Know Your Audience, Check the Weather

This past weekend I did another crafts show.  It cost me $20 and a Saturday of my time.   I forced my daughter to help me...She wasn't having any of it and was quite annoyed.

It was in a rural community that my sister is a school teacher in.  A really cute typical midwestern town.  However, when it comes to selling more unusual items, like shrink plastic jewelry, and odder designs, it doesn't really resonate well.  I made a total of $77.  It would have been $87, but I undercharged for one item...  We ate the rest of the profits in gas and shaved ice! LOL

First, "know your audience", is spot-on.  Had I made some earrings that were of John Deere tractors, and the local school mascot, it would have generated more interest which would have led to more sales.  It's that easy.  No, I'm not being catty, it's true.  These were farmers.

Second, "check the weather".  It was HOT, flaming hot.  It was humid, and 88 degrees F.  We both ended up with sunburns and packed up by 3PM.  It was far too hot, this also added to slow sales and was probably the biggest factor in few sales.  People would come under the tent and comment about the sweat burning their eyes.  So yeah, it was too hot for a crafts show.  What we should have done was get there, pack up the canopy which had been put in place the night before, and leave.  We would have been ahead of things.

To put a positive spin on it I'll say this.  We didn't lose anything other than 7 hours of a very hot Saturday.  We made enough to pay for everything else.

Final thoughts:  If you know the weather is going to be bad; too hot, too cold, high winds, or rain.  Don't go.   If your items are something that may not be too well received by the demographic, don't expect to sell much, and, make some items that may interest the demographic, local teams, colleges, etc.

A New Beginning for Faux Show Art

Yes.  I just opened up my very own storefront on the internet.  Come see me!  Faux Show Art   It will most likely take me 20 years to be noticed, laugh out loud.  I am an idiot when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  Meta Tags, Meta Description, Meta Title, the list goes on.

I bought my space through Weebly, which was the best fit for me.  Shopify was a close runner-up and I also liked that they mailed me a free chip reader for my phone, everyone else wants 50-75 dollars for one.  But, after reading reviews, Weebly came in at the top for what I was looking for and the set-up was easy.  I imported all of my Etsy listings in a snap.  When I tried to do that with Shopify, it was somewhat nightmarish because the formatting didn't import right.

There are a ton of apps that you can add to your Weebly package, but beware, many of them want additional money every month and my efforts were to keep costs down.  Etsy takes a lot of my money overall and the way they mess around with their own internal algorithms is disturbing.  For example about a year ago, on Etsy, I was getting between 20-30 favorites a day and business was never better.  Then overnight, literally, crickets...  I was not the only seller screaming bloody murder, there were tons of us.  Etsy came back with some lame excuse about how they were better serving buyers and all I could think was:  Okay, I was receiving tons of favorites and sales were booming, you updated your algorithm, then it was gone!  So, whatever customers were finding me before, were lost in the ether.  This is not helping customers find what they are looking for.  Many suspected the move to do this by Etsy was to coax sellers into paying for additional advertising through Etsy.  Additional money for Google Ad Words, IntraEtsy Ads, etcetera.  Let's face it, the day Etsy said it was okay to sell mass-produced goods, their sparkle faded for me.

I had talked about getting off of Etsy as my sole outlet but never did it.  I paid for Weebly for four months before finally flipping the switch and opening my store.  I had a Pattern site (provided by Etsy to the tune of $15/month) for 15 months and made ONE sale.  I pray it is not that way for Weebly.  That would stink.

I am offering all of the same items in my Faux Show Art store, but I am doing so at a 10% discount over Etsy, so if you see something on Etsy that you like, head over to Faux Show Art and save some coin!

Peace!

Etsy's Unfair Seller Rating System

I'm lucky.  I'm lucky in that the overwhelming majority of people who buy my jewelry love it and take a minute to tell me so.  For that, I am truly grateful.

However, even the most wonderful 5 star rating with a kind word, does little to salve that loathesome negative review...

In a nutshell, negative reviews hurt.  I take them very personally.  This is because I put my all into the items I make.  I want them to be perfect.  I want my customers to love them as much as I do.  I want to have happy people wearing my hand made items.

I mean, if you buy something, and it isn't what you like or thought it would be, you contact the seller and ask to return it.  Right?  I know that I do.  And, it takes a lot for me to leave less than 5 stars.  I don't take away a star if the item is lost, or late because of the post office.  Even if it takes the seller 4 days after I order it to get it in the mail.  I mean, if it's just what I ordered, I don't usually leave anything negative.  But that's just me and I am a seller, so I know how it feels I guess.

I will say this right now:  Etsy's star system stinks!  It is so vague and can have such a devastating effect on a business from just one 1-star review.  And this 1-star review can be left by someone who is having an awful day, or just being plain vindictive.

 I think there should be a few categories. Delivery/Timeliness, Honesty in the Listing, Seller Communication, Presentation.  And, if the review is 1 up to 3 stars, the reviewer must elaborate on WHY they feel this way for EACH category.  This helps sellers to make changes and also keeps the review legitimate.

I know this will never happen, because I think customers would be like "that is too much time to do".  But if you leave someone 2 stars, you should have to elaborate on it.

My Etsy Negative Review Story:

• This takes me back to the very first, and only, thank God, 1-star review I have ever received.  I believe it was from the 4th or 5th item I sold!  Not only was it 1-star, it was absolutely scathing.  It was so full of venom  I was dumbstruck into paralysis for a short minute.  I wanted to cry.  I was so injured that someone would say such horrible things about a necklace that was so carefully and expertly finished and really very pretty.
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• When I regained my composure, I called my big sister and read it to her.  Her reaction?  "oh my gosh!  Listen to what she said!  She sounds like a shrink plastic jewelry maker who is doing her best to put you out of business!  She sounds like a competitor".  And after reading the review again and again, I realized that every biting insult this person dished out to me sounded like insults the buyer herself might have heard from potential buyers of her own shrink plastic jewelry at crafts shows.  Yes,. the criticism was that pointed.  "it is cardboard" "the bead is not ceramic".  etc.  Everything she said was not true.  Everything.
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• They tell you to never respond to negative feedback and carry on.  I'll tell you, if someone gives me a 1-star or 2-star review, I will have a response.  It is that simple.  However, I won't make my response a personal one with regard to the buyer.  My response to the review made me look the way I felt; like I had just had the wind knocked out of me and was seriously injured, that I was never contacted by the buyer asking for a refund, that after multiple attempts to reach the buyer and offering a full refund, she never responded and decided to keep the necklace, and that down the list, for every thrust of her knife, I had an answer. Which was, the item is shrink plastic, the bead is ceramic, and that I and my shop are not going anywhere, etc.
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• I even had a customer who, shortly after my awful review, mentioned how suspicious the review sounded.  Yay truth!  Yay other honest customers!
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• In the end, I realized that this particular customer had an address that was in the very same city as a super-huge shrink plastic jewelry maker on Etsy.  Call it coincidence, but I don't think so.
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• Anyway, that is my horrible review story, I had to share it!

Observation of another Etsy seller who was slammed

• I remember browsing other shrink plastic jewelry shops and coming across one in particular.  She make shrink plastic pins and bracelets but also made resin jewelry.  Well, apparently, some of her resin had bubbles in it and apparently, the bubbles weren't small.  The buyer purchased several items, about 5 I think and for each one, she left 2 stars.  Even though the problem was with only one item.  I felt so sorry for the seller.  All of those 2 star reviews knocked her rating way way down.  It was so unfair.  I realize the upset of the buyer with the bad resin work, fair enough.  But to take away stars from every item when it wasn't deserved was just plain mean.

Oh, and one more small story...

I have had people in the past give me 4 stars because they felt a stud earring was too small (hey, it's a stud), or that an earring is not long or big enough.  This is after having an insanely clear and very detailed description with explicit measurements  in the "details" section of the listing, along with 8+ images of the earrings which included a photo of the item on a life-size mannequin and a photo of the item compared in size to a US Quarter Dollar!

People don't read sometimes and the seller pays for it.

Getting tired,
have a great day!

The Trouble With ETSY...

When I first took my show to Etsy, it was still promoting the 'handmade' cottage industry that had been so underrepresented by all other online venues.  It was where Grandma Evans could make a few extra bucks selling her hand crocheted slippers that she made in her spare time.  Or where Uncle Bill could sell his happy-faced hand whittled figurines.  Those days are gone for Etsy.  It took a few years, but Etsy's thirst for money has allowed all kinds of 'production partners' in the mass production of goods sold there.

Hey, I'm not knocking the dabbler-turned-full-time Etsy makers.  Ones who may hire family members or help/seasonal help to piece together and sew clothing or jewelry.  I'm knocking the full-out selling of mass produced items from other places with unfair labor practices, we all know who they are.  The items are "hand made", by a worker in a sweatshop. I also have a problem with sellers who design items and have them mass-produced in factories i.e. enamel pins and other media, and call them hand made.  Yes, the design is original art (kudos), but, it is NOT handmade by you or someone in your small shop.  Cafe Press and Zazzle come to mind.  Etsy no longer has seller/store spotlights, which used to give props to shops and shop owners showcasing their ideas/wares/practices.  No longer do they allow sellers to create 'collections' of items.  Just nothing that once made Etsy more unique.

On top of all of the new commercialization stuff, Etsy seems to constantly be changing their 'search algorithms'.  Any time a change occurs, you can hear the sellers scream bloody murder wondering why they used to get a bunch favorites on their items every day or have 10+ sales a day and see it tank overnight.  Only to be told by Etsy 'we are making changes to more accurately direct shoppers to what they are looking for'...which is false.

I pay $1/day for Etsy ads (ads inside of Etsy that are supposed to help get me noticed) and up to $30/month for Google shopping.  In a month, that is $60.  For a little fish like me, that is a lot of money, $14/week.  Add to that Etsy fees for listing ($0.20/per item every 4 months), 3.0% from each sale and 3.5% + $0.25 per sale to a credit card and it comes out to almost 10% of every single sale.  Steep.

To follow and track the changes in minute detail was never something I aspired to since I am a small time side-seller who is not about to give up her day job.  Good money+benefits means I'm not moving to Etsy full time.  Thank you.  But other sellers do, and man are they sharp.  When they dissect the reality of what Etsy is doing to what Etsy says they are doing is so disappointing and disheartening.  Many times over the past year I have contemplated moving myself off of Etsy altogether.  Fear of the unknown and comfort have kept me on Etsy, but this coming new year, 2018, I'm taking the plunge and going my own way.  Independent of Amazon, Etsy, Artfire, etc.

I took my Pattern site domain (which was sponsored through Etsy, and man what a laugh that has been), and I've transferred it to my very own independent presence on the internet.  The site is sponsored through Weebly, but it is mine, and Weebly doesn't promote products, shops, owners, etc.  you are simply on your own to do it your way.  Good luck.  I'll take it.

Let me break down the Pattern experience for you.  I started by paying $15/year for my domain name, plus $15/month for my Pattern site.  Since April 2016 through December 2017, it generated 4 sales worth $101 total...  It's like Pattern 'floated' on top of my Etsy store.  True, I had my own domain, but it was an exact duplicate of what ETSY was, and when a buyer put an item it the cart, they were redirected to my ETSY store to pay, which was confusing and stupid.  Really strange and totally not worth it.  I would not suggest Pattern to anyone.  If you want to sell on Etsy, keep it an Etsy shop and don't add Pattern to the mix.

I am still working on my Weebly store, it has a long way to go and I think the template I picked is quite ugly LOL  Yes, I have a lot of work to do!  But , the import of items to Weebly was very easy and details and whatnot transferred over well.  I tried a Shopify store months ago and the transfer happened, but I was forced to re-type tons of stuff.  I let that entire idea die :)

So, I figure another month or so and my fauxshowart.com store will be alive and well.  It will probably take a century to generate my first sale, but it's a chance I'm willing to take and it gives me comfort knowing my items, being found in a Google or Bing search, are not going to be affected by Etsy meddling with search algorithms within their domain.  I kept saying I wasn't going to list one more item to Etsy, but I just listed 15 items this weekend and I need to stop doing it.  I need to walk away.  Yes, my store will remain open, but new items will not be added.

Have a good day!

UV Resin, is it any good?

So I just started dabbling in UV resin.  It's cool.  It's really cool.  I have watched zillions of videos and knew I had to try this.  I generally use really nice 2 part resin, which, by the way, looks wonderful if done CORRECTLY.  But, it takes a full 12-24 hours to get hard and several days to get really hard and it has to be 75-85 degrees to cure nicely.  UV resin does not.  It takes, quite literally, 10 minutes or less to harden to a crystal clear, hard finish.  For antsy-pants people like me, it's a WIN!

To try it out, I had to buy a UV light and resin ($100).  You know I had to buy a really nice 54W UV light (with a large stage for multiple items) along with two large bottles of resin.  Because why?  I must own tools and things for my crafts-loving heart!  I bought mine at epoxyjewelry.com.  A word of warning though, I did NOT shop around, like a dummy, and paid $75 for the light.  I found the exact same light for $36 with free shipping on ebay...I am my own worst enemy!  I would also like to add that the only shipping choice at epoxyjewelry was 3-day priority at $21.  I received my items ONE WEEK LATER...  Yes.  I  bought it early on a Thursday, it did not ship to me until the following Monday, which is absolutely UNACCEPTABLE  for an item purchased at a priority shipping rate (as I said, they offered no other shipping options).  As a seller, holding an item for days when a customer has paid for priority/express shipping is essentially theft (of time).  Plain and simple.  Okay, rant over.

The resin seems to be pretty good.  I paid $12.50/2oz bottle and I bought 2.  They also offer an 8 oz bottle for $33 which is a really good price and comparable to the 2-part epoxy resin.  There are other brands of UV resin out there and I will list them below.

I specialize in shrink plastic jewelry www.fauxshowart.etsy.com  check me out!  So my items are printed using a standard inkjet printer.  Nothing fancy.  I have read where the resin does not work well on inkjet ink and some sellers offer a sealer of sorts that you apply before applying the resin.  I thought 'no thanks' to that.  But the tales of troublesome inkjet/UV resin combining may be somewhat true.  I was so excited to try this on some Christmas themed items I had recently made.  My first try was a cool retro-inspired candle.  I squeezed out some resin, moved it to the edges of the candle using a toothpick and placed it into the UV oven.  The top hardened, but the resin sitting on the surface of the candle stayed liquid.  It NEVER hardened, even after 30 minutes under the lights and after so long, even the ink started to get slimy :(    So the hardened shell would slide around across the top of the shrinky dink.  I was so utterly disappointed, the 'dink was ruined as the surface was permanently sticky and gross (after I took the hardened shell off).  I then did a test on a clear (semi-translucent) shrinky dink and it hardened in less than 3 minutes.  My conclusion was well, it doesn't work on the opaque shrinky dinks.  Also, I put the shrinky dink back under the light to see if the remaining slick of resin would harden up. It never did, it stayed gross.  This may have something to do with the ink after all.

Here is my blonde moment:  The UV light has mirrored panels throughout the inside of it for maximum reflection of the UV light.  The idea being that the more reflected UV light, the faster the cure, be it gel nails, or UV resin.  The surfaces of the oven/light were all covered in that clear blue protective plastic and I did NOT remove it first.  Duh, gurl!  Yeah, pretty bad!  In my defense, there were absolutely NO instructions or set up information that came with the light (another negative ding to epoxyjewelry.com).  To remove the plastic covering, I had to remove all six of the UV bulbs (easy pop outs/ins) and then wedge my fat little hand in and try to using my nails to scrape at the edges of the mirrored panels in order to get a bit of the edge loose in order to pull it off.  This task was daunting.  There were no pull tabs to make removal simple.  I cannot help but feel there should have been some sort of info that came with the UV light, but I received none from epoxyjewelry.com which I think is pretty shabby.

I decided to give it another go.  This time, I applied the UV resin to an item that was first 'sealed' using clear acrylic spray paint (this is how I seal/protect all of my shrinky dink jewelry).  In 5 minutes, the resin was hard, it was prefect.  Winner!  I have not had many more chances to use the resin as I am crazy-busy prepping items for the Christmas season.  I hope to soon add some more information with regards to the resin.

In addition I bought, for $14 from Amazon, a pair of the UV light protective goggles that came bundled with a TaoTronics TT-FL002 UV flashlight (it has a big light area). You can use these to quickly harden the resin with your flashlight.  This does work!  I put the goggles/glasses on whenever I look at the UV light.  Protect your eyes!

Oh, and also, I have two big, hairy dogs.  Hair and resin DO NOT WORK WELL TOGETHER.  This UV resin is nice in that you can use a heat source to heat out the bubbles like you would regular resin, but do NOT use any type of fan and stay out of a drafty area if you have animals.  I ruined a couple of other pieces because lint/animal fuzz found it's way onto the surface of a couple of my other items and in a very short time.

Some other brands of UV resin are as follows:

Solarez on Amazon -- It says it is UV curable resin and the price is amazing good.

 
 
 
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"UV Resin" in a bottle with a green leaf covered label, there is no brand name listed, but I see it everywhere.  This

particular sample was listed on Etsy

10g  $5.28

15g

25g

60g

100g

200g  $30.36

Lisa Pavelka--found in most crafts stores.  Very expensive but quickly accessible.

1oz=$9.74

And others.  The Solarez seems like such an amazing deal.  a quart for $35.05 seems crazy.  I'd have to start with

the smallest size and try it to see if it is as good.

Tools O' The Trade

This is a biggie!  Tools matter and you can NEVER have too many of them.  I have tons and tons of tools, from electric to manual, all of them matter.

From the name of my blog, I am sure by now you know I specialize in shrink plastic, AKA Shrinky Dink jewelry.  99% of it is cut on an electric die-cutting machine.  The other 1% is cut with scissors using my chubby little hands.  Yes, some cuts are so fine, that I have to follow up using ultra fine tipped scissors or an X-acto knife.  See? So far you have three tools!  There are quite literally a 100 more in my possession. 

• Multiple Dremels; A chargeable multi-speed with LCD light (expensive), it's rival, bought at Wal-Mart for 75% less!.  Three, yes, three Dremels with cords, one of them having a much smaller 'pen' device on the end of a long hose-type extension.
• Dremel drill press (where one of the corded Dremels stays)
• Dremel router (where another of the corded Dremels stays)
• Tons of awls for poking out fine cut work or for holding down my shrinkies as I heat them up.
• A nice crafting heat gun with two heat-proof mats
• Multiple resin doming trays (I love resin work)
• Multiple bead augers/reamers (for making bigger holes)
• 15 hole punches for punching holes pre-shrink
• 100 paint brushes, some of them silicone, which make some of the best I've owned
• Tape dispensers big and small
• Staplers
• Markers, pencils
• 10 wire mandrels for wire work
• beading tools, oh boy, this one is HUGE.  10+ pairs of chain nose pliers, 6 round nose pliers, 5 flush cut snippers
• Multiple brayers
• Wire jigs
• Bead working anvil
• Round nose hammer
• Steel doming block
• Steel plate for hammering
• Multiple lazy susans (vintage of course!) for holding stacks of bead holders, paint bottles, brushes, and pens.
• Ultra-fine set of files (in love with these)
• Multiple tweezers, some with LCD lights
• Die cutting machine (vintage Cricut that cuts like nothing I've ever seen, and it was used and cheap).
• Printer Multiple Canon and Lexmark inkjets
• Two Ott lights
• Multiple sets of reading glasses for intricate work (I am over 50 and my eyes ain't what they used to be).  Don't strain your beautiful eyes, let the glasses do the work!
• Jeweler/watch maker goggles.  You can find inexpensive plastic ones that work great!
• Computer
• Camera
• Photography lights
• Tripod
• Mannequin

If I think of more I'll post them.

Wish I could put up images of all of it, but you get the idea.  All of these items were purchased over years and years.  As stated in the first bullet-point, I found a Dremel brand equivalent at Wal-Mart that cost me $25 as opposed to the $100 Dremel and Menard's.  Shop around!  Save coupons when buying tools at Michaels, Hobby Lobby or JoAnn's.  Wait and use the 40, 50 and 60% off coupons; tools are almost NEVER on sale and 60% is a huge savings.

I haven't posted lately because I've been staying very busy between my real job and my other real job (Etsy)  LOL

-Stay cool and Love one another!

Antiquing Silver, Silver Plate, and Raw Brass

I'm not generally too fond of bright silver and bright gold findings.  Especially when it comes to making my vintage-inspired jewelry.  Yes, there are times when I like the bright gold and silver, because it works with the piece I am currently working on, but that is rarely.

For a long time, I bought black findings.  As time went on, it seems, the black findings got harder and harder to come by.  Joann's sells few black findings, and Michaels continues to thin the black finding options.  From there, I moved onto hematite or gun metal colored findings.  For those who do not know, it is the really dark silver tone.  Pretty, shiny, dark, lots of options.  The downside, I guess to either the black or the hematite/gun metal, is that they are coated in paint.  This means that if you buy head pins, or lever back earring wires, there is a good chance the coating will eventually flake off.  I have not witnessed it with the ear wires, but I have seen it on the head pins.  I'll start twisting the wire to make a nice neat loop and 'pop', the paint will peel away from the wire!  On the ear wire side of things, you will see lever backs that are painted shut or stiff to move because they have been painted in place.  The result is a lever back that does not snap back closed, or doesn't open without being bent because it is painted closed.  Thus, a worthless ear wire!

My solution for this is Liver of Sulfur, Sulfur, Sulfur....  Yep!  It stinks to high Heaven, but it does an awesome job of taking sterling silver, silver plate, and raw brass to my favorite realm, VINTAGE!  The great news is, you can find silver-plated and raw brass findings for not much more than regular findings.  Places like Etsy, Amazon, and eBay offer many options, and if you buy in bulk, you save big.  Michael's sells a ton of their metal beading bits in silver plate and at a reasonable cost.

Liver of Sulfur, what is it?

From the WWW:  Liver of sulfur is mainly used in metalworking to form a patina, turning copper alloys brown or black. Typically liver of sulfur comes in a dry rock form which must be broken into smaller pieces and dissolved in hot water for use.

It stinks!

You can buy it in the dry rock form, or buy pre-mixed gel (which is my preferred type).  You mix according to package directions, in my case, 1T with 1C of tepid/warm water.  Make sure the dish you use is used ONLY for your antiquing (I used an old ceramic soup crock that has a rubber lid). 

After I had made a couple of batches, I came up with the brilliant idea of using my old 4 cup coffee maker's pre-fab nylon mesh coffee filter screen.  I put my findings in it and then submerge into the solution making it very easy to remove all pieces and to dunk and stir as needed.  It also makes an awesome rinsing vessel before dumping my findings onto paper towel to dry.  Hey!  you can even use one of those hand-held nylon fine mesh strainers.  I don't think a metal filter would be good because of possible chemical reaction, but who knows?

You have to keep an eye on whatever it is you antique as no two plated items antique at the same speed.  This is where that nylon screen works great, easy in, easy out.

I made the mistake one time of leaving items in the solution over night.  They were encrusted with thick black tarnish!  Mega rustic, but not suitable for jewelry!!!

The trick is to get all of the items you wish to patina lined up and ready so that you get the most out of your liver of sulfur.  One $12 bottle makes three batches, so use your chemical wisely.  I can get a lot done from one cup of the solution.  I have read that once the solution becomes murky, it's time to make a fresh batch.  Overnight, mine will turn murky and so I just dump it after antiquing everything that I am going to antique.

The results are amazing!  The patina on silver plate (my choice of finding) is absolutely wow!  The tone is warm, dark and shiny.  The lever backs are gorgeous, they open easily, and they are silver plated, not painted.  You can easily take 1000 jump rings and antique them in a matter of minutes.  100 ft of silver plated necklace chain (fine) and antique in a matter of minutes.  Why would I ever want to buy hematite-tone findings again?  The image below is from wires I antiqued.  They started out with a bright sterling silver plated finish and sat in the solution for less than 5 minutes!

Antiquing your findings also opens up the ability to a broader range of findings.  Almost everything comes in a bright silver plated finish.  You cannot say the same for black or gun metal colored findings.

I have yet to use it on raw brass as I have tons of antiqued brass findings already, but I have the itch and will soon be giving that a go!

Happy antiquing!