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| I've updated the comments on my Flickr Jewelry Photoset to indicate which items are now on sale via Sticks and Stones in Fairfax, Virginia. The rest I'll have with me to sell at Midnight in DC tonight, where I'll be vending with Raven. I'll also be making new pieces throughout the evening, and I've already created four new pieces in addition to those posted on Flickr which I'll have with me. If you'd like to see them, you'll have to come out tonight or else hope they haven't been bought before I set up my online shop tomorrow. As a hint, though, the four pieces I've made include aventurine, blue and red goldstone, and blue quartz. Hope to see people there! :) | |
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| So, the good folks over at Sticks and Stones in Fairfax, VA have taken 14 of my pieces to sell. Will catalog just which ones they are tomorrow when I has an awake. I have also been asked to work on gem trees and feng-shui type " money trees" (basically gem trees made with feng shui coins rather than stone chips) for them to sell. | |
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| Strands of stone chip beads. Where do you buy yours online? I've had Rocknrocks.com recommended, but they seem to no longer be in existence as a bead store, and the url now points to a google group that appears to be unaffiliated with the former store. I'm also familiar with monsterslayer.com, sedonastones.com, thunderbirdsupply.com, ephemerala.com, abeadstore.com, artbeads.com, fusionbeads.com, and of course firemountaingems.com. Honestly, in the past I've mostly gotten my stone chip beads from AC Moore, though.
What do you use? What makes them the best, in your opinion? Are there any major sources of beads online that I haven't listed here that I should know about? Anyone know where Rocknrocks went or what happened to it? | |
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| One more piece of jewelry that I made tonight... I think my wire-wrapping technique is getting a little better, plus I'm learning techniques to improve my photography of jewelry. This picture actually captures the real color of the piece quite well. | |
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| Artflock had some hidden catches that didn't become apparent until I tried signing up with them, so I'm definitely going with Etsy unless someone can recommend good, basic (I don't want feature-bloat), easy, reliable and secure ecommerce software that I can run on dreamhost. ZenCart does not meet the basic and easy requirements. But, I don't want to start listing items on Etsy until I've chatted with Gwendolyn from Sticks and Stones on Friday and given her first crack at my current inventory. Not to mention I'll be out vending at Midnight the following day, anyway. In the meantime, anyone who is curious about my current work can take a gander here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jarandhel/sets/72157622744120003/ | |
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| Artflock vs Etsy... anyone have any input? Artflock is looking pretty good to me, since it's free listings and the same fee as Etsy if I sell through my own website (which I plan to do) using their software, and only a slightly higher fee if I sell straight through artflock.com (5% vs 3.5%).
Artfire is out of the running since I'd have to list at least 60 pieces every month for the monthly fee to be worth it for the paid version, while it's free version only lets me list 12 pieces at a time.
Also looked into Zencart as a possibility for hosting the ecommerce software myself, but it looks insanely complicated for my needs. | |
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| So, all in all, a very fun weekend at the Northern Virginia Mineral Club's 18th Annual Gem, Mineral, and Fossil show. I more than made up for the lack of sales when I vended at Midnight, with 9 sales over the weekend totaling $85.50. Gwendolyn, one of the proprietors of the local pagan shop Sticks and Stones also stopped by our table and expressed interest in selling some of my work in her shop, including possibly some custom pieces for her school The Goddess Tree. I know orthaevelve has had very good luck selling her pieces through their store, so I am definitely going to follow up on this. I'm also going to see about setting up an etsy store in the next week or two, since there seems to be some genuine interest in my work. Also, this coming Saturday, I'll be giving vending at Midnight another go with orthaevelve and possibly primaldog. Hopefully I'll have a slightly different selection and we'll see if anyone shows some interest there. If not, hey, how often do you get to spend a night at a club with your friends for free? ;-) | |
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| Ooog... got up much too early today. 6am. I don't get up that early for work. But we had to be at the show to set up by 7:30, or 8 at the latest, even though the show didn't open for customers until 10am. Had a lot of fun there, though. Sold 7 items, two or three of which were made on-site, and got lots of compliments on my work. Made almost 60 bucks, which more than paid for my half of the table fee and my lunch for the day and the few sharks teeth I bought in the morning to wire wrap on-site (and two of the items that sold were sharks teeth necklaces). All in all, much fun and a very good day. Hoping tomorrow continues in the same vein. :) Now, to go pounce orthaevelve and then pass out. ;-) | |
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| This weekend orthaevelve and I will be vending at the Northern Virginia Mineral Club's 16th Annual Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show at GMU in Fairfax. If you like Raven's work or if you like the jewelry examples you've seen me post here, come check us out. Admission is $4 for Adults, $3 for Seniors, and Children 12 and under, Scouts in Uniform, and GMU students get in free. You can also print this pdf and bring it with you for $1 off Adult Admission. I think it's going to be a great event, and the things you'll be able to see and buy there will be well worth the price of entry. Plus, I've got some new things I've been working on that I haven't posted here yet. | |
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| I just got Contemporary Wire Wrapped Jewelry by Curtis Kenneth Leonard with William A Kappele from Amazon. :) It's a book on wire wrapping that I used to own but had gotten rid of when I got out of making jewelry before. I added it to another order (20 pounds of pasta!) to bring my order total over $25 dollars and qualify for free shipping. Oddly enough, each package shipped separately, but it was still free so I don't really care. :) And just for the record, yes it is as good as I remembered it being. Very very glad I got it back again, it makes a very nice addition to my growing jewelry-making library. One of the things I especially like is it's section on designing your own original wire wrapped jewelry projects from scratch. | |
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