Lydia's Filly - new website supports a great cause!

One of my facebook/blog/etsy friends, Michelle of Lydia's Filly has just designed her own website. She makes and beautiful jewelry, but another wonderful part of her business is that she donates a portion of her profits to a great cause. She is supporting Operation Mend, an organization that helps wounded military get the reconstructive surgery they need. She sells her jewelry through her etsy shop.

She also has an Artist Spotlight on her website and has put my etsy shop in that category right now. Like Michelle, I donate the profits from some of my jewelry (the Awareness Collection line) to a worthy cause, breast cancer research, to the American Cancer Society's "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" walk. The earrings pictured to the left are part of my Awareness Collection line.

I think it's wonderful when artists use their talents to help support their favorite cause. There is so much need out there and I truly believe we all need to do our part in helping whenever we can.

Thank you, Michelle for including my shop on your site and for your thoughtfullness and caring for others. Be sure to visit and support Michelle's etsy shop and her website, Lydia's Filly today!

"Artistic" Photos?

I've been reading a fun blog lately by FlyingButtons http://happyflyingbuttons.blogspot.com/ Here she talks a few times about the importance of lighting and staging listing photos in order to convey the feeling that you want your listing to portray.

I'm still having a hard time just wrapping my head around the whole "artist" title, since I've never really made anything "artistic" until my recent (1.5 years) period of jewelry making. I have yet to call myself an "artist". But, I do spend an awful lot of time dreaming up ideas for my jewelry and even more time creating it. Admittedly, I am consumed and passionate about my "artistic" hobby. And it is not a cheap venture, so I need to sell my "art" in order to afford to make more. That's the practical, business major, former Realtor side of me. But then again, I do get warm fuzzies knowing that there are people out there wearing my jewelry and enjoying the way it makes them feel. Oh, I'm so conflicted!

Anyway, back to the photos... artistic photos... I went on a mission today to find props for my photos. I was going to take pictures of a bird nest pendant to be highlighted in my breast cancer awareness fundraiser collection. I wanted something pink for breast cancer identity, something earthy to coordinate with the bird nest, something soft looking for love and caring feelings. I found items in a scrapbooking dept at a craft store. Green leaves, pink rose petals, shimmery pink petals, pink paper, sheer hearts. All that for a tiny little photo! The props get so muted that they don't really show as anything defined, but I think they do add a certain fresh "feeling" to the photo. This took my afternoon, mind you. Time is valuable, too, isn't it? http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22518459

I have to wonder how much effect a "great" photo vs. a "good" photo has on a person's buying decision. The other night, I listed a pair of earrings with what I thought were quite good photos. Once they were in etsy however, they looked darker than they had on my computer while I was editing them. So, a few hours after I listed it, I lightened all of my pictures and re-entered them. In the middle of that process I got a convo from a buyer, saying she was trying to purchase the earrings but she got an error message saying that the listing was no longer available (it was because I was editing the listing). She assumed they had already sold and she wanted me to make another pair. But - she was buying them while looking at the too dark, original photos! Flyingbuttons' blog posts regarding photos are geared towards getting into a treasury, but ultimately, that boils down to being seen by buyers and being enticing enough to keep looking at the item in the photo and hopefully moving deeper to look at your entire shop; then to actually purchase an item!

So my question is, with 40,000+ jewelry listings on etsy.com, does a great photo make enough of a difference versus a just a good photo?