Welcome Spring

This is a cabochon pendant using a millifleur Venetian glass cab; it is on the purchased natural leather cord with a lobster clasp. It would also look pretty with a beaded chain.



A bead embroidered aqua blue druzy cabochon pendant with adjustable white cord.



This emerald green bead embroidered druzy cabochon has palace green opal Swarovski bicones in the bezel as well as seed beads.

I have decided to spend time blogging rather than on Facebook. I plan to continue my FB page, KRDesigns11, with postings of new items in my Etsy shop and treasuries featuring my items. I'd love to have you "Like" my page as well as join me here on my blog. I will not comment on friends status reports so please do not take this personally. My focus will be on promotion and creating my art.

Today I purchased some stone cabochons that I envision being made into pins/pendants. I have some combination findings with a bail as well as a pin. The stones are larger to accommodate the pin/bail and are regular shapes in pink, amethyst purple, pink/red, and greens; these are colors that are attracting me now. The designer shapes require more design time due to the irregular shapes of the stones and would tend to be assymetrical.

I also purchased more of the small druzy cabochons to have a variety of pendants. I am loving making these. The white Greek leather cord with sliding sterling silver rings seems to work well as a "chain" on which to hang them. I measured 28" of cord, so that it easily goes over my head with my glasses on, and then can be adjusted to the position I like with the clothes I am wearing. For the same amount of money, I purchased a natural leather ready made neck chain which is thinner and the lobster clasp wire work has some rough edges on it. Some customers may prefer the clasp versus putting it over their head. Making a bead woven chain would be an option too.

Bead Embroidered Tiny Druzys

I have been trying to create items with lower price points to sell at my Art Fairs. I am currently working on bead embroidered druzy cabochons that are tiny--between 18 and 23 mm. I am using delicas, size 13 charlottes and size 15 beads. It is taking more time than I expected because the beads I have are also tiny. But I'm having fun creating these cute little babies with lacy edgings. I have one more in aqua blue that I want to finish for my indoor show on March 9 & 10. Being primarily a bead weaver, I have mostly delica beads. Before I do more bead embroidery on regular size cabochons I need to shop for seed beads. I'm also planning to use Greek leather cords with adjustable length, probably in white.

Rose, Mauve, Amethyst AB and Gray

I really have enjoyed creating items in Vintage Rose, Mauve Pearls, Czech Amethyst AB, and light pearlized gray and wanted to use the items for jury photos. My husband convinced me that they are not artsy enough and the colors are too subtle to photograph well. I determined he had a point, (he is sometimes right) and will use the photos of the Noreena Jasper items for the juries. I determined I didn't have enough items in those colors, so will need to add to the collection. In the meantime, please enjoy what the juries will miss!





These items are or will be listed in my etsy shop. I am playing with a couple new projects and working on bead embroideries featuring porcelain jasper and a stone with purple, white and grey/black, both purchased from tradewinds studio on etsy.

Indoor Show Jury Photos

I have selected items in cream/ivory/eggshell in a range of prices for my applications to shows held indoors. These items can be created in any color, but I thought I would bring light colored items which would show up better in darker, indoor situations. I'm not sure how much light will be available in the space, assuming I am accepted.

Art Fair Jury Photos

Applications for Art Fair season are due well before most people expect. The larger ones that are run by professional promoters are due in January in my area, with a few run by Art Leagues etc. accepted in the spring months. Amdur Productions has a January 3 deadline, so the holidays are a busy time to create new work, photograph the chosen items and then describe them using the specified number of keystrokes. I want to try to get into the best events that suit me, where my ideal customer will likely be.

I wanted to create items that appear to be in a collection, so I chose beads in a color family. Since I was inspired by Noreena Jasper which has grays, maroon reds and orange golds, I collected beads in those colors. I also try to create items which have a variety of price points to appeal to all pocketbooks, which can be a challenge in this economy. The jury will be viewing items in winter which my customers will see in the summer to early fall, so I chose neutral darker colors over pastels which may not appeal to the jury. There is no metal on any of the items.

My lowest price point is an all seed bead bracelet made in ladder stitch which is embellished with seed beads with a toggle closure.



My second item is a bracelet in tubular right angle weave which is embellished with Czech glass rounds, again with a toggle closure.



Using a Noreena Jasper bead as a pendant, I created a necklace with a spiral weave chain and toggle closure, using free form brick stitch around the jasper bead, attaching the pendant to the chain with loops of seed beads and ending with an asymmetrical fringe.



Using the Noreena Jasper, I created a bracelet around a large flat bead in free form brick stitch with a button and loop closure. It has lots of embellishment.



In case you are wondering where the Swarovski is, the maroon pearls are made by Swarovski and the button is Swarovski crystal.

Since I display my jewelry in shadow box cases by color, I will be adding earrings, more bracelets, and maybe a necklace or pins to the collection before show time. The jasper red has fire energy and is grounding. It is mined in western Australia.

Statistics and Shop Views

I set up google analytics early in my etsy shop history, but despite being an analytical person, I found only confusion and not answers on how to increase sales.

A relatively new feature (mid July as far as I can tell) at etsy.com for shopkeepers is etsy stats. It is a fairly straightforward listing for the current date and "yesterday" (there are other time period choices as well) by hour the number of shop views, listing views,and additions to the shop such as renewals or new items. It also lists where the views are coming from, key words used, and items by name of what was viewed. I have two other applications which gather this data which I am keeping until 12/31/11 because of the history going back to when I opened my shop.

I have been tracking the time of day my viewers are likely to be looking at my shop. I am somewhat surprised at what they are looking at which is mostly my unique designs with high price points. The key words used also tell me that my viewers are knowledgeable about beadweaving because they use technical search terms. When I talk to visitors at my Art Fairs, I use technical language such as stitch names which causes confusion and I need to explain what I mean. This makes me wonder if most of my viewers on etsy really are potential customers. I started my etsy shop by joining the etsy beadweavers team where I made some friends who do the same/similar things that I do but none are customers and I am not theirs either. I have not been a member of this team for at least 6 months.

I set up a facebook page as well as my personal page. I have transferred all of my promotions to KRDesigns11 on FB so as not to spam family and friends on my personal page. I have been having a SEASON OF GIVING promotion on my facebook KRDesigns11 page which is not being viewed. So my reality is not the same as the movie Field of Dreams because I built the page, but they are not coming.... Just sharing my personal observations so you, dear reader, can learn from my mistakes. I do have one loyal friend who almost without exception, likes my entries; I do the same for her as a way of returning the favor and encouraging her to keep on trying.

I plan to focus more efforts on learning about Google ad words. I know that I need to bring people in from outside etsy to purchase my items. I will also be creating more elaborate peyote pattern bracelets, dutch spiral necklaces and listing more of my cellini spiral bracelets which are a great source of repetitive stress and boredom to me to create (they take at least 16 hours of one bead at a time). A lot of my Swarovski crystal and pearl items were made for the Illinois Artisan Shop market which has changed significantly under new shop management and the economic situation in Chicago and Illinois government.

I also plan to do in process progress photos of my designs. Sorry there are no pictures in this one, but I'm off to take some cellini spiral ones and my current project photos for next time.

Team Support - All for a Few

I am a former member of the etsy beadweavers team. Tonight I removed the link to the Etsy Beadweavers blog which facilitated voting in their monthly challenges. After an absence of a few months, I visited at the beginning of the voting (the 9th) only to find someone had 45% of the vote--they currently have about a third of the votes--while most of the entries have only a few or no votes. While the entry with the most votes may be the best one based on a tiny thumbnail photo, it doesn't seem fair to the other entries whose creators did their best and spent hours on their entries. Google searches on those beaders will reveal their name with a "0" votes entry, probably for every month they entered. This result does not help the career or ego of the majority of the members.

I plan to add to my favorite links list. I also have a facebook business page, KRDesigns11, which has room for more "liked" pages. Let me know if you would like to be considered for some free publicity.