Bead Show Take II

I went to another bead show last Thursday, planning to spend perhaps thirty dollars.

…like that happened.

I did manage to hold myself to about $100, though, and wow, did I wind up with a lot of awesome beads…

Yes, that tri-coloured strand on top is amber. Reconstituted amber, but amber. GORGEOUS. You can also see some jade along the right side, some amethyst to the lower right, and really awesome carved beads.

Another view of the jade and carved beads here, plus some lapis and the lampwork beads I used in the boob challenge piece. Two shades of amethyst too.

Right on top there you can see medium-brown rectangular beads — those are actually made of clay. They’re awesome with a side of awesome and I have no idea whatsoever what I’m going to do with them yet. You can also see some sort of grey-pink ovals towards the bottom — I thought of using those for the boob challenge but liked the lampwork better. I’ll come up with something.

Look forward to a lot more jewelry in the near future! And in the meantime, I am Not Allowed To Go To Any More Bead Shows.

Boob challenge!

I posted a bit previously about the Breast Cancer Awareness Challenge being run by a couple of folks — the idea is to create something boob-related, or at least something pink, and all proceeds from all of these pink things go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer Research.

I knew I wanted to make something for this. I wish I could knit and make a knitted boob like several people have done, but alas, yarn and I don’t get along that way. So I figured I’d pick up some pink beads and make a necklace. Not particularly exciting, I know, but it would work.

And then I got thinking. I’ve been contemplating a design with the clasp in the front anyway…

…so why not just make the entire necklace a pink ribbon?

I picked up the beads — rose quartz and lampwork glass with pink flowers — at the bead show last week, about which more later. Getting the strand to cross itself properly in front took a lot of fighting and I had to redo the clasp several times. I’m pleased with the beads, though, and I’m pleased with how the whole thing turned out.

Because of the challenge, I’ve only posted this necklace to my Etsy shop. I normally don’t do this — I post everything everywhere — but in a good cause…

Purchase this necklace, and you get a lovely symbol of breast cancer awareness (and the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer Research gets thirty bucks). And if this piece doesn’t appeal to you, check out this Etsy forum thread for a listing of all the other entries in this challenge — just check the last couple pages for the latest listing of those who’ve created a piece for this worthy cause.

Leanna’s Favourite Massage Oil

Announcing the newest in my Leanna’s Favourite line of herbal products! (There are three of them now; I can call that a line, right?)

I note as I write here that I never actually posted about Leanna’s Favourite Body Spray either — so I suppose I ought to talk about both!

Leanna’s Favourite, of whatever type, is a relaxing blend of lavender and chamomile. Whether as body spray, milk bath or massage oil, it smells great and helps you relax.

The body spray is built on a base of soothing aloe vera juice and witch hazel, an astringent, so it’s good for your skin as well as your mood. Slip a bottle in your purse for when you need a quick calm-down.

If you’ve got more time on your hands and need a real dose of relaxation, a bath with Leanna’s Favourite Milk Bath is what you’re looking for. Powdered milk along with chamomile and lavender flowers make for a luxurious, comforting bath.

And now Leanna’s Favourite Massage Oil — lavender and chamomile in a base of grapeseed oil, moisturizing but light enough that you won’t be greasy afterwards — combine it with a gentle massage and I assure you you’ll sleep well and wake up feeling wonderful. If you give massages, stock up! It’ll be popular.

Get all three — on special! — for only $18! Just leave a comment when you purchase and I’ll refund the extra.

Promoting Tips & Tricks Part I: Shops

So I decided to do a post on how to promote whatever you’re selling online. It quickly became apparent that it’s not going to fit into one post — or even a few. So I’ll split it up, and here’s part one.

The question of whether to open multiple shops is a complex one. On the one hand, multiple shops mean more exposure, more potential customers. On the other hand, each shop is another thing to maintain, and each one spreads out your effort a bit more. For some it may make more sense to concentrate on one.

I’ve got three shops now. My main one is my Etsy shop; it was my first, it’s where I’ve gotten most of my sales, and it’s where most of my energy goes. It’s large but generally friendly; you have a lot of potential customers but you also have to worry about getting lost in the crowd.

Etsy charges $0.20 per listing and 3.5% of any sales. For this you get a shop with personalized URL, space for five photos, and a description box that does not allow HTML or formatting of any kind. A listing lasts for four months though I usually renew my listings before then to bring them back up to the top of the category.

I’ve had quite a few sales from Etsy. There are a lot of tools for promotion available and a lot of people know about it. I find it’s quite a good place to start.

My secondary focus is my shop with the Creative Cafe Salesrooms. This is a much smaller, more cozy community; you’ll have a much smaller potential customer base, but it’s easy to stand out. I’ve made a number of friends through the Salesrooms (and their associated Ning group) and also made quite a few sales.

The Salesrooms also focus quite closely on helping people with disabilities — many of the people who sell there are disabled, and Jill (who runs the place) does a very good job of bringing the issues the disabled deal with to the forefront.

Creative Cafe charges nothing, allows you quite a few photos — something like ten; I’ve never used them all — and allows HTML and other formatting in the description. It also lets you keep your listings up for basically unlimited amounts of time and will automatically renew listings for you as well. Their listing tools are the easiest I’ve found to work with so far.

My newest shop is at DaWanda. DaWanda is European and is actually a conglomeration of three sites — one in English, one in German, and one in French. You can post to one or all, though it’s highly recommended that you have at least some understanding of the main language for each site (I’ll be posting my items in the German one eventually, though not the French one).

Currently they charge nothing though there is word that this will change in the near future. They allow four photos and space for a description — I’ll confess I haven’t experimented with it to see if HTML works. The community on the English side is small but friendly. I haven’t made any sales yet but I’ve only been there for a very short time — in a few months I should have a much better idea of how the site will work for me.

I have heard that listing my items in German as well as English should help quite a bit.

There are other places to sell as well. There’s always eBay. All of the sites I’ve listed so far focus on handmade things and that gives me a fairly level playing field — on eBay I know I’ll be competing with people selling necklaces made in bulk by people being paid almost nothing. The competition is uneven and so I’ve never tried selling there.

That said, I know people making things similar to mine who have had quite a bit of success selling on eBay. It certainly can work for some.

Their charges vary by a number of factors and their help isn’t particularly useful for telling me how it works. I know that they allow quite a bit of HTML in their descriptors and photos are basically unlimited as long as you can host them elsewhere. Your customer base is about as big as it can get but I really can’t call it a friendly place to hang out. And I know there’s been a lot of controversy lately with how they’re treating their sellers.

There’s also WinkElf. I played with this a little but I’ll admit I gave up after entering a couple of items. They’re free to start but give you a lot of options that add up quickly — like more than one photo. On the other hand, you can put as many photos as you like in your description as long as they’re hosted elsewhere. I found their method of posting new items somewhat arcane but I’ll admit I’ve got a lot going these days and not a lot of attention to spare.

I can’t speak for their community or how well things might sell, as I haven’t really tried it. I might when I’ve a bit more time, though.

There are other places — I’m sure you know of some. I’d welcome comments with places I haven’t listed, or further information on the places I have. And discussion of the ‘one shop vs. several’ question would be awesome too.

Next up, directories, and getting your shop into them.