A fellow blogger's giveaway!

I'm been following a blog by Chocolate and Steel - Christine Street. She's doing a giveaway contest - take a look and enter if you like! She makes beautiful jewelry using materials and techiques that I haven't ventured into yet - but I hope to eventually! I also hope to do a giveaway in the upcoming months.
http://chocolateandsteel.blogspot.com/2009/03/giveaway_31.html

I just love her ring, called Pebbles.. ..Summer http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20646040 Such pretty colors! Ring making is on my list of things to learn this year.

I'm looking forward to Thursday this week as I'll be taking a class on riveting metals together. I think it will add a whole new diemnsion to what I can achieve in my designs. I have a boat load of ideas of things to make using rivets!

Make Someone Happy

Quote of the day: "It makes me happy to put a smile on someone else's face!" - Elise

We hear a lot of requests these days urging people to get out and volunteer in their community. The need is so great. Today's quote was said by a 16 year old volunteer at a Seattle food bank, where I volunteer my time regularly. Her goal today, besides being helpful by packing and distributing food, was to say a perky "hello" to everyone she came in contact with and try to get them to at least smile back. In return, she received joy. And oh, she was overflowing with joy! She was genuinely surprised at how much she enjoyed being there.

There are times in our lives when we can give help, and times when we need to receive help. If you can give, do so. You'll be rewarded with unexpected joy.

The warmth of copper

I am loving copper today (but only after it's oxidized). So warm and earthy. I spent today working with some copper wire. The pendant features a Tiger eye bead that has some beautiful deep streaks of color. I am really happy with the way it turmed out (yes, as is my usual with my creations, the third time's the charm). I waste a lot of materials and time getting things just right, but I think it's worth it. I call it "Copper Tigress". Clever name hey?

I also made 2 infinity link bracelets out of 18g copper wire. I'm very happy with these also. I love the way copper looks hammered and oxidized.

I've been looking at my fused fine silver "Circle of Love" necklace that I posted a few days ago and something just didn't look right to me. I decided that the jump rings that I had use to attach it to the chain were too large for the piece. Smaller rings wouldn't work because the circle is too wide. I debated whether to put holes in it and attach the rings to the chain that way, but eventually decided that was too risky. I wasn't sure if the circle was wide enough to not have the punch get too close to the edge and pierce the all the way to the edge and ruin the entire circle. So, I used very tiny jump rings to wrap the chain around the circle and attach to the chain itself. I think it works better now. Decisions, decisions.

I'm still working like crazy preparing to bring lots of items to MN in April! Only problem is that I am sorely neglecting the house, kitchen detail and the hubby. He's very understanding, but....

Team EtsyRain gathering today

One of the advantages of etsy is that sellers in various parts of the country can gather together to form teams and network with each other. Here in western WA, there is a TeamEtsyRain - it's a great group of sellers and the team organizers are very, very good at creating networking activities and getting the word out about various shows, news, opportunities, etc...

Today we had an informal lunch and 9 sellers gathered to meet each other, network, share stories, ideas and suggestions. We all each brought a sample or two of our work; it was very cool to see what other people make. Beautiful items! I think I may have to go etsy shopping, soon!

Here's a list of the websites of those in attendance, so you can see what they make and sell. Visit their shops, and buy handmade - their quality and creativity is unbelievable!

Dana Durham - wonderful knitted and felted wool handbags and painted wine glasses
Suzanne Tidwell - creative handmade towels and clothing
Dina Templeman - fragrant handmade soaps - cloth diapers - and at Country Cuttins
Char - fabulous handmade stitchery
Kristin - happy hair accessories
Kasey - fun children's playthings and new things made from old T's and at NuetoME
Jill MacCorkle - beautiful beaded jewelry
Beth Newfeld - incredible felted bags, scarves, gloves
Marlo Miyashiro - clever fabric totes and jewelry
and me, Sandy - a shameless plug for my own jewelry shop!

Get on the right track and TAKE ACTION!

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."-- Will Rogers

This is a quote that I've come across 4 times this week; yes, 4! This is not a coincidence. The quote must be out there in the world, just waiting for me to sit up and take notice of it I've noticed!

So far, I've left my etsy site to basically market itself, with the exception of a few days of showcase slot purchases. I really need to figure out how to get more people to notice my site and to know that I'm out there in e-world. How? I'm not sure. Tomorrow I'm going to an etsyrain team lunch to meet and network with other etsy sellers in my area. My hope is to get a discussion going about how we market ourselves. Do we tell people about our site face to face? List and re-list daily? Pass out brochures and business cards to everyone we know? Ask for word of mouth advertising? Send out yet another mass email? There are so many excuses not to do any of these; I'm shy, I don't want to burden anyone, I can't afford it, I'm not tech savvy enough...yada yada... None of them really hold up, do they? Truth is, I need to do this myself. Figure it out and just do it.

It isn't as though I haven't been trying. I've listed new items, re-listed some, posted better photos. I plan to show many friends and family my new items when I visit MN in April. I'm going to networking events. I blog. I'm told I should facebook, but I haven't investigated that yet. I need to think of other things, but what I really want is magic!

In the past week, I've listed 13 new items on my etsy site and had about 50-60 visitors per day. Today, I haven't listed anything new and only had 18 visitors. Nothing new = no hits. I think I need to learn more about tagging and how to bring more new visitors to my site. I need to network more. Somehow, I need to make people aware of my work. I need, I need, I need. I sound like a broken record. Research, research.... off to research. Then - off to take action.

What do you find works the best for your shop in regards to boosting awareness of your site? Any suggestions?

A Lemonade Award!

I have been nominated by Kathleen Krucoff (Reflections of a Glass Artist), for A Lemonade Award!

I am honored to be nominated and thank Kathleen for including me in her list of inspiring artists/bloggers. Kathleen is a fabulous glass artist with a keen eye for color and design and even more importantly, to me, she has been a source of kind guidance, encouragement and inspiration in my venture into this artistic world. Be sure to view her work at http://www.kathleenkrucoff.com/.
What is a Lemonade Award? It is awarded to bloggers that show a positive attitude and gratitude. Now it's my turn to share....

Here are the rules for the award:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs that show great Gratitude and/or Attitude.
3. Be sure to list and link your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they have received this award by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Nominate your favorites and link to your post.

My Choices for the Award:
Pam, The Blue Between http://bluebetween.blogspot.com/
Kristi, Dream Some Designs http://dreamsomedesigns.blogspot.com/
Kristin, Happy Flying Buttons http://happyflyingbuttons.blogspot.com/
Jewelry by Desireee http://jewelrybydesiree.blogspot.com/
Cathy Holden http://justsomethingimade.blogspot.com/
Kathleen, Reflections of a Glass Artist http://kathleenkrucoff.blogspot.com/
Havi Brooks http://www.fluentself.com/blog
Twisted Sister Arts http://twistedsisterarts.blogspot.com/
Wedunitjewels http://wedunitjewels.blogspot.com/

All of these bloggers have been an inspiration to me by their words, their art, their attitude and kind encouragement. My thanks to all of you!

When life hands you lemons, always make lemonade!

A marathon jewlery making weekend

I spent the entire weekend making jewelry. Neglected the house and the hubby. I'm going to MN in a few weeks and several people have told me they are eager to see my things, so I want to bring as much variety as I can produce and I want to bring things they haven't seen before. I'm excited to show off my work to friends and family!

I got a nice shipment of wire last week, so I have many types and wire gauges in stock to do whatever I want to do! Options are a very thing! I put aside my sheet metal for the weekend and got back to wire work; a nice comfortable place to be for me. I made several items and got a good start on a few more. I did some fine silver fusing (fire! - my favorite) and need to finish some clasps for them and oxidize a few other items. I listed some this weekend and will continue to list other items throughout the week.

I had a strand of lapis beads and made a necklace out of them, but I'm just not happy with it. The edges of the spacer beads are blunt and scratch my neck when I tried it on, so I'll have to come with another plan. I hate taking things apart and re-doing them, but it always comes out better the second (or third) time around anyway.

I've also been working hard to make my photos better. I usually just use Office picture manager to edit my photos, but this weekend I downloaded Picassa photo editor, which I've used in the past for real estate photos. Can't quite get the hang of it yet and I need to review some of the software's basics before I can use the shots I've edited there. It does have some flexibility that office doesn't have, but it's missing the ability to have complete control over the size of the picture, which I don't want to give up. Maybe I'm just missing that part of the software.

The cats will sleep well tonight - I've put away my hammer and steel pounding block for the evening!

I hope you had a good weekend!