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Thursday,
September 27, 2007 As usual, a lot of updates since my last
entry. I've decided that bad marketing or not, I
just can't stand to have inventory sit in my store for months on end. As a shopper, I'd hate to go to my favorite
store and see the same things each time I visit. So for my regular customers, I'm trying to
maintain a fast turnover. As an
artist, I prefer to move on... also not seeing the same designs too many
months in a row. Finally, creating a
fast turnover affords me the opportunity to treat some of my loyal customers
with the occasional awesome price deal.
It's a win-win situation all the way around. Anyway, for the most part I've just
finished a huge round of inventory clearance.
I still have a few items up at vastly reduced prices (click a pic for
more info and supersize photos!):
And here are some of the new pieces that
needed the room...
I'm still (very much!) trying to get used to
(or learn, rather) the new version of Adobe Photoshop Elements I had to
install on my new computer. I've also decided that I'm sort of an
advocate for "beading". By
that I mean that, yes, for the most part I prefer to have more of a tactile
input for my jewelry creations (metal-smithing, lampworking, pc beads,
etc). But that I am not discounting
the ability to put beads together in an artistic way. There is still much to be said for having
an eye for design. I'd like to thank the many, many fine designers
who recently joined the message board. What fun I'm having getting to know you all
and see your designs, share info, etc. As for hockey, the NorCal preseason starts
this week. Mon's missing her first two
Oakland games due to conflicts with her San Jose team. Gabe's team seems to only have one game per
weekend, which I'm guessing is due to the lower number of Midget-16 teams
than some of the younger teams (Squirt, PeeWee, etc). The girls just returned from their first
tournament. They made it to the
semi-finals and all of us parents were pretty dang proud. Monica and Taylor seem to really get along
well; I couldn't be happier. Mon gets
so much support from her two hockey teams. In school, both kids still seem to be doing
quite well. But the year is still
young and I must keep a close eye on them.
They have way too much homework, in my opinion. 2-5 hours of homework per night, including
weekends. I've been thinking about the house and the
cats. The house(selling) market is the
pits at the moment, but I'm trying to get things in order so we can try to
sell by next year. I'm not sure what
to do about the cats. I'd love to find
homes for most of them. I can't take
them all to Penryn, and if we DID end up selling the house and getting an
apartment for the last two years of Gabe's high school, then it would be
impossible to have the cats. What a
conundrom. I'm so overwhelmed at the moment, that I've
been doing a bad job of lining up shows.
And yet, shows are what I need right now (unless I get my rep info up
and expand on that... not sure yet I want to do that). Well, that's enough for updates at the
moment. Oh!
Almost forgot. Come back tomorrow
'cause I'm going to show you some things I made using some very special
beads. There are three of us doing
this project: Cindy
Gimbrone and Bridgette
Tucker.
Cindy and Bridgette each made beads and sent to the other two of us in
the project and then we're all to make jewelry and show it on our blogs
tomorrow. How exciting! Okay, TTYL! Tuesday,
September 11, 2007 So, I did a little research over the
weekend. Just curious if it's ME or
the market (the slowdown in sales). I
did an eBay search on ended items in the bracelets category of the artisan
jewelry section and sorted them from highest ending price downward. There were about 5500 items in the group
that I looked at. Then I ignored all the Silpada, Sunshine
Catalog, Ayala Bar and other things that were being sold via someone else. So, out of the items that were actually
being sold by self-representing artists in eBay's artisan bracelet category,
here are the items that sold for more than $50 (sold price, starting price): $113 $75 $100 BIN $85 $85 $85 $85 $77 $30 $75 $75 $75 BIN $66 BIN $63 $50 $62 $62 $60 $60 $60 $60 $59 $59 $58 BIN $56 $46 $55 $55 $55 $55 $55 $55 $55 $55 And what does all this tell me? A) Not much is selling at all.
This is a search I have done every couple of months for the past 7-8
years. This is the lowest yield of
sold B) For most sellers, if you start your opening bid too low, the
item may very well sell way below your expectations. The sold prices you see here are not that
far from the opening prices in most instances. C) There aren't bidding wars anymore;
not like in the old days of eBay. The
majority of these sold items were bid on by merely one person. So where does that leave us?
I've always advocated not having all your eggs in one basket, but what
I can't do similar research on Etsy because they don't have a
feature where I can look up the prices of sold items. I'm not that familiar with RubyLane,
but I'm thinking that's also a feature that's out of reach. Are there other online markets that feature Do we have to start doing shows now? Would shows reveal similar results? If so, that's a lot of work for nothing. Okay, so IF Well, there's something to mull over. In other news, I listed some bracelets on eBay that have
FANTASTIC Alex Spinglaschell beads in them (in
them?! The whole bracelets are Alex Spinglaschell beads!)… (these are CLICKABLE)
I also put a bunch of inventory on sale so
check out the sale gallery! TTYL! Friday,
September 7, 2007 Well, as happens sometimes, unforeseen
tasks come up and suck up HOURS of time that may have been scheduled for
other things. That happened last
night. But it may have a good outcome;
I'll keep you posted. If not, it was a
learning experience. I've been keeping a list of things that
need to get done, and then I just cross them off as I do them. It's a great reminder. I hate remembering things I was supposed to
do once it's too late. It's almost 10:30am and I'm just now having
my coffee. Last night's unforeseen
task spilled into today. But it's over
now and out of my hands. Lots of hockey this weekend, and if I'm
lucky I actually get to spend some time with my good buddy (other
Laura). Unfortunately, Monica's father
won't let her attend her San Jose team's first "team bonding"
activity—a potluck this Sunday. Oh dear, I think I left my flashstick in my
jacket pocket (not the jacket I have on at the moment). Argh!
So much for my "to do" list... amongst other things. Ah well, I'll have to deal with it. There's supposed to be a pretty cool
crescent moon and Venus tonight. It's
been overcast, though. Oh, Monica passed her Algebra test. Borderline, but passed. She'll have her work cut out for her this
year, especially working on doing the problem faster, but she's a determined
little thing. Wow, I'm looking at photos on the web...
real photos, fantastic photos, awesome creations. I am so humbled. I need to improve both my photography I've been thinking. I'm considering making more of a split in
my jewelry. I can do one line of less
expensive baubles because people still want jewelry but not everyone can lay
out $80 for a bracelet... these would be more along the lines of
$25-$45. Keep in mind, they will
always be less expensive here than on eBay so And then the other line would be more of my
creative outlet. Jewelry that is more
experimental and probably also much more expensive. Gabe's coming along in French. It's super fun having him in a class that I
can help him with. I think he's going
to do great. BTW, I think he's doing
superb in his Engineering class. He
says the instructor often makes complimentary comments on his work. I'm finding myself less and less interested
in eating meat. Not really from a
social or moral standpoint, or even a health standpoint. I'm just not really liking the taste of any
meat other than fish. And if you're wondering why my paragraphs
jump from one topic to another, it's most likely because there are hours
between each. Yep! I have some custom work to do this weekend,
but if I get a handle on that I really, really, REALLY want to play with something...
metal, wire, pc, enamel, lampwork, art clay, etc. I may finally try some pc transfer
pictures. I at least got a start; I
printed some pictures onto paper from a laser copier. The previous times I've tried this, I
apparently didn't have the right kind of paper print. I was thinking this morning that I ought to
take more pictures of the kids. Not on
the ice and not with the animals... but just plain old pictures of the kids. Well, I should just sign off now so I can
at least post this. It's better than
nothing. TTYL! Tuesday,
September 4, 2007 Wow, yeah, okay, I apologize. That was rather rude (not blogging for a
few weeks in a row). It was a
combination of several things, most of which is/was a wicked ear infection (I
will see the specialist tomorrow, so am not sure of all the details just
yet). What were the highlights of the past few
weeks? This past weekend, I finally set up (but
it's not entirely finished) my new computer.
Yeah, I'm on VISTA now... keep your fingers crossed. I've had more people interested in becoming
a rep for my secondary line of jewelry, so I'm considering posting something
about it on the website (still undecided). STILL working on ridding this site of any
black font on black background. If you
should happen to notice some (usually with orders), please let me know. I apologize in advance. The kids are doing okay in school. Gabe seems to be having an easy time of it
so far, even though his English/History class gives him homework every night
(he isn't happy about that). Today we
may get the results of Monica's Algebra readiness test... it's kinda sad
because she was put in Algebra 1 where she wants to be and feels that is the
appropriate place. But because she
can't do the problems with the speed needed when taking a test, they will
most likely put her in Algebra A, where she will end up re-learning all the
things she already knows but just doesn't do fast enough. Hockey is going to be intense this year,
mostly for Monica, but the benefits will totally outweigh the stress
(assuming the courts eventually let Monica do hockey the way she wants
to). Her San Jose girls' team really
work hard to get the girls into scholarship positions. I opened a Ruby Lane store up. Shrug
We'll see... I figured it can't hurt Mike has a job at a comicbook store
now. He's also going to be doing some
writing for a slasher book that's coming out soon, I believe. I think he's also working on the other book
proposal(s).... which is something I have to do with my own book. And I got a hankering the other day to
write a kids book! Eek! Like I don't have enough to do. Got some new bead books at B&N the
other day. Wow, leafing through those
I get so excited to play around with my Art Clay Silver and Polymer Clay and
Metals, etc... but this whole weekend came and went and I didn't. Maybe I'll make a date and not stand me up. I had a big 50% off sale
last week (it ends at about 9pm tonight) on eBay. Here are two new pieces I added this week
(no hyperlink on the bracelet 'cause someone already BIN'd it):
Here's something I made that I was rather
proud of:
I have a long way to go to perfect this
skill, but it's a start. J I haven't put that piece in this store yet,
but here are some new additions I did get in here:
Well, I'd better save some blogging for
tomorrow. J Later! |
