New Designs!

I have been really struggling with the flu the last couple of weeks.  No time to slow down, which means its taking longer to get well than I would like.  Despite the struggle I did manage to squeeze some creating time in.  I am introducing a line of glass rings into the jewelry shop.  These are fun and different and will come in a wide range of colors and designs, although each one will be one of a kind and unique.  Currently, they are available in a size 6, although I will be ordering the mandrels to make a size 5 and a size 7 ring.  If there is enough interest in other sizes I will consider ordering more mandrels in other sizes also.  Here is an example of a simple ring with a geometric dot design.

 If glass rings aren't your thing, I also have a variety of more traditional rings, like this pretty copper and red wire wrapped ring.  The wire wrapped rings come in a wider variety of sizes that the glass rings, although each one is also unique, and one of a kind.

    
I also have a small line of the more traditional metal smithed rings.  I will be adding to this line in the future, but for now, what I have listed is all I have left (we are working on re organizing my metal smithing space, currently, I have a 6 foot snake in a cage occupying most of my metal table). 


If you would like to purchase one of these rings or take a look at what rings are available you can either click on the pictures, which will take you directly to that listing or you can go to my Etsy shop and visit the rings section.

New Venues

I know in a previous post I mentioned that I was going to expand the venues that I was selling on. I have done this, sort of a grand experiment lol and have decided to give each venue until after Christmas, through the four month period most of these venues give you for listing times. Sooo say til the end of February. I have just recently signed up with four new venues, 1000Markets, Shop Handmade Handmade Fuzion and Artfire. So far I am very very happy with 1000Markets, the site looks awesome, it's juried (ya I know but I really like it, it is very profressional looking and the concept is completely awesome) and the admins are fabulous. Plus they already offer most of what that other site seems to think is not important, like stats, being able to move your items around and put them in any order you want. And there is no listing fee, they don't plan on making there money from listing AND they are going to be doing advertising for the site, as in for buyers. Also lots of other stuff that I won't mention now.
I like Shop Handmade simply because it is very proactive as far as the environment goes. Not hard to list on once you get used to the interface either. And its free to list. I may keep this one simply because its free to list and free to sell, plus I can donate a quarter for each item I sell and help save the rainforest. Doesn't get better than that.
I was pretty excited about Handmade Fuzion at first, the site is very clean looking and it has some good stats also. However the listing fee is .15 (which I really don't have a problem with) but if you want to get any hits at all you have to also pay .50 for front page exposure. So now its .65 to list instead of .15 or no one looks are your items. That is a bit steep for me and could rapidly become a fairly large bill. If I don't get some sales from this venue fairly regularly by February it will most likely be taken down.
Artfire is free to list and free to sell but I am not sure how buyers find your products. I am currently paying $7 a month for the upgraded shop which does have awesome stats. I was told that this would also give me additional exposure. We will see how it goes.
I am not closing my etsy shop, I have invested way too much time in it at this point but I will not be listing new items as often as I am being completely buried. I am adding all of my new product to my 1000Markets shop at this point and will most likely spend a good bit of my energy on that. More to come on how that site works later. I have several more that I am aslo using that are also under review but I won't go into that now.