running round in circles...

Wow. Been almost a month since I wrote something down.

Life is so darn crazy! And so much happens so fast.

I'm so sad about the happenings in Japan. So much destruction and loss of life - so hard to comprehend. Nuclear power? Never much liked it to begin with. Now we're all in danger. Ugh.

As I listen to my daughter practicing the piano, I can hardly imagine life without her. But the realization that life is so tenuous, I'm sure that a mom in Japan has said the same thing about her daughter-that she may have just lost. Unbearable. So, what's a mother to do? Just love the tar out of her girl. What would that mom do? Just love the tar out of her girl. We would do the same.

I'm not a religous woman. Thank god. But I am a spiritual woman. I as much as I'd like to rationalize what's happened, I can't. I don't know what the heck we're supposed to learn or understand from the sadness of what's just taken place, all I can do is offer up hope, peace and strength to all that's left. The Japanese do live on a tenuous tectonic plate. Earthquakes are a part of their life. It's just when it happens, life can really suck. I'm so sorry for their loss.

Whoo Hoo! I Made the Front Page!!

Okay, for me, this is big!  It's what getting into a treasury is all about - the Front Page of Etsy!  It happened at 2:00 a.m. Sunday Morning, February 20, 2010!  Hope it's the first of many! My item is the iceberg-looking necklace, with the brass chain. Saweet!

Early Spring Means Tissue Flowers!

We here in Bawlmore, hon, experienced quite a tease yesterday when the outside temp reached 74 degrees! I was so excited that I rushed out to purchase tissue paper so that I could re-do my tiny shop window.  While I forgot to take before pics w/the Valentine's Day theme (oops!), I did however take pics of the process of making tissue paper flowers and I have a glare-y shot of the new store window.  I'll try to update the window pic once the light shifts.

Unfortuately for us, today is cold and extreeeeeeeeemly windy!  They're even calling for snow on Tuesday.  Utter Crazyness!  But, this morning, for the first time this year I heard the little birdies in my backyard singing at 6:30 a.m. (I'm an early girl).  While the weather will remain crazy for the time being, there is hope for Spring.  My favorite time of year is Spring and Summer. My favorite month (I know this is strange) is August.  But that's because the Monarchs are plentiful and I'm big into raising butterflies.

Anyhoo, the store is relatively slow, so I'm going to be making jewelry now and hope to do some Etsy listing on Monday. 



The Art of Letting Go

The new Style magazine came yesterday.  My shop's not in it - again.  I've been in this shop for over a year, and not one local mag has noticed.  I keep telling myself that "it's okay" but really it's not.  Is it the location? They say, "location is everything" - but who are "they" anyway?  Who the heck knows.  They have all been given the info that I exist, but they're ignoring me. For now, I hope.  So, I'll again tell myself that "it's okay" and try to believe it.  Besides, my shop is gorgeous - if they'd get their heads out of their you-know-whats, they'd know that too. (So it can't be that!)

Valentine's Day is over and we move forward into Spring. New scarves, candles and other beauties have arrived and the store looks fresh and springy!  I'll upload pics later of some of the new merch, I promise! but for now, here's an updated pic of part of the store.

Been a slow week on Etsy.  I've been making lots of new items, both vintage glass and tin this week. Next week I'll move to gemstones, I think, but I've got to make lots of tin for upcoming shows and events, so that's where the concentration will remain, at least for now.   I'm still trying to figure out the crapshoot that is relisting.  Sometimes, you'll spend lots of $$ relisting and no one will notice, other times you hit the jackpot and someone will buy something.  It's certainly hard to count on.

Sent a large group out for wholesale this week. Hope that goes well.

My quest for treasuries has been going well.  I'm now in 25.  Still excites me whenever someone chooses something of mine to put in their treasury! Here's the latest:

To Relist and Relist and Relist - that is the question!?!

Okay, here's something about Etsy that always keeps me guessing: whether or not to relist my items and how often?  I know that it's important to keep my items in front of people, since once an item is listed it gets burried in the queue - there's a kajillion people listing items, especially jewelry.  And at what time of day?  When are people most likely to see my stuff, and if I relist at the wrong time, is it just a waste of money?

While these questions will always keep me guessing, I took a stab at relisting a bunch of items today - out of 77, I relisted just about half.  Here's what's happened so far:

Two people put items on their favorites list and
One item got chosen for a treasury!

Pretty darn good for a stab in the dark!  One of the most positive things that can happen as an Etsy seller, other than of course, selling an item, is to get chosen for a treasury.  I've been collecting them like snowglobes, and am giddy with excitement everytime it happens.  Here's the latest - No. 12:

Same Day, Different Post

Okay, I'm still trying to figure out how the heck to do this!  I've been jonesin' to redo the wall across from the sales desk and I accomplished the task today, but can't seem to figure out how to post the pics.  So, I'm gonna try again!

Before and After:

Made a bunch more items for Etsy, I now have 77 items listed!  It's amazing how much time it takes to shoot the pictures, clean them up and load them onto the site.  I have to say that my new camera is taking some pretty darn good shots.  (It's a Cannon Powershot A3100 IS).

Now I'm ready for the weekend!  If we get another round of frozen precipitation I'll cry, as Saturday is my busiest day of the week and I lost so many days in January because of crappy weather.  Here's to hoping!

I also got chosen for another treasury - that's 11 so far and it just makes me giddy with excitement!

Staying Busy

Today is my day in the shop. Kim is here on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and I'm here Thursday, Saturday and most Sundays.  My shop is in the basement of another shop - the Red Canoe, which is a bookstore and coffee shop.  Directly above my shop is the bookstore/children's section, so it gets rather loud.  Little kiddies race back and forth and create quite ruckus!  Sometimes it's so overwhelming that customers get a little perturbed with the noise, but all I can really do is shrug my shoulders and smile.  :)

Anyway, I finished the Valentine table, and am rather pleased with the result.

I also reworked the one wall across from the sales desk:  But, I can't seem to figure out how to put the pictures in so it can be seen.  Bummer.

I'll try in a separate post.

Rising from obscurity

Why does one write a blog? And why do people follow?

I started a blog because I was told it would help my business.  I'm not a writer. I'm a visual artist who primarily makes jewelry.  I have a brick and mortar shop in northeast Baltimore City, an area called Lauraville.  This is the start of my second year in this location.  My goal in writing this blog (at least my present goal) is to help my little store rise out of obscurity in Baltimore, which means sharing the joys and craziness of owning a store. 

This is also my personal experiment in getting my store seen by the local media (Baltimore Magazine, Style Magazine) as well as any other form of Maryland media w/out selling my soul, or liver or other vital organ.

So, please excuse the grammatical errors. There will be many. 

Okay, here we go!

Daily good news: 

1)  I sold a necklace off of Etsy last night - yay! I hope the recipient loves it!
2)  I've gotten into another Etsy Treasury!  (I'm secretly collecting these like trading cards!)

And, yet, another snow day!

Baltimore just got dumped on with a whole bunch of snow last night - I think we now have at least 10 inches.  Real wet, bloppy snow - big and sloppy.  Heavy heavy.

My poor little beancake has come down with a cough and I'm torn as to whether or not to let her out to sled. Ugh, I feel like bad, yet protective mama.  Working on mentally removing the guilt.

Had to close the store again today so that the digging out can begin.  Ah, well, I doubt this is weather to be jewelry shopping in, and besides my hope is that my etsy shop can become just as lucrative as the store. In fact, one of my necklaces was kindly chosen for a lovely necklace treasury. 

Happy Day!

A great snowy morning surprise!

My daughter has been off of school for the past two days because of her teacher's professional development days.  But, even though she's off school, that doesn't mean that I get off of working.  While trying to make as much new jewelry as I can, to post on etsy and put in the shop, my bff, Patty, sent me a chat to say that "they're dropping like flies" at her work, did you get your flu shot yet?  Ewe.  The thought of a shot, of any kind, leaves me dizzy.  Childhood trauma stuff.  No fun.

So I sucked it up and told my little chickie that we have to get our flu shots today.  We'll treat ourselves to some goodies afterward, I promise!  I researched where we could go on the fly and found out that our local Target store has a clinic and they give flu shots.  On the way over, we bantered back and forth which one of us would go first. We never did come up with a winner. 

Luckily for us, we both were eligible for the flu mist. No shot! Wheeee! We were both so darned happy!  We treated ourselves anyway. Actually, she treated herself to a new Wii game, with her own money.  I decided to get socks. Yee haw.

So, long story short, yesterday we decided to go book shopping.  But not until after I photographed all the work that I created in the last two days.  While in the bookstore I took a close, real close, look at my kid and noticed that she didn't look so good.  When I asked her, she said "yeah, my throat is a little weird."  She's so darned stoic!  When we got home she had a fever, stomach ache and sore throat.  The flu?  Ugh.

Anyway, I gave her some motrin, fed her soup and put her to bed.  Now it's super early in the morning and we here in Balitmore received more snow than expected and schools are closed.  With more to come.  Hopefully, the little chickie will feel better once she gets up.  And, hopefully, my husband won't have to drive his horrible commute to work.

For me, I started with a sore throat as well and couldn't sleep.  Woke up at 5am (luckily, I love early mornings) and found out that I got in a treasury that I didn't know about.  What a lovely surprise!  I'm hoping that I can properly show it here - I'm still learning all of this.  We'll see.

Words from the non-wordy

My name is Constance and I am a maker of things. Mostly jewelry.  I love old things, especially those that I can re-struct into something new.  At one point, it was salt & pepper shakers that I turned into tassels, now I take vintage tin to cut apart and make jewelry.  The jewelry thing has been going on for more than 20 years, with twists and turns in between. (Hence the tassels).  I love gemstones, and most things that sparkle. 

Writing a blog is not something that I ever considered.  As the title states, I'm not generally verbose.  At least when it comes to putting words down on paper, or computer, etc., etc.

What I am is visual.  I love to create with color, whether it's twisting wire around a gemstone or using monster sized tinsnips to cut 11mm rounds of beautiful colored tin.  It's so rewarding. 

But what's most rewarding about what I do is how it creates a feeling for someone else.  I have no separation anxiety from my work.  Seeing the pleasure my creations give to another is why I do this!

That's why I own a brick and mortar store in Balitmore City, called Studio C Jewelry.  The "C" part is for my name, Constance, as it was also once for my address, 4337 "C" Harford Road.  But since I moved the shop a year ago, I suppose it's really just for Constance.