This one is intended for my side biz, for my jewelry.  Actually I already have a link to it here, except it used to be my e-commerce site.  I switched things around over the weekend, moved the e-commerce pages to a different folder (essentially making it invisible unless I give a direct link), and put the new blog on the main directory.

I created both an Artfire Studio (basic for now) and an Etsy shop, where I’ll eventually start posting items for sale – jewelry, polymer clay beads, etc..  The links to both are at the top of the page on that blog.  I am also going to try out a plug-in I found for wordpress which allows one to host an e-commerce solution straight from the WP blog.

Technically I could re-list some of the stuff I had up previously at my e-commerce site, but I’d like to re-take the photos of a bunch of them with better lighting and backdrop and whatnot, before I do that.   Plus I’m also trying to work on some polymer clay stuff to be able to sell as well.   Once that is all ready I’ll put up another post here, as well as at the new blog, letting anyone who still drifts by here, know about it.

I know I’ve lost a lot of readers (geeze, do I even still have any at all? LOL) due to my extremely sporadic posting and even less frequent visitation and commenting at other blogs… And that’s ok with me, to be honest. It’s nothing less than I deserve for slacking like that.  I’ll just have to work on posting more often, either here or at the other blog, and trying to visit other blogs.  Unfortunately with the micromanagement at work looking over my shoulder for claims of excessive slacking there, i.e. surfing too much, it’s become even more difficult to do much of what I used to do from work – which was read others’ blogs and such.  And because I’d rather work on things like, you know, building up a stock of jewelry and whatnot when I’m at home, that doesn’t leave a lot of time for blog surfing and posting on my own blog… Except when I’m in a creative funk, of course.

Talk about being spread thin. 

It’s not a great picture, I took it with my camera phone.  But if it’s hard to tell what they are, it’s gingerbread men.  The first one on the left is a dud, I made the clay too thin and attempted to correct it by adding some clay to the back, but quickly found that wasn’t very astheticaly pleasing and trying to blend the seams without squishing the rest of it was more work than I was willing to put into it.

The two on the right are about 2/3rd done in the pic, I finished by adding eyes, smiles and rolls of white clay on the feet and hands for icing.  And a holly berry & leaf on their heads.  Then I made four small round beads that will go with them.  I’ll take more pictures after they’re baked, which I am going to save for when I have more beads to cook – energy conservation and all that.

So what do you think?  Are they cute enough?  These are merely testers since I still need to test them out after baking to see how much abuse they’ll take on a bracelet before I would consider selling them.  I wouldn’t want one of their little bodies to fall off and get lost somewhere (the thread hole is drilled sideways through their heads).

Please go to my jewelry e-commerce site, Positively Charming, look at my offerings, and provide your thoughts on what I have there. What is crap? What are my best pieces? Do you think I am over or under pricing anything? Any other suggestions or critiques?

Should I look into opening an Etsy store? I know Etsy has a small fee per posted item, which is partially why I have put off opening a store there. I have an inactive store at Hyena Cart, but only got interest in a lottery for a pair of earrings I goofed up on (and therefore I considered “seconds”, which is why I gave them away), and had no sales. The only sale I’ve had on my e-commerce site was from a member of a mom’s forum I am a member of, but otherwise, no nibbles. It’s quite discouraging to have looky-loos but no sales, and then I’m left wondering if my offerings are just awful? Or is it simply due to the economy? Heck even my 25% off sale didn’t garner any bites, although I only really advertised it here on my blog (which isn’t exactly overrun with traffic) and the few people who plugged it at their blogs too.

So anyway, spill it, please! I promise to take it graciously!

I used random.org to do the drawing, with the numbers 1-3 assigned to the participants in order of their entry into the drawing (shown in Mr. Linky in the post).

Here is a screenshot of the winning number:

So, congrats to Janet at Grammy Janet’s Place!

I will contact you through email to get your details to send you the bracelet.

Have I mentioned the bracelet is worth $60?

 
I’m not sure what happened, but my original post for my 25% off sale disappeared. Hmm. So I’m trying this in a new post.

No worries though, I copied down the names of the few who had commented and entered the contest – I’ll add your links to Mr. Linky.

To recap – the sale and contest end on October 31st at 11:59pm MST (I am moving the drawing to November 1st).  And there are only three rules to enter:

1.  Advertise my sale in a blog post, and if you like you can use the image above and add it to your post linking it to my jewelry site, but please copy the image to your own server, thanks!

2.  Add the link to your blog post advertising the sale in Mr. Linky.

3. Reside in the U.S. or Canada.

That’s it!

Good luck and hurry, there are only three and a half days left!!

After today, only my newest feature will be running.  I may run this special for the BCA bracelets again sometime in October, in case there was anyone interested in getting one with this special but was not able to do so.  Please comment on this post if you are still interested and want to see it come back in October for another chance at $10 off for these bracelets.  :)

Ok, for this feature, I thought I would offer up a discount on one of the sets that I created.  I am going to choose the “Green Tea” set, with a 20% off coupon.  The coupon code is GREENTEA.

Since there is only ONE set of this kind at the moment, and I am not sure whether I have enough components to create any more sets of this type – this special will be first come, first served!  So if you’re interested in this one, you better go and see if it’s available and snap it up quick if it is!

I saw a little bit of traffic, but that’s it.  Ah well.  I guess I’ll try something different tomorrow and try again.

There’s still time left on the coupon for thsoe bracelets, though.  I believe it expires tomorrow, so there is still all day today and hopefully all day tomorrow for people to use it if they want to!  And tomorrow I will feature a different piece of jewelry with a new coupon.

I think I may run this one again in October though, since that is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Clicking on the images will take you to the product page.

I will offer these at $10 off the normal price of $36.95 (for the 8″ bracelets), until September 19th, or until they are sold out.  I have enough supplies to make seven more identical to the ones pictured in 8″ or smaller sizes. I also still have the 8″ and 9″ pictured available, for a total of 9 bracelets.  Any purchased beyond the two already available will need to made on demand, so will take an additional week to create from the date of purchase.

The coupon code is AWARE08 (yes it is case sensitive), and can only be used ONCE per person.  This coupon cannot be used on any other product in the store, ONLY these bracelets.  Also, I am unable to combine coupons at this time, so the free shipping coupon will be unavailable to those using this special coupon.

If you have ANY problems shopping at my store during this special, please PLEASE let me know here, or via the contact page at my store.

Happy shopping!

Come back on September 19th to see my next available special!