as it was intended just for my painted pieces. But I was never able to get very many items up, so this will work out best for everybody.)

Here are a couple of his creations:

The very cool thing about these Luminaries is that he creates each one out of a single piece of log. He hollows it out, so the bark is still on it, keeping the look natural and rustic.

New Listings

Good Morning,
I started listing new jewelry on my etsy shop. I finally took more new pictures last week, got them edited, and even wrote out some draft listings. All I need to do now is measure the pieces, so I can finish the descriptions. (I should have added another resolution-measure each piece as soon as it's finished!) Here's a sampling of the new things...

Clear Beaded Bracelet

Dark Blue Double Wrap Bracelet

Turquoise Beaded Bracelet

New Year's Resolutions

Hello,
I was so sure that my new line of jewelry was going to be my big break! Didn't work that way, oh well, back to the drawing board...

I've been thinking about what to do to increase my productivity and my sales of my jewelry, especially on Etsy. So I came up with some goals, which, because of the time of the year it is, I'll call resolutions.

1. Put enough "Beadwoven" items in my etsy shop that I can join the Beadweaver's Team
2. Identify my target markets and learn how to market to them. Do the marketing and promoting and advertising that successful Etsyians say you need to do to be successful.
   
3. Develop a marketing Plan, broken down by month, then weeks. This way I can stay on track and know what I need to do day by day.
4. Make the designs that I have planned. Really give them a chance to be out there, instead of letting fear stop me. Fear of not using the beads for their perfect design, and also fear of letting my designs be "out there". (If I don't put my best efforts forward, they can't be rejected, and I can blame my lack of sales on the fact that I don't have any "fabulous" pieces.)
5. Remake some of my best sellers, and continue to make items that sell well.
6. Make more earrings (this is my challenge, because it is difficult for me to make unique, interesting earrings).
7. Do more craft shows and try to get into more "artist or artisan" type shows.