Monday, February 25, 2013

Announcements!

This post is about the announcements I made on facebook.  I'm going to address them in order in more detail.  



 1. I will be taking down all the earrings I presently have in my shop. If there's any you want I suggest buy it in the next couple of days.



These were made in a rush for a craft fair.  While I can assure you they are of the utmost quality structurally I don't feel that the design work is there like it ought to be.  Basically from a design standpoint I don't feel like it's my best work.  Unfortunately the craft fair did not pan out due to unforeseen circumstances which is okay, life happens.  They're just taking up space, not selling, and I don't feel it's my best work so I will be deconstructing them in the near future to make new earrings and necklaces with them.  I like making scrap necklaces, they're probably my favorite.  These will be perfect for this!  Scrap necklace- when I take left over beads and match them up, typically by color, and string together a bunch of different beads.  



2. I will be bringing some of my inventory back to etsy. 



I'll preface this by defining a reseller in the context of what I'm using the word for.  On etsy it is supposed to be only for handmade products (barring crafting supplies and vintage items).  A resller is someone who buys mass produced product and passes it off as handmade and blatantly claims it is handmade.  For me art theft falls under this as well in the context of speaking about etsy.    

This one took a lot of thought.  I left etsy due to the rampant reseller issue.  I have really strong principles and the idea that etsy did not care about the resellers really got to me in a bad way.  The site is just swamped with them.  One of the worst was a particularity infamous event involving them featuring someone who was selling supposedly handmade, designed by herself, furniture and it turned out she was a reseller.  This coupled with being scolded by the etsy team and told art theft was not an adequate reason to flag a shop and a very flippant attitude from the ceo about theft and reselling just really did me in.   

I felt like leaving would make some sort of statement.  I really believed that by doing that I would no longer be supporting their morally bankrupt ideals and cheating.  I finally came to realize I can't live my entire life trying to avoid every unpleasant person and corporation or I'd have to become a hermit.  Hermits do not run successful small businesses.  I was getting a lot more attention for my work on etsy than storenvy.  By leaps and bounds.  I guess storenvy is just too little known and to be perfectly honest, as much as I love that site, their category system is really lacking.  


TL;DR (too long didn't read)- 



I let my anger and my principles overrule my sense when it came to keeping my business on the right track.  They're there to make a buck and so am I.  If I avoid every business/person who is willing to cheat to line their pockets then I won't get anywhere with my business.  I'm going to have to bite my tongue and deal with people/businesses I'm not overly fond of if I want to get anywhere.  At the same time that doesn't mean I have to compromise my principles and beliefs in the process.  The best I can do is not be like them.  


Conclusion?  


I will be putting just a few things from storenvy up there from every category.  I will have links in the descriptions to storevny where people can find more like items for sale.  Nothing will change on storenvy I will just be moving a few of my products over there for more surface and so I can have my work in two places.  



3. The sale on my jewelry I have up on storenvy will be ending in the next couple of days.   



This one is pretty self explanatory.  I don't see any reason to keep it going when it's not gotten anything sold.  I've started making new products again and will just continue on with the way I've been doing things.  I will have more space for storage freed up when I deconstruct the earrings so it's not really an issue anymore.  



4. I will be expanding my inventory to include hair accessories. 



This is also pretty self explanatory.  I have a few pictures of what I presently have made on The Gilded Butterfly's page.  I need to retake the pictures because I don't feel like they're up to par with what I can do now.  Some of them are even a bit blurry.  That was back when my arms were weaker.  Having a bigger camera and doing fairly frequent photography have both helped take care of that. lol  I also have a tripod for taking product pictures and night photography.  So that ensures the pictures will be extra clear.  



On the accessories themselves-



Right now what I have in stock are headbands with flowers I clipped and glued to them.  They're actually from a scrapbooking kit and they're fabric flowers with feathers on them. I even made one for myself because I like them so much.  :)  I'm trying to incorporate some easier to make things into my repertoire because making jewelry is really hard on my back and I want to produce more products and get more things up in my store.  I found some nice headbands at hobby lobby that are thin and soft (they don't pinch or hurt at all!) and attached the flower clips I made to them.  :)  

I want to try making some more complicated things in the future but I think these will be a good first run.  :)  

Well, that's all for now.  Thanks for taking time to read this!