Back to Etsy!

I've been on Etsy for a while now, I love it for buying presents (presents for myself as well as for other people) and I have found it to be a brilliant source for supplies - jewellery, art, sewing, you name it! I often find myself spending many happy hours looking at the vintage items too, it's just so much fun! However one thing I have never quite gotten the hang of is generating lots of sales on my Etsy shop! Infact when I put my shop on vacation mode when I was last on holiday I didn't re-open because well... things had been so slow that it just didn't seem worth opening the shop again. However this week I had a change of heart and I've decided to give myself one more chance as an Etsy store owner.

click image to visit the Artizania Etsy store! Or visit here 

www.artizania.etsy.com

I'm still not convinced that I've done the right thing, however at a cost of only 20 cents per listing I can't really complain. I'm hoping that Etsy second time around will be more successful for me, I'm still not sure of the best way to generate traffic to the shop. (any ideas out there?) Also I wonder, do I really have the time to network, create treasuries, take part in Etsy teams and join in on the forums? If I am honest I suspect not, I find just photographing the work and creating the listings time consuming enough. I think that the key to Etsy success is all about networking, and I am aware that networking (be it virtual or in real life) is not one of my strengths (yet! I'll try and work on that.) for a number of reasons, time spent being the biggest one. So anyway, I'm having one more shot at being an Etsy store owner and we'll see how it goes. Even if I end up shutting up shop again that's ok. I still love you Etsy and I'll always be a customer, because there really is nowhere else quite like Etsy. P.S.if any of you reading this have any suggestions or have Etsy experience you'd like to share, please feel free to leave a comment and feel free to pay my Etsy store a visit too!

I Love Lucite

Following on from my last blog post, here are some photos of the lucite flower jewellery I have been creating recently. Hoping to re-open my Etsy store soon and get these listed!

If you like these please follow Artizania on Facebook and you can see more of this lucite jewellery on the photo album called "I Love Lucite" click HERE to view it. I have a selection of lucite chokers and brooches for sale at An Cnoc in Crieff, so if you'd like to see these in "real life" please pay An Cnoc a visit! They have a lovely selection of high quality Scottish made gifts, perfect for Christmas!

Funky Florals

I was very excited to receive a jewellery supplies delivery at the weekend - I will be posting photos of the finished items shortly. I love working with these lucite flowers, they remind me of the beautiful floral prints you get on 1970s retro fabric.

I know exactly what I'm going to make with these

  Funky floral fabrics (from my own collection) 

Perhaps an influence on my floral jewellery?

Finished floral chokers - More to come in "winter" colours

Mother Nature Loves You

Just thought I'd post a couple of photos of this lovely heart shaped rose petal that I found the other day!

Crafty Charity Shopping

Recently I found some fantastic vintage craft magazines in a charity shop. They even included segments on silver jewellery making, I'll share more pages in later blog posts. Fabulous!

Christmas Bazaar

Following on from my previous post - If I get a chance I'll try and sharpen up this image! (I only had a photo copy to work with)

I Don't Do Craft Fairs Anymore, But...

Last year I decided to cut down dramatically on taking part in craft fairs (that's a whole other blog post) however next weekend I am making an exception for Church Of The Holy Rude Christmas Crafts and Stall Bazaar! It takes place on Saturday 16th November in Stirling (at the Church Of The Holy Rude of course) I'm especially looking forward to the home made soup and baking in the South Aisle Cafe! An artist friend is selling cards and he has kindly asked me to share stall space, so I will have a small collection of jewellery for sale prices start at £5. See pictures below for a preview!

  "Vintage Rose" earrings 

 Brooches, bracelets, bag charms...

I couldn't resist a close up of the beautiful beads!