I keep trying to write the definitive post about several topics...which is just silly...I'll try to make some bite size posts
AND...I did almost all of the un-summer things you need to do like remove AC from windows, take in patio furniture, and take in potted plants...started the fall things like raking & pruning
Planning to insulate in the basement even, but that may fall by the wayside if anything interesting peaks around the corner :D
I've been working on streamlining my shipping and packaging process.
For Product Packaging I used to only use recycled kraft paper boxes. They are still easy enough to get, and I stamped them with my logo & wrapped them with a bow. Pretty, but not very zesty.
So I put on my creative hat, for a bit ~ did some on-line 'window' shopping, and tried out different boxes, and bags, and wrapped packages, and came up with the clear pillow box, bright zesty tissue paper, big confetti and ribbon. The mini bag is for goodies, coupons, a little customer gift and my contact info.
What do you think? If you have fun with your packaging post a link in the comments.
Finished up 2 custom orders over the weekend.
Tall wedding band.
I like the thinner gauge profile and made some similar while I was at it. The longer seam was tougher to align, but I'll make more since it is a nice width for the square gems I have and for other structures.
Loooonnnnnggg quote.
It was terrifying, and got scarier as I went...what if I got distracted for a second & stamped the wrong letter?! ugh. I prepped two cuffs just in case. I like the text density on this and am considering offering the option it in my "zestyb" shop.
I ordered a new set of business cards for the Zesty Betsy shop info. I like the two sided option I had before, but the type was a bit small, and my phone provider had been purchased so that was not available any longer.
So I made some adjustments to the back/text area ~ bigger type, changed phone number and added the same yellow ground color from the front ~ and made no changes on the front.
These look subtly different from the initial one's ~ I'm a little disappointed ~ just because the soft yellow was apparently color adjusted to almost white. I didn't like the white from the last batch, blech, so had added the yellow to both sides. It doesn't look dirty, but maybe old?
Oh Zesty Betsy does have a new phone number! Local to Boston it's 617-487-4469 and you can always send email to "betsy" at
Do you like shopping for supplies for your creations? Thrifting, yard sales and freecycle get thumbs up from many folks on the forums. I took a trip to the costume jewelry capital of the world: Providence, Rhode Island for a trip back into time (lots of vintage) and a trek thru the sub sub-basement for the perfect beads, findings, chains and crystals.
I'm pretty excited to be teaching a jewelry class mid-May! A new shop ~ Oak ~ opened up on Gloucester St in Boston & she's offering space for classes.
Ohhh ~ so how does a bracelet & earrings sound? I'm having fun packaging up supplies & beads for a funky fun cha-cha style; ordered new tools for students, and have been writing up some information for handouts.
To sign up please e-mail Oak at Bostonartisans@gmail.com and she will confirm your spot.
Here is the description:
Jewelry making with wire and bead techniques (Do the Cha-Cha)
May 18th, 3-5pm. $60 ($35 if you have your own supplies)
Introduction with a hands on lesson in the fundamentals of jewelry making with wire. The class will cover instruction in the tools, wire and beads. You'll have time to practice wraps, links and loops by making a beaded cha-cha bracelet and matching earrings. Required tools and materials included in materials fee.
I'd love to see you there.
Lucky search one day brought me to a listing for a little used Evenheat kiln. I've been wanting to work more with enamels, thinking it would be cool to at least try PMC, and occasionally wondering what it would be like to fuse glass and or have the proper tool to anneal glass beads. The previous owner took a class and went all in, but hasn't used her kiln much since then. It came with some furniture for slumping, kiln wash, a brush, instruction and even a video!
Oh I know my torch will work just fine for many PMC and enamel pieces, but it has a couple drawbacks, as you can imagine ~ torches blow, and have small coverage areas. The kiln eliminates that.
I've dug out my sketch book for all of my belt buckle doodle designs and ordered the enamel catalog.
If you know of a good enamel resource, let me know!
I'm a few days behind just now, playing catchup ~ which I really hate. I won't get a chance to get ahead of it for a week or so either.
But griping aside; went to the Boston Society of Arts & Crafts CraftBoston event on Sunday at the Seaport Hotel.
There were several artists I recognized from other venues such as Marie Galvin with her fantastic hats, headwear, and facinators, Ananda Khalsa with her delicate asian inspired drawings, and Jaclyn Davidson and her steel and precious metals.
Found some interesting new artists, but didn't find too much in the way of new inspiration for display setups, altho I saw couple I didn't like! Which is helpful to also see what isn't attractive, easy to work with, or makes everything visible.
Oh, not true. One booth used a bamboo rug to help define the space from the conference room floor ~ while many vendors added their own flooring, the bamboo was a different and appealing texture, as well as a different color. It also worked with the feel of the rest of her booth. I found them at Target *shrug* but there are several stores that carry them.
Busy weekend!
Was an exhibitor this weekend ~ surprise invite ~ at a Green Eco-friendly trade show this weekend ~ had a blast sharing a themed (eco-bridal) booth with another Etsian (kiss&tell,) Hippy Chick Bakery. Seaport Hotel was there (green venue!) and eco-bridal author Emily Anderson hung out there too!
I got some nice comments on my recycled handmade paper cards and books; but had quite a few jewelry sales. The dummy head surprised some people; but I think the display worked really well ~ I used a similar set up in the past, but this had some modifications.
Ran across the SBA site today & noticed they have free classes. A few are beyond my scope ~ like How to Export is directed at large scale, not the one-by-one exporting of OOAK items I do ~ but it is interesting as a glimpse into some of the details I might need if I get that big!
The marketing and business plan topics are worth the 30 minutes.
Yesterday I was pretty ecstatic about feedback ~ on the shop & in an email from a customer ~ that she appreciated the care I took in my packaging & presentation even from my junque shop. Wow, that can be a rush. It's a funny lesson to me too, because one positive complement means that every other customer will continue to benefit, since I'll continue the practices. I'll remember this in my feedback in the future, but point it out for others too ~ comments on a blog, articulate feedback, and comments about what went well can go a long way to encouraging a person.
But I was def grumpy today about a not sale in the junque shop I have - ZestyBeads.etsy.com - not just that you might buy something & not pay; but that you don't buy something in order to ask for a "bulk discount" quot. Then send a kiss & make up request, after the transaction is canceled. Makes me very upset to be put in such an uncomfortable position, several times by just one transaction.
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. oh no
Have been reaching back to my expensive schooling to think about the business aspects of the business; the past few weeks I've been dreading, but planning for taxes and reading and mulling over the marketing agenda for the next 10 months.
The first small change is to figure out how to leverage my supply selling shop more effectively. I already include business cards in each order; but I may start including a coupon or reference coupon to the jewelry shop in each supply order.
Working with etsyBEAD street team to hold a scavenger hunt online at Etsy.
Find all the clues/images & win a prize. I'm the prize master, so I know that they are pretty excellent.
Handmade lampwork beads from StudioMarcy; bath & body products from MamaDivine, and of course Jeweley from Figments, have arrived already. They are wonderful.
More details for the heart hunt at the etsyBEAD team blog
Have been working with Amy to organize a Holiday Showcase for Boston Handmade. I'm really looking forward to the event. There is a good group of artists showing and a great location in Washington Square in Brookline.
Dalias Bistro
1657 Beacon St
Brookline ~ Washington Square
November 18th from 12-5p
Keep your eyes here or the team blog for more details & developments
These are some still important, but not as often discussed setting on your digital camera. Perhaps because older models didn't have them, or maybe just because they are more difficult to convey, in any case they do not offer the big bang improvements that light & exposure settings do, but are more refinements for you to try.
ISO
ISO on some film cameras I've seen it "ASA" in either case a measure of Film Speed. In digital cameras this makes little sense. There is no film in the camera so how in the world would this apply?
Very good question! (pat myself on the back)
Basically it's all about the speed to capture light. If something is moving very quickly you need to expose the film for a very short fraction of a second, or else the swimmer/wildlife/just fired bullet/other fast moving object will appear blurry since some of the movement is captured. Makes sense, right?
The thing is, is that if the shutter is only open for a fraction of a second, only a little bit of light is captured.
So, for the close up photography of jewelry or other crafty product - the ISO on the camera can be manually set to capture the most light - you are using a tripod, right ? and the jewelry isn't walking around on you (I hope!) I set my camera ISO to 100 for product shots.
(When I go to the swim meet, I set my ISO to 1600 or 3200 and make other adjustments for the lack of light!)
Continue reading "Tuesday Tutorial - More camera settings" »
Tried PayPal Multi-order shipping this weekend for a team coop order. I was able to input each name/address and guesstimate of weight before team mates responded to Invoicing & me getting reimbursed. Since you're charged when the label is printed, it is nice for getting some prep work done and addresses saved in the system.
Each field remains editable, so the shipping speed or the weight class can be adjusted. Selected Labels, packing slips, scan tags, etc can be printed; or the entire batch - you choose.
We also tried Google Checkout for payment. I'll have to let you know more about that later when I try to remove the funds! but I'll say it was pretty easy to send invoices and folks didn't seem to have any trouble paying. I do have a couple wishes - it could be easier to find the invoice feature - it is found on your payment settings pages of all things! and it would be nice to have a "send another?" button
*Fleetwood Mac song in my head this Monday morning :D
This tutorial is pretty much the steps I went thru to learn about my old and my new camera so I could spend less time editing my photos for posting to my online shops.
Do a little experimentation with your camera!
What you'll do is set up an area (a light box* if you have one) with of a typical piece of your work. Have 2 or 3 backdrops you like and intend to use in ‘live’ shots; in a light box with the lights you will use.
You can do some amazing photos in natural light, but the sun won't stay still, so you'll need to practice a little more, and have more day time available to you than I do. I often take my photos late into the evening so I must use an indoor set up for most of my product photography.
*I’ll post about creating and improvising light boxes in the future.
What you need:
*Camera – I’m using a very basic $125 point & shoot camera
*Lights - I have some spot halogen and a medusa head lamp with 5 positionable bulbs, as well as ambient room lighting.
*Display or light box
*Product
*Backdrops – one white for the experiments and one black/dark, one gray or mid-toned color for additional refining
*Optional: Smaller ‘chips’ of paper one in bright white, dark black, and as close as you can to 20% gray as you can get. (you can use a ColorAid pack if you have one or paint chips from the hardware store)
*Note paper for tracking the photos you take.
To start with:
Make a list or grid or number your note paper to keep track of which setting you used for each photo. In the experiment, you will try to take nearly the same photo each time.
Then:
Set up your display and lights with the white background. Try not to pick fabric or paper that is shiny or with distracting patterns. Place the product in there too!
Distance between Camera & Work:
If you are taking photos of smaller work, or want detailed photos, as I do, first off, find the macro setting on the camera. It is most often represented as a tulip. The marco setting changes the focus length so that you can get up close and not have fuzzy edges – as close as a couple inches on some models. The actual distance is different for each camera, so the first step in close up work it to find the optimal range for your camera model. It may be listed in your owner’s manual, but you can try it out by taking a photo at different distances:
Take the same basic picture at (you don’t need to worry about funky angles yet :D)
2 in (5cm) (too close for most point & shoot models)
5 in – 7 in (15cm) about a hand span – use your hand to measure!
Just for fun turn the macro setting off and take a ‘handspan’ photo to see the difference
12in (30cm) – about a sheet of paper
One last one at about 18in
Upload these to your computer. Find the shot which is clearest with crisp edges. If it’s not perfectly clear, you can refine the experiment again by taking more pics at different distances.
If all of the images are fuzzy and you are quite sure you found and used the macro setting – you might need a tripod to steady the camera. If you don’t yet have a tripod, try resting the camera on a small box, or a riser. I’ve even used the timer option for some shots where I don’t want the camera to tilt when I pushed the button down!
So now you should know how close you can go & how far you need to be from the piece.
Continue reading "Tuesday Tutorial - Camera settings for better product photos" »
Have been working really hard on a new display set up.
Meeting tonite to continue planning a holiday team show
need to remember to post about "perks" thing to see if someone can run with the group web site (not just blog) set up.
need to follow up on trip to NY
want to try really hard to not order more stuff before I have touched stuff from the last order
annnndddd
have these designs percolating in my head - i've sketched & re-sketched - and now I need to pound them out!
phrew
You can't print postage online for first class packages at the post office web site. Ugh you can at PayPal, but then you also have to pay the small fee for delivery confirmation - it's only 18cents....but it's not an option.
So I thought I'd try Stamps.com - which looks like a decent service; but it is distressing to me when the subscription prices are hidden and barely indicated behind the "FREE" postage, "FREE" scale adverts on their site.
I don't ship enough yet to make the service worthwhile - it's $16 a month - plus the fancy stickers for stamps and labels - tho you can use plain paper. So now I have to find out how to cancel the service! Ugh - I'm guessing that will be a chore.