My First Blog Review on Technorati and Thoughts About Marketing and Social Media

Ok, pictures first - lots of 'em today, so I hope you're not on dial up! Then the post.

Someone special I know has a May birthday, so I got out these emerald Swarovski rounds - not totally sure what I'm going to make, but it needs to be in the mail tomorrow...

My new assortment packs of aluminum jump rings from Blue Buddha Boutique (as mentioned in prior post) - very cool colors, light weight - going to play and play!

I was just going to order eye and head pins, but I saw these and had to have them, too - Angelite - what a lovely blue!

Needed these fire polished Czech Purple/Gold AB rounds in 12mm size to finish my Step by Step Beads Colorworks Contest submission. It's all done now, and I'm very excited to submit it. Just worried about whether or not I can get the photograph specs correct per rules.

OK, last picture! A while back Rings & Things sent me some brass frames during the Gluable Challenge month. I never used the square one, although I did try something new with one of the rectangular ones. So I got this punch to make perfect-fit squares of paper that I'll use in a collage inside the frame. I have 72 of these frames, due to a *duh* moment in making my order, so I should be able to experiment freely. Got the punch and other cool stuff from Alpha Stamps, which I had never heard of until I read about them on Barbe Saint John's blog.

That's it for the pictures today, on to the title story.

I recently wrote a very short post referencing Technorati. I've been registered there since October of 2004 with my other blog NVNC ID VIDES, NVNC NE VIDES and decided to register this one as well. In that little post I asked if you'd be so kind as to give my blog a review.

Last night I checked my page, and saw that a dear friend of mine had posted a review. The generosity of her comments left me speechless, honest. This was me: " ... "

I've been thinking lately about how a little-known indie artisan gets the word out that they have things they'd like to share, sell, say... Well, blogging is one way, but people need to know to read your blog. Not easy when there are eleventy gazillion blogs about every kind of craft imaginable. Ok, I Googled craft blogs and there were 19 million hits, beading blogs, 16.2 million hits. Not quite eleventy gazillion, but close enough.

Now, I primarily blog because I like to. I'm a social person, extroverted and the beading thing is pretty solitary, so it's my social outlet. (this explains why it may seem like I'm stalking you when sometimes I comment on your blog, or respond to your comment here, about 3 minutes after you post - it's just that I'm starving for conversation!)

I also like to think there are some people who read this and enjoy my posts. I also realize that there's a marketing aspect to this now. As I was talking to my daughter on the phone we got to talking about why that's important.

I don't think it's enough to just have good stuff out there and hope that people will find it; they won't unless you give them some breadcrumbs to follow through the wild forest of the internet. I think you have to go find people you feel are kindred souls, make connections, share jokes, links, help each other out, pay it forward when you can. It's not that I'm looking for you to be my customers, but that when we share in this online conversation it makes us more visible on the web to potential customers - for *all* of us.

Someone lands here, doesn't really like my styles, but is gaga over Tish's or Lisa's, or anyone else on my blogroll. And, I hope, vice versa. Blogrolls, links, reviewing each other's work...fun for us, good for us. It's why I'm going to do my Sunday Dawno's Wanderings Around the Beadosphere, and I hope that someday some others will share in the fun, too.

And, just for fun - I posted on my other blog about my internet addiction along with a fun video clip about Twitter. Would love it if you'd take a peek!

Add This!

First, for those of you who will be having Passover seder tonight (and maybe tomorrow night as well) - Chag Kasher V’Sameach.

Next, I would like to plug Chocolate and Steel's blog, great pictures, fun information and on Mondays she posts a "Undiscovered Uncovered" feature about new Etsy shops, which is a wonderful way to support fellow artisans!

Next to last, I discovered on Chocolate and Steel that Lora, of Lora Hart Jewels, is having a giveaway on her blog. Beautiful precious metal clay designs (and another medium I'd like to work in, eventually - not really set up in my little back bedroom "studio" for using torches) and she's going to give one away next week - click the 'giveaway' link above to read and participate.

Lastly, the other day I talked about readers and blog traffic (The Long Tail post). Saw a great post on Simply Shiny today with a recommendation to use the AddThis button. (They've got a blog, too, in case you're also into reading about techie stuff).

I've had a number of little icons at the end of my posts that give readers the option to share with various services like Digg or StumbleUpon, but decided to switch to AddThis and see what happens. Mostly because they have analytics - if anyone was sharing my posts somewhere before, I had no clue. This way I can (I think) check the analytics and see if anything was shared.

So how does it work? When you hover over the AddThis button a list of options pops up and you can select from which ever one you want - the process is quite simple - AddThis does a lot of the work for you. If you've got an AddThis or other similar feature on your blog, I'll certainly return the favor.

One last thing - I just followed someone on Twitter whose tweets seem to be very funny - if you want to grin, follow @mkramer (Melody Kramer).

Need Inspiration? Just Follow the Links!

Have you seen Just A Tish's gluable bracelet form ideas yet? Check out her Gluable Challenge 4&5 (collage, fabric!), Gluable Challenge 2 & 3 (a Yummy Candy Inspiration) and for a giggle (Oops!) - Gluable Challenge - FAIL! I love the picture of the squished clay...I get this flashback to SNL's claymation dude, remember Mr. Bill? "oh nooooooooooooo!"

Or how about Lampwork Diva's ideas? Copper Kisses for $4.00. and also Glue is not my BFF

Another fun one was A Bead A Day's Fun With Bracelet Blanks - has a very chainmaille look to it.


I'm still trying to figure out what to do to finish the one I showed yesterday - and I have two more bracelet blanks to do - one is gunmetal, and then work on the two frames, which I think I'm going to do some mixed media collages (Tish beat me to it, but GMTA!) with to use as pendants, so I need to buy resin.

Very Cool Sale Going On!

In what is known as a "Magpie Alert" I am passing along the news that Elise (the wonderful lady who not only provided me with the fabulous BoTMO beads I used in the swirly silver piece) but who also makes beautiful jewelry, is having a fabulous sale. Do look, much wonderful shiny stuff is there.

"It was here that I decided to quit before I went embellishment mad"

Before I dive into this, thank you again to Margot Potter for the link to my "Mondrian" inspired choker, in her latest blog post, and to a whole bunch of new crafting/beading/jewelry artists I am following on Twitter and who so kindly have followed me back!

Speaking of Twitter, I tweeted this last night "I'm always wondering, while making vintage-style pieces, when I should stop adding stuff. It's like Granny Ogg and how to spell bananananana".

I really like baroque and complex work, but I also like symmetry, simple lines...it's like having some kind of multiple design personality complex. So when I use intricately textured or ornamental components, it's challenging for me not to just keep adding and adding more chains and dangles and detail, or alternatively, not to add any.

I think last night's work (which was the finishing touch on the pendant I'd started working on weeks ago and put aside unfinished to think about) turned out as a balance between my impulses.

I'll start with the pendant - I received a set of different colored cabochons (all called 'jade' but I think they're another stone that's been dyed, so I'm calling this one 'faux yellow jade') and thought I'd try using some of the brass stampings to wrap them into pendants. I chose a rather large stamping called Maltese Cross (Item S40, Accessories Susan) for the base, and another one called Filigree to Wrap Stones (Item S38, Accessories Susan).

I wrapped the filigree around the stone with the Maltese cross in-between to hold all three pieces together. Then I bent three arms of the cross up and then curled back over to get the setting seen above.

The next thing I did was start experimenting with the chain. At first, right above the pendant, I used some Japanese glass beads with pale yellow rose decals on them, and then put the filigree beads you see above, on the chain as well. I wasn't happy with the rose beads, so they went, but I liked the filigree beads. By the way, there are three tiny yellow faceted Czech glass rounds inside each of those filigree beads to give them a secret inner glint.

I still found the chain a bit dull, so I added the pale yellow faceted Czech glass bicones. Then I looked at it again and wanted to embellish the pendant just a teensy bit more and added the chain loop and then the two chain dangles with the same pale yellow bicones at the ends.

It was here that I decided to quit before I went embellishment mad.

My shipment of silver ox filigrees came the other day, so the next vintage style pieces I do will probably use those. As I mentioned in a previous post, I think the silver will be a better color for Spring and Summer, the brass just seems to say Fall and Winter to me.

Many hours have passed since I wrote that last paragraph...

I think I'll have one more choker frame idea to share soon - been working on another experimental piece, trying something new again, and the way it's deciding to design itself (yes, this piece is growing rather organically since I didn't know where I was going with it, I just started playing and off it went) is looking like it belongs on a choker form. I've been absolutely obsessed with this since about 9 PM and it's now after 2 AM. I think it's nearly done...

I'll leave it a mystery for now and you'll just have to come back and see what it is sometime this weekend.

More Photo Background Ideas

Pulled out a couple new background ideas, shown at thumbnail size - these have texture but because they're white and beige, would they be better than using color or pattern?

Here's a set showing the different uses, but flat instead of on a bust like the ones shown in my previous post.

Here's another idea I had, in 3 versions - does adding the bag (just for the teaser shot) detract?

Comments appreciated!

More Thoughts About Getting Exposure and Sales

A colleague of mine said in passing that she thought at lanyard would make a nice gift for her boss and that her boss liked purple. I'm going to take a couple purple designs into the office tomorrow and see if I can make a sale. Here's one I just finished with the boss in mind:

As I've mentioned before, people who see me wearing the lanyard are more likely to buy one. I know of a couple people who have bought them for gifts after seeing one on me they liked. I've considered the possibility that using a 'live' model would be helpful for online sales, but in reality the picture size you get online is too limiting.

Another suggestion is to try and sell them through our company store. I waver on that idea, as I'm a handcrafter, not a commercial manufacturer and I'm not sure that I want to get involved with the challenges of selling to a retail outlet. The unique value of my items is the fact that they're jewelry not a utilitarian item and my pricing is based on that premise.

I could use very inexpensive crow beads and make the lanyards very simple and sell them for $12 to $16, like many I've seen. But I have to make what I like, and I don't like that look - it's what got me into making my own lanyards in the first place. I purchased a couple lanyards at a crafts fair made from the larger crow beads with some fancier accent beads near the ends where the badge loop was attached. They were ok, but still really didn't look nearly nice enough with dressy clothes or business-style suits - they were fine for business casual, but I give enough presentations and go to conferences where I want to make an impression that business casual doesn't make. I may try to see if I can get some advertising in the program at one of those conferences some day.

I Should Be Beading

I feel like I should be beading, but I just finished up another 12 hr work day and my enthusiasm for just about everything is very low. If I didn't have to clean up my office/workroom in order to be able to find anything, I'd probably get to work - but there's a small disaster area behind me where boxes of beads and findings and design boards with miscellaneous beads are piled up 3 and 4 deep...I just don't think I'm going to work up the enthusiasm tonight to tidy up.

Since I don't have any WIP to write about, I will put in a plug for Elise's Shiny Sale - she's listed a great huge lot of lovely jewelry on sale - get your Christmas shopping done early! And feel free, of course, to check out my Etsy store, too.

Busy Day!

Spent a good deal of time today working on a necklace with amber chips, 8mm size 10k gold hollow round beads and smaller gold filled round beads, gold filled and gold plated spacers, miscellaneous stones, and metal beads, glass beads, and pearls. The design is asymmetrical and follows no set pattern in the distance between beads/stones/pearls filled with the amber chips. Sometimes it's a couple of inches, sometimes it's just a few chips. I'm now debating whether or not I like it or want to disassemble it and start over. If I continue, I plan to make it very long with the intention of wearing it doubled.

When I put that one aside, I grabbed the blue lace agate I ordered recently and started working on a necklace lanyard from that. I'm very happy with the results. This picture doesn't do the agates justice - the color is just a bit off.

I also decided to go and submit my application for a table in the dealer's room at LosCon. I got it into the Post Office before the final pick up time in hopes that it will arrive on Monday or Tuesday, at the latest, in L.A.

Spent some time posting new stuff on Etsy, and loading photos to Flickr, too.

Joined Beadfly today and posted one of my items. Got a review almost immediately - got a 6.8 out of ten from the site's "#1 reviewer". My goal shall be to see if I can post something that gets at least an 8. I like the idea of Beadfly. A social networking site that has many web 2.0 ideas - articles, blog, comments and photo posting. You can join (and start) groups, submit articles, vote in polls, list your store and more stuff I haven't investigated yet.

One Last Bit of Convention Business

Patti (and I hope I'm remembering the right name) you dropped one of your earrings at my table on Monday when you were showing me some of your lovely beaded work - please email me (see contact info in sidebar to the right) so I can mail it to you!

I'm still not organized in my beading workspace but I do want to work on something new tonight. I often have to get everything just so before I start work, but I'm too tired (still) to tackle that task. I haven't even gotten all the stuff out of the trunk of the car yet. Fortunately it's just two of the smaller totes in there, so I'm not missing a lot of beads.

My beading wire arrived today, so I finally have plenty of the right size wire to work with. I'll finish a piece I worked on yesterday as I sat at my table and then ponder what to do next. There wasn't any real pattern to what sold, although the genuine stone pieces did well. I think just continuing to make stuff I like and would wear is a good plan.

Sunday Live Blogging from BayCon

People were waiting in the hall this morning when I got here, to get into the dealer's room. I hope I'll get in there today, I'd love to pick up some goodies.

Got here right around 9 am, set things up and a very nice lady offered to take my picture at my table.

No shoppers yet. Forgot my cash box at home, so I got money from the ATM and used twenties for cheapo stuff at three different stops to get change.

Dawno's Report from Day 1 at BayCon

I loaded up a huge amount of stuff into my car today - much more than I really could have ever used, but I'm one of those people that would rather take stuff I don't use than need something and not have it. You should see how I pack for a weekend trip.

Once I had that done, I had to go to an office supply store for a cash box and the bank for change. Got to the convention hotel at 3-ish. The parking was jammed full, but I found a spot on the ground floor - it was almost as far away from the hotel entrance as you can get, but I really didn't want to take the elevator with all my stuff, so I was glad to have found it.

Getting all my stuff together for one trip was a bit of a logistics challenge. I have a large, black nylon covered, rolling "cube" case - it's intended to be a travelling office - inside it were all sorts of bins and things for file folders and office supplies. But because it's wide and not too tall, it's great for stacking other stuff on the top. It also has lots of great zippered pockets inside and out. I had it crammed full.

I also took my backpack for the camera and some miscellaneous beading supplies that didn't fit into the other containers and a messenger bag for my wallet, laptop and a book, a tote with all my beads and the wire carousels to display them, the bead buddy lap desk and the zippered bead container tote. Most of it fit in or on top of the rolling cube. The downside was that I think I was carrying and rolling about 80lbs of stuff and it was a long hike. Tomorrow I hope to get there early enough to get a closer parking spot and I'm definitely not taking in everything. If I decide I need something, I can just go to the car for it.

Was set up and ready to go by 4. It was fairly quiet on Artist's Alley for most of the time, but I did ok, broke even on the cost of registration and the table fee. I hadn't labeled my necklace lanyards, so part of the time I spent putting on price tags. One of my friends from Absolute Write Water Cooler was there helping a friend who has a booth in the dealer's room and she brought her (Melody Rondeau) over to my table. It was very nice to chat with them and I look forward to getting a chance to check out their booth sometime this weekend. Next time I do this, I'm shanghaiing a helper!

No pictures today, but I'll try to take some tomorrow. The theme of the convention is pirates and there are many wonderful costumes being displayed on the convention attendees. Definitely need pictures! Oh, and there was an artist's reception this evening, too, but I was pretty tired and just wanted to get home.

There was also a graduation happening at the venue as well, and a man in a very fancy robe - like you see on professors at college graduations - walked by with an older gentleman in a nice tweed jacket and dark slacks. He took one of my business cards as he walked by. It was one of those times I wished I could read minds - I'm so curious to know why he took a card!

I did work on, and finish, one more lanyard while I was there - one of the hexagon glass bead styles, this one in cobalt blue glass and silver seed beads. Not sure what I'll work on tomorrow - but I have plenty of supplies to choose from!

Hanging Out With Other Beaders

I was told about the Craftster Community by my daughter and joined up. Seems like a fun, supportive place. She's posted about a scarf she knitted as her very first knitting project and the replies were adorable. She's also doing a "swap" event where she and another Craftster have exchanged little stuffed animals. The posts are clever and cute.

So where else should I hang out? What blogs should I go to, link to and comment on to get involved with other beaders? Things I want to read about and learn include information about showing at fairs, selling through co-ops or how to get local stores to carry one's work.

Networking is a great thing. I was meeting with someone through the day job who was very interested in taking some of my lanyards with him to his Rotary convention. He took a bunch of business cards, 5 of my lanyards and a brochure - I had to get it all ready for him at a moment's notice because he told me about it at lunch and was going to be flying out first thing the next morning.

Will it get me more business? I can't help but hope so. But even if it doesn't, I'm thrilled that someone was nice enough to offer. I won't be shy about talking about my work or handing out cards from now on. It's not natural for me, but I'll keep trying.

I'll be out of town starting tomorrow, so I probably won't post again for a few days.

I'll leave you with a couple pics of my other stuff. You can find all of these at my Etsy store.

I love the beads in this - found them at a shop in Westminster near Huntington Beach, CA. I've got a bunch of them, still and will be making more necklace lanyards with them.












Close up:












One of the members of the online writing forum I belong to saw this at my store and sent me a message saying she was getting married and would love to have a necklace like this and matching earrings, but with a blue stone instead of the malachite. I have some nice lapis and offered to make one with them. She liked the idea and I'll start working on it soon. I'll post some work in progress pics once I get started.













See you next time!