Etsy woes and the crappy economy

Well, firstly, let me apologize for ignoring my blog posting for so long. Really, it's inexcusable, given all the support from you who've come by to check on my posts. It's been a busy and hectic summer and I am always running short of time!

My sales at Etsy have taken a severe hit the last 6 weeks or so, and I wonder how much is due to my lack of promotion in the Etsy forums and how much is general economical malaise. I've chatted with a few other sellers, both newbies and established online shops and the consensus is that sales in general are in the crapper (a favorite phrase that can rarely be overused!).

In case you are an Etsy seller, you may be following some of the turmoil that's plaguing Etsy in the search results. I'm not totally in the know, so take my explanation with a grain of salt. Apparently, when items are listed or renewed, they are not always being posted to the search results. Instead, etsy is posting items in batches. In other words, items may not show up in the search for minutes, or hours. If I pay .20 to list an item, I'd like to see it at the top of it's search category, but with a batch post- I may be on page 3 or 4 or 20 right off the bat. Not good.

So, with the renewing/listing problem going on, I wonder if I suffer sales by letting my shop sit without the exposure of renewing (renewing is paying another .20 to have your item at the top of the search results).

Of course it could be the economy, stupid. It almost makes me feel a teensy bit better for having no 401K or stock portfolio. I watch lots of cable news and listen to NPR during my hour long commute to work daily, and the news is not encouraging. I wonder how long it will be before the average Joe and Jill, especially, feel good enough about spending money to want to shop for little luxuries. I think most people are quite scared just now and things will get better the closer we get to the holiday season. Perhaps things will be looking up in a couple of weeks.

Until then, I'll keep creating!

I'm on DaWanda!!

What's DaWanda, you say?? That's another online shopping site for handmade goods. It's similar to Etsy, but based in Europe. There is the original site, in German; a French DaWanda; and an English one. The German and French DaWanda definitely see more sales and traffic, but the English site is new and just getting going.

The site is super easy to use and learn. You don't pay per listing, just a small fee for when the item sells. There is also a nice forum filled with helpful people. The usual snarkiness of the Etsy forum is blessedly missing. I haven't noticed any of the nasty comments and general bad attitude that Etsy forums are prone to. Actually, that's probably one of the reasons I hang around the Etsy forums too much- for the drama!

Anyway, I digress! DaWanda now hosts my shop called Ferragamo Studio. I have an eclectic collection of items in that shop and will be adding more in the coming days and weeks. I hope to have it as robust as my etys shop soon.

Santa Rosa Beads is coming!!!!

We're so happy to announce that our new etsy shop, Santa Rosa Beads, is slated to open in the next two weeks!

We've had so much wonderful feedback from our customers about our pendants and pottery, that we wanted to offer some supplies and handmade beads with our Fireluster Pottery style.

We're busy creating loads of handmade beads and components. I'm going to start listing on Etsy sometime in the next week. I have a lot of work to do; make a banner, write listings, pricing, etc. We did secure our url, though, so hopefully, we'll have a website developed soon, too.

At Santa Rosa Beads, we'll have handmade sterling silver findings, too. Handforged earwires, eyepins and clasps are some of the cool things you'll find for your jewelry making. I love making silver clasps and components and you'll be sure that you're getting only the highest quality handmade findings available.

Keep your eyes open for the debut of Santa Rosa Beads. I think we'll be running a fun little contest for our grand opening. I'm still thinking of what to have as the prize.

Thanks to everyone who purchased from us. We have the nicest customers! We'll continue to have Fireluster Pottery as our shop to sell finished handpainted ceramic jewelry and one of a kind pottery and ceramic work. Santa Rosa Beads will be your place to buy handmade porcelain and ceramic beads and sterling silver jewelry findings for your original designs!

Etsy Find - Turquoise Soaps

I found this seller on etsy the other day; Amethyst Soaps. I couldn't believe how realistic this soap is! It looks just like real, tumbled turquoise nuggets with the 'matrix' and everything!

Amethyst Soaps also sells soap shaped like, what else, amethyst crystals. Very pretty. Almost too pretty to use. I just love these. They'd be beautiful in a guest bathroom, or as a housewarming gift. I know what to get my mother for Christmas. She has a southwest decorated bathroom, and the turquoise soap would be perfect for it.

Featured on Etsy Front Page!

My little Blue bird was featured on the front page of etsy today! I wanted to get a screenshot, but I never have gotten the hang of doing it properly. In any case, the front page changed a couple of minutes after I happened to see it. I usually forget to check it, but for some reason, I decided to look at it. Maybe it's because of that long, long, etsy forum thread about the same people being shown on the front page.

Well, I'm thankful I was there and got a couple hundred views out of it. Hooray!!

July Blog Giveaway!!

Well folks, it's that time again!
It's the start of the new blog giveaway from Fireluster!! Woo-hoo!!

To qualify, just check out the blog and post a comment to this post. I'll need to contact you to let you know if you're a winner, so make sure I have a valid email. The prize is a pendant from our etsy shop , Fireluster Pottery ($15 or under only). The winner is chosen by a random drawing. Last month, Kat picked out an awesome carved porcelain pendant as her prize.

In addition, if you leave me an address to your blog, I'll link to it here, too. I'll be looking for artists, etsy shops, and websites to feature on the blog, so if you'd like to be considered, feel free to let me know that, too! If you want to be on our email list, let me know and I'll email you reminders of our contests and new stuff!

Good luck!!

New Etsy Listings

I added three new listings to the etsy shop; FirelusterPottery today. The top photo is called Super Star Necklace, and it's got my favorite butterscotch looking glaze with a ton of nice crackle glaze. It's strung on a brown rubber cord.

The second photo is Carved Porcelain Heart Necklace in porcelain. I like the way the glaze is transparent enough to emphasize the carving in the porcelain. This pendant has so much textural interest and charm. I love heart pendants of any kind, and the sideways heart is always popular.

The bottom photo is the Little Yellow Bird Handpainted Porcelain Necklace. I use the majolica style of decorating on this one. The bright glazes are painted over a base of white satin glaze. This makes the glazes sink into the white, giving the whole pendant a wonderfully soft look. Birds, and the color yellow are supposed to be popular this year. Well, we'll see. Maybe this little necklace will sell quickly.

New Etsy Listings - Clay Carving!

I listed a few new necklaces on our Etsy shop, FirelusterPottery. These new pendants were made using a technique that I've been trying; clay carving. Some people call it clay lifting, and that's a very good description of what it is.

I use a tool, that has a sharp edge, to cut into the leatherhard clay, and lift it from the surface. Some lines I carve with a scalpel. When the clay dries, I fire it and apply glaze for the second firing.

The trick with this is getting the pattern correct the first time. There is no second chance to fix a boo-boo. You get what you get, and hopefully, you did it right the first time. I liked doing the carving, but there is a definite learning curve. I messed up a few until I got the hang of it. Now I have a couple of tricks that help me get it to come out right the first time.

The first picture is a pendant made from cone6 porcelain. The flower design is carved into the clay when it's leather hard. I love the glaze; a sort of buttery color I call butterscotch. It looks just like when you melt butter and caramelized sugar together. The second photo is of another porcelain pendant glazed with Coyote glazes in Crazed Copper and Archie's Base. Those two together make a wonderful combination. There's lots of nice crazing with some frothy looking light blue in there, too.

The last photo is a pendant made from stoneware. This stoneware is from Axner, and has a good amount of grog in it. That made it harder to carve, but also gives it a lot of texture and character. The glaze is a green shino. I like how the green breaks to brown in the thin areas.

This is a technique I want to explore further. I have many more pendants to list, and will be doing that soon. I have a few earmarked for use in necklaces that will use beads I made earlier. Keep a lookout in my etsy shop for more additions within the next week.

Ready for the kiln

Here's a photo of what my pendants look like before they get fired. These are in the greenware state, which means they are basically just dried clay. At this point, they are very fragile, so when I paint them with underglaze, I have to be careful. You can see some of the pendants I have listed on Etsy; the Moon, the Flaming Eye, and a few others.

You can see the canvas covered board that I roll out and cut the clay on. For small things like this, it works great. To change colors of clay, I just change to my brown stoneware canvas board.

Bringing wood to life

Sandra Healy is a California artist who makes exquisite wood sculptures of animals. I discovered her etsy shop, SandraHealy and have saved her as one of my favorites. She's got an eye for the essence of a creature and brings it to life in her basswood carvings.

I've always been fascinated with wood carving, and I love the naturalistic, yet stylized portraits of Sandra's. Her animals are carved simply, but with the essential characteristics that make you feel that these are individuals, each with their own personalities. Her carving of the King Penguin and chick is one of my favorites. This piece just makes me smile to look at it. I also love the Bluebird carving, one of her many birds.

In her item descriptions, Sandra says she carves the basswood with knives and chisels, and airbrushes the color with water based inks. Her art is truly collectible, very reasonably priced and each piece is adorable.

Uh-oh! I sold my avatar!!!

Well, there you have it. My theory worked. Someone bought my avatar, a bird porcelain pendant (thanks, The Silver Moon!). I know she's going to love it because it is so darned cute I almost kept it for myself! Now I have gotten myself into a delimma. What to do with my avatar? Should I keep the bird one? But then I'm advertising something that isn't in my shop anymore. Hmm. I'll have to think on that. Perhaps I need to always have one of these little bird pendants in stock. That might work! Anyway, a sale, yea!

Why you need to use your product as your Etsy avatar

Making the decision to open an Etsy shop is easy. Keeping it looking professional, attractive, and up to date takes a lot more work. There are a lot of things you can do to make your Etsy shop look like better, and one of them is having a great avatar.

An avatar is your online "image". That's the little photo next to your Etsy shop name. It shows up in your shop and when you are posting in the forums. It's the thing that helps identify you to buyers and becomes part of your identity. As such, it becomes a small, but important part of your Etsy presence.

If you go to Etsy and click on "BUY" then go down to "SELLERS", you can see all the sellers and their avatars. You have people who use photos of themselves, their kids, their babies,their pets, logos, funny drawings, shop items, and on and on and on.

Here's where I think most people go wrong (bear in mind, this is my opinion, and you may not agree with it), they don't see this as an opportunity to show what they sell! Here is a way to advertise your product. It lets people know instantly what you sell, your style and that you are a professional business.

I'm not a big fan of photos of babies. I think nothing says "not serious" more than a picture of a baby or a child (unless you sell baby or child items). I know people love their children, but it sends a message that the seller is an amateur. Ditto the pets. Photos of yourself are also not a good idea. Buyers are thinking about themselves while shopping. They look at a pair of earrings and think, 'how will that look on me?'. They are thinking inwardly and your photo gets them thinking about you, not them. Ultimately, you want to draw them in and have them look at your shop and picture themselves wearing your jewelry, or using your soap, or putting your prints on their wall. Don't get them off course by distracting them with your photo. Having a funny drawing works if it's something you sell like a card or print, and a logo is great if you sell graphics or other intangibles. Overall, I still think the product photo is your best bet.

Imagine someone looking at your avatar. You're making an instant impression on them, and first impressions are long lasting. Using your product, you have the opportunity to grab their attention quickly. There's not much time, only a second or two, and you want to make it count!

There's a lot of competition on Etsy, and you need to take advantage of every opportunity to be seen. Your avatar is your best way to tell people about your shop. Think of it as a little ad that goes everywhere you do on Etsy. Using a photo of your product makes your business look more professional, let's people know what you sell, and can advertise your item.

Fireluster Pottery on the front page of Etsy!

One of my pendants made the front page of Etsy this week! It was my Modern Retro porcelain pendant in black and white. Woo-hoo!

I made this pendant like most of my others, cut out the porcelain clay and form it inot a dome shape, and paint the greenware with underglaze colors. This one has gloss clear on top to really give it a high shine. I love my high fire gloss!

The painted design is reminiscent of what was considered modern in the fifties. I think it sort of looks like a bunch of television screens, when I see those patterns. This necklace has an 18 inch black rubber cord with a metal clasp. It really looks wonderful with black or white outfits. I have one I made for myself and I wear it all the time. It's one of those pieces you can dress up or down.

Check out my Etsy shop; Fireluster Pottery for more ceramic jewelry, pottery and other goodies!