Run up to Christmas....

I really meant to blog last week....LOL!  Ok, well it's the run-up to Christmas and I still haven't sold anything.  I'm not too upset of course, because I know it takes a while to get established anywhere, including a website like Etsy.  I do love Etsy though, I just love the layout and all the support there.


Anyway, I have listed pretty much everything I have made so far, with the exception of a couple of things here and there.  I know it's hard to price your stuff - whatever you're selling - and I am starting to wonder if I might be over-pricing my jewellery.  At one point I thought might have been UNDER pricing, but my brother recently told me that his colleagues reckon that my prices are too high.

Would you pay £35 for this necklace?

The thing is, I would be happy paying the prices I have put everything at.  There is no correct way of pricing jewellery, which is what makes it so difficult.  The basic formula which I have come across is to add everything you have spent on the item, and multiply it by 2 to get a wholesale price (if you're selling to a store or a company).  Now this is realistic because if you sell anything wholesale, you will be expected to sell your goods at around half the retail price.  This is perfectly normal - and this is why you need to do this equation to make sure you're not losing out on any profit, even if it might be a little bit.  The retail price is usually 1.5 or 2 x the wholesale price. Now, I have actually done both equations and taken into consideration what I personally would pay for each piece if I were buying it.  The other thing, is that I do have to cover costs and make sure I pay myself for the time I have taken to make a piece of jewellery.  It really does take me about half an hour to string a necklace of beads together from figuring out the design to calculating the price.  How many people out there actually know how much I have paid for some of these gemstones?  £10 for a string of 50 pearls is quite a lot.  Garnet, Onyx and Amethyst are all pretty expensive at the moment, you'd be lucky to find a 30cm string of any of these beads at a good size of 8mm for less than £5.  And don't get me started on the price of silver LOL!!  Some people might be surprised to learn that I might actually end up paying around £10 for the materials to create a necklace, double that to £20 for the wholesale price, double it again for a retail price of £40 which I think is too much so I take it down to £30 or even £25 because that is what I would personally pay.

I'd pay £30 for this necklace - would you?

I don't know....perhaps I'm rubbish at marketing or perhaps it's just that nobody has noticed or is waiting to buy things at the last minute.  All I know is that half the people I ask about the pricing tell me it's too much, and other people tell me it's about right.  So I'm not sure what to do there!  The other thing is that I know there are quite a few people looking at my Etsy store, yet nobody is buying.  There must be a reason - again, I think it's probably either price, waiting for payday / beginning of December, or perhaps my niche isn't attractive to many people.

Anyway, as I said, I'm not too upset about it - as I only started this thing in September / October, and I read recently in an Etsy blog that it can take around 6 months to get noticed on Etsy.  In the meantime, I LOVE creating treasuries, I'm a member of a jewellery making forum, I love creating jewellery and even though I have had a few down moments, this is a journey which I am taking in order to find out if it will work or not LOL!  If this doesn't work out for me, then at least I can say I tried it out and I won't be wondering "what if" for the rest of my life.

How much did I pay for the silver and gemstones here?

course I will continue to be creative if this doesn't work out, and I will even continue to market and try to sell my jewellery on Etsy, and next year I might do a few craft fairs and it might help spread the word.  Who knows, perhaps this will work out in a couple of years' time?  Besides, Russell Grant (A British astrologer) told me that it will take off, but it will take time.....so yes, I called into Radio 2 and got to be on air and find out what the Universe had in store for me - where's the harm in that?  The Universe can always change it's mind I guess ;)

Anyway, if ANYONE would like to take a a look at the prices in my Etsy store and tell me what you think of my prices, I would be very grateful for the feedback.  Tell me if you think my jewellery is over-priced, under-priced, and tell me what you would pay for which pieces!  Please, be honest! :)

Siobhan xx

Long time, no blog!

Wow...how long has it been since I last posted on here?

Well, to start off with, I have been away for the first two weeks of October.  I was in Wales for the first week, and I was travelling around the UK following Josh Groban on tour, who was amazing!  I managed to get my t-shirt signed along with a CD lyric book and picture.  I'm happy!! :)

So, I am back on Etsy - last week I re-opened my Etsy store and decided to gradually re-list each item one by one.  It's so cheap to do it, 20 cents is practically nothing in UK £ sterling!  Last week I was re-listing the Prehistoric items, this week it's Egypt and Middle East.

I am also in the middle of catching up with Etsy Holiday Bootcamp tasks - I'm a little concerned actually because I have had SO many views in my store yet nobody is buying anything.  Yesterday I had 40 views, and right now I'm on 20.

I'm trying to do everything I can to increase views - relisting definitely works, as does tweeting.  I may have said this before, but even though they advise you not to tweet too often about your own stuff you'll be considered as being "spammy" but so far, every time I tweet somebody looks at my Etsy store....

This week I am attempting to tweet about my own stuff, other things which might be interesting to people who follow me, and generally being a little more human rather than robotic.  The other thing is tags and descriptions of each item - I'm thinking I might go tweak them a little just to see if something happens!

In the meantime I still have some knitting and crochet to do in time for Christmas.  Speaking of which, I am going to promote some craft fairs which I have recently discovered, all in the Midlands - I thought it was worth blogging about!

1. Crafts for Christmas (www.ichf.co.uk) 3rd - 6th November at Birmingham NEC
2. Festive Gift Fair (www.festivegiftfair.co.uk) 17th-20th November at Birmingham NEC
3. Nottingham Bead and Craft Show (www.ukbeadfairs.co.uk) 20th November at Nottingham Gateway Hotel
4. The Guildhall Christmas Craft Fair (www.leicester.gov.uk/craftfair) in Leicester

I will NOT be exhibiting at any of these - I am nowhere near that kind of stage yet, although it is something I am thinking of doing at some point.  But I will be going along to have a look at the Festive Gift Fair at the NEC to do some Christmas shopping!  And also I will pop along to the one in Leicester as it's closest to me, easy to get to and....well, I want to see if I might want to exhibit there next week :)

Hey people - it's NOT too early to do your Christmas shopping!  I like to try and get everything done by November 30th or at the latest, the first weekend in December.  I usually end up buying many things throughout the year - if I see something which would suit somebody, but their Birthday has passed, I still buy it and save it up for Christmas.  I also buy the odd little thing here and there if I like the look of it but can't think of who to give it to - I buy a couple of cute things and put them away, think about who to give it to later.  Too many people hate Christmas because they avoid it until the last minute and rich around getting stressed about everything and don't put much thought into what they're buying for people.  Think about it NOW and at least you will have a little time to think about what you're giving as gifts :)

And of course....there is always my Etsy store if you're after some nice handmade jewellery ;)

Siobhan xx

Christmas toppers for gifts

Hi again folks!  Right, have you saved all your bits and pieces from Christmas?  Well, this blog will be about creating beaded "toppers" which can easily be arranged and glued on the top of Christmas gifts instead of bows.  I think it would make gifts look extra special, even more so if the gift is of the size of, say, a bracelet or watch, a bangle or a necklace.

Okay, so its very straightforward.  Over Christmas out crackers are usually ones with interesting patterns (which I salvage and flatten the card for use in Christmas Cards), and little beady bits and ribbons.  Its these beady bits and ribbons which I make the toppers out of, and once you see how simple this is, I bet this year you will be looking in the shops for crackers with little bits you can save and recycle yourself! ;o)

First off, I unwind the beady bits.  Usually its a piece of thin wire with a bead at either end.  Be careful with some of these because the beads can pop off if they have just been glued on the end.  Unless you know how to re-attach them, you may be throwing some beads away.

Next, I twist them together by taking both beads in my fingers, and twisting the wire to create a "stem".   Then I simply take a couple of twists and ttist those together to make a little bouquet, if you will.

The next thing is to hide the wire twist.  Now, along with my crackers came these neat little ribbon bits.  I simply unwind 1 pieces of ribbon - different colours but going together nicely - and I tie each one individually around the wire.  Try to uncrinkle the ribbon as much as you can so you can cover as much of the wire as you can.  Then that's pretty much it - all that's left to do is arrange the ribbin in a way which looks quite nice - I usually go with the "bouguet" look, tucking the ribbon behind the beads, making sure the knots in the ribbon are at the back of the entire piece.  Glue in place and then you're ready to attach more to it, or jus tpop onto a specal gift.  Here are some more photos of what I have done with others.  Have fun! :o)