Bounty From The Beadin' Path!

Mouth-watering greens, pinks, and purples! Shiny and matte and moonglow! Rounds, ovals, rondelles, top-drilled, flowers and drops!  Ga ga with gratitude over this heavenly heap and already have a couple of ideas for each item! Thanks again to Heather at The Beadin' Path for choosing such rich colours and finishes and shapes for me to play with!

I'll try to show a few of the things that you could do with these, especially the drops and flowers. I can tell you right now that, if you just put a jump ring through either of the flower pieces and hang them on a chain or ribbon, you'll be stylin'! The top drilled purple beads are so pretty that if you just strung them on memory wire, elastic or tiger tail, as is, you'd have a great looking bracelet! Actually, a simple strand of any of these luscious beads would be delightful at the wrist or neck.

Because the beads are so lovely on their own, the challenge, as always, is to show them off without overwhelming them!  Whenever I make a bracelet or necklace, I decide first which beads are going to be the stars of the piece, which beads will be the supporting players and which beads will chime in from the chorus. So let's see what kind of production I come up with using these!

And The Winner Is.....

.....ME!!!!
I've written about Rings & Things before, and you've met Russ Troll Bead here and followed his travels, so it should come as no surprise to know that I entered this and my name was drawn! What a lucky duck I am to work with the thoughtful choices put together by R&T's own Web Optimizer, Dave Robertson! I can't wait to see what my first package contains! I'm not in this alone either! Have a look at Just a Tish's blog and Dawno's blog. (I'm afraid to because I want to come up with my own take on things, which is really, quite difficult, what with inspiration to be found everywhere! But our styles are all so different that it should be quite interesting!)

Now, MY news from Rings and Things is thrilling, isn't it?! YOUR news from Rings and Things can be thrilling too! These guys are so generous and they are really showing it by giving designers this opportunity:

"A jewelry contest of creations made from Rings & Things products.

We invite you to show us your favorite handmade designs.
Designs don't have to be jewelry—they can be anything!

Entries accepted Jan 1 thru Feb 28, 2010. 

Winners announced the 1st week of June.

Winning entries (with credit to the designer) could be featured in our catalog

& promotions—that's exposure to more than a million people a year, worldwide!

You can turn around and use this for "as seen in" promotions of your own."

How cool is this! Fun for YOU and ME, thanks to Rings &Things! How perfect! Thank you Rings &Things! YOU rock!

Indie North Gift Guide!

Beth Smith of Indie Northhttp://indienorth.com/, has put together a really lovely looking gift guide and I am thrilled/proud/pleased to have an ad for Winged Heart Studio and the Peterborough Downtown Craft Market in it! Beth has a huge readership and she toils endlessly on behalf of Canadian Crafters to promote them and their indie businesses! If you are making a point of shopping local this year, have a look at the Guide. Or just look at it from a design standpoint! It really is well done visually! Thanks Beth baby, for a great job!!!

iCraft Marketing Boot Camp Starts November 1, 2009! (SUNDAY!!!)

I have shops on Artfire and iCraft and I know that you have at least one shop somewhere or are thinking of starting one, especially with the gift giving season looming! Just wanted to let you know about iCraft's Boot Camp which is starting very shortly - November 1, 2009. 
What I like about Boot Camp is that it is daily and that it also includes marketing advice, to-do's and how-to's for marketing your business where you live! So there ya go!

If you aren't interested, no worries. If you are, here is my referral key WHICH WILL ENTITLE YOU TO 6 MONTHS OF FREE ICRAFT.CA MEMBERSHIP! 

 My Referral Key: e0049cba8b.

I have never done the Boot Camp before and I am expecting it to result in improved shops and actual sales! Boot Camp is FREE when you join iCraft! It's a good deal and iCraft has a very attractive demographic that you may not be reaching with your other shops.

Oh, and they give away rather amazing stuff!

Below is a blurb from Christine Skaley, the Program Creator and then a little discussion I had with Alison Lynch from my Artfire Canadians Guild about rating venues with an article by Linda Harrell of Indie CEO. Hope this helps you sell lots!

Cheers, Wendy

About this Program
This is going to be a 28 day marketing program (weekends off) that will get us into the habit of effective and consistent marketing, with low to no cost methods: and at least 30 minutes of your time daily. Bootcamp will be about establishing routines and disciplines to do the daily marketing activities needed to keep your business growing. It will be about meeting some of your online neighbours and icraft family, so from hereafter you will always have a support system.

There will be 2 new daily threads started by me, Christine Skaley.
Day 1 - Check In and Day's Assignment.
Day 1 - What Happened?

Throughout the day I'll encourage you to post questions and communicate freely in the forum, about what you are doing... You can brag, debate, question and even argue... but no whining. Next day you will again see 3 new threads, and so on and so on for each of the remaining days.

We will try and get everyone including newbies out of the gate with at least one sale. I hate zero. It looks fat. :)

We will make this fun and interesting with free stuff too!
To sign-up for this program and to qualify for iCraft incentives, please go to "My Profile" and check "Yes, sign me up for the "Sellers' Bootcamp" program!" checkbox.

 ***********************************************************************************************

Alison Lynch has sent you a message on Artfire Canadians

Hi Wendy,

I've actually been checking out icraft.ca as another possible selling venue.

What's the dynamic like in terms of shoppers who visit the site? I really like the look and feel of iCraft, and would appreciate any insight you could share.

Thanks
alison

Oh cool, Alison, glad this is helpful! I chatted with 'GalleriaLinda' who is very involved in the Boot Camp program and the iCraft forums generally. Here is an excerpt that I think you will find extremely relevant! Linda is from Florida and that is why I asked her about why she was using what I think of as a Canadian venue.

me:  why iCraft, which is to my mind, primarily a canadian venue?

lharrellmail:  I love iCraft because it has a different demographic. I find that my jewelry does not really click with the major demographic of Etsy.

You can go to www.quantcast.com and see demographics for venues. Very important.

Plus, the iCraft admin are so great and easy to work with. And, I love their bootcamp.

Their one-page listing sheet is SUCH a time saver.

 me:  very interesting! so you have sold more on iCraft?

 lharrellmail:  Yes I have made more sales there - even with my paltry time investment (because of working).

 lharrellmail:  Yes - on iCraft. More sales in shorter time than Etsy.

 me:  have you written an article about rating venues on quantcast on indie ceo?

 lharrellmail:  http://indieceo.blogspot.com/2008/12/selecting-right-selling-venue.html

Treasure Box!

It all started with the tag in the top right corner. The deal was that, if someone commented on a HHH Enterprise blog post, they could win one of these little beauties, with their name or initials or a word, stamped into it! And I did and I did! This lead me to be in touch with Sarah, over and over again, who, tired by my saliva-laced comments and drooling, over-the-top praises, sent me a box of treasure to see what I would make of it. (Or to shut me up lol).

Wow! I opened the box, and this, as seen above, is what was inside! There is a ducky little tiny bottle with a cork that you can wear as a pendant or use for shrines, for example.....laser cut wooden pendants, some cool heart findings, a little 'stone' charm that says 'PEACE', a HUGE peace sign medallion, a really unusual watch face with wood inlay, interesting glass slide pendants and stunning, double hinged, glass lockets with doors that open! Many of these glass pendants come in packs of six! They come in many different shapes, too. You'll find it hard to choose! The house ones are darling! The huge round one looks good empty but I have several ideas for what to put in it! They also have pendants that resemble little shadow boxes! iyiyi!

I am crazy about the supplies that can be found at HHH Enterprises, because, although I mostly make jewellery I also make other stuff, too. I like to mix it up! Their blog showcases project ideas that are geared to people like me who make and sell mixed media jewellery. Best of all, they share ways to make beautiful jewellery while keeping the costs down! Their stuff always seems to pack a big pow, even before you do anything to it! I mean, look at those lockets! They are already perfect as is, with the charming ribbon and cord necklace. But what if you switched out the ribbon for a slinky little snake chain? Slam a photo of your dog in there on one side, a snap of the boyfriend on the other, and you're happening! Best of all, you can switch it all out again for the next event. I love 'em. They are like mini-art exhibits that you wear! And they come in so many shapes! So, yeah, I'll show you a few ways to play with those. I'm also very excited about those wooden pendants! Aren't they cool? They are about 2 inches and made of walnut. Again, a big bang already, hang 'em on a ribbon, off ya go. A really lovely, no effort necklace.

Stay tuned for the results!

Count Your Blessings!