Antiqued Recycled Unisex Thumb Ring

This is one of my latest rings!  I learned the art of soldering a while back, but never really put it to use.  I finally got everything set up and this is one of my first soldered ring projects.  The scrolls are made of .925 sterling silver soldered on copper.  I antiqued the ring and I must say that I really like the finished product and I'm sure you will to.  

See my shoppe for more information on this awesome, wide band thumb ring or regular ring.

See more of my creations here.

Antiqued African Snake Necklace Tribal

I was working on this tribal necklace design and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Every part of the metal work is completely hand crafted and hand forged.  The .925 sterling silver snake is soldered to the the main necklace piece which is in copper.   I added a beautiful, white Agate stone!   Click here for more info.

See my Shoppe for more of my unique creations.

Really Cute Summer Dandelion Seed Key Chain

This key chain is part of my new spring / summer design and I really love the overall feel and look of it. I made this out of fused glass. To make this cute key chain I cut a piece of brown glass and prepared it so that I was able to paint my design on it. In this particular technique you cannot just use any glass paint, it was special paint for fusing at extremely high temperature. After I was done with painting (free hand), I let it dry and then I prepared a clear top glass piece that I placed over the painted one. I do this because the overall finish is professional and smoothe.

This is a unique piece. I usually prefer making one of a kind pieces. The key ring part is a large ring which adds to the beauty of this piece as a whole. Click here to read more about this key chain.

New Shipping Prices for 2011

As a business owner who ships my products internationally, I'm always trying to find the best possible shipping price for my customers. In conclusion, I have found that Canada Post is the cheapest as far as price goes, but the price to pay for not the best service is probably not too worth it!

I shipped many of my items as a small light packet which was great because shipping is quite cheap, thus giving me the upper hand in making my items appealing to the shopper, but the problem I faced this December, was that some of my clients did not receive their packages. The down part of the small light packet is that there is no insurance and no tracking number. What it comes down to is this: you're better off charging more for your shipping and make sure you have both insurance and tracking to offer your clients because if you don't, you will get bit in the behind. It doesn't matter how honest you are, according to the client, you didn't deliver and you didn't keep your end of the bargain.

That being said, in an attempt to offer a more reliable shipping service, I have decided to up my shipping prices in order to offer both insurance and a tracking number with all of my shipments. When you think about it, there really is no other option. If you're going to want to offer the best service you can, this is the only way to go. There is no negotiation when it comes to keeping your good business name.

In conclusion: To all of my loyal customers and to my future customers, please shop with confidence because we will deliver; we guarantee it! We look forward to serving you better in the future.

Go to BaysideWireDesigns - Click here.

"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.