Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Finished the Replica of Sheryl Crow's Earrings

I finally finished "THE" earrings!  This was the first time I had actually done silver metal work.  I had already done a bit of copper metal work, but it's a bit different when your metal is sooo much more expensive!! 

As I mentioned in a previous post about this project, cutting metal with the small jeweler's saw is quite the job.  It's especially difficult to get the curves just right.  I've learned one very important lesson:  Always cut outside the template line; then use a grinder or other similar type tool to do the more precise bit of work such as getting the metal even at the template line.  This method gives you some wiggle room for little mistakes. 

The overall design for these earrings was fairly easy to do.  The most difficult part for me was the center cutouts, but in the end I think they turned out quite well.  I'm happy with the finished product and my client seemed very pleased.  Since they're a gift for my client's daughter in law, I cannot wait to see her reaction.

These earrings are made of .925 sterling silver sheet, cutout, hammered and drilled.

If you wish to have a pair of these earrings made, please contact me for a quote.


My version of Earrings worn by
Sheryl Crow-



Earrings worn by Sheryl Crow on cover of
magazine.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

New Recycled Bottle Bottom Dishes Made in New Brunswick

I just added to my Go-Green Collection by making a series of fused glass soap dishes/ candle holders out of recycled bottle bottoms.  These are an awesome collection; they are definitely conversation pieces.  These dishes can also double as coaster, men or women's jewelry dish, paperclip holder for your desk,  votive- holder, candle/pillar holder.  I've also made a couple of deeper dishes which can easily hold sauces, pot-pourri and that sort of thing. 





Each bottle bottom is a unique item, reflecting the lines and curves in that particular bottle.  The colors always depend on the color of the bottle, naturally, but these here vary from beautiful, emerald green, light olive to deep olive. 

You can see these new items in my Etsy store.

Monday, December 6, 2010

"Handmade in New Brunswick"

I'm always looking for ways to get more traffic to my etsy store and my artfire store.  The handmade jewelry industry is colossal and the competition is fierce.  Trying to get my handmade, wire jewelry noticed is very difficult.  Since I've been on Etsy (a couple of months), I've noticed the shop local section and that gave me the idea of targeting these as my potential clients.  Shipping is cheaper versus shipping national, and plus I'm supporting artisans in my area.  With this in mind, I just learned something very interesting that I never thought about before.  If you want to be noticed by local customers, it's a good idea to mention in your title "Made in New Brunswick" or wherever you come from.  Isn't that a neat little trick??

I am going to try this in both my etsy baysidewiredesigns and my artfire baysidewiredesigns2 stores.  We'll see what happens.  I'll add a comment in this blog as to what the outcome is.  I'll give it a couple of weeks to see if I generate more local traffic.

Another thing I also learned is to add unique content for each post.  Google robot likes unique content.  This little bit of information really hit me because I make a collection of glass, housewares items out of recycled glass bottles and my introduction always remains the same.  I'm not too sure if this affects the robot or not, but I will experiment to see what happens. 

I also noticed something interesting:  while I was listing some of my recycled glass items.  I could not include the word "wine" in my title or my description.  Then I realized, if google doesn't accept this on artfire, it doesn't on Etsy either, and I'm probably sabotaging my own business by not knowing these things.  Then it struck me that perhaps there are many types of words that aren't very friendly to google... I'm going to research that area as well.  It really would be too bad to put so much effort into building a store and adding all of your items and not have anyone find you or not be selling to your fullest potential.  It's most discouraging to do all this work in vain and I'm determined not to work in vain!!
If you know of any other tips and tricks to bring more traffic, please add your comments.  I would love to hear from you and how you succeed. 

Saturday, December 4, 2010

My Progess on Artfire

So I got my store setup and traffic is starting to flow.  I also purchased some spotlight ads, which is really great because you pay $20 for a full month - that's a really good price. 

I added my unique, handmade, fused, recycled bottle glass pieces and I think it looks pretty good so far.  I have a couple of ideas of stuff I want to include in this store and I'm working on that. 

It's too bad that I didn't get a whiff of artfire before because I think I'm a little late in the game for holiday sales.  I read that it takes about 45 days for google to crawl new stores.  At least I'll be all setup to begin the New year.  Can't believe it's the end of 2010; where does time go?  Got to use our time wisely because it seems like there are never enough hours in a day and so many things get neglected. 

Another feature I really like with artfire is the edit all of your ads at once - how great is that!!  This saves sooo much time and fussing around, especially when you have dial-up like me. 

I"m making good progress on my Sheryl Crow Earrings.  I've cutout all of the pieces I just need to cutout the inside part of the small dangles that will be hanging from the main earring piece.  I really can't wait to get them finished.  I will post more pics later today.  Look for them.

Friday, December 3, 2010

I'm Now on Artfire

I was reading up on artfire.com and found that it was worth my while to open a store there as well.  I really like that you have a set monthly rate without any fees ever!!  That really appeals to me. 

I'm not saying I don't like Etsy.com.  I'm just saying it cost me quite a few bucks to relist my items often in order to get the traffic and the sales I did.  So, I'm running a test.  I want to see which is more profitable in the end.  I made a google search on artfire.com versus etsy.com and some people have transferred there whole Etsy store to their artfire Shop.  I don't know...  I'm still researching the potentials of both.  After a very short time on Etsy, I got quite a bit of exposure.  I'm just wondering if it'll be the same with artfire. 

I've added some items;  I only have under 20 items as of yet, but I'll be adding more shortly.  I've already joined a guild (team) and I'm looking around to see how to get more exposure.  Click here to see my new artfire store.

One thing I really, really like it the Quick Checkout link that I've setup on my blog; isn't it awesome! 

As of now, I am not yet running a Sale in my artfire store, but I am offering FREE Worldwide Shipping on all of my jewelry.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

My Etsy Sale Continues

I had a great sale event for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  The great news is I've decided to extend the sale up to the December 15th.  That's right, now you can take advantage of even more great products at a discounted price.  Save 10% off my ENTIRE Bayside Wire Designs storeFREE International Shipping on all of my earrings and smaller jewelry pieces.  Anything that'll fit in an bubble envelope, I will cover the shipping to anywhere in the world.  And it doesn't stop there, it just keeps on getting better.  I'm also offering you a coupon of 15% off your next purchase.  What are you waiting for?  Grab your coffee and let's go shopping now.  Click here to begin your shopping extravaganza! 

Progress on my Sheryl Crow Earrings

A client walked in my store about a month ago with a magazine in her hand and asked me if I could custom make a pair of earrings that would be similar to those worn by Sheryl Crow on the front cover of Red Book (issue of August, 2010).  Of course, I will not copy the design exactly, because that's just not right, but I will make them in a slightly different size and in .925 sterling silver. 

This is a whole new venture for me.  I usually do wire work, a bit of silver clay and some soldering, but I've never actually worked with silver sheet.  This should be interesting.

I finally got the template of my main earring design transferred onto my .925 sterling silver sheet and I traced out the design and very slowly cut it out with my jeweler's saw. 

This jeweler's saw can be a pain.  The blades are about the size of a couple of strands of hair and they break very easily if you're not careful.  The heat caused by constant friction against the sterling silver sheet causes the blade to get brittle and break.  In order to prevent this I need to constantly lubricate the blade with beeswax. 

Now, I'm getting ready to cutout the center part.  I'll need to transfer my design and drill a small hole in order to enable me to pass my jeweler's blade through it (the jeweler's blade easily comes off  enabling the metalworker to pass the blade through the hole and then attach to your saw).  This is a necessary tool to make cutouts from the center of a piece.

See picture below of my first and second step - It doesn't look too pretty at this point...