Leftovers and Black Friday/Cyber Monday

Thanksgiving leftovers....yum! I don't have to cook for a couple days. Just throw some leftovers in to a glass baking dish and heat it up.

The leftovers in the online world are a bit different. I had a conversation with a couple of online sellers and it has turned a bit bizarre as the week has progressed. The range of emotions by this small group have gone from looking towards making sales & creating coupon codes for discounts, to concern over "giving" their items away for little profit (which 2 of these sellers went and raised prices, so their 25% discount actually became a little better than 15%).

Today, they claim they expected to have made sales overnight while they slept and are disappointed that things are slow...lol. I guess their leftovers don't taste too good today.

The coupon codes are now in affect in my Etsy shop. There are a few really good buys and I suspect a couple of items are going to sell over this holiday weekend (I know I am priced a bit too low on one necklace and it was selected as a favorite item by a half dozen people leading into Thanksgiving...the piece of sea glass is flawless and the image is very good... I'd be surprised if it doesn't sell soon)
The blog code must be sent to me in a convo in my Etsy shop. Select the item you wish to purchase, apply the Etsy coupon code (THKSGVG2014 for purchase totals above $30 & BLKFRI2014 for purchase totals under $30) then convo me, using Sea Glass By Robin in the subject...I will adjust the price by another 15%.
Plus all purchases receive free shipping!

I have a funny (well I found it funny) story to share in my next blog entry...and hopefully, some new pieces of sea glass for my collection to share (if I can get to the beach tomorrow morning). Enjoy the rest of your weekend ( and the images of a few soon to added creations)




'til next time...
R

Wordless Wednesday - - Almost

This is my last post before turkey-day and in my previous post, I mentioned a special discount for my blog followers. It's been awhile since I have participated in the coupon codes at Etsy and I'm not sure if the policies have changed there, so...

I will have a code for the holiday weekend on the Etsy site, which can be used to save money on a purchase. For those that follow my blog, I will offer an additional 15% off of the remaining balance...you will need to convo me on Etsy first, so I can adjust the amount due.

Pick out the piece or pieces you want to purchase, apply the Etsy code and then convo me with the following in the subject title "Sea Glass By Robin" and I will take an additional 15% of your remaining balance, plus the free shipping. This code is available for my blog followers thru Cyber Monday.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

R

How Difficult Is Selling Handmade Jewelry Online?

For the last few days, the topic of selling jewelry online and more specifically on Etsy.com has been thrown around in a few forums that I am part of. The question is a viable one, since there is a fair amount of investment necessary to be even remotely successful (and success is not guaranteed).

The cash investment is obvious. One needs to accumulate a great deal of components, if they are trying to make money selling jewelry online. The investment that isn't always apparent to anyone who thinks they can just jump right in and sell jewelry are often the most difficult to obtain- salesmanship, advertising and the most important, a following.

Being able to promote your creations successfully, is mostly trial and error...and let me stress the most important word...ERROR. If success is immediate, you ended up in the right place at the right time, or you have created something everyone wants (having your own niche, is great for making sales...but people will copy you when they see your success)

Advertising is not only placing ads, but creating an image that catches people's attention and makes them say, "I want that" as they reach for their credit card. Learning to take pictures and capture your creations is another work in progress. Promoting your creations via social networking is also something that takes time and often a financial investment to realize some success.

A following is not something you begin with. Your Mom, sisters and friends and other family members do not count as a following. Yes, sales to family and friends are nice, but you better have a large family and many, many friends if you plan on recouping your investment. Craft fairs are a great way to begin building a local following. Having an online presence, gives your local customers a chance to purchase from you 365/24/7 (and a chance at possibly selling your creations at a few brick and mortar establishments...but, I digress) Having an online store also opens up the opportunity for a new seller to make sales anywhere in the world.

Creating a niche within the jewelry category is always a good thing, but you sometimes tend to eliminate a good portion of potential customers depending upon your niche. The last number I heard on Etsy, was over 7 million pieces of jewelry was listed for sale. Seven Million. A niche will often separate you from the glut of jewelry, but one will have to work hard (even with a niche) to not get buried within the jewelry category.

So if you are new and looking to turn a hobby into a stream of income, welcome! You are getting involved at the height of the buying season. Just be ready to compete with a couple hundred thousand jewelry makers for the holiday bucks!!

And if you see anything you like....these are going into my Etsy shop over the next day or two.
PS- watch for a special Etsy sale code...available only to my blog followers...it should be available before Thanksgiving and run at least through Cyber-Monday

'til next time...
R

So Much To Do, So Little Time to Sea Glass

The cold weather has finally hit hard on the Jersey shore, as it has in much of the country. And it has kept me indoors for the most part.

I did get to the beach one morning earlier this week, found the landscape of the beach has been changed by Mother Nature once again. What looked like a very promising high tide that left a thick shell cover was mostly destroyed by tire tracks in the sand (there are several fishing tournaments at this time of the yr) and of course, the tire track run right through the shell beds.

Above is an image of a partial "kick-up" from a olive bottle, probably an old wine bottle. The piece appears quite old, because the bottom is very thick and it well-weathered. Some of the other images were of recent finds over the last couple of weeks. That is a piece of pottery in the mix, the first that we have found in quite some time- my DH actually found two others on the same day that weren't nearly finished, so they went back into the sea. In the 3rd image, the soft blue bottle top was an exciting find...it's quite old, very thick and very frosted. Not sure what the bigger wide-mouth bottle top could have been in it's original life, but it sits with my bottle top pieces in a large decorative jar, near my living room window.

My shop has been quite busy, some items selling within hours of listing. Lots of views, people selecting items and my shop as a favorite...hopefully to return later for a purchase. I have several new items waiting to go into the shop. Hopefully, the weekend will be sunny, so I can take a few more pictures and get some new items listed

Necklaces are the leaders in sales, followed by anklets. As usual, the blues are the most popular color, followed by white and then red and yellow (yes yellow...I finally took pictures at the perfect time of day to capture the true color of one of my yellows!) Midweek seems very slow, with sales being made Friday-Mondays.

This is all part of my learning curve, as I figure out how the economy has affected buying habits and what seems to be working in the world of handmade items on Etsy.

Hopefully, I can hit the beach this weekend for a little and have something new to share in the next couple of posts. Stay warm and for those who have been pounded by heavy snow, stay safe!

'til next time,
R

Wordless Wednesday - Almost

We just moved...needed a bigger place for the boys. During the moving process, I found a few pieces that were somehow misplaced among my craft supplies and with the inspiration from the Sea Glass Festival, I was motivated... hope you enjoy!

'til next time...
R

Review of the 2014 Sea Glass Festival

With this year's festival just down the road in Cape May, NJ, I just had to take the trip down the Parkway and attend the event. I was hoping to view the contest pieces for shard of the year and hopefully, run into a few sea glassing friends I had made via the internet, on forums and emails.

I did notice some complaints on Facebook, where the Saturday crowds apparently were much larger than expected and people hinted that the Convention Center was too small for such an event. I remembered the large crowds from the Lewes, Delaware event a few backs and thought how much worse could it get. The event in DE had long lines, very crowded vendor rooms, but it was spacious outside.

To put it simply, the Cape May Convention Center was not nearly large enough for the 2014 turnout. I am assuming the powers-that-be expected crowds in the 2,500-3,000 range and found the crowds to nearly double expectations. The weekend at the Cape was beautiful and the area always draws weekenders in the fall.

The town of Cape May was in full force at the event on Sunday and it seemed like everything was well organized, with the town's Mayor meeting and greeting guests and security and police presence keeping things running smoothly. The boardwalk and beach both seemed quite busy. Local shops all seemed to have a fair amount of foot traffic going in and out.

Once we were inside, we noticed the presenters were minimal, though we did speak with a couple of collectors with sea glass found in Italy, who were quite friendly and took the time to speak with all who asked questions. The vendors were located in a decent size room and with crowd control in effect, it was possible to get to the vendors tables (unlike the crowds of 4 and 5 people deep in DE). The shard of the entries were accessible and so many pieces were absolutely amazing!

By the time we arrived, in mid-afternoon, many of the vendors looked exhausted. Traffic at their tables seemed brisk and it really was impossible to stop by to introduce myself and say hi. But Kevin and I did have a chance to stop and talk with Gary of Just Beechy Keen (fantastic sea glass from Santa Cruz!) and I really loved Made by Meg's creations (and she was so sweet to everyone who stopped by her table).

The one aspect of the show that seems to have changed over the years (at least since DE) is very few vendors seem to be selling loose sea glass. I know Souris, Mary Beth and a couple of others had some loose glass, but several people were just looking to purchase a specific color, or just wanted sea glass that looks differently than the angular shards we find here on the east coast. Hint, hint vendors for 2015- loose sea glass!

Of course, all the veterans of the festival had amazing creations displayed and their tables were the most difficult to get to. Hopefully, in 2015, I will get there on Saturday and find the time to say Hi. Who knows, maybe I will even take the plunge and try to become a vendor one of these years.

A hearty well done to NASGA for another successful festival. It's never a bad thing to have to consider a bigger venue for your event. I spoke with several first time attendees who never knew anything like this existed.
Another hint for 2015...Atlantic City...I heard there are several hotels that aren't doing much there anymore.

til next time...
R

Almost Wordless Wednesday ~ New Creations

3 new jewelry creations- 1 just listed in my Etsy shop and a small pile of New Jersey sea glass from my last outing...the tear-drop piece on the left is actually a soft blue and the nicest of the bunch, the bottle top is pretty old and cool also.

Summertime Fun at the Beach

Wow, it's been quite awhile since my last blog entry...but I guess that's a good thing.
It must mean I've been spending a lot of time on the beach, doing what I love- searching for sea glass.

For those that are wondering what hunting for beach glass is about, or just looking for a fun & eco friendly summertime hobby, check out this article about what I plan on doing this summer...

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/8089711/fun_in_the_sun_at_the_beach.html?cat=24

Maybe I'll see you on the beach....enjoy!

Red Sea Glass for Valentine's Day

With Valentine's day right around the corner, I thought it would be a good idea to blog about one of the rarest of colors in the world of sea glass... RED.

Ranked #2 on the rarity chart, red sea glass is one of the most sought-after colors of sea glass. In jewelry quality condition, a near-flawless piece can brings anywhere from $25 to upwards of $100 for the shard. In flawless condition or naturally shaped like a heart, can fetch that much or more.

Honestly, finding a red piece of sea glass is a rush, but really no more so than a cobalt or cornflower blue shard. Using sea glass in my jewelry creations, I actually find that the blues sell better than the reds and are in more greater demand (perhaps this is because the red pieces sell for 50%+ more than the blues)

So in honor of the upcoming holiday for lovers... here are some Reds!

Clear Skies and Another Full Moon...

After the worst November nor'easter I can recall, the sun has come back out (well it appeared for a little while very late yesterday) and the temperature is supposed to be near 70 today.

Tonight will be another full moon, so I believe that calls for another trip to the beach tomorrow. I stayed away from the beaches since the storm. From what I have heard, the beach erosion was quite severe in many places on LBI and I could only imagine how much work the towns were doing on the dunes trying to keep homes from being destroyed.

There were several spots where the dunes were badly damaged and reports that the sea could come over the damaged dunes and out into the streets at high tide...so I was quite nervous about going to LBI on Friday and again yesterday. But I will venture out there tomorrow and see what I can see...hopefully a few more winter pieces of sea glass.

I'll bring my camera along... speaking of camera, the images above are from my trip to the beach two weeks ago : )

'til next time...

R

Sea Glass Images.... Too Pretty For Words...

All The Leaves Are Brown & The Sky Is Gray...

Wow, the summer is almost over. The children are officially back in school as of today (I don't what I'm going to do with myself, I think, ignoring the huge pile of sea glass that needs to be drilled...lol)

With a show this coming Sunday (The Beach Plum Festival, Island Beach State Park, NJ) I guess it's time to continue to put a few more items together, finish my wine glass charms (with sea glass for the "charm", of course) and begin working on a few more bracelets and pairs of earrings. I wrapped several pieces over the weekend and asked hubby to drill a few larger pieces of sea glass so I could attach charms to them. All 15 pieces are know waiting for my order of silver chains to arrive and they finished pieces will "debut" (like people are waiting with bated breath...lol) at the show this weekend.

A couple of the pieces have already found their way into my Etsy shop and a few more will be heading into the shop during the week (images of a couple necklaces above)

The recent tropical storms seemed to have stirred up quite a bit of shells on the beach and in the shell beds in the shallow water...but the sea glass is either buried underneath (or in the sand). Hopefully, things will settle down a bit and now that the summer is over, there will be far fewer people searching for sea glass. Here's hoping the next full moon exposes some beauties that were kicked up from the ocean floor and brought in for me to find...it's been a while since I found a pretty piece of cobalt and I'd really like to make myself a necklace with a piece of LBI cobalt blue!

I'm trying to figure out how to add a slideshow to my blog...I think it's too large and I have to figure out how to reduce the parameters to fit my side panel. Hopefully for next time...

'til then,
R

New Creations, Sea Glassing Trip, weird online incidents

The creative juices were flowing in overdrive this past weekend. I was a wire wrapping fool and probably knocked out about 2 dozen pendants from Friday night to Sunday evening. My fingers, the tools, the wire and the sea glass were all in the zone and everything seemed to be going so smoothly. I'd sit at the table for awhile, look at some of my choices and the next thing I knew, I had 3 or 4 wrapped pendants.

I think what started off this flow was sitting down to work on a custom order. The customer, a sea glass collector who comes up with some beautiful sea glass on the west coast, sent me several gorgeous pieces to wrap for her. I became inspired as soon as I saw these fab pieces. I immediately sat down last weekend and wrapped 2 of the beauties...but I saved some of the best pieces for last!
The bottom image is the entire lot of wrapped sea glass...aren't they some gorgeous pieces of sea glass?? What a pleasure to work with and so very inspiring! It made my not shabby, but nearly as gorgeous selections a joy to wrap...that's the kind of "zone" I fell into all weekend long. I still have all of my wrapped pieces laying out on my work bench...just a some eye candy for me each day when I go to my crafting table.

Since the creativity was flowing, I thought Sunday would be a good day for a bit of sea glassing. It was overcast, rain in the forecast...a perfect day to find some treasures.

My hubby and I arrived at the beach around 8-ish and we were the only people out there. The groomers had been out there, but must've been called back as they only did a couple strips of beach and there were hardly any footprints. Unfortunately, there also weren't very many shell beds and high-tide the night before must have been quite calm because there was almost nothing worthwhile at the high tide line.

And then the rain came, light at first, but quickly changing to a steady, driving rain. It didn't take too long before we were drenched and the lack of sea glass on the empty beach made things even more depressing. I did come across a couple shells that I'll drill and polish for some future creation and I also found a small bone .... well it was from a rather large fish and it seemed quite old. We've found these types of bones before and they do wash up from time to time, so we left this one behind for some one else to "find"...unless maybe the ocean reclaimed it later that day during the next high tide.

Strange online findings.... okay, this one was so strange, but it gave me one of those "what the hell" faces.
I was checking out my site stats and someone googled "how to polish sharp edges on sea glass" and somehow found my shop...and then they proceeded to spend a great deal of time there, looking at 39 pages (I only had 17 items listed). I thought it to be quite strange... I only use authentic sea glass and I usually don't have sharp edges in my creations...the sharp edged pieces only make it to my decorative jars or maybe a mosaic creation.
Could it be they really like my creations enough to average viewing each listing more than 2x each?

'til next time...

R

New Summer Sea Glass Creations, Craft Show Schedule....

I've been off from the J-O-B for the last two days, so I used my little "mini-vacation" to straighten up my craft table and do a little creating to build up my inventory for June & July craft shows.
The images above are a couple of my newest items (both are in my Etsy shop) and I'll be adding a couple more into both my ArtFire and Etsy shops over the next couple of days.

I even snuck out of the house and made a trip to AC Moore this afternoon...and found a couple items I've been looking for online, but unable to find. Finding those components will allow me to place my online orders for drill bits, and a bunch of sterling silver (wires, necklaces, bracelets, head pins, etc).

So my "summer circuit" craft show season is under way. I had a fun time at the Barnegat Bay Festival and was excited by both the amount of traffic at the show and the number of people that were buying and/or very, very interested in my sea glass jewelry. I handed out a lot of business cards and had quite a few people asking me what shows I'm doing next.

My summer shows (for my followers that prefer not to shop online)
June 13th- The Field Dog Expo on Mt. Holly Rd. in Medford, NJ. Looking at all the activities they are planning for this show, it looks to be a fun, family festival. Lots of things to keep the children occupied, plenty of puppies and of course, a handmade craft fair with a few EtsyNJ members attending.

July 11th- OM Baby, Pt. Pleasant, NJ- another EtsyNJ event. It seems like about 20-25+ EtsyNJers will appear at the OM Baby Yoga studio for the 2009 spring version of this event. It's in a great area, many wonderful shops nearby and of course, the Pt. Pleasant beach and boardwalk.

July 18th- The 2nd annual spring edition of The Handmade Faire. This year's spring event will be held in Freedom Park, in Medford, NJ. The show is juried, (I'm still pending and crossing my fingers to be accepted) and one of our EtsyNJ team leaders, organizes this event. The first annual spring and fall events were outstanding... the high quality of handmade crafters made these shows the best in Central/Southern NJ and perhaps the best throughout the state (they were by far the best handmade show I've ever attended) I'm really looking forward to this show, and hope to be selected (emails to AbbieRoad of Etsy requesting my presence are appreciated... lol)

August 1- The Lacey Crabfest & Craftshow- I don't remember how many years the Crabfest has been held, (I know it's more than a dozen) but the CraftShow is in it's 9th year. The event attracted several hundred people last year despite a hard early morning shower and even with a slow start, the show was a success for me. Another fun show that attracted a handful of EtsyNJ members (which always makes a show a good time)

Hopefully somewhere in the mix, we'll get the first handmade craft show at the Nautical Museum in Beach haven on LBI (probably the 2nd or 3rd weekend in August)

That's it...a busy summer, squeeze in a vacation and a few trips to the beach and it's almost Labor day by the time the smoke clears : (

til next time...

R

My sea glass hunt is rained out .....

I hoped to sneak away this morning to hit the beach and do a solo sea glass hunt. However, Mother Nature changed my mind. A drizzle that turned into a steady rain and morphed into a down pour keeps me in the house.

And I swear that there was going to be some beauties lying along the high tide line today : (

So, I'm taking a short coffee break to blog, share images of a couple of pieces that are going to their new home on the west coast (to a fellow sea glass collector) before I sit down to my craft table and create a few new sea glass creations for my shops and my upcoming summer craft shows.

Maybe I can sneak off to the beach tomorrow...here's hoping the ocean understands my plight and leaves something pretty behind for me to find!!

New Sea Glass Jewelry, and a few days of Beachcombing

The sudden heat wave brought a few great days to hit the beach this past weekend and with the heat wave, came the day-trippers, the seasonal "tourists" and all of the locals.

I hit the beach early Saturday morning, to find an almost empty beach...only one other person was out walking her dog. I found a few shell beds that had been left behind by the early morning high tide and spent a good deal of time picking out some shells and searching for sea glass. It was quite enjoyable to spend a beautiful sunny, warm early morning on a quiet beach...just searching for treasures, and watching the morning sun rise in the sky, especially after the rough winter we had this year.

As spring turns to summer, there may not be very more quiet beach mornings. But I truly enjoyed the first warm morning of the the year and found it wonderfully revitalizing.


I suppose that becomes a nice bridge to my next topic... Finding incentive from my trip to the beach, I came home and went to my crafting table.

A few of the pieces I created this past weekend have already made their way into my shop on Etsy, and a few more went to the brick & mortars where I have some sea glass jewelry consignments. The images above are some of the new creations and I'll be back at the crafting table later this week to make a few more pieces.

Who knows, maybe I can squeeze in just one more quiet morning on the beach before things get crazy around here : )