Happy Holidays!

I'm so bad with getting things done this time of year. I haven't even sent out Xmas cards the last 2 years because I'm a terrible procrastinator. One year, I got them all ready but they sat on my desk waiting for me to get stamps (because I just had to have holiday stamps) and I ended up mailing them, oh, sometime after the New Year.

Anyway, blogging ends up being a bit low on my list, so I just wanted to wish everyone a very happy holiday season and Cheers for the New Year!!! Dee

Handmade Christmas

Are you having a handmade Christmas? I am! What is that exactly and why is it important.

There is a growing movement of handmade artisans on the web that sell their wares via places like Artfire, Etsy, 1000 Markets and more. I've pretty much worn

out buying my family the same robes, jammies and other things that I can get from a large retailer, so I've turned to buying unique gifts, many of which are one of a kind (ooak) or can be customized.

Since I'm a crafter myself, I know what goes into a lot of these things and I can really appreciate the workmanship. Handmade doesn't mean cheap, but I'd rather pay $4.00 for handmade goat's

milk soap from my favorite shop then your standard commercial soaps. One of the shops that I frequent even raises the goat's, which I think is just great!

So when you're making out your list this year, include a few handmade items. You'll be supporting a small business as well as giving your family and friends a truely unique gift. And I'm sure you'll find something for yourself as well!

Labor Day Sale

I'm having a Labor Day sale in my Etsy shop! Now thru 9/8/09, Buy One, get additional purchases for 25% off. Etsy doesn't have a handy sale option, so you have to either purchase the items and I can refund the difference via Paypal, or I can do a special listing.

I've added some new items to prep for the sale.

Caribbe Island Bracelet - pretty shells mixed with bright beads

Swingin' Green & Black - Peridot and Black super long necklace

Groovy Vintage Book "I Want to be a Nurse" from 1957

Stop by my shop and check it out. Have a Happy Labor Day all!!!

Ooops!

I've really been meaning to update my blog at least once a week. Well, it's been nearly a month - oops! I don't like to just blog mundane things, that's what Twitter's for (isn't it?), so my blog suffers. Maybe with the kids back in school starting tomorrow, I'll have more time. Yeah, right!

Thrift Store Finds

When I sold full time on eBay, I became very familiar with shopping the thrifts. It was my alternative source for collectibles when yard sales were sparse or rained out. If you've never been on a treasure hunt at your nearest thrift store, here's a few tips.

Know Your Store Part 1 - Snoopy Lil Me

At store #1, the manager was bragging about his own eBay store one day. Innocently, I asked about it and got his user name. After looking up his page, I realized why he had his Franciscan dinnerware priced so high, older dinnerware was his specialty. Newer plates, such as Sango, he had very low. Certain patterns of Sango plates can go for $10-15 each, so that was what I liked to pick up there.

Know Your Store Part 2 - Sales & Merchandising Cycles

Store #2, which is quite upscale & a little more expensive, prices and restocks every Tues. Although the best things are in the store that day, it's just too crowded, so I usually shop that one on Thursdays. They also have a different merchandising theme each month. Featured items are placed on the end caps and are usually priced high. If they don't sell by the time the theme changes, the items are moved to other shelves and marked down.

Store #1 runs different sales each day. Tuesday's are buy one, get one free on plates & cups; clothing is 20% off on Thursday's, so you depending on what you're looking for, you can pick the best day to shop this one.

Patience is a Virtue

At store #3, the staff is entirely run by volunteers. Plates are all $1, coffee cups .25 cents but other items are not priced, which means they pretty much make up prices when you get to the register. In this store it really pays to be nice. One woman was trying to haggle on the already low prices so everything she brought up to the counter to ask about seemed to be going up in price. After she finally left the store without buying anything, I politely commiserated with the cashier. I got a few freebies that day.

Think Outside the Box

The craft section at thrift stores are usually pretty messy. But, the finds are great if you're willing to dig. The photo on top are some of my recent finds. The large wooden buttons were actually in with the photo frames. The funky faces were at the bottom of a pile of buttons. I've got plans to put these together into fun pieces of mixed media art. I've also bought old shirts just because I wanted the decorative buttons and sweaters are great for felting projects.

Next time you have $5 bucks burning a hole in your pocket, stop by a thrift and see what treasures you can dig up!

CIJS

It's Christmas in July time! It seems funny to start trotting out X-mas goodies, but hey, everyone is doing it so I might as well get in on the fun.

I decided to do things just a little differently, my Etsy store is hosting some great vintage items that I've been saving. Like this wonderful tablecloth by California Hand Prints. It is still so bright and crisp, with just a tiny bit of wear.

For my Artfire store, I've taken advantage of an awesome sale tool

they provide

which allows me to mark down the entire store by any percent I choose. Since I don't have

a lot of Christmas items listed, I decided to run a 15% off sale. I do have 1 pair of earrings

listed, called Bella Christmas. Pretty & simple and red & green!

It's hard to think about Christmas when it's 100 outside, but maybe thoughts of cooler days can keep me cooler inside and out. So, merry x-mas everyone and have a great July!

Repurposing

I have a collection of salt & pepper shakers - some have lost their partners. I've been thinking of how I can repurpose them. My brilliant idea was to drill the holes a little larger and glue the stopper into the bottom in a permanent fashion so that I could use them as a bud vase. How cute would they look with a few long stem flowers coming out of them?

Unfortunately, this leaves me with the dilemma of how to get the water in and out. Maybe a slightly larger hole near the top hidden in the back would do. If anyone has an idea, post a comment. If your idea works, I'll make one for you :)

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th everyone! A great day for barbecues, getting together with friends and celebrating what makes the USA great! Remember, we are given the unalienable right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Don't let anyone take this from you, especially our elected officials, many of whom have seem to forgotten that they work for us! Make your voice heard to preserve our rights.

Have a great day! Dee

Work Progressing

I've been doodling dragon sketches, working up towards a full piece that I want to create for my sons' room. Here's a diving dragon in it's early state.

My scanner has a real problem on capturing pencil, otherwise I would show some of the others. I worked on an ACEO version of this. Originally the background was sky blue but the dragon was lost. So I repainted it black and added puffs of white 'dragon breath' which changed the dynamic of the painting.

BTW, I had to change the description on this in my listing as google does not allow the word 'smoke' for uploading to google base. The completed ACEO is titled Night Dive - check it out! Happy 4th of July!!!

Self Challenge

So, I bought these shells - they were $2.95 individually, $10.95 for 10 - I bought the strand of 10. I've challenged myself to try and create at least 6 fun pieces of jewelry out of them.

The colors are great, brown, peach, green, even a touch of light blue. They're a Lisway shell in bamboo - I'm not sure if bamboo is a name of the cut or just what they look like. They do look like bamboo - pretty nice of the shell to create itself in this shape.

I have the 1st completed and listed for sale in my Artfire store.

I'm pretty happy with how it came out. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the rest.

So many things to do this summer, so little time!

Going Buggy!

I just love bugs!  Rolly polly's are my favorite, maybe because they are so interactive.  I also love butterflys (who doesn't!) and decided to paint a few inspired by photos I found in an old book.

This black butterfly was a fun model.  The wings are so pretty, but she actually has a very creepy looking face.  It reminded me of the Sponge Bob episode where everyone was running from the butterfly - viewed up close, they can be a bit scary!  

Since the book was missing pages, this butterfly wasn't identified.  I was able to make an educated guess by searching the web that it may be a female eastern swallowtail.  Since she's black, I named the painting simply, "Butterfly Noire" adding the "e" at the end since that's the feminine form of the word.  

I have more fun photo's I've taken in my garden so I think I'll be painting bugs, at least for a little while!

Butterfly Noire can be seen in my Artfire store.

Make Your June Special

Okay, I'll say it out loud, I had no sales in either of my shops in May.  Very sad ):  So to stimulate my own economy, I'm trying an experiment.  Every Monday, I'm choosing 3 items to list at a clearance price of 30% off that will last all month.

If you're reading this blog, you can actually choose your own special.  Check out both my Artfire and/or Etsy store and if you see an item you like, contact me from the link on the item's page.  I will then do a special listing of the item just for you at a 30% price reduction.  I can hold the item at that price for 5 days, so you don't even have to pay immediately.

Sound good?  Here's the link to the pretty creamer set in the photo.  So, make my June a little more special - Thanks! Dee

How to Create Patina on Copper

I've played around for a long time to learn how to create different colored patinas on my copper jewelry.  I've decided to share some of the techniques & tips so that you can do it too!

The blueing chamber is simple, just take any plastic container with a lid.  In this one, I put ammonia on a cotton ball, added the copper and put the lid on tightly.  You leave this in until you get the color you want.  The copper should not touch the ammonia, it's the fumes that do the work.

You can also add the ammonia to sawdust, this allows for additional saturation which leads to the deeper blue color.  If you sprinkle the pieces with salt, those spots will stay copper and make an interesting affect.  

Once you have the color you like, just wash the piece with water and flake off any of the loose patina.  You will have to seal the blued pieces.  I just use a Krylon clear coat in a few light layers.  

Here's a finished piece of jewelry using the blueing technique!

Here Be Dragons

I just love dragons!  I have quite a collection - pewter figurines, stuffed dragons and my favorite, a ceramic dragon flute.  

I also have an extensive collection of novels dealing with dragons.  I'm quite intrigued by the different ways authors refresh this iconic character.  One of my all time favorites is "Tea with the Black Dragon" by R.A. McAvoy.  My latest read is a young adult novel "The Last Dragon" by Silvana De Mari.  My son read it for his 7th grade english class so I read it as well.  There's an interesting political theme that provided me an opportunity open a discussion with him.  He hasn't developed a good grasp on recognizing themes, he's still at the stage where he just enjoys the story.  

Enjoy these great reads for summer and check out my dragon choker/necklace and earrings.

Treasury Time

Woo whoo!  I made it into another treasury on Etsy - that's 2 for this month.  I'm not sure how long the list link lasts (try saying that 3 times) but it's fun while it's there.

I really like creating treasuries but I hardly ever catch it when a list opens up.  For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, a treasury is a photo collage of items arranged around a theme.  They're fun to put together and the challenge is to have your list get "hot" enough from people looking at it to get your treasury featured on the front page.  I've never made the front page, but there's always a 1st time.

Happy Spring to everyone!

Artfire Rapid Cart

How cool is it?  You can buy directly from my Artfire store without an account, just by clicking a link on the rapid cart.  Artfire has some amazing features for sellers as well as buyers.  I love "tweeting" with the owner and the staff members, it's a really friendly place to be on-line.  If you've never checked it out, you should give it a try.

There's also a special being run by several sellers right now - the Artfire Stimulus Package - the sellers are offering some really great low priced deals.  I have a couple of my ring bases listed, just $6.  Normally, the base would be embellished with stones and more work, but they look pretty awesome just by themselves.  They're copper, which is supposed to help with arthritis.  I wear them when I'm working on jewelry, pliers are hard on your hands!  I don't have arthritis, but I do seem have less fatigue when I'm wearing them, could just be a placebo affect.  

So try Artfire today and do put "AFSP" in the search box to see what you come up with - consider it an adventure in handmade!

Updates

Made my 50th sale on Etsy - yeah!  The buyer didn't even know I was running a special, so much for promo's.  Also made my 1st sale on Artfire, the 1st is always the hardest.  It was a pretty little ACEO acrylic painting that I was tempted to just keep for myself.

Feeling it rather appropriate that Calif. sales tax goes up 1% on April Fool's.  Much anger on not only raising taxes, but using our kids as pawns.  We've been running hot and cold as our little school district has been trying to deal with "proposed" budget cuts, which the State won't confirm until after our budget has to be adopted.  The State likes to threaten even larger "cuts" to the schools in order to get the average Joe to accept higher taxes to save our schools.  The kids are caught in the middle and it angers me to no end.  If you are in California, please vote no on Prop. 1A, which extends these ridiculous taxes for 2 additional years, information which doesn't appear in the voter guide or in most newspapers.

Trying to balance getting taxes done, working more at my husband's business, kid stuff and creating.  Unfortunately, creating ends up coming in last.  Well, not quite the very last - housework holds that place in my life.

Good karma to all of you!

Milestones

I hate milestones, especially for birthdays.  After you hit 21 and can drink legally, what's the point?  30, pfft, 40-the over the hill jokes start, 50-you may as well be dead, 60-well, retirement is near, or is it???, 70-glad you're not dead yet...

But, I do have a milestone.  I have 49 sales in my Etsy store.  I like the number 49, it's a nice number, but I'm looking forward to 50.  If you're the 50th sale in my store, you'll receive 50% off any 1 item.  Just buy, pay and once I verify you're number 50 I'll refund you half of the purchase price (not 1/2 off of shipping, it is what it is).  Really easy!  If you're 51 or 52, you'll get 25% off.  

So help me get over this milestone!  Bold jewelry - Vintage Finds

Twitter for Dummies (Like Me!)

If you haven't started a Twitter account, I'll let you know that it should come with a warning: " Twitter can become addictive, do not start unless you want to spend hours on your computer."  It's a new wave in social media, more concise than Facebook or Myspace, and more of an everyday thing than updating your blog.

I started by hearing about it on Etsy, 1 of 2 handmade sites I sell on.  At first, I pretty much listed links to new items for sale, a plus if you want your items to get views.  We also spend a lot of time cheering each other on when sales are made.

But, as I started following more people, total strangers started following me.  I customarily read their bio and check out any links they have.  If they sound interesting, I follow back.  And these people started listing links to all kinds of things that range from quirky, to serious, to hysterically funny, to political.  As you reply back (easy to do by hitting a funky arrow button next to their post) you can often find yourself flooded with their followers suddenly following you.

As a WAHM, my socializing is limited to the 15 minutes I go early & hang out with other kindergarten moms as we pick up our kids at school, so Twitter has become my link with the outside world.  Snowstorms on the East coast, I'm playing devil's advocate & posting my 75 degree weather.  Breaking news from the reporter in Chicago, I'm waiting for the updated posts.  There's even a novel in progress that comes in batches of 5 tweets at a time.  A pretty big challenge considering you're limited to 140 characters per post.

So if you haven't Tweeted, give it a try.  You can click on my link at the bottom and read some of my posts (although, they may seem pretty boring).  You can then click on the names of anyone I've replied to and see what they have to say.  Once you start following the threads, you'll be well on your way to being addicted too.  I warned you! 

Special special!

It seems I'm always running behind on the holidays.

So, in honor of Valentines Day, I'm offering free shipping on all my jewelry until 2/14.  On Etsy, the shipping is already set to 0.00.  For my Artfire shop, I can either send an updated invoice or refund the shipping price when I process the order.

Either way, jewelry is always a great gift for yourself or others!  And what's better than something that's one of a kind and handmade.

Tulip earrings with fluorite, "Hint of Mint" necklace, Tender Wisp sterling ring.

Internet Connections

I have fallen in love with posting on Twitter.  I've visited some great blogs, seen some great shops and feel like I've met some great people (tweeples).  The internet it great for us WAHM's.

Having a web presence really puts me in touch with so many things.   I recently exchanged emails with a gal who made a purchase from me.  Marie is the educator for a wonderful organization that is a sanctuary to exotic birds that just aren't suitable as pets.  They have over 600 birds in their sanctuary in Arizona.  Please stop by their beautiful webpage and see the cute photos of their residents.  While you're there, they have a $1 donation campaign that could use a little love.  I'm sure it takes quite a bit of money to care for that many birds.  Kudos to the Oasis for their great work!

Starting the Long Process

Started the long process of moving the very best vintage from my eBay store over to Etsy.  The process requires photographing every item from a zillion angles and with different settings to get just the right 5 photos to display.  

I really like taking the photos, not so much trying to edit them down.  I am lucky to be in So. Calif. so I don't have to deal with ice and snow while photographing - I feel for my friends in the freeze zones.

My mom and sisters moved to New York several years ago (long story, I won't bore you) and daily I pretty much taunt them with weather updates.  I know, it's awful, but I really miss shopping with my sis and sharing the cute things my kids do with my mom.  Emails and phone calls are just not the same.

If you'd like a closer look, here's the brass cat and the adorable Holly Hobbie dish.

Closing Up Shop

I've made a tough decision this week.  After reviewing my sales for the past year, I've decided to close my eBay store.

I began in 2002 selling just 10 items per week.  Back then, if something didn't sell, I could move it into my store for a nominal fee.  The FVF (final value fees) were something like 5%.  I sold about 50% at auction and the rest usually sold from the store within 6 months.  Now, FVF for store items is 12%.  By the time you add in the original listing fee and Paypal fees, the cost to sell 1 thing is around 20% in fees alone.  And many of the items end up sitting on my shelves for over a year since store items get less exposure.

I had been doing fairly well in 2007 following the Lynn Dralle method.  She makes tons of money by listing 100 items a week with a starting price of $9.99.  I never managed 100, but usually averaged 40 listings.  Christmas season 2007 was particularly good, as about 70% sold at auction.

Once the new CEO took over, not only did the fees increase but the whole attitude towards sellers changed.  If you can achieve power seller status (averaging $1,000 per month for 3 months), then you get a break on your fees.  If not, you're just out of luck.  Other changes that particularly aggravate me are those that they attempt to explain as being better for the selling community when they are actually thinly veiled ways to get more fees into their pockets.  These include pimping free shipping and not allowing sellers to accept money orders.  Now, you must list a shipping timeframe and a return policy.  

I'm just tired of being told how to run my store.  Now that there are many more sites to sell on that are fresh, exciting and appreciative of seller input (special kudos to John of Artfire), it's time to move on.  And I feel so much better about it!

Can't Seem To Get It Together

I have 2 weeks to get DH's taxes together for his business.  I just can't seem to get it together - the more I work on my art, the more I hate paperwork!  

Imagine a little castle just to the right on the hills in "Sea Escape" above - that's where I want to live!

Fusion-Two Loves Combined

I love painting, especially in miniature.  I found a trove of wood blanks and started creating small pieces of art.  After figuring out a few logistics (like solving how to make and attach a bail), I was able to combine painting with jewelry making.  The 1st results "Winterling."  

I love the way the colors of the stones perfectly complement the colors in the painting.  I have a bunch more of these mini-delights just waiting to be converted into wearable art.

What loves could you combine?  I'd love to hear about them!