BTW ... I am a Bead Maker!!!

Posted a day late...but anyways..here's what I was working on....

It's my first try at making beads. I got some clay yesterday. I wanted to use an air dry type of clay....

Unfortunately, i think the clay is too brittle...thus the broken one on the right side. Maybe i made it too thin? I don't know a lot about making beads from clay yet and I think its going to take a lot of experimenting. I may have to try a different type of clay...I've read about cold clay (and it being air dry too). You can even make your own but I don't think I have the patience to make it myself. I want to get to the "making" of the beads itself right away.

My favorite part is painting and decorating the beads....

I chose gold, pink and white paints...mostly because those were the ones I had on hand.

And here are the ones that survived.... the 2 rectangular ones crumbled...perhaps they weren't quite dry yet when I started painting them....see how impatient I am...

I really enjoyed my foray into clay bead making... 

What's on your bead table today?

My Love For Beads

I've had a love affair with beads for a  long long time now!

I actually have beads in my stash from back when I was in college and maybe even before then. I've thought about purging but before I can do that I would need to sort through them. I'm sure I'll get to that sometime this year as it is one of my new year's resolutions to have an organized craft room by year's end.

It's only March, however, so, that's still far from thought at the moment...what is floating around as an idea, though, is making my own beads. I've been hopping around a lot of blogs lately (mostly from the bead soup party) and I'm enamored by all those artisans that create their own beads. I'd love to learn how to do lampwork beads but, with no materials and tools available here, that is not possible for me...

So, looking at possibilities, I've come across several options...paper beads....paper mache beads (hand painted) and clay...

I think, right now, I've settled on clay. (This is the inspiration, too, from my last feature Friday) . I'm off this afternoon to procure some air dry clay at a local supplier.... still so much too learn, though... and I guess I'll have to do a search on the internet and read up on some techniques on how to handle clay.

Meanwhile, while working on my web store, I discovered, the free membership to webs.com only allows you to upload 5 items to the store (on their shopping cart mechanism thing-ee). So, I need to find another way to upload my products. I did find a site called Cashie that offers a free shopping cart and gateway to paypal. (I found this through paypal's site as one of their trusted partner solutions)

They provide a shopping cart, a check out and buttons which are quite simple to add to the website. However, I will have to create my own product pages and add the buttons for each item. At a quick glance, too, I have some questions regarding how they incorporate shipping charges to the order. I haven't tried it out yet, so I am holding off asking them about it.

Anyways, that's what I'm working on today.... busy, busy, busy...

Some of my bead supplies are already waiting to listed...since I took pictures and edited them yesterday....here are some of the glass pendants that I will be offering at my online store...

 

 

 

  

Cuties, aren't they? Watch out for them at my online shop....

~ EARTHLY JEWELS ONLINE WEBSTORE ~

  

My Webstore

This weekend I set up my webstore using webs.com... I actually registered a while back but re-visited it this weekend and decided to finish setting up and start loading up my site. I can finally offer beads and supplies online!!!

I'm pretty much finished with the set up, now all I have to do is post my items for sale...that's what I'll be doing this afternoon!

Starting out with some jewelry...some of the same items from Etsy...then some beads and supplies...and finally kits and tutorials! How exciting! I can list all I want since you don't have to pay a listing fee! It's all free!!!

Here's how the site looks so far...I used one of the ready made themes...does it look alright?

The Home Page - 

The Product Catalog -  (still kind of empty)

I have the following links - About Me (which will indlude a Gallery of Past Works & Portfolio) | Prdouct Catalog (the webstore) | Shipping & Returns (info page) | Testemonials | FAQs | Contact Me

I might add a guest book where people can post a question or other comments....

What else a I missing?

Do visit me....although, its still under construction....

~ Visit Now ~ 

Earthly Jewels Online Web Store

Pricing and Shipping Dilemma

I've been playing around with pricing items and shipping at the shop... I posted this on some of the Etsy forums...


What is more appealing to you as a buyer...
scenario 1 -
selling a charm necklace at $9.99 with international shipping (I'm shipping from the Philippines so most will fall under international) costing $6 ... total = $15.99

scenario 2-
selling a charm necklace at $12.99 and international shipping is $3
total = $ 15.99

scenario 3-
selling a charm necklace at $15.99 with free shipping...

Is it better to incorporate the shipping in the selling price? Or would it be more appealing to buy if you see a lower selling price? Or to make shipping costs similar to how much international buyers would normal pay to ship locally?

Most responded that they prefer scenario 3 or possibly scenario 2... most people love free shipping. So I set off to fix the pricing in my shop. After a day and listing some new items though, I noticed less views. Hm...that would not do...

So, I tried out lowering the shipping price and still making the pricing for my items afford-ably. 

I don't know quite yet but I think as I am a new shop, I think I will keep my prices a bit lower to encourage purchases. once I get more feedback and people start getting to know the quality of my creations, then I will re-think the pricing again... So, I hope for now, people will take advantage of the afford-ability and start shopping....

What would you prefer...as a buyer?

And here are some new listings at my etsy,.....enjoy the lowered shipping prices!!!!

Beauty & Poise

Pride & Prejudice

Autumn Filigree Medallion

Royal Victorian

Lucky Pink Coin

Green Floral Fancy

Secretly In Love

Clay Pretties - Feature Friday

It's been a while since I've posted a feature Friday...I've decided to change the format of my feature Fridays to a Five fabulous finds Feature Friday....whew....

It was a bit difficult to do a write up on each of the features so, using this format, i get to pick a theme and go out and window shop for the cutest items I can find...

This week I did a search on Clay Pendants...these are five of the cutest ones that I picked out...

FAB FIND #1

Steampunk Black Gold Heart Necklace

by RoyalKitness

What a cute steampunk style necklace! Go check out more in their shop...so many to chose from!

FAB FIND #2 

Blue Skies Lotus Flower Necklace

by Purple Cactus Studios

What a lovely focal for a necklace! This is their signature lotus flower and you can check out their shop for other colors and designs.

FAB FIND #3

Sunny Kaliedescope Pendant

by None of the Above

They have so many pretty designs that i found it quite hard to chose only one to feature here. I love the colors of each one of them...very fabulous!

FAB FIND #4

Retro Southwestern Style Star Pendants

by Divine Consciousness

Adorable pendants that have a star stamped in the front and 'love' in the back. I love the colors! Check them out at their shop.

FAB FIND #5

The princess necklace with oxidized Sterling Silver

by Rafya

Another shop loaded with many beautiful clay creations...these ones made from cold clay! Make sure to visit the shop!

I've only picked out Five Finds from sooo many Fabulous shops! Make sure to check them out! And I hope you enjoyed the Fabulous Finds this Friday!

Enjoy the weekend!!!!

Inpsired by Harry Potter - Iron Craft #9 And the Oscar Goes To

This week's Iron Craft challenge was themed for movies....I initially wanted to do a jewelry piece from the movie Pride & Prejudice...which I recently watched and LOVED...so romantic! So I set out to make a neck piece that someone from the time period would wear....unfortunately, I don't have it finished.

Instead, I went with another movie (book) that I love as well. It is a simple piece that I've actually seen done already but I wanted to create my own version using a pretty enchanting glass bead I had...

So, my movie...Harry Potter....and my piece....

Golden Snitch Inspiration (also listed in my Etsy shop here.) 

Shop Update

Today I worked on a new banner and profile pic for my ETSY shop..here's my old one...

and here's my new one..

I wanted to give it more of an antique, vintage-y feel ...so I used some browns and mustards... to match my newer listings. What do you think?

My new profile pic is the same turquoise flower  charm necklace with the same brown border... which I think looks pretty and eye catching... and gives an idea of what you can find in the shop.

I'm also happy to say that I got my first 2 sales!!! The first was a custom order of cluster pendants that I practically gave away (since it was such a good deal)....

And the other was "The Heart of the Forest" Charm Necklace...

which was actually picked up by the courier today! Here it is all packed up and ready to for pick up...

There's a few surprise goodies in there too!!! The courier took forever to get to my house. I waited all day and he arrived at 7 pm. Hopefully next time, they'll be better.

So happy to finally have a sale...and I thank God for answering my prayers!  I'm hoping this will be followed soon after!