Five quotes: Action

A nod,
a bow,
and a tip of the lid
to the person
who coulda
and shoulda
and did. 

Robert Brault, 'A Poem Missing the Word Woulda'. www.robertbrault.com

Men expect too much, do too little. 

Allen Tate.

I believe half the unhappiness in life comes from people being afraid to go straight at things.  

William J. Lock.

Action will remove the doubts that theory cannot solve. 
Tehyi Hsieh.

Carpe diem! 

(Seize the day!) 

Horace. 

Before long, this year will have become last year. If you have plans, enact them now.
Happy new year, everyone.

With thanks to The Quote Garden.

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A clever self-promotion solution

Many artists find it very difficult to talk positively about their own work. When someone compliments you on your bracelet - which you made and are wearing - what do you say?
Just, "Thanks"? 
Or, "Thanks - I'm really pleased with the way it turned out"? 
Or the self-deprecating and downbeat, "Oh, this old thing? Not my best work, I'm afraid"?

Lots of us, enamoured though we are of our work, become completely tongue-tied when someone compliments it. Starting to talk about ourselves and our art feels a bit too much like bragging or aggressive marketing (yuck!). Yet we don't want that precious compliment to slip away without the giver knowing what it means to us as artists. We want that person to know that they have just complimented not just our tastes, but our work - our art - our souls.
And, of course, we really want them to know where they can get a piece of our work for themselves - and pay us for it ... 

Here is a clever solution from Megan Auman of Crafting An MBA.
Be sure to read some of the comments for further expansion on the idea.
I'm going to use this next time someone compliments a piece of my jewellery. I'll let you know what happens.

statement bracelet by Lapisbeach on Etsy

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Ignorance is power

Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible. 

- Doug Larson 

When I first started trying to make a living as a self-employed jewellery artist, I knew nothing. 

In the following three years, I learned how much I did not know. 

I am now slightly horrified at how ignorant I was, and how little research I did. 

I am also immensely grateful.

If I had known how hard it would be, I might not have done it.

First Light Over Glacier Bay by thechadandhope on Etsy

 The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible ... and achieve it, generation after generation.
- Pearl S. Buck 

(With thanks to @grapechick for tweeting the Doug Larson quote.)   

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The Power Of Not Giving Up

To every artist, entrepreneur or blogger who has ever struggled; who has ever experienced poverty; who has ever wept with frustration and desperation over their career; who has ever heard the words, 'You're crazy - you can't do it - it's impossible - give up before you go bankrupt - you're an embarrassment - grow up and get a real job' ...

I offer this blog post by the one, the only, the formidable Naomi Dunford.

Have the tissues handy. 

The Power Of Not Giving Up - One Blogger's Story

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Zibbet's new look - and free trial!

Zibbet.com relaunched today, with a new front page, a sleek new look, and an improved search engine.

It is stupidly cool. As a buyer, I would be hooked on sight. As a seller, I am thrilled to have such a sexy venue for my wares. I feel as though we now have a visual indicator that Zibbet has raised the bar for itself and is openly competing with other such beautiful venues as Etsy and Felt.

Here's a link to Zibbet's new front page.

And ...
to celebrate the relaunch, Zibbet is offering a free sixty-day trial to the first 100 people who sign up for Premium Accounts. The normal cost of a Premium Account is $9.95 USD per month (unless you got in early like I did), which is cheaper than ArtFire!

To obtain the 60-day trial, click on the image below, which will take you to Zibbet, then click 'sell' in the top left-hand corner and sign up for a Premium Account using the coupon code '60FREE'. 
Easy.

Earrings: a confession, a story, and a thought

I have a confession to make.
I don't wear earrings.
I make them and sell them, but I don't wear them.
I know, you're shocked and horrified. Please try to forgive me.
And let me explain ...

For a long time, I refused to make earrings, for two reasons. Firstly, I felt that since I don't wear earrings, I wouldn't know the difference between a good, comfortable pair and a clumsy, uncomfortable pair. Secondly, I felt that earrings were too small. Yes, too small. If you were a painter, and you could choose between a big canvas and a little one, which would you choose? I'd choose the big one. You can do more on a big canvas; you can say more and express more, because you have more space. So I felt that, artistically speaking, I could say more with a necklace or a bracelet than I could with a little pair of earrings.

But I kept getting requests for custom earrings. People would ask for earrings to match the necklace that they had bought, or because their disposable income was small and they could afford $20.00 for a pair of earrings but not $40.00 for a necklace. Every pair that I made was well received, so evidently I wasn't bad at making them, even though I didn't wear them.
Then I got to a point where I needed some lower price points in my shop. There's a recession on: people admired my jewellery but couldn't always afford it; plus, when you're new to purchasing online, paying a stranger $15-20 over the Internet feels a lot safer than paying $50-100.

So I decided to make a few pairs of earrings and see what happened. And lo and behold - it was fun! I had easily as much fun making earrings as I did making necklaces or bracelets. The joy of making something small but perfectly formed was just as much of a thrill as making something larger and more complex. And they were so quick to make! For instant gratification, you can't go far past earrings. I was surprised. (And slightly mortified that it had taken me so long to figure this out.)
Moreover, speed of production equals efficiency: in one hour, I can churn out four to ten pairs of earrings, compared with one to four necklaces or bracelets in the same amount of time. More product naturally means more items to list online, which means more chances of getting seen online, which equals more sales. FAB. Pair this (pun intended) with the fact that people are more likely to buy earrings and you have a win/win situation.

And now I sell more earrings than everything else put together.

Copper Leaves earrings: one of my best sellers.

Most of you jewellery artists will be shaking your heads, raising your eyebrows and thinking, 'How long did it take you to figure that out, silly? I've been making earrings forever!'
If you are, just remember this: everything is obvious AFTER you've figured it out.

Remember, if you will, all those online shops you see and think, 'There are so many things that are wrong with this shop, it's not even funny'. The photographs are poor and unprofessional, the shop feels thoughtless and thrown together, the spelling and grammar are terrible, the descriptions are barely there, the banner is blurry, the tagging is minimal, branding - what branding? ... The list goes on and on. The reasons why the owners of those shops are not making any sales are obvious to us - but not to them.
I have many, many stories - more than I care to relate or even to think about - of times when the obvious in my life remained bafflingly obscure.

So here is today's little lesson:

Every now and then, look at what is already under your nose. 

It may answer all your questions.

 White Buds earrings: newly listed on Felt.

Renewing on Etsy: the Something Blue experiment

 There has been a lot of discussion in the Etsy forums, over the years (or is it only months?), as to whether or not renewing is a profitable strategy for being found in the masses of items that throng Etsy's website. Some say it is; some say it does little but eat up profit.

(For those who are unsure, 'renewing' here means relisting an item before it has sold or expired; in other words, 'refreshing' a listing so that it appears at the front of the search results and the categories, and paying the listing fee again in order to do so. 'Relisting', on the other hand, is listing an item again after it has expired or sold.)

Something Blue took it upon herself to find out the scientific way. The results are quite fascinating.

If you sell on Etsy, or - like me - are planning to sell on Etsy eventually and in the meantime are curious to know whether you'll end up renewing a lot when you do, take a look.

http://shopsomethingblue.blogspot.com/2009/08/etsy-experiment-revealed.html

Why Mannequins Are The Best Models ... Or, How I Met Zara

Many of you will have met my lovely mannequin, Zara. (Or not. Depends if you've looked at any of my necklaces online.)
She is indispensable to my business. I bought her on Trade Me for around $70.00 - some of the best money I've ever spent.
When I realised that prospective buyers really do want to see how jewellery looks when being worn, I considered using live models ... for about two seconds. Models have this irritating habit of wanting to be paid ... and not suiting the jewellery that they are modelling ... and not doing as they are told ... and not understanding what pose to assume ...
Ugh.
So I needed a mannequin. I looked on Trade Me (usually my first stop when I want anything specific that isn't jewellery supplies) and found several that would have suited. I lost the first one I was bidding on (it had arms, which would have been useful for modelling bracelets), and then I found Zara. She didn't have arms, but other than that she was perfect. When she arrived, she was even more perfect. I washed her thoroughly in the shower (because you just never know where things have been ... and because I'm paranoid), and so began our fulfilling relationship.
Zara is the best model I have ever worked with. She stands perfectly still, does exactly as she's told without having to be told, and never ever complains about anything. In fact, I think she loves the jewellery she gets to wear. She holds my magnifying headset sometimes, to keep it safe and off the floor, and I often leave necklaces on her for a few days while I decide whether or not I'm happy with them (or just admire them).
She is so versatile, too. When modelling pieces that have an ancient, historical feel to them, Zara does a sublime Greek marble statue look.

She can do bold, plunging statement pieces ...

... and smaller, more subtle jewellery.

She doesn't even have to change outfits. All I do is change the camera angle and Zara's angle. She can model both my - very different - jewellery brands with equal ease. She can work with almost any lighting, is utterly professional, and never upstages the jewellery itself. True, some things suit her better than others, but that is true of any model, and more so of many others than of Zara.
So, while I know that some jewellery designers use live models all the time, and while it undoubtedly works well for some, Zara's the gal for me.
Do you have fantastic plastic mannequin like Zara? Do you use live models? Or have you found another solution entirely? I'd love to hear in the comments. 

Why do you need to get away?

Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, you ought to set up a life you don't need to escape from.

- Seth Godin.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

I'm probably preaching to the converted if you're reading this blog, but I often wonder why people drift through life waiting for the weekend ... for the holidays ... for their lives to become free and interesting.

Why do you wait for your life to change when you could change it yourself?

If the reason you're not changing your life is because you can't really be bothered or you don't really want it badly enough, then stop whining about the life you have now. If you don't like it, change it; if you don't want to change it, stop complaining about it. 
If you feel that change is impossible, you have two options: make change possible, or learn to live with your situation.
But in all honesty, change is rarely impossible. What stops us changing things is not so much our ability as it is our fear.

Hard work ... and more hard work ...

I am a chronic Etsy browser.
Most New Zealanders are not familiar with Etsy, so here's a little description: Etsy is an American based, international, online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods and supplies. If you are an artist or craftsperson of any kind, Etsy is arguably THE foremost place to sell online. It's a browser's delight: a veritable online world of beautiful, handmade goods with personality and individuality - many of them eco-friendly, recycled, vegan, or organic as well. I'm almost certain that a person's entire life could be supplied and maintained solely with items purchased on Etsy.
If you are looking for it, and if it's a physical object, then the chances are high that someone will sell it on Etsy. And while you're looking for it, you'll find a bunch of other things that you (a) had no idea existed, and (b) didn't know could be bought online. Homemade vegan marshmallows. Soap that looks like a chocolate truffle. Italian-sausage-scented lip balm. A fabulous coffin-couch.
And that's just a little taste of the delicious buffet that is Etsy.

One of the features that I really like on Etsy is their 'Quit Your Day Job' interviews with artists who make their livings by selling their work on Etsy. One sentence that crops up repeatedly from these full-time, self-employed artists (besides 'work on your photographs'!) goes along these lines:
"I have never worked so hard in my life".
For someone who is at the beginning of the journey towards full-time artistic self-employment, that's an intimidating thing to read.
I have never worked so hard in my life. 
From all accounts, that's what artistic self-employment requires. A tonne of hard work.
It must take even more hard work when you are trying to succeed in a crowded marketplace - and, while I don't know the statistics, I would guess that the Internet is now the biggest and most crowded marketplace on Earth.

It must take even MORE hard work when you are trying to succeed in a particularly crowded corner of that marketplace: jewellery selling. For some reason - and I find this fact intriguing - the jewellery category on any and every shopping website is one of the most crowded; and on handmade goods websites the category is invariably the biggest - sometimes by 100%. I just checked, and a moment ago there were 1,420,338 jewellery items listed on Etsy alone. At the moment you read this, there will probably be even more. In a forum thread on the site, one jewellery seller gave a conservative estimate of the number of jewellery sellers on Etsy: between 7,000 and 10,000. Remember, that's just the jewellery sellers, and it's just on Etsy.

Suddenly that sentence - I have never worked so hard in my life - is put into perspective. One starts to realise that none of the full-time Etsy sellers in the 'Quit Your Day Job' interviews got where they are without working their tails off. 

I have heard many successful people say that luck is a fallacy. Luck does not exist. If you want to do something difficult (such as becoming self-employed or climbing a Himalayan mountain), forget about luck. Or better: re-name it. Call it 'work'. Hey, they both have the same number of letters, and they both end with 'K', so the switch should be relatively easy, right? (Sarcastic laughter.)

Samuel Goldwyn, the Hollywood movie producer, said, "The harder I work, the luckier I get." (Another favourite Goldwynism of mine is “If I look confused it’s because I’m thinking.”)

I have never worked so hard in my life. And the harder I work, the luckier I get.

To be honest, it's not a hugely appealing prospect. Is hard work ever appealing?

I guess it depends how badly you want the results. 

And I think this is where a lot of us stumble: we don't want it badly enough.

The Whole Point Of This Blog

Welcome.
Welcome to me, and to you. Welcome to my blog. I’ve spent several weeks fussing with the layout and trying to decide exactly what I want this blog to be about. (Perfectionism is a pain sometimes! It makes it hard to get anything done.) I've decided that there are three things I want to do with this blog.

Like many artists, I am trudging/fumbling/charging my way through the world in an attempt to have it all: the satisfaction of doing what I love, and enough money to live the lifestyle I want. It doesn’t seem that much to ask, but if you are an artist then you will know that sometimes the whole world seems to want to prove right the people who told you that you could never have both your art and enough money to live without having to sell any limbs. This blog is aimed primarily at artists who, like me, are trying to make a living from their art.
In effect, I will be sharing three things.

1. The resources that I have found helpful, and my own experiences that have taught me something. (But I'll be leaving out the really embarassing bits. 'Cause that's best.)

2. A window on my work, because it is the centre of my aforementioned plot to make a living, and the work of other artists, because I find others' work to be very inspiring. I have found it very encouraging to meet, through the mighty and vast Interwebs (yes, I do speak lolspeak occasionally), other ‘handmade people’ who are trying to do what I’m doing.

3. The wisdom of others. We rely too little on the wisdom of those who have been there, done that, thought about it, and come to a helpful conclusion. “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” (Eleanor Roosevelt.)

So that is what this blog is all about: learning from others, and listening to yourself, while you plot to take over the world chase your dream.
Thanks for joining me. I hope it turns out to be worth your while.
(And mine, come to think of it.)