My Work for Sale
Find Me On
Etsy
Rainy Days
Maybe the weather has been part of what’s kept me productive this week. It’s been summer’s fade into fall packed into one week. A little sun, a little cloud, some rain, some wind and a chill. Often in the same hour. Whatever it is, it brings both the energy that was missing during the long melty days of summer and that bit of comfort from curling up and working on something while wrapped in a blanket on the sofa.
 |
I picked and poked at some rose and leaf beads I made the last few weeks. I was inspired by another artists rose bracelet series but the challenge of how to put my own spin on it is there. Of course, one way to do that is to use my own beads instead of buying, to use caned elements where I can… I am sure I will come up with an ‘Elaine Original’ with a little more thought and playing. The first try is to the left and has already been disassembled, the poor thing. |
|
I got into making beads because I loved to make jewelry – even though, my boyfriend helpfully points out, I don’t WEAR the stuff – and sometimes I get itchy fingers. And I crank out pieces, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, pendants. I’m lucky these days because that’s part of my work. Here’s one of my usual bracelets with some of my latest beads – I’m going to start offering my caned beads as lentils in addition to rounds and pillows and the coffee tones colour scheme is one of my standards. |
 |
 |
For the Claychicks shop, I decided I would try selling some little ‘mystery boxes’ of cane pieces. Help me clean up my seasons stock as I make a ton of items, give people a try at canes for a lower price than the average set and still get a nice variety of canes to play with. I’m using $8 for a 1- 1.25 oz selection from my current canes (which includes the stuff to the side) as well as whatever is in good condition but didn’t come to hand fast enough for that pic. |
The Beadmakers Life
This week my daughter is enjoying the last week of summer break with her grandparents. I promised that I would make hundreds and hundreds of beads while she was gone and I have definitely stuck to that. Call it obsession. That’s probably the gentlest word for it.
 |
Of course, stumbling block last night was realizing I’d running out of the little bits of clay I use for pillow bead stuffing. That’s usually my daughters job, to cut them out and pinch them into roundish shapes. I persevered, finished up the beads, baked them and they are now tumbling happily with their friends. Hundreds and hundreds of their friends. Did you know each barrel in the Lortone two barrel tumbler can hold 150-170 beads, size depending? So I do honestly mean, hundreds and hundreds. Today, I’m taking a break from making caned beads and doing the other neglected bead making tasks like drilling holes, sorting and generally ogling all the pretty things I find on Etsy. |
Today, I lucked into my very first treasury ever so I even had a reason to be ogling beads and shiny things. The treasury is a mix of beads and jewelry, some featuring clay, from friends and street team members. Check it out and see beads I didn’t make he he.
Since my fingers are still protesting from the abuse of the last few days, I may take the rest of the afternoon off from clay as well and go out, do errands, enjoy the last bit of summer sun and all that good healthy non obsessive stuff.
Circular Thinking
A little at least.
I popped a full tray in the oven today (then into the ice water), all good stuff. Some of it, like the little brown pillow and round beads are new batches of items that sold out. There’s a single set of experimental lentil ones nestled in there, too.
See, what got me thinking of lentils was all the swirly lentils. Then thinking I wanted speedier swirly lentils. So I made some of those – the technique will need some work and the beads need their pretty finishing. Then THAT got me back to the regular caned beads as lentils.
Circular thinking at it’s best. No wonder I like beads.
Little Lavender Lilies
Well little lavender roses but lilies was much more alliterative.
I have been working on small shaped beads again. I’d like to get a bunch of roses and other shaped cane beads done so that I can finish up my bracelet making for the fall season of sales! I’d REALLY like to but I keep sitting in the last bit of sun and enjoying my summer he he.
The first bracelet prototype will be from these guys though:
I have to make up a few rose leaves and then get wiring! I wonder if I can go sit in the sunshine and make bracelets without dozing off?
Teaming Up
A big part of selling on Etsy is marketing and getting your name out there, in front of people. Etsy encourages it’s sellers to do advertising for each other, to support each others marketing efforts and generally work as teams to solve some of the common issues with sales.
To that end, Etsy has these groups called street teams which are associations of sellers grouped by region, medium or some other interest. Last week, I finally joined up with two more of these – I had belonged to the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy last year before I took a break: The Alberta Street Team and Fabulous Artistic Moms.
The first makes all sorts of common sense – I’m in Alberta. I do shows in Alberta, I buy supplies here and I meet a lot of crafters doing this. So, let’s bundle it together and get a bit more organized.
The second group is a team a friend of mine referred me to which is more of a supportive network. The common thread is that they are all moms (as well as all vendors). The Fabulous Artistic Moms are a more established group with many activities and a lot of members.
Street teams tend to have group activities like forum threads on Etsy, group ad buying, promotional posts about each other and things along those lines. It is one of those occasions where spreading the work around makes it a little easier.
The Shop – Summer Moseying Along
Taking the cue from the majority of the other cane sellers on Etsy, I listed singles in the Claychicks shop this week:
And there’s sets of canes, of course:
In the Tooaquarius Shop there’s plenty of beads (and more going up today!):
And I am finally bringing my web store in line with my Etsy Shops to make life a little simpler on my record keeping. The prices will be similar across the board – though Etsy will be cheaper for sets picked by me, you can still get a ‘buy 5 get 1 free’ set of six on here – and sometimes, I think, my American friends will get a good deal when the Canadian buck swings low (as my site prices are in Canadian dollars).
Across the board shipping for canes and beads is now much more reasonable. I got the ins and outs of Canadian shipping explained to me and I am happy to be able to say: It STILL makes NO SENSE but I can now offer shipping at about the same prices as US sellers. Overseas shipping may need a little tweaking, be warned.
Help in the Studio
Sometimes I get a little assistance with my crafting. Usually that’s my mom talking for me at shows. Or my daughter sorting the beads I messed up. Again. She has all the nitpicking skills I skipped as far as that goes. I would say she inherited it as part of her creative streak but that particular trait is one I completely lack – I can sort as needed but it doesn’t interest me.
This weekend my friend blended clay for me. While I love the way a good blend looks and I grudgingly admit the pasta machine motor is a fabulous tool, the noise makes me crazy. It doesn’t bother him.
Later, I sent him out to whip up the grub for the starving crafters!
Another helper is Moe from Honolulu. Coming back from swim lessons today, we just about trampled my mail carrier who had a package for me. Inside were scads of Altoid tins. For those who are unaware, covering Altoid tins is one of those basic polymer clay projects. Because Altoids seem to be oddly rare here, we almost never get them… Moe heard of my plight and helped out.
And yes, some of them have mints in them still. So we even have pretty breath. Thanks, all my crafty helping types!
My Black, Black Heart
One of my most popular items and themes is always the black and white canework on a solid black background and the hearts are most popular out of THOSE.
It makes me curious what other people end up with as their popular themes either from the pieces that sell best or that they like most? And do they make more of those because of that?
Bead soup?
I’m not sure if this is the sort of stuff that needs crackers on the side but here in my little cozy studio I spent the week finishing buckets (or barrels rather) of beads to a good, high gloss finish.
The end result was a lot of very nicely finished beads and I’ve still got bowls full to go yet. You can see some closeups of the various beads in my flickr or, better yet, in my Etsy.
My daughter was not impressed when I told her we would be eating bead soup for supper. I’ll have to rethink the menu.
Year of Clay – Little of this, little of that
As I was cranking through a bead order I made little dimensional roses from the scraps. The cane decorated size of the sheet is on the inside of the rose for little faux fabric roses. The individual beads are small – about 3/8″.
Then, because I distract like nothing else sometimes, I got making canes. One of them was to match the order I was working on (so, you know, vaguely related). The other was a cane on my To Do List – a sea turtle.
This post marks my 55th Year of Clay post. It took me about 18 months to actually do a year of posts but I had taken six months off in the middle of that. I’ve now been back on the wagon pretty regularly so I am going to discontinue the series and keep all my show and tell / in the studio posts in that category. Hopefully it won’t make me save up things for only once a week showings!
