Here's another jewelry artist that I just had to feature. I chose her for her awesome designs and her newness to Etsy.

You can see her shop here SleepyGoldfishDesign.

1) Tell us a bit about yourself.My name is Michelle and I’m a grad student in art history. I live in New York City with my husband and our pet goldfish (hence, the name of my Etsy shop!). You can see some of their photos in my avatar and shop banner, and my husband’s goldfish paintings are also in my shop banner. Because of the student lifestyle, I’m pretty much a minimalist and had never paid much attention to jewelry until just a few years ago, when the stress of my exams caused me to promise myself a beautiful pair of earrings when it was all over. Voilà, a new love was born and I embarked on the road which eventually led to my Etsy shop. When I’m not studying or making jewelry, I read the news obsessively online and try to fill my daily quota of style and design blogs. I’m also an avid runner, and my husband and I enjoy watching movies and teaching ourselves how to skateboard.

2) Where did you hear about Etsy?When I first started buying jewelry online, I bought several things from various jewelry designers on Ebay. One of them also had a storefront on Etsy. I clicked over and made my first purchase at the end of 2005. After I discovered Etsy, it quickly became my primary source for finding jewelry and other handcrafted goodies.

3) How long have you been crafting?I started tinkering with the jewelry that I bought for myself about 3 years ago: making things shorter, switching out uncomfortable earwires for different ones, and making various changes to the design. A bead shop near my campus had a loaner set of tools which I used to make my small repairs and alterations. After a few months of borrowing the loaner tools, I decided to buy my own pliers and wirecutters. I realized then that I had the tools I needed to make my own jewelry and decided to give beading a try. I’ve been making jewelry for myself and others for about 2 years. Although my study of art history hasn’t directly impacted my jewelry-making process, I feel that it gives me an appreciation for the visual impact of jewelry, and crafting is a creative outlet and a source of stress relief for me. A friend and classmate has been trying to convince me to make reproductions of jewelry found at historical and archaeological sites!

4) Tell us about what your Etsy shop and what you make.For now, I am making only earrings. They are the only type of jewelry that I wear, and I feel that the experience gives me a yardstick by which to judge what customers look for in earrings. For even the most die-hard minimalist, earrings are a wonderful piece of jewelry to wear; I firmly believe that the items which frame your face – top, earrings, scarf - are the most important and memorable parts of an outfit. I don’t like repeating the exact same design twice, so most items in my shop will be one-offs. I may start making necklaces in the future, but I’d like to be certain that I can make something unique and which complements the aesthetic of my earrings.

5) What are your favorite materials to use?I love using semi-precious stones and freshwater pearls. It feels good to use natural materials and to maximize their visual impact by thinking through color combinations and which metals to pair them with, and I try to use the highest-quality materials I can find. I like to use opaque stones because of their unusual color patterns, and I also like the contrast of earthy-looking stones against silver and gold findings, which makes them a bit fancier. I definitely take inspiration from my materials and am always on the lookout for unusual-colored beads and interesting bead shapes. I generally stick to a fairly subtle color palette so that my jewelry which will be versatile and easy to wear, and I like to make earrings with a sculptural or volumetric quality to them.

6) What does the future hold for you and your shop?For now, I’d ideally like to keep an inventory of between 20-25 items in my shop – I’ve been building up to that for my turn in the jewelry showcase on 2/16. Since I’m finishing my thesis this spring and job-hunting at the same time, I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew, so I’m starting out slowly. Over the summer, when I have more time, I plan to build up to over 30 items; hopefully, I will also have a steady customer base by then. In the future, I’d like to take classes and learn more about jewelry-making techniques, especially how to work with metals.

7) What advice can you give other Etsy shop owners?Develop a niche – Because there are so many jewelry designers on Etsy, it’s crucial to develop a distinctive look and stick to it. Kerri, you’ve given me some excellent advice on thinking about my target customer.Buy good tools and supplies – Good tools will make practicing your craft so much easier. Don’t stint on the quality of your materials; deliver a product that you can stand behind.Be realistic – Don’t be impatient, and give yourself time to build up a customer base. Think realistically about how Etsy fits into your lifestyle and income sources, and put in the appropriate amount of work to reach your goals.

Jewelry Marketing Website

Alright ,now I know this is giving away a secret in jewelry marketing,but I like being nice.

Check out this site for great tips on everything to do with jewelry and marketing your products.

Click here.....Jewelry Marketing

Cheapest Display Ever!

I don't think I can credit myself with coming up with this idea. I've seen this before. But,I wanted to tell everyone else about it too.

One of the cheapest ,coolest,simplest displays you can ever have or make yourself.

You can make as many as you want,in any color or pattern you like. It's utterly limitless in the possibilities!

How to make these: Take a sheet of heavy cardstock paper (make sure it's cardstock,light paper won't work) in whatever color you want for a display. Using a paper cutter for a straight edge,cut the paper in half long ways. Now take one long peice of what you cut and fold it in half.(You should have a rectangular peice of paper folded in half now).Unfold it so you can see the crease. Now take one edge (on the short side ) and fold it about 1/2". Now fold the other short side over 1". Now you should have three creases in your paper. Fold the peice in half at your middle crease so it makes something like a tipee. Now tape the other two folded sections on the bottom of it together with the 1" overlapping the 1/2" fold. Use the side view picture to see what it should look like.

Now you should have a tilted paper display that is cheap,and can easily display rings,earrings,necklaces,and whatever else you want.

**For those of you who don't do jewelry,you can use them to display tags,magnets,hair accesories,cellphone charms,headbands..basically a plethora of small lightweight items.

If you're afraid of them tipping over,simply weigh them down with a rock or antoher heavy object.

You can paint these or leave them as is. Or you can decorate them with stamps and stickers too.

Cut vertical slits in the top to hold necklaces and bracelets. Cut a horizontal slice on the top to hold your earring cards.

I've made several of these for my next craft fair.Sometimes when you can't afford a small army of little displays,you have to get innovative.

I hope you enjoy making your own creative paper displays..the sky's the limit!

Materials (Pricing)

Pricing is always one of the hardest things about owning your own business. It's even harder when you make your own products,whether they be soaps,blankets,or jewelry. I'm going to show the basics in how jewelry is often priced(or at least the general way I price mine.) Please remember that this is personal opinion here on how to do things, and jewelry is priced in many different ways and is not nessearily always right or wrong. :)





Materials

Let's start with the one thing you need to do handmade crafts.Your materials.



You must always find out the price of the materials you used to make the item and put that into your final price.



Stringing Materials: Find the amount of each inch of your string/tigertail/chain etc that you've strung your beads/pendants on. Take the total amount you paid for the item and divide this by the number of inches total to get per inch.Take inches used in peice times $ per inch.



Wire: Do the same thing as above the get the price for each inch of wire you used,especially if it's precious metal wire which can cost up to 0.20 per inch.Make sure you measure the amount of wire used before using it on your peice. Keep a record of it on a peice of paper or on your computer. Different guages are also different prices,keep this in mind.



Beads- Make sure to find out the price of EACH individual bead from a strand. Count how may beads are on an inch of the strand, then mulitply that by the number of inches on the strand. Take the final cost and divide that by the final tally of beads. Voila, a very easy way to find bead price instead of counting every single bead! EniOken.com has a bead price calculator for free if you want to download it.



Headpins/Jumprings/Spacer beads/Krimp Beads: These are some small or sometimes not as noticeable parts of your jewelry that might get missed. Make sure you get the price of each one you used in your entire peice of jewelry.



Use a calculator or a computer program to calculate your material costs.

I use Microsoft Excel as my pricing program. You can easily put your material costs in with =(blank)+(blank) as an equation and it will add it right up for you. Or simply use your calculator and put the final number in the slot.



Getting to best price for your materials: By wholesale or in large lots as much as you can. The lower your material costs mean the better priced your jewelry is going to be in the end.You can also resell any supplies you can't use or don't need at a small profit. If you can't afford buying in big lots,try and get another jewelry maker to join with you and split the cost of some of your materials with them.



Using higher quality materials: Higher quality materials means that your jewelry will last longer,stand up to more wear and more people will be willing to puchase it due to it's higher standard. Your jewelry will cost more with higher priced/quality materials but the trade off may be that more people will buy the jewelry if it'll last longer and not tarnish or wreck as easily. Note: Metal allergies are becoming more and more common. Making jewelry with prcious metals,nickle free and sergical steel wire/metals means that those with metal allergies can fully enjoy your jewelry.

Last note: Alot of jewelry sellers take the price of materials then multiply it by 1, 2, or even up to 5 times the amount they paid for it.

I personally do not do this. I pay myself properly for my time and overhead to create my price (wholesale) first. Why get paid for twice the number of materials? It seems silly to me. It's for abosolutely no reason whatsoever that this is done,and if you ever had to explain why you did this to someone..what would you say? Think about this when you decide to up the material tally or to just leave it the same.Pay yourself properly,add meterials, and add your overhead,and that SHOULD be good enough.If it's not good enough for wholesale,then ask yourself why not.

You're welcome to price your materials by multiplying or not. Your choice!

(I'll explain wholesale versus retail pricing perhaps some other time.)