Etsy Goodies

Posted on October 17, 2008 by Elaine

The site updating is going pretty painlessly so far! Yay! There’s a few more changes to be made but here’s a post that might be helpful for my Etsy-using friends:

I’ve been selling on Etsy the last 18 months or so and I like the place. It has it’s issues but overall, the price is right. Here’s a few off-Etsy tools to help with your Etsy experience:

More Info Please

Unofficial Etsy News – these folks take the headlines at Etsy and put them in one spot instead of requiring you to sift through Etsy’s own chaotic and unreliable news services.
Majaba.org – this site helps you sort through the somewhat complicated ‘favourites’ system at Etsy. It will count up all your item hearts or views for you and display them in a format that’s usable. This is a way to see what’s popular in your shop.
Pricing Spreadsheets – by Chris Parry is a great answer to: How much should I price it at? There are other excellent posts on the site but this one’s an eye opener.

Help Me Sell

Let’s Ets – will actually make the file you need to load up the contents of your Etsy site to Google’s shopping listings. Free, simple and super useful.
We Love Etsy – is a social network (I know, you need another one of those) that is high traffic and regularly updated. In other words, useful. A way to make contacts, network and promote.

Site Updates

Posted on October 15, 2008 by Elaine

There will be some serious dustmaking the next day or two on here as I swap the theme (the look) of the site out, do version upgrades on the shop and generally make a big mess. The urls for pages in the blog or tutorial sections should not change. The shop will be updated to actually work correctly.

The Shop: Think Pink

Posted on October 14, 2008 by Elaine

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. In a bit of an effort at fundraising, I listed two sets of beads on Etsy. 20% of the proceeds will go to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. The little ribbon beads got a nod in SewingGranny’s treasury.

I have all sorts of other beady goodness in the Tooaquarius shop of course. Things with bumps, things with faces and things with butterflies:

The next two months are the crazy fall show months and I’ve been busily making jewelry items to showcase the beads I make. The most recent of those are listed in my flickr but here’s a current fave:

Here’s hoping your week is full of beady goodness!

Using Those Beads

Posted on October 8, 2008 by Elaine

A long time ago when I first started with clay, I made beads to use in my jewelrymaking. Once clay had me in it’s grip I made jewelry to showcase my clay beads.

I’ve been enjoying a spot of jewelrymaking this month though. Most of it will go to my fall shows and it’s been a fun trip preparing. One of my challenges was figuring out some uses for pillow shaped beads. These are a bead shape I had never really used in my own creations and that I had only begun to make at the request of customers. I’m having fun now though!

There’s other things than pillow bead creations of course – I used a few older beads of mine to make silly cake earrings, bookmarks and some new, sweet roses to make bouquets for your ears and wrist.

And a fellow blogger (and super talented beadmaker) had a very good idea for how to display earrings at shows. Take a peek.

Walk Down Memory Lane

Posted on October 1, 2008 by Elaine

Today I am taking a break from busily making stock for upcoming shows and decided to do much needed tidying of my desk. My desk has developed strata again. As I worked through the stacks I unearthed a baggie of necklaces I’m to repair or restring for my mom and in there is the very first clay necklace I made.

After counting back on my fingers I realized that was 10 years ago this fall! Wow! Time flies. The irony in this is that those first marbled beads are not much different than some of what I’ve made for this years shows – little red and green marbled beads. As I recall, that necklace was pretty much a straight take on a tutorial in a fun beading book: book book. I made a lot of variations that first fall!

I also made a ton of cute little pins with clay characters glued to them and learned one lesson: hot glue does not work with poly clay. Oops. So not all my first efforts are things I am still doing!

Polymer Clay Beads

Monthly Archives: October 2008