My Work for Sale
Find Me On
Etsy
One World One Heart
I’ve closed commenting and drawn the winner for my giveaway! Thanks for participating everyone!
The theme for this year’s One World One Heart event is a Magic Carpet Ride. I’m sure there’s a little room on my magic carpet for good company so hop on, wander my blog, and take a tour of my obsession: all things polymer clay and beads.
To encourage all of my visitors, new and old alike, to comment I’m going to give away a $20 gift certificate to my ArtFire shop. What better way than to get some new clay friends than to spread the clay love around?
My giveaway is open to anyone who’d like to comment on this post between today (January 25th) and the end date (February 15th). On February 16th, I’ll draw a name via Random.org and contact the winner. Local and international commenters welcome! So introduce yourself, link to your blog or your photo album so I can visit you, and take a look around!
A Little Customer Service
I love the Internet. It’s given me the chance to do amazing things. One of those has been the chance to sell my art and craftwork through various venues including Ebay and Etsy.
Ebay is huge and can be very complex, expensive and downright confusing but I have to say the two times I had minor technical issues I was able to get live help and email help within 20 minutes and 1 day respectively. On both occasions the help was correct and pleasant.
About two years ago, I created my first Etsy account after having watched the site for about 18 months. In the first 6 months we operated the Claychicks shop I had to ask for admin help twice, both as a result of site generated bugs. Both emails were directed to their general support email as there is no live help and the forums, even at the time, were a coin toss. One email went unanswered. I figured out the solution on my own in two days or so as I’m fairly technical.
The second email, a simple bug related to my outdated software setup, received an incorrect reply (this is my industry, hello, I was not merely guessing when I mentioned what my issues were). Worse, the reply was dismissive and rude. While I’m aware that written communications don’t pass tone of voice on well… this was dismissive. Our shop went on hiatus for most of a year.
When we came back to the shop, I answered a call in the forums for help with bug fixes. Support had asked for users with a specific issue to send them info either via the thread or email. So I did this – it’s my industry and I appreciate any customer who takes the time to let me know something is wrong instead of just walking away.
That email also received a reply. It was – in addition to being poorly written – rude. There was no ‘Thanks for your feedback’. There was a snippy remark (I kid you not) about how I had provided more complex info than requested and it was not helpful.
No other communication I have had with Etsy ever produced a result – no item or shop I flagged was ever removed or changed when I looked back.
Have I sold well on Etsy? Yes. The price is right and there are some amazing artisans there. But the service is very poor.
This week, in an effort to look into other venues (I’ve looked into many – like Etsy, once upon a time), I joined Artfire. The site is in Beta and it’s a bit of a mess right now. That’s fine – I’m pretty tech savvy.
I had a minor issue with the form controls not working correctly during my signup process. I was able to complete my signup despite that. But I did take the time to write a bug report.
I received a sort of form email from the CS quickly – it explained they were swamped but would look into my issue ASAP. This morning (half a day after I signed up), I received a personal reply from CS saying they had corrected my issue (and they had, I checked) and that they had passed on my bug to Engineering. It was concise, polite and it was honest.
What a nice change.
The Craft Show Cheer
Two weekends ago I had the craft show lament and I was trying to think up a song or poetry related word for a positive experience. No real luck on that.
This weekend’s show was the one at Harvest Hills Alliance Church, a big congregation up in the northwest of the city. Apart from a slightly odd signup process the show earns my praises. Super organized by cheery, enthusiastic people, well advertised, awesome attendance, lots and lots of variety, good causes to support and cookies and coffee passed around. I’m not sure how much better you can ask!
And the sales were fabulous there. And I had a table beside my crafty friend, the very talented Christine of Purple Pony Art. And the baker I see at other shows had some lovely cookies again. And someone had fudge. And I ran into a dear friend from college.
Basically the show was great! Looking forward to it next year.
* You can see my raised earring stand in the photo of my booth, beside the board of pendants. Yes, that is all I did, put the earrings up about 12 inches on a box riser and it made a difference, again. No people throwing their backs out looking at my work!
Pomomama: a Feature
I’ve seen Ebb & Flo pretty much since I joined Etsy – I made a particular effort to look up and keep an eye on Canadian sellers – and she’s a pretty familiar face for forum lurkers like me! So when I found out that I had the perfect chance to dig a little bit more as a result of the Blog-a-Day Giveaway, I was happy. Here’s a little more about the artist who sells as both Ebb and Flo (unique, handcrafted jewelry) and Pomomama (handmade supplies, papercrafts and patterns).
Tell us a little about yourself!
I’m a SAHM who crafts in, around and in spite of her family in an effort to stay sane.
What inspires or influences your work? What themes or motifs do you notice most often?
Quirky shapes and unusual presentations influence my work. I’m also noticing colour a lot more than I used to. Blue/green is my comfort zone but I’m trying to break free. Glass is a favourite medium.
Do you have a favourite piece or series? If so, do you have links to them?
I really like my flotsam pieces as I think these are very unusual, combining wire, metal and fibre with felting. Here are some examples.
Have you done any work specifically for the winter holiday season?
I produced a Fall range in copper wire crochet and metal and have been working on winter ‘bling’ for the party season. These will be available at the craft fairs I attend soon.
What lead you to sell online? What’s the best part? The most challenging?
I had a hobby which made me happy but due to household budgeting I needed to make it self sufficient. ….. and it is now but not solely from selling online.
What are your favourite materials to work with?
Wire, metal, fibre and I love setting pieces of art glass from the amazing Etsy glass makers eg. Willowglass, Lis Kidder and Shoozles
Where can we find you online?
At Pomomama Design – www.pomomamadesign.com
Do you have any specials, promos, or upcoming events you’d like to tell us about?
Ebb & Flo goodies will be at Devil May Wear in Vancouver, BC
If YOU are interested in entering the Blog-a-Day Giveaway, all you need to do is check out the goodies on the site, pick one (or several, you can enter multiple times), and write a post about the person’s shop, pieces, blog or some other related item. Once you have done that, return to the Giveaway page and leave a comment with a link to the post. Voila! You have an entry. You have one entry per comment and the giveaways continue till December 4th.
Daytona Luxury Earrings
One of the best parts about selling your crafts is meeting nice and like-minded people. I love beads and I am always thrilled to what people do with beads. Particularly my beads!
Cindi of Daytona Luxury Earrings makes lovely earrings for her eBay store from a variety of quality materials. I was thrilled to see she has a whole section of earrings featuring polymer clay beads!
She bought a set of my face beads and then turned them into these lovelies which you can nab here. This is probably the best part of selling beads – other artists think up designs that I would never have thought of and yet work just right.
