Flickr photostream for new item photos

[arianhwyvar]

I've been totally failing to post summaries of new batches of jewelry I've made here, to LJ. But I like showing the new stuff, for whoever's interested. Therefore, I've taken the photos of new stuff I've made since my last LJ update post (which is quite a lot of stuff) and made a Silver Owl Creations Flickr photostream. This also means that there's a quicker way for me to get some 'show the new stuff' photos up before I do all the cropping and uploading for the website, or list the items on Etsy, both of which can take a while.

A couple of especially new things in the past, er, almost a year:

Bracelets! I've been making considerably more of the wire bracelets with a braided base:



I have a dozen more new ones that I still need to photo edit, so there will be more examples soon.

Electroplated leaf brooches:



Resin key pendants:

Earthen Oxide makes these wonderful resin covered antique keys, some that are miniature collages. I bought several and have been wrapping them:



More to come!

Comments

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

Pretty! :)

I have been a bad doobie about getting you the headform for that crown we talked about. Do you have a good evening when we can drop it off?

[tpau]

are you selling hte bracelets? how much?

[arianhwyvar.livejournal.com]

I am! A few of them are already available in my Etsy shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/silverowlcreations), including the black and the copper ones shown here. The bronze/blue crystal bracelet shown here already sold, but there's a similar one in autumn colors on Etsy, and I have more crystal and filigree bead bracelets to put up for sale soon. They range from $44 to $48 right now.

[tpau]

hmm... i really want the copper one, but i don't have funds until the 30th. any chance i could ask to have it held?

[arianhwyvar.livejournal.com]

It's probably unlikely to sell by then, but if it does, I could make you a similar one in the size you need. Would that be all right? I have plenty more of the materials.

[tpau]

sure. the copper p[lus oak leaves plus green is sorta the important part (for werewolf char :P)


i have no idea how to know what size i need btw

[arianhwyvar.livejournal.com]

Oh -- just measure around where you want to wear the bracelet. You can use a flexible tape measure, or a non-stretchy string and then stretch it out on a ruler. Don't pull it super-tight around your wrist -- you're trying to figure out what you want the circumference to be, ideally. Let me know the circumference in inches. There's a little bit of adjustment I can do by increasing the length of the S-clasp, but for anything more than that, making a different piece to be the size you need is better.

If you want to wear it further up your arm or further down your hand, just take your measurement there.

[tpau]

okie will do, will measure and send you tomorrow :) want this for my char :P

[tpau]

okie, flexy tape measure says 7.5 that is loose on wrist, but not as wide as needed to go around hand (bracelet has opening yes?)

i really want the copp3er and green and leaves one. where do i pay? :)

[arianhwyvar.livejournal.com]

Yep, the bracelet has an opening and a hook clasp to hold it closed; it doesn't have to fit over your hand (and in fact, shouldn't fit over your hand when closed or it risks falling off). The copper leaves bracelet is approximately 7 1/2" around, which hopefully isn't too big for your wrist.

It is available on Etsy here:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/81864906/copper-leaves-bracelet-braided-antique

You need to have an Etsy account to buy things, but the account is free and doesn't take long to set up. Then you can just buy it online and pay with paypal (or send me a check if you prefer).

[tpau]

purchased :)

that reminds me though that i wanted to ask you about etsy as a selling point. i am thinking of selling some stuff i make, does it actually work, beyond selling to people you already know? how do you advertise it?

[arianhwyvar.livejournal.com]

Great! I should be able to mail it out to you tomorrow -- I'll send you a delivery confirmation #.

My experience is that Etsy definitely works, without exorbitant fees, but that it can take a long time to ramp up. You do need to do your own promoting, and there's a lot of discussion on the etsy forums about how best to do that. One thing that happens is that as you have items on there for a while, people mark your shop or your items as favorites, and other people may check you out because of that. Or someone may include your item in a treasury (a user-curated collection of items usually on a theme), and more people will find you because of that.

There are also a large number of Teams on etsy on various themes, and getting involved with them is another avenue for promoting your work.

I say, if you're interested in trying Etsy, give it a year of listing items fairly regularly. I didn't have my first sale for several months, and I think that's not uncommon. Then after that it was very slow still for a long time, but in the second year it started picking up more, partly I think because SJ Tucker bought some things and recommended my shop to friends of hers out west.

The best thing about it, I think, is that I can make sales to people who I never would have in a million years otherwise: people from other countries, mostly. First class international shipping is not very expensive, though it can take a while for things to arrive.

So in general, if you have items you're interested in selling on Etsy, I'd say get a handful of items listed as soon as possible, and give people time to find them and link to them. (And tell people about them elsewhere on the Internet.) Having good clear photographs is important. Having a place online where people can find your work is also useful; the Etsy layout isn't bad, and more people may find your through Etsy's search options than might find your own website if you had one.