A Simple Thing

Quite some time ago I purchased some soaps from a shop on Etsy and when my package arrived it had a little thank you note attached with my name on it. It said, very simply, "Thank You Darcey Lyn". I couldn't believe how good that little tag made me feel - it personalized that little package in a way that nothing else could have. So I set out on a journey to find an item that I could use in a similar way in my packaging.

I stumbled upon a seller called"WhatTheScrap" (http://whatthescrap.etsy.com/), who had 100 little round paper circles for sale. The seller - a lovely lady named Liz - cuts these little paper circles and punches a hole in them. They're great for any scrapbooking or carding project and they looked like they would also be perfect for my needs. I asked her if I could purchase a lot of 400 of them because I sell a lot of nose jewelry and my packaging goes rather quickly. She did a custom listing for me and I received them soon after.



When I package an item to go out, I put it in a little white box and I take one of the labels and write a thank you with my customer's name. I string a bit of ribbon through the little hole and wrap it around the box and tape it at the back, so the thank you tag sits at the front of the box. My customers are absolutely thrilled with the care and attention I give to their purchases and the feedback is incredible since implementing this simple little thing. I was never sure what kind of impact - or lack of it - packaging had on most people until now.

I love my little labels - I adore this seller and her products - and I love the fact that my customers feel special when they open their envelopes from my shops. I know that they know I take the time to care and that makes the price I pay for the extra touches absolutely priceless.

Gratitute

I've been meaning to write in here for a few days now, and I actually intended to write my next post all about the new 14 karat gold wire I bought, and the lovely flower nose stud I made with it. Today, however, I was compelled to write about gratitude.


The last few days in my Etsy shop have been very busy. I've had a big increase in sales lately, and each time I sell something, I feel a sense of elation. I love the fact that people find the things I create worthy of purchasing, owning, and wearing. I am eternally grateful to each customer who chooses to shop in my store and equally grateful to the universe for providing me with this gift of creativity.


So today is about gratitude for me. I am grateful to be in this life and to be a part of this wonderful world!

Outdoor Photography - OH MY!

Wow! What can I say? I was reading something today when looking around at 'specs' for my camera when I noticed (yet again) someone talking about taking their shots outside rather than using a light box. As I've mentioned before, I have had zero luck with a light box and hadn't yet trekked my butt outdoors to try my luck photographing my jewellery out there.

It's sunny today here in my area of the world. A gorgeous, cool, sunny day and maybe that was just the motivation I needed. The window is open in my studio, the fresh air is coming in, and suddenly, packing up my latest creation, my camera and some props didn't seem like such a bad idea.

The result was breathtaking for me! I would NEVER have gotten this shot inside. I'm reformed ;)

Nose Jewellery

Wow! The nose jewellery seems to be a hit - and it all came about because I wanted to design something I liked for myself, being tired of the little glittery type, and I thought, "hey, why not see if anyone else does too?" Seems they do because it has quickly become my best selling item :)

I have a few basic designs that are really well loved and many more in my head waiting for the right time to be built and launched. Thanks to all of you who are lovin them too!

Evolve

Evolve - it's what we all must do on a regular basis - evolve as a musician, an artist, a friend, a human. I chose to celebrate the evolution of self by making this hand cut copper guitar pick.

And yes (she sheepishly says), my guitar is dusty. I've been busy making jewellery ;)

Finally Broke Into the New ROCKS!

And this was the result. There are days when I am simply overwhelmed with gratitude that the universe has seen fit for me to do something with my time here that creates joy for myself and others. Now I know that may seem a bit lofty, after all, how important is jewellery in the grand scheme of things? I think it's very important - it has a rich and ancient history, as old as evolved humans itself, so it must be important. The need to adorn oneself is almost primal - perhaps it is our need to express our own unique view point that drives the need - who knows? Whatever it is, it is powerful and fulfilling somehow. And I'm grateful for my part in it.

Today I am also grateful for my new friend at http://garageglamorous.blogspot.com/. Lindsey blew me away with her wonderful review of my work! I am new to this - blogging, selling online, all of it, so for me - I spent yesterday walking on cloud nine because of her gracious review. Thank you, Lindsey:)

Jewellery Party

I'm SO looking forward to today! I have a jewellery party booked at a friend's house and I have some great ideas for making it fun (and hopefully profitable). I plan to do a necklace giveaway - each purchase will entitle the person to an entry for the draw, and to offer a $20 gift certificate for a party booked and held before Christmas. I'm hoping this will get me at least one more party before the holidays so I can load up on an order of new materials to spend the winter months - the slower season - creating. Of course I have a ton of ideas for new pieces!

Sometimes the tough part is deciding what to make first because the ideas float in my head all the time and there are so many of them. I try to get everything 'jotted' down on paper but a lot of ideas come in the night when I'm half awake and even though I keep a pad by the bed, I miss quite a few because I really don't want to turn on the light. Lately I've been having some fun with copper sheet. I made a beautiful cuff style bracelet that I wrapped Chinese turquoise onto and I had to keep it for myself - it's gorgeous and simple - the greens and blacks in the stone are a perfect contrast to the shiny copper. It's natural copper too, so it will get the lovely patina over time. I plan to do some similar work with sterling sheet over the winter so watch here and Etsy for new designs.

Live and Learn

Well, I did my first craft show, and overall it turned out pretty well. I learned a LOT in the process though, and thought I'd share some of my observations here.

I set up everything on my bar counter before I went because I only had half a table, which isn't a lot of space. It looked really good on the counter but I hadn't counted on two things:

1. my bar counter is wider than the table was
2. my bar counter is MUCH higher than the table was

The display that looked good on my counter didn't work as well on the table. I also used black to display most of my things and the lovely stones get completely lost on the black backdrops. On day one I wasn't selling at all and on day two I decided I needed to do something to show off the jewellery. The table looked lovely but the jewellery just didn't stand out at all.

Finally I decided to do something quick and simple. I took my earring cards (lots of white space) and put the earrings on them and sat them in some silver gift boxes and just set them out on the table. On the board that I had earrings hung on, I put the white earring cards behind them. Simple, not terribly pretty really, but it was effective enough to make me start selling.

So I have learned that in the future I will:
* Use white for displays to better highlight my pieces
* Get stuff UP from the table to eye level

Just a couple of tips - there will be more to come :)

Fun With Form

You know, every now and then it's important to just have some fun, and that's what I chose to do this evening. Rather than second guess what someone might like, or want, or buy, you gotta just pull out the rocks and the wire and play a little - that's what tonight was about for me. I played and created, and posted a few new things to the shop. I love the new mannequins too!

Thrifty Finds

I’m doing my first show next week and needed some racks for earrings. I haven’t seen any commercial ones that I can’t live without so I thought I’d get creative. I went out to our local thrift shops and within 2 stores I came up with two pieces.
Both of them started off an ugly brassy gold colour (I should have taken before and after pics!). This is the first one I picked up for $2.50. Many of my earrings are on earring cards in small Ziploc bags to keep them clean and to resist tarnish. I could easily see the little bags hanging on this rack – it’s perfect for them and it spins, so I bought it right away.

This second one was the same awful colour but I could see the potential in it. I thought if I painted it black I could hang earrings freely from the loops in the center and on the outside edge; potentially being able to display a lot of earrings on it. I didn’t have a sense of how to keep it upright at that point, but for $2.00 I decided the ‘how to’ could come later.

I brought them both home and my husband and I sat at our bar counter in the kitchen with them in front of us and talked about how to hold the wreath upright. We finally came up with a stand idea that we thought would work okay and then he went to pick them up and take them out to the shop, and when he did, he hung the wreath on the side of the other rack to make it easy to carry and we both looked at it and at each other and….eureka! There it was – the perfect rack. It still spins and it takes up half the space that the two of them would separately. He took them out and painted them black and here is the finished rack.

These are just two simple finds for a total of $4.50, which shows that displays don’t have to cost a bundle to be effective. The last pictures are from one of my favourite stories. I told my husband I was looking for something that looked like a treasure chest but the closest thing I had seen was a box and it was $17.95. He remembered a gift that we were given that was really quite tacky but it came in a little trunk that he thought might be what I was looking for. I didn’t remember it at all but he thought it might still be at his dad’s – leftovers from our last year’s joint garage sale. Sure enough it was there. We painted it black and it’s the perfect chest for some bargains to go into.





Now I’m excited to get set up! I’ll be taking pictures of the final display next week and posting it here so stay tuned :)

Going into creative mode!

Oh boy, does this weekend ever need to see some production time! I've been so busy getting the promotional aspects of things set up that I haven't had time (sigh) to create very much. I suppose that will always be the fine balancing act of this type of business venture. I'm the whole show - the person who creates the pieces, the one who promotes them, and the one who keeps the business records (okay, who am I kidding? LOL - you should SEE my horrible mess of paperwork waiting to be entered into a spreadsheet!).


The beautiful thing is that I can choose to leave the paperwork for another time, and I can go for a walk and get inspiration for my next piece. It's fall in my part of the world and the trees are all this lovely golden colour, interspersed with the odd tree turning red, and there are big leaves scattered on the road and the walkways - it's truly lovely. What a gift to be alive and well!

I think I might be ready

Well, I got this set up (finally) and I think I'm finally ready to begin. Blogging is new to me and I find it fascinating that people might want to read what I have to say. I'm going to use this blog to share a little more of who I am, and what I do.

When I was a kid I was always creating something - macrame, little bracelets, braiding, key chains, pom poms for my shoelaces, you name it - I did it. And then somehow, the years went by and I lost that spark. But thankfully, only for a while. I turned forty this year and the magic is back. I've taught myself how to make amazing jewellery (at least I'm amazed;) from sterling silver, copper and gemstones. I've set up a small shop on Etsy to showcase my work, and hopefully make a few sales. I take pride in what I do and love the creative process! I've been asked over the years, "what would you do for a living if you never got paid for it". I didn't have an answer until now - make jewellery!

I get lost in it and I love it.