Bead on a Wire Blog

I managed to snag a couple Treasuries at Etsy.com this week. Both are on the Treasury West side of things.

Cherry Blossoms! This one expires at around 1pm today.

Randomness This one expires on Friday, I think.

If the links don’t work, from the page you get click on the Back to Lists link and then look for the titles in the lists look at the links just under the orange ETSY box in the top left corner. You will see “Treasury West” in blue - click on that link to get to the main TW page. For some reason clicking on Back to Lists takes you to the main Treasury page - mine isn’t in that list. Confused? Me, too.

Jaynee, you’re featured on Randomness.

I bought some promo postcards for the BoaW Open House in December. I wanted to have something to give to the folks who come to the TFAR Open House next month. I’ll carry some with me to give out to friends I see who didn’t get the evite, too. They arrived in the mail yesterday and I think they turned out great.

For some reason the larger picture won’t open. I have no clue what’s wrong with the file. But you get the gist from the thumbnail.

Since I am a self-representing artist jewelry designer, I though it was past time to apply for membership with SRAJD. As the website says, I’ll get nothing tangible with membership, but I will become part of a network of other jewelry designers who sell their own work. From a quick glance at some of the articles posted, I think at the very least it will be a resource for me as I continue to learn and grow in my craft.

I joined two Etsy Street Teams this weekend - estyBead and CAST.

etsyBEAD is a group of bead enthusiasts. CAST is the Christian Artist Street Team. I’m looking forward to getting more involved with both teams.

I’ll be hosting an Open House on December 1 from 10am-2pm. If you’re in northern Virginia and would like to come, email me and I’ll send you a copy of the e-vite.

So far I’ve had a good response to the e-vite I sent out last night. And one sale already, too! That’s nice confirmation, no?

In addition, I’ll be participating in the Tea For All Reasons Open House in mid-November. Those ladies like to shop! So I’m hoping that pays off for me, as well.

I guess this means I need to start making more jewelry and things!

I joined IndiePublic yesterday. I’m hoping it’ll be a good way to promote my pieces and also to get to know other crafters. There are some amazingly talented people out there.

I’m listed at IP as Jen Speaks, of course.

I’ve listed a couple bracelets and pairs of earrings that would make great sets. They’re being sold separately, but if you’re interested in both pieces, let me know and I’ll give a discount on the set.

I have another pair of Agate and Aventurine earrings that I need to photograph and list, too. they look basically the same, but I added another agate bead below the aventurine rice bead.

I absolutely love the Peace Bracelet below. It’s oh, so tempting to keep it for myself!

My mother is doing a show today and has about half of my inventory to try to sell on my behalf. Whatever she doesn’t sell will get relisted. And I have a ton of new things still to photograph and list. And I’m still needing to redo a lot of my original photography for the first pieces I listed. I plan to work on that a bit today or tomorrow.

In the meantime, I listed a few new pairs of earrings yesterday.

I thought I’d share the pictures I took of my show display. Critique is welcome since I’m new at this.

The first photo is of the teaspoon case that I repurposed for my cell charms and zipper pulls. Next time I’m going to put a sign on the glass door to indicate what they are so that people know from a distance.

The others are self-explanatory. I should have mixed up the colors of the bracelets in the boxes. I realized towards the end of the day that I had similar colors next to each other. I also need to work on my earring display - most of my earrings hang below the hang tags, so I need to tweak the tags a bit maybe. Also the green rack that I used for my bookmarks didn’t show them well enough. I forgot to bring a book to use as a prop, too. And I still need to make more necklaces.

Overall, I was pleased with how things looked.

In the last photo you can see the Pack-N-Play that we had set up for my son. And also one of the racks that my mother used for her teas. Next time I’ll leave my son at home, I think. He was a gem, but his stuff took up a lot of space that we could have used better for our booth.

I consider the Something Simple Craft Market to be a success for me. Jaynee has recounted it for us at her blog (click that link).

All total I sold three tea infusers (being with Mom helped with that, I have little doubt, one bookthong, one key ring, and 4 pairs of earrings. One pair of earrings I wasn’t sure I even liked and I was considering taking them apart to reuse the beads for something else. I’m glad that my opinion was negated with the sale and I hope the buyer likes her earrings.

I got a lot of business cards out and gave away coupons with each sale in the hopes of attracting more sales at my Etsy shop. The most valuable take aways:

1. Feedback on my stuff - most was very positive.

2. I need better signage for certain things I display. I also need to label some of my items with specifics on the materials used (sterling silver vs silver plate, for instance).

3. I don’t need a lot of space to display all of my items.

4. While my son was a prince during the day and charming to all who stopped by, he took up a lot of space that made it tougher for sharing the booth with Mom. I think she lost out because of that.

My mother has another show this weekend in her neighborhood - she’s going to take my tea-related items to sell on my behalf. And then she has an open house in November that I’m going to participate in as well. That’ll be it for shows in 2007 for me. I do want to do several next year, though, time permitting.