Longfellow in Twitterspace

I have been on Twitter for a couple months now. I heard about it from Etsy.com sellers on the Etsy forums as a great way to get the word out about your online craft shop and promote your business and blogs. I was looking at various tools to increase my visibility as a jewelry maker. Desperate to improve views at my Etsy shop I immediately signed up for Twitter, using my shop name, and plunged in, adding hundreds of other Etsy users over the course of a couple weeks as we all posted wildly about the new ‘get rich’ tool at the Etsy forums.

That’s now I started: tweeting away about my treasuries (collections of items from various Etsy sellers), my new jewelry listings, and then I read the feed. I dutifully clicked away at new treasuries, new items, and so forth, feeling a little more desperate each day as no sales resulted and the subsequent views from each tweet dropped lower in lower. No instant sales were generated, no instant success for my blog. I quickly decided to look at it from a different POV.

Did I really enjoy spending half my day clicking to everyone’s latest pair of earrings or soap set? Did I even need more soap? (I love soap and can recommend my favorite Etsy soap sellers but that’s another topic for another day) I am already swimming in handmade jewelry because I make it myself. In fact the more I thought about the more totally reasonable it was that no one was buying my jewelry from my Twitter contacts. The fact is they were ALL in the same boat as me, all trying to sell their stuff on Etsy, and consequently we were just tweeting desperately to each other: “please won’t you buy my stuff?”

I found that not only was I not that interested in blogging about each and every treasury I appeared in or every little beading session, but I wasn’t interested in reading about other people doing it either. I had already shared the magic of Twitter with other friends of mine, those with different interests and I was already seeing that there were other ways to use it, and in fact the best way to use Twitter didn’t involved endless adverts. I started studying why my second Twitter account was more fun, and more useful to me. It had diverse content from a diverse bunch of people that were genuinely interested in sharing, talking, and learning from each other. I was there when the terrible news in Mumbai hit and it spread over Twitter with everyone sharing, making it a personal event even if it was on the other side of the world.

I still love to hear about what my fellow Etsians are doing, but I urge you all – if you are reading this to expand what you are doing on Twitter, to reach out to all sorts of different people, and to really fully explore the potential of Twitter.

And please don’t put Magpie in my Twitter feed. :)

This, That, and the Other

*Yawn* It's been a good morning to a weekend with good points and bad points.

Let's get the bad out of the way first. It was hideously cold! So cold it could chill you right through several layers of warm winter clothing, and I had to stand outside in that for 45 minutes waiting for my local farmer's market to jury my jewelry for their winter fair only to be turned down. To be fair they said they loved my stuff, but sadly they just had too much jewelry already and I was a Johnny come lately. Still it was sad and disappointing to be rejected. Thankfully I still have the other two fairs to do the weekend end before.

Happier news is I sold my lovely snowflake earrings featured in the last bloggerie, and so I made another pair so that I can still make the matching necklace I have schemed. But first I'm making a very different piece. It's a necklace and instead of beaded I'm doing all wire coils for the chain and danglies and stuff. I'll post a photo as soon as I'm done. It should be very nice.

This morning I have lots of lovely new hearts and over 6000 page views at my etsy store because my very latest treasury (pictured here) made the Etsy front page around 1 a.m. or so. I wish I had seen it. When I checked my email last night I had noticed that one of the pictures had been swapped out for an alternate and I KNEW I hadn't done it so I figure it might make the front page but it was late and I was tired so into bed I went. However Adorn Me Jewelry left me a nice message so I knew I had hit the front page. That was very sweet!

So that's three front pages I have made now. I feel warm and fuzzy about that achievement and hope to hit it more often. Now if I could only get MY stuff on there! Hehe.

Oh and I'm sooo looking forward to Thanksgiving this year! Now if I can only get my son to come with me instead of sulking by his lonesome.

Oh oh oh oh… after viewing my show William H. Hays has suggested swapping portraits. I do one of him and he do one of me. Very exciting. William is a great guy, very enthusiastic about the arts, as well as a talented painter, and he runs the Artist's Loft here in town.

Artistic Update

I had a lovely dinner at a Thai restaurant last night with my mentor and professor Gary, from when I was an undergraduate at Smith College, and his wife Deedee. It was really flattering because I had sent him a show card for my show this month and he had made the effort to come and see it and have dinner with us. It was so nice and refreshing to look at my paintings with him and hear his insightful critiques once again. He is really such a warm and yet forthright teacher, and he remains my favorite critic to this day. He made sure to let me know how much he enjoyed the work (comparing me to Alice Neels, a comparison I often hear), but also to have really useful and interesting things to say about what specifically worked or didn’t work for him in various pieces.

Then he asked me what was next and I told him about my etching class and that was great too because he’s a printmaker as well as a painter himself and so we talked about that and he encouraged me to work on some of the same ideas I had been working on in the paintings – which is, actually, one of the things I had been thinking about doing!

And just to show how productive I have been in general here is a photo of one of my latest creations that I’m selling at Etsy. I love these elegant winter themed earrings in silver, kyanite, and pearl. I have more of these snowflake charms in a couple different sizes so I think I’m going to work on an earrings and necklace set.

Ramblings on a Dark Morning...

Yesterday was exciting at Etsy in that my latest treasury, the one I mentioned in the previous posting, made it to the front page for about half an hour. I garnered some hearts which was nice - means that people do visit the curator of a treasury, and I noticed that three of the items I featured sold, which makes me feel all puffed up with pride for being a good Etsian. I can only hope such good fortune is contagious. So last night, with an another packet of new beads in hand, I fashioned four pairs of earrings - or was it three and a half as one had been begun previously but abandoned when I ran out of jump rings. Anyway they are all sweet and attractive but all derivative of earlier designs so no new inspiration hit, but I was productive.

I have to play domestic goddess today, but hope to get some time to work on some writing. I particpate in a writing/roleplay community site called Panhistoria and tomorrow when I have time to log in there, I will need to be posting as there are big happenings in one of the stories I write in. It's a fun site, quite addictive (if you like to write or you used to love to play dress up or pretend as a kid) once you get the hang of it, and I have always had to learn to restrict myself timewise there, or I would never get my work done, or my jewelry made, or my paintings painted!

You know I had some big thoughts about what my next blog would be about, like the environment or music or some incredible inspirational insights I had, but I've just rambled. If you have read this far, I salute you. Oh! Breaking news, my work is featured in another treasury this morning, yah! I must be doing something right because that's the third in a row.

And just to be sure I have some substance here is a little video for you to watch:

This That and the Other

Yesterday was sort of weird and screwed up so I ended up not doing anything in the evening like I wanted to. I still have to create the second of a pair of shimmering swallow chandelier earrings (see previous blogging for the first pair I made) but this time in sterling silver and it's more like a jellyfish with a swallow. I'm using moonstones and aquamarine as well as the vintage iridescent swallow focal. I think they are really lovely but quite time consuming. I'm making this pair in silver because some people felt that the copper wire ones didn't lend the ears enough real value in materials to justify the cost. I'm not sure about that as I think that the combination of elements is pretty interesting actually. I love the whole magpie thing of grabbing from different sources materials that might not always be deemed to go with each other. It's perhaps a little art college of me, but I think that I need to go with my gut. However I love silver so I have no problem creating some shimmering dangles in silver.

On a happy note here is the latest treasury I created. This time I just picked out items from my favorites without regard to theme, color scheme, etc, though I did try and produce something harmonious. My previous treasuries had an eye on the Etsy front page, but neither were picked, which is hardly surprising considering the numbers vying for attention, so this time I just wanted to honor some great items from Etsy artists. And if any of those items sell because of the treasury that is one less thing I have to worry about tempting me into spending! I also, for the second time in a row, was featured in a very colorful treasury with the pictured earrings. These are getting some attention! I'll have to make some more. I like doing them and they are simple and effective.

In December I do a few Christmas craft shows and that's when I'll really get an idea which of my jewelry ideas are most successful. I'm very excited, but I sure wish I had something a little earlier as money has been tight - just as it is for everyone these days.

Goodies, Treasuries, Beautiful Fall!

I'm extremely proud of my latest pair of chandelier earrings in my Victoriana Collection. Each piece I do is one of a kind, though I can do a 'series' like I have been doing with the flower drops and the Victorian inspired pieces. However I have to say that this last piece (shown here) with its cascading moonstone dangles was a lot of work! It's probably just going to remain very much One of a Kind. Still it was fun to do and showed off some skills.

Other great news is that I created a new treasury: Ultraviolet and Hot Pink. I'll take a screen shot of it before it expires to capture the moment but while it's live I hope plenty of my readers check it out. One person messaged me to say that they thought it was front page quality which I thought was very very sweet. I'm not sure about that, but it was a lot of fun to curate!

At the same time I was creating my treasury Pied Crow Press was featuring me in theirs! How very cool is that: Pumpkin Pie and Chai Tea. Now this treasury I DO think is front page worthy. It's got some great products too. I have the coffee bean earrings that are on the bottom row - and those sold yesterday! So good news all around. Let's hope this is a portent for things to come. Feeling extremely positive today.

And yes, it's stunningly beautiful outside my windows. I might try and capture some of the fall foliage this year and post it here.

Optimism

In a spirit of great optimism yesterday I decided to be wild and crazy and just buy something on etsy! I'm a new seller on etsy and while I do great when I'm selling in person I have yet to really break into the online marketplace. So I've been holding myself back a little on spending any money, but then I decided to just put the energy out there and see what comes back to me.

So I bought these adorable little guys as a gift for someone what they would totally suit. She doesn't know about it so I hope she doesn't read my blogs, but you never know. I preferred yellow monsters myself (featured them in one of my treasuries) but she loved pink (such a girl!) and so I got the pink ones. Besides they'll match her outfits better.

Personally I feel like I'm waiting for after the election though to see if things pick up for me. It's like the whole nation is holding its breath, just waiting to find out what our world will be like. Those of us that truly desire change, I see that possibility in Obama, are, I think, afraid to get our hopes too high. Whoever wins, however, I do hope that people start breathing again and we can continue with the good life. We're so lucky in this country and I think, often, people lose sight of that. We need to keep that vision and remember, and fight for our rights!

Black and Silver Dreams!

Nomeworks (who I featured in one of my earlier blogs) has included me in a stunning treasury of silver and black arts and crafts at Etsy.com with my Etsy Elephant Walk necklace. I'm really pleased and it's such a lovely collection. Later I'll get a screen capture and post it here so it won't get lost and forgotten.

The piece of mine that is featured I can picture. This is one of my very favorite necklaces and if I don't sell it this Christmas I might just keep it all for my own. One of the really fun things about this necklace for those that love Etsy is that I got all the supplies for it on Etsy. I actually do a little shopping on the site, but I get my stuff from all over, including gem and mineral shows as well as other wholesale sources so I was a bit surprised when I realized, without intending too, that all the components I had gotten off of Etsy!

Anyway here is hoping that everyone enjoys this lovely treasury!

Meet a Fellow Etsian: Dirty Sanchez

I'm not going to tell you all about Dirty Sanchez because, let's face it, her product descriptions do all the work for me.

I love handmade soap. I used to think it was a frivolous luxury (like expensive scented candles that you just burned down to a wick) until I tried a bar and now I'm a handmade soap addict. It's not a hard thing to get hold of where I live nor on Etsy where there are probably hundreds of sellers creating all sorts of wonderful soaps for every taste and budget.

Dirty Sanchez, however, clinched the deal just with her writing. I look forward to receiving my first bars and I'll let you know how well I like them, but I can't imagine being anything other than ecstatic so I'll be a repeat purchaser. This time I ordered "breakfast club" and "pollinator", both scents that Dirty Sanchez swears to abhor due to the fact that they are floral.