These are exciting times for me folks! Since my last post good things have happened and it is a wonderful feeling finally seeing a lot of hard work pay off! So, first of all if you are here reading this:

THANK YOU!

True, I have been a bit slack on the blogging end of my jewelry adventure, but no less dedicated! The fact of the matter is that when you are really trying to make a go of your home based jewelry business, be it as an online shop owner or brick and mortar seller and anything in between, a lot of little stuff has to happen to insure you will turn it into a success down the line. And often making jewelry (and writing blog posts about it) gets left on the back burner. But I am trying to balance the business end in a way that will allow me as much time as possible to do what I love the most and that is creating!

Recently I celebrated my one year anniversary as an Etsy shop owner. And I can definitely say that this past year has been a tremendous learning experience for me. I guess naive is a pretty good description of me a year ago. Naive in the sense that while I knew it wouldn’t be easy, I didn’t think it would be this hard! But just like giving birth to a real baby, this business baby of mine is something that I am learning to raise. Now I can look back (with horror) at my earliest fledgling attempts at photography, description writing, tags, (what the heck is) SEO?! All that along with trying to find my style, “create a brand”, find high quality suppliers, start writing a blog (!), get all the business stuff in order…

And now I am beginning to get a sense how it all ties in together, how photographing my creations has also made me a better artist essentially forcing me to take a very close look at what I have created, flaws and all. It is also making me much more aware of the spirit or personality of the piece I created. I am not the kind of person who is happy with taking the same old boring sets of pictures over and over. That kind of homogenized approach has never been my bag. Each creation has a right to be shown in its best light and I want to be sure that I have done it justice.

The same concept really applies to writing descriptions. This is, however the more meat and potatoes, lets get to the nitty-gritty part of it all. I have to be able to supply my customer with all the information they need without sounding sterile about it. Too much would be a turn off, too little might make it seem I don’t care enough to sit down and do it right. I have tweaked a lot!

Now I am looking at a new year. It is already shaping up to be a good and creative one. Several projects are in the works, which I cannot wait to share with you soon!