Mother's Day Showcase & Earrings Promotion

The photos are of additions to my shop today. The left side is my final pair of earrings in the April promotion. Since I have a Mother's Day Showcase slot, I decided to keep the prices promotional for one more day.

The right side is a cream pearl and crystal ab bicone bead bracelet in right angle weave. I use gold with cream. It is a classic bracelet style I enjoy making that's under $200 and have sold through the Illinois Artisan shop in Chicago. It can be made with any beads; these are Swarovski.

I worked on my challenge item for the Etsy Beadweavers Team today. The theme is colors imbeded in insects. I chose the damselfly. Materials include different finishes on the delicas and two turquoise, orange and lime green colors. Like I'm ready for the islands. So far it is a combination of a couple of stitches and free form. It will be listed on Wednesday.

The Big Reveal for the Use the Muse contest is Thursday, May 6 according to Artbeads.

Earrings Promotion

This is the pair of earrings I listed in my shop today for my earring promotion.

I made a lot of these earrings in anticipation of sales at Art Fairs. My first Art Fair, I had only a few earrings and they matched the pieces of jewelry I was trying to sell. I have found that people generally look at the more expensive items and skip the earrings, unless that is what they truly want to buy.

I have a fair number of earrings that have beaded beads on them which I haven't listed because I can't offer them at low prices. I enjoy making the beaded beads and am thinking about only making earrings with beadweaving on them in the future. They would be unique and original which is something my earring promotion ones are less likely to be. I don't make more than one pair of each style. I like variety. But because they are created with beads that are readily available, it is possible someone else would like the same combination I did, which I hope happens because then I have a customer.

Earrings Promotion, Peach Bracelet, Flowers

I finished the peach bracelet I wrote about yesterday. You can see how similar yet different the two bracelets are. If you want to see the detail, click on the photo.











These are today's earrings for my shop promotion. I may leave the lower prices until Sunday, since I have another Mother's Day Showcase slot on May 1, Saturday and don't want the items inactive then.











I picked the first of many lily of the valley flowers today. They bring up sweet childhood memories and have a short bloom period. They grow on the northeast side of my house where I can't see them, so I put them in a special little Waterford crystal vase that is perfect for violets and lily of the valley. I also have blue and pink columbine blooming on that side of the house that remind me of Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park.

Earring Promotion and Peaches and Cream Bracelet

Today's earring has three shades of purple with crystal ab. I love the large faceted Swarovski round beads, guess that's because I like crystal things.

I spent time creating a new bracelet in peaches and creams with an accent of dark copper. I have a bracelet in these colors at the Illinois Artisan Shop in Chicago. I found the photos I took in February and added one above. It has taken me almost two months to make something else in the series. Sometimes I like to order a lot of beads and make several items from them; usually I end up ordering more beads to finish because I try not to over order. This version has light peach crystals where the photo has cream pearls and vice versa. I used tiny size 13 cream charlottes instead of shiny copper beads and the other connecting beads are different. The stitch is the same. The in process bracelet's coloring is very soft. The photo bracelet is predominantly cream and the in process is peach. The next bracelet will be in a different stitch. I'll take a photo when the in process bracelet is complete.

Earrings Promotion & Showcase Results

Another day, another pair of earrings listed and blogged about. These are simple and sweet; they are only 3/4 inch long which is petite for dangle earrings. Some day I'll learn how to make the glued on to a post kind, but until then there are dangles.

My Mother's Day Showcase slot yesterday yielded some interesting results to me. For those of you who need to know the results to the bottom line, there were no sales, so you can consider it a failure. However, I had lots of views, especially on the one item featured--175 views. The other items in tiny pictures after you click on the featured item received only 2 or 3 views each. Overall I had almost twice as many views as my previous all time highest number of views which was on the first day of voting on my first EBW Challenge entry, April 9. I still had my normal number of daily views besides the showcase items. I'm still learning about hearts, but I received only 1, so either people didn't like what they saw or they don't understand how to use them either. I think they are like bookmarks--heart a shop and you can find it back again.

My feelings on the showcase experiment depend on what the goal was. If it was to make money now, I failed. If it was to have my work seen by people, I did quite well for me. I don't know how many could find me back again if they wanted to do so, so it might be just like a massage...feels good now, but I'll need to repeat it again soon. The cost per view was 8 cents, ($15 total) which is far less than other sites I've priced. I could have gone to a movie and had lots of popcorn. So I hope the viewers enjoyed what they saw, which is why I create things. Compared to other ways I have tried to promote my work, such as setting up a table in the lobby of the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago and talking to anyone who was passing by and stopped to look, this was easy but not very personal. My first day doing that also resulted in no sales. I guess I know why I was an accountant--you can quantify things when you analyze results.

I have another showcase slot on Saturday. I want to list the number of views on each item, not just the showcase featured ones, so that I can see what people looked at that day. I know I picked a good color (rose pink like today's earrings) item to feature because it stood out; some of the white and clear items were hard to see. The featured item in my shop had good views, but not on the earrings; next time I won't feature in my shop what I feature in the showcase.

Bead Dreams Finalists, Earring Promotion and Showcase

The earrings for the day seem ordinary after all I've seen today, But the promo must go on. My Mother's Day Showcase experiment is yielding lots of views for the featured bracelet. Thanks for the views.

Please view Dryad on http://www.NEDbeads.com to see a finalist entry in Bead Dreams. For my non beading readers, this is exquisite bead embroidery. The artist also has an etsy shop and a blog with the same name if you care to check them out as well. Her latest blog post is about someone else with photos of more gorgeous bead weaving.

Two of the EBW Team members are also finalists in Bead Dreams, and each necklace is stunning in its own way.

Earrings Promotion and Mothers Day Showcase

I listed these earrings for my April earring promotion. They are Swarovski crystals in dark blue indigo and crystal silver shade.

I just visited the Mothers Day Showcase with my rose Swarovski crystal bracelet featured now. To get to the Showcase, from etsy's main page on the top right you have choices in boxes, click the one that says Mothers Day to see the 36 items listed. This is my first showcase, and my first venture in paid advertising. Experimenting a little. If I like the results, I'll try to get a showcase slot for the voting on the next EBW team challenge, May 9 thru 15; one entry has been received already! I have to start mine.

I need to concentrate on beading, so will not be listing more items in the shop for a while. It will have to remain with the colors currently in the shop. If you are interested in something special, contact me through my etsy shop.

The earring promotion ends at the end of the month, so I will continue to add the earrings until then. The prices will be adjusted back to their normal range on May 1. And I promise to not blog about earrings.

Earrings Promotion, New Listings

I listed another pair of blue earrings today. I have a dark blue indigo colored pair for tomorrow. Today's have 2 Czech glass beads plus a Swarovski Comet Argent Light bicone crystal. I really like the CAL beads because they are crystal on the bottom and a silver coating on the top, at least that is the way I orient them. I used these beads on my April EBW Challenge.

One of the EBW team members learned her entry to Bead Dreams made it to the finals. Congratulations to her. You can find her shop www.nemeton.etsy.com/ or pick up beading magazines and look for Lynn Davy--she has published 50 articles. She sells instructions on her site as well plus groupings of beads for when you need a little inspiration. A very talented bead weaver.

I've concluded I won't be able to list enough items in my shop to have a representation of my work in all colors in time for my Mother's Day Showcases on Sunday and next Saturday (not tomorrow). I've added a lot of pink items, but am missing blues and greens.

I signed up for the free newsletter for Craft MBA after reading with interest the week of articles on growing your business. I found this from an etsy posting which linked to her blog.

Blue Earrings and Earth Day

Today's earrings are Swarovski blue pearl, blue ab crystal, and crystal ab roundel with bead caps surrounding the blue ab crystal.

I created a new green bracelet with different embellishment. It is in right angle weave, but just one strand. The beads are white with green and are vintage Czech rounds. They remind me of marbles, before the cats eyes.

Pink, Pearls and Earrings

The earrings to the left are today's addition to my earring promotion in my shop. I have decided to add pink to my shop, so the bracelet above is right angle weave of Swarovski Rosaline pink and mauve pearls with rose quartz round beads woven in a pattern. I also listed a matching single strand right angle weave 20" necklace. Last spring I made a number of Rosaline pink pearl items.

My habit is to purchase a quantity of beads and then wait for inspiration as to what to make with them. The pearls usually were right angle weave although the cream pearl necklace I strung with pinks, mauve, and gold filled saucer spacers inspired by a Baroque cathedral ceiling. See my February posts for a discussion and pictures of items in right angle weave.

I made the beaded beads for the earrings to coordinate with Dancing with the Sky. I still need to make earrings for the Swarovski lavender pearl bracelets. I need to purchase more ear wires. I do not wear earrings and wonder which style of attachment people like.

Please comment if you have a preference for ear wires, studs, other so I can add them to my shop.

Earrings and Pink

I've decided to rearrange my shop and add pink to the mostly purple items. Now I realize I have only Dancing with the Sky in the blue shades. So before my Mother's Day Showcases, I need to add some variety.

The earrings of the day are on the left. I decided to add a bracelet which has rose crystals as well as the rosaline pink pearls so it coordinates. The bracelet above is small, fitting a 6.25 inch wrist. I need to plan my shop arrangement since previously I was just interested in adding to my shop so it was large enough.

I finished another bracelet today using pacific opal crystals. I will be working on new items for my show mid May.

If there are any colors you would like to see, use the comments and I'll see what I have that might appeal to you.

Rosaline pink pearl Earrings

I found three pair of earrings featuring Swarovski rosaline pink pearls that I will list as part of my earrings promotion in my shop. I do have some other items that coordinate and will check to see what else I can list. It's a pale pink with pink quartz and Swarovski mauve pearl which looks more grayish to me, but is not gray. Enjoy! I have an early appointment tomorrow, so this is short.

Dutch Spiral Necklace and Earrings

Earrings of the day are Swarovski green and purple flower earrings. They look spring/summer to me.

I added the dutch spiral necklace which has Swarovski black diamond ab bicones as well as the delica beads which are miyuki 107 transparent grey iris which are similar to the black diamond color. This is my creative heart shaped display for necklaces. If you want to learn more, the listing should be above under my blog banner.

Dutch spiral is similar to peyote stitch except some of the beads increase and decrease (the delicas) and do not connect to the previous row. Counting is important so that it drapes well. Also the beads used vary in size starting with an 8 (I used a double delica columnar shape bead) which is a great place to hide knots and several size 10 and then the delica beads. Use uniform size of beads for the ones that increase and decrease to get a beautiful spiral curve. You always know which bead to pick up because it is the same as the one you are coming out of from the previous row.

I have used a variety of stitches to finish off the spiral, but find the strung crystals and silver to be preferable. You really can't see the sides and back of a necklace, so spending extra time beadweaving there just makes the necklace more costly. Besides the crystals are lovely. This stitch is a lot faster than the cellini spiral.

Earrings and Art Fairs

These are my latest earrings in my special promotion. They have Swarovski hematite crystal bicones and black pearls, sterling silver 8 mm round beads and Bali silver roundel beads. Great for a grey suit or dress--business, too. Maybe even a teacher gift.

This morning I learned that I have been invited to participate in the inaugural spring art and crafte fair at an upscale shopping center in Burr Ridge, Illinois on May 15 and 16. There will be approximately 75 artists, a nice number for variety but not so many that visitors are tempted to walk by because the show has 175 tents and is four blocks long.

The mail this afternoon informed me that another show a friend had suggested I apply for, despite cashing my separate check for the booth fee, decided not to invite me. It's unusual for a venue to cash a booth fee check and not invite the artist--more work for them to write a check back to the artist. I have been to this show a number of years ago and did not think my customer would shop there, but it's always fun to do a show with a friend.

I'm back to beading choosing one of my favorite Swarovski colors (oh, all right, they are all my favorite colors!) pacific blue opal. I tried to design with some amazonite but the style bracelet had too many times through the stone bead to work, so it is two sizes of crystal bicones. I've made this style before, but with smaller beads. I have some lovely mixed greens and turquoise charlottes and a green turquoise seed bead to connect the bicones. Proofreading this I realized I could make dangles from a choker with the amazonite.

The stitch I am using is a flat spiral where there is a core bead and many smaller beads loop around to connect the beads with a loop on each side of the core bead. I enjoy creating different combinations in this stitch. A spiralling version is the first stitch I learned. There is a Swarovski lavender pearl bracelet in my shop in flat spiral stitch. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=43270725

Earrings & Life

Today's earrings are Swarovski black pearl. To me, this color is a lovely charcoal and if you want a true black like their jet black crystals, you need to order mystic black pearls. Both are basic neutral colors. I reordered the mystic black pearls when I saw the color of the black pearls.


Life selling jewelry is teaching me some new lessons. Some of them are ones we would rather not have, but today I was lucky as I didn't learn this one the hard way. I received a convo on etsy from someone who wanted me to accept a cashier's check and to use their shipping company. I found the person registered today so I googled the name and found a reference to a forum post about scams. I learned to notify etsy at abuse@etsy.com. While I received their auto reply, someone must read them to prioritize them and I received a prompt reply. So etsy was on top of the situation and had closed down the operation. I thanked the person who initiated the post because I would not have known how to contact etsy. There are written procedures--I just need to search etsy help. The details are to be confidential, but am glad to report that etsy handled the situation well. I'm also liking the changes to listing items and the new treasury east with the wider screen--it loaded my comment in one second!

Taxes and Earrings

Today is the last day to vote for the April challenge. http://www.etsy_beadweavers.blogspot.com/ My entry was Dancing with the Sky. Please vote for your choice; it's hard to pick just one entry!

I am a great procrastinator and always owe money on my tax return, so I file late. I under estimated the amount of time it would take for me to prepare my records from my business, so I skipped a listing and an entry here. So I have listed two very bright earrings today--orange in carnelian and indigo dark blue plus a pair with fire opal and jonquil. Wonder if subconsciously I wanted to light a fire under the Chicago Bears. Not a sports watching fan, so I doubt it. Lots of high schools have blue and orange for their school colors, so if there is a graduation or birthday gift on your list these earrings may be the solution. I'm really fond of the fire opal color and today I was the one who needed the fire lit under me as I'm tired from little sleep and all that number crunching yesterday into today. And I used to be a CPA!

I forgot to mention that I received a check in the mail from the Illinois Museum Society for the sale of a pair of earrings at the Illinois Artisan Shop in southern Illinois. They were Swarovski white pearl with light blue sapphire crystals. I sent them a collection of blue and white items plus a lavender set for spring. I thought of setting up a bridal section in my shop after I sent them.

Swarovski Peridot Green Earrings

I listed these earrings mid afternoon today trying to make up for my late late night post yesterday. Curious about etsy searches, under handmade I searched for Swarovski crystals and found more than a hundred thousand entries. So I tried peridot earrings and found my earrings at the bottom of the first page..this was a few hours after they were listed. Tonight I tried green earrings and found mine at the bottom of page 19, there were 627 green earrings listed since mid afternoon, say in 9 hours. Wonder how many of them sell? They were all different, too. Some looked like red, blue and necklaces, but for some reason were in green earrings.

My conclusion is that you do need to list often in order to have people see your items. You also need to use appropriate descriptions but more creative--not far out though or no one will see them. So are my earrings asparagus green? and would you search for asparagus when you wanted earrings? Peridot was not in my vocabulary before Swarovski and my jewelry making.
Asparagus search yielded 317 listings, including super hero capes made by wildasparagus. I didn't know people sold vegetable seeds on etsy. Have you ever seen an asparagus pebble? It's on etsy.

Think I could use my time better? Valid research to me. But honestly I'm still procrastinating doing my business schedule C for my 1040. I've been using my credit card--got a strange look for a $2.19 expenditure at the post office today; if I paid cash, I would not get the deduction as the receipt would probably get lost. So I've categorized my expenses from the credit card bills. Sales I've worked on as they were made, plus I have my checkbook. It's the mileage calculation and those little receipts I have yet to do.

I am glad I procrastinated. We always seem to owe, but this year my quick and dirty calculation was close to $1,000 more and on lower income due to furlough days and pay cuts. There is a new deduction I would have overlooked; file Schedule M and get a tax credit of $800 for a married couple. I can sleep better knowing I don't owe as much as I've thought since last January. Sorry I was blaming my husband's employer for withholding a lot less this year; it was the President who had the withholding adjusted so we would spend it...I guess it helped make up for the loss of income this year.

Use the Muse

I submitted my creation for Use the Muse IV late Monday night, just in time. I had difficulty connecting with the Muse. When I attached an agate cabochon to the Muse, I felt better about it. My husband likes the completed piece, doesn't understand my issues. So I met the deadline, did what I said I would do and maybe it will sell when I can finally list it. I can't show you a complete picture until the BIG REVEAL which won't be for at least another month. Don't worry, it's dark colors, brown, dark copper, black, grey, perfect for fall/winter. I can tell you it is a bead woven right angle weave choker with picot trim at the top. There are dangles of black onyx roundels, wooden beads, Miyuki drops and delicas, and charlottes. Plus of course the Muse and the peyote stitch agate cabochon.

The picture is my earring listing for April 12. You can learn more about it by clicking on the description above under my blog banner.



Voting is continuing for the April challenge, Light as a Breeze. http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/ for voting. My entry is Dancing with the Stars, number 30. Feel free to vote your choice there are so many lovely ones. There is a commanding lead for one with Japanese flowers (26% of the vote). The woman who suggested the theme (by winning two months ago) is next with 11%. My beads for the May challenge arrived today--turquoise, orange and lime--theme is colors embedded in insects.



I want to welcome JoAnn Deck to my blog. JoAnn won second place in the current show at the Plainfield, Illinois Art League. Congratulations! If you like flowers, collage, and color, click on her name in the list of people I follow located in the right hand column of the blog.

Earrings

I need your help. Please tell me how long you like your earrings to dangle from the loop on the ear wire? Please comment on my blog.

What length do you think is appropriate for your mother?

I will be in the Mother's Day showcase on etsy and want to be sure I'm listing the length of earring you would want.

Any special colors for mom?

I don't have pierced ears, so I'm at a disadvantage. I really need your help. So please comment on this blog.

I just had my first customer for my earrings promotion. The earrings I listed late last night were sold to a bride for her mother to wear for her wedding. Actually she wanted the colors of jet black and black diamond ab but wanted only 1 inch earrings. It was easier for her to purchase the listed earrings with a note to seller than to wait until I made her earrings, photographed them, and listed them. So if you had your heart set on those earrings, I will relist them later. I will also list a bead woven in dutch spiral weave necklace with those colors. Now you know why I need your comments.

The earrings at the top of this post are today's entry in the special promotion in my shop.

Kite flying

This is my tenth pair of earrings in my April earring promotion. I decided to list another pair of Swarovski black diamond ab earrings--this pair has sterling silver bead caps plus jet black Swarovski crystals. To go to my shop, click the title under the blog banner. Someone hearted a pair of earrings in the promotion -- thank you!

Life happened again today. It was a lovely spring day today in Chicago with a sunny high of 76 degrees. (average is 56) The breeze was just right for kite flying. That was something I could never get to work as a child--the rags for the tail were probably too heavy plus we didn't have the open treeless spaces that are perfect for flying kites. Kites were made of paper then (1950's) which tore easily and the rags were cotton. The tulips are starting to bloom--this is early for us. Feel free to comment on your kite flying experiences or how beautiful your tulips are.

The voting continues for the EBW April Challenge contest. Click on the top item under the blog banner to get to my etsy shop; the earrings and my entry, Dancing with the Sky, are featured in my shop. I have all the info in the description. I realized today I haven't made earrings to go with the cuff--I have to complete my Use the Muse entry and do my income taxes first. Life.

Earrings

I did some photo editing tonight as I was running out of images to post for the April earring promotion. I think these are lovely for spring and summer as they are light in color--crystals are Swarovski black diamond ab and the corrugated round sterling silver bead seems to resist tarnish nicely. I'm liking the black diamond ab color, so next time I order beads, I'll have to make something with them. Maybe I should add the three strand flat spiral bracelet to my shop, but I think it has black charlottes connecting the crystals.

Today is the first day of voting for the etsy beadweavers April challenge. http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/ My entry is number 30, Dancing with the Sky. Scroll beneath the group photo to find the listing by number where you can click on the item and go to the shop to see and read the details. This is my first time participating, so I am just happy to have created a lovely bracelet in time to enter. Voting continues thru April 15, so you have time--anyone can vote. Being from the Chicago suburbs I'm not sure if you can vote more than once

I have also worked on my Use the Muse entry which is due Monday. I'm not liking the components in the kit and think I have only used size 15 black seed beads from it so far. The Muse is required. The style is different for me--a choker with dangles from it.

Earrings Promotion

This is the latest pair of earrings in my April promotion. I think my next promotion will only last one week. The purpose of this one is to motivate me to finish photographing all of my inventory. The earrings are especially time consuming because there are so many of them.

This morning I purchased a spot in the Mothers Day showcase on two different days. This will be my first experience with advertising on etsy. I would have purchased a spot for the etsy beadweavers challenge voting, but they were all taken already. I've learned to purchase a spot when I list my entry.

The challenge voting is from 4/9 thru 4/15. It is on the beadweaver's blog. The Facebook page for the beadweavers has each entry listed where you can click on the photo to go to the creators shop. Facebook has some nicer features than blogspot. My entry is Dancing with the Sky which you can find by clicking on the item listed under my blog banner. My description includes where to vote details. There are many choices.

Earrings

I see by the clock I'm on 4/8 not 4/7 so this will be short. These Swarovski crystal earrings are dark blue indigo and crystal silver shade with a sterling silver daisy spacer between the two blue beads. I just realized the largest bead is 8 mm and I need to make sure that is what I wrote in my description on etsy.

I am making progress on my goal of photographing my items; tonight I did only earrings. Only one was in a spring color, so I need to do more photos for this promotion. I still cannot see the end on this project.

I need a topic other than earring promotion. Use the comments if you have one for me.

Earrings Promotion & SEO

I added this pair of earrings to my etsy shop, http://www.KRDesigns11.etsy.com/ before this afternoon's virtual lab on SEO. I think I learned that if I listed similar items, I was competing with myself for Google rankings, so somebody please buy a pair of cream pearl and crystal ab earrings. Seriously, you can find these in my shop; easiest way is to click on the item in the feed listing of recent items in my shop under my blog banner. I rearranged my shop to put coordinating items next to the earrings.

I wrote in the new earrings description about the matching choker necklace and bracelet and gave links to the previously listed items. I learned that it would give my new listing a better chance to be crawled by google if I had put the new listing link in the descriptions on the choker and bracelet. Good thing I went to the virtual lab on SEO. Think I have to rewrite my shop announcement, change my shop title and definitely redo listing titles for keywords that buyers would search for. The tags can be more technical to my item because people who search etsy are more likely to know and use such terms. The ones in the titles are for searchers on google. Oh, and I should not have changed or added categories.

Glad I'm learning these things now that I've already done it wrong! There is a forum thread about the mistakes made in the first year of having an etsy shop--I need to read it! We were promised more info on the blog about success--I received mine today after the lab. So, if you are an etsy seller, that email was the understandable part of the lab. Read it and change what you need to.

The next etsy beadweaver challenge is on insects, so I've ordered delicas in aquas, lime and orange. Did you think I was going to write purple, lavender and lilac--show me the bug and I'll use the color scheme--I don't need to buy more purple beads. There was the flying purple people eater!?! Time to sign off.

Three Pages of Items Listed in my Etsy Shop!

I am celebrating having three full pages in my etsy shop. My April Challenge bracelet filled the third page. I set three pages as a goal for the amount I would like to have in my shop, but my earring promotion goes through the end of the month, so my shop will have more pages. The panel discussion on the Handmade Marketplace gave me the idea that I need to have more of my special work in my shop. I hope to attend the next session in the virtual lab tomorrow.

So the challenge bracelet fits in that oh wow (at least to me) category. My imagination, fantasies and feelings come through in the art jewelry I make, more than just beading a bracelet. Dancing with the Sky expresses that by using colors and textures I love. Being on line you miss the drape of the fiber created of beads and the glorious feel of the bracelet against your skin and the glamorous fantasy that I as a senior citizen imagine. I would love to show you my work in person.

Today's earring promotion is an air blue opal Swarovski bicone paired with a heart themed pewter bead cap I purchased last year on etsy. The local bead society yahoo group page was filled with how to find out who made the bead cap on one of the listings; this is by that artist, but the one that everyone raved about was sold. Ask me in the comments if you want to know the seller.

Another Earring Promotion

This photo is of a petite and dainty pair of earrings I call Purples. It has alexandrite (looks blue or purple depending on the light)Swarovski crystal, a purple shade of Czech blue iris round beads, and a round Swarovski violet opal bead. It also has a petite special price during my April promotion, so click on this item under my banner to go to my etsy shop.

Today is Easter which I spent time with my family. I have a beadwoven bracelet which looks close to completion if I spend a lot of time beading tomorrow. It is light blues and green with a silvery accent--typical of my style design.

Feel free to comment on my blog. I really don't feel like writing tonight.

Another Pair of Earrings

The third pair of earrings in my special April promotion are Swarovski light topaz with a crystal ab roundel and yellow jade round beads. I like this shade the best of Swarovski yellows. I frequently use crystal ab roundels in my earrings rather than metal accents. Guess that's because I like crystals.

I really like Waterford crystal. I collected Christmas ornaments for a number of years until I realized I was decorating the tree only for myself and stopped the tradition. I need to have a fresh cut tree, nothing artificial.

It may seem like I am writing about Christmas, but it is more about traditions. Most of them in my family of origin revolve around food; since I have food allergies/sensitivities, and shouldn't eat sugar and starchy carbohydrates, I can no longer comfortably eat those traditions. Some of them I realized I never really liked--the large fruit and nut chocolate eggs that we had to share come to mind. Eggs were decorated for the fun of decorating them, not the mess and certainly not for the hard boiled eggs. Ham used to be glazed with brown sugar over the maraschino cherries and canned pineapple rings. There were ever enough cherries to suit me! Today I had a serving of fresh pineapple which tasted good for a once a year or so treat. The rest of my family of origin's traditions involve church attendance.

Anyone care to share a tradition that I might be able to adopt?

Another Pair of Earrings

I am always surprised where the picture ends up. This time I have a line to write above it. Oh well! These earrings are my selection for day 2 of my earring promotion in my etsy shop. If you want the details, you can click on the description of my recent listings under my banner.


I am using this promotion to test the number of views of my etsy shop. According to the sites that help you manage your shop, I have had no views on my promotional earrings. Also, my shop is not included in the first 20 pages of listings in the etsy search for beadweaving which is what I do. I've spent a lot of time setting up my etsy.com shop, today is my second full month of adding items which now total 59, with no sales. Life.

I joined the Etsy Beadweavers team, which gives me places to say I listed a new item, and we look at each others. When I list the earrings, I cannot post them on the beadweavers places because they are not beadwoven. So now I wonder if the views I have gotten on other items are from my fellow beadweavers (sellers), from supply sellers trying to sell me their merchandise or if they were potential customers. If you are a potential buyer and are reading this, please add a comment to let me know.

I am going to be learning more about search engines. Not exactly what I wanted to do, but seem to need to do in order to make all the time and effort I've put into setting up an etsy shop worthwhile. If you would like me to blog about SEO, please comment.

A pastel artist I know sends a fairly regular weekly email to many people; he always includes a photo with a lesson of sorts. This week there was no photo, so I wrote him asking if I missed it. He responded with the photo and a comment that only 2 people inquired about the missing photo. How sad. If you are interested in pastel paintings (he's good) or live near Chicago, I can put you in contact with him to view his website or take classes from him.

So it's not just husbands that don't listen to their wives and vice versa!

April Earrings Promotion

I listed these Swarovski tanzanite ab and dark blue indigo earrings with marcasite and sterling silver bead caps as the first of my promotion. I fell in love with the marcasite heart beads when I saw them in the bead shop in Geneva, Illinois. I always find something special when I visit and the ladies are so knowledgeable. It is a place people bring broken jewelry to be repaired, so I've seen some unusual pieces of jewelry. They give advice when asked but do not teach classes.

My blog now lists my most recent items added in my etsy shop right under the banner. If you click on it, you are in my etsy shop on that item. I need to move or better define this feature, but will wait until I have time to make more changes to the blog look. I'm amazed I was able to get it to work; etsy's designers get the credit.