Clearance sale to make room for new jewelry designs

A new year is a great time for new beginnings. One of the things I like doing as a new year begins is to refresh my shop. I think it's important to have new jewelry designs all the time so that people will enjoy coming back to visit. Not to mention that it's much more fun for me to create new jewelry and not repeat myself all the time.

So now is the time when I evaluate my jewelry and decide which items to keep and which I want to take out of my line. This is not an easy decision. As the creator I do get attached to all of my jewelry.

So how do I decide what stays and what goes? popularity of an item is one criteria. I have a few items that are my "stars" or best-seller and those obiously will stay in my line. But this does not mean that any item that doesn't sell well is taken out. Many times I have found that taking a better picture of an item or even making a small change to it, can turn it around and it will suddenly begin to sell.

More often I just take out items that are from older collections or items that I got tired of making.

I am a big believer in making small series of each design. After all, that is the purpose of handmade isn't it? Having something you will not see on every person you meet.

So I have created a new section in my store "clearance sale" where I put a few items that I do not intend to re-make after they sell. If you like these jewelry designs, this is your chance to get them and even get a nice discount.

The little things that help us succeed

As we near the end of 2010 I've been thinking a lot about my business. What I accomplished this year and what I want to do next year to make it even better.

While doing this summary I started thinking about how some small things that you hardly even consider, can actually contribute and help one's success. Like the post office for me.

A few years back I was living in a city in the center of Israel and selling my jewelry in my own brick and mortar store. My online activity was very limited then. I had a website and a small etsy store but I wasn't really active since my b&m store was taking most of my time.

Then we decided to take a life changing step and moved to a small village in the north of Israel. I closed my store as it was too far away from my new home for me to be able to keep it. At this point I decided to focus on my online activity and started really working on my Etsy store and other online venues.

Now here's the funny part - when I was living in the city, every visit to the post office was a nightmare. They had long lines and I had to wait forever everytime I was there. No way I would have been able to go through this on a daily basis. If I had tried to focus on online selling at that time, It is very likely I would have given up or that my service would not be as good. The post office in my village is small but with great and fast service. It only takes me a few minutes. Beacause of this small thing, I am able to go to the post office every day and ship all my orders so that no package ever waits if it's ready to ship. So for me - this small thing, a small and efficient post office, is one of the factors that helped my busiess grow.

1. Small sterling silver leaf earrings

2. Lariat necklace with textured silver oval and a red Agate briolette

3. Hammred tear drops with pink and purple stones

Pictures from Barcelona

As promised, I am posting some pictures of Barcelona from my recent visit there. Had a wonderful time. The city is beautiful, the food was great and the weather was just perfect.
Last time I was in Barcelona was on my honeymoon and it was really wonderful to return.

The worst time to be without a camera

While I was on vacation in Barcelona just a couple of weeks ago, the string holding my camera suddenly tore and the camera dropped to the floor. Unlucky for me - the screen broke. This of course was very upsetting as I love to take lots and lot's of pictures when I'm traveling. So we ended up buying a small not too expensive camera to use for the rest of the trip and came home with many beautiful pictures of Barcelona which I promise to share in one of my next posts.

However, this was not the end of the story. The broken camera is the same camera I use to photograph my jewelry. It is one I picked after careful examination and found to be best for my needs. Needless to say the the new camera could not replace this one for my business purposes. So I took the camera to a lab to fix and am now waiting for a part to arrive which will take about a month!!!

Of course this is the worst time in the world for me to be without a camera, with the holidays just around the corner and many new items just waiting to be photographed and listed in my store. Lucky for me I have some great friends that came to the rescue and lent me their camera to use until mine is fixed. So these are some of the picture I took with it:

 1. Sterling silver hoop earrings with an oxidized black rose

 2. Spiral wings pendant in sterling silver and an Opal stone

3. Square post earrings with a flower and green briolettes

Short vacation before the holiday rush begins

Last year was my first christmas as a full time internet seller so I was really not prepared for it. Of course it was wonderful to get so many orders but it was also very exhausting. So this year, just before the holiday rush begins, I went on a short vacation to Barcelona!

What a wonderfull city! So vibrant, colorful and happy. Not to mention how inspiring Barcelona is! Everywhere you look there's something beautiful and artistic. I am sure all this inspiration will develop into new design ideas for my future works.

So now I am back, rested, full of energy and ready for the upcoming holidays. I have started to prepare my store for christmas shopping, listing some new items and also making use of Etsy's new coupon feature to offer special deals for black friday, cyber monday etc. From today and untill cyber monday (29 november) I will be giving a 15% discount on all jewelry in my store. Just enter the coupon code BLACKTOCYBER to receive your discount.

1. Sterling silver branch and leaves ring

2. Sterling silver and aqua marine teardrop pendant 

3. Sterling silver dangling bouquet earrings

The jewelry I wear

You might think that being a jewelry designer and being sorrounded by jewelry all around means I wear some new jewelry every day. The fact is that I don't. Some people are loyal to one pendant or ring which they wear every day, others like to put on something different everyday. I am somewhere in between - I do stick with a few designs that I like wearing again and again for days, but my loyalty to these designs is only for a couple of weeks, not for life.

My daily jewelry "wardrobe" is basically just earrings, which I can't live without. I rarely wear other jewelry items for everyday, only for special ocassions.

Though I like all the jewelry I make (or else I wouldn't make them) I do find some of them are more me than others. So I admit - I have favorites! Every time I make new items I tend to get infatuated with a couple of the designs and make a copy for my personal use. I usually have about 2-3 favorite earrings that I wear for a while untill I am drawn to something else.

So here are my currently favorite earrings:

1. White pearls in sterling silver bubbles earrings
2. Rose Quartz flower earrings in sterling silver
3. Flower drop earrings in sterling silver and golden stones

My jewelry recipe book

As my business grows I find it necessary to get more organized. While in the past I could just remember how I created each design and remake it as needed, now that I have about 200 different items for sale - it's almost impossible to remember everything.

So I bought a nice big notebook and started writing down my jewelry "recipes". I made a sketch of each design with a list of materials, measurements and any other detail needed to make the design.

It felt a little strange and technical at first but I got over this feeling after realizing how much easier it has made my life. Now when I get an order I just go to my lists and all the information I need is right there, I can get to work on the design without wasting any time on recalling how I made it in the first place. I guess sometimes small things can make a big difference.

I have been working on many new receipes, preparing for the holiday season. Here are a few new design I just "cooked":

1. Red flower earrings in sterling silver and Agate gemstones

2. Floral vine earrings in sterling silver and a green stone

3. Flower drop earrings in sterling silver and golden stones