After another week of work and running back and forth to Hobby Lobby for supplies (I'm sure glad it's close by!), my Etsy store is now open as you can see by the pictures at the top of the page.
I got the chicken earrings done and found that an interesting experience. I decided to make them entirely of clay rather than painting them as I had done in the past. Making the body wasn't a big deal. Roll out some pink clay and start cutting. Well, okay... for starters, I couldn't find my pattern. I have no idea where the book is that these patterns came from. Probably buried in the garage somewhere! I also have no idea what happened to the pattern itself. I used quilter's template vinyl to make the patterns and I have a lot of them stored in my craft box, but the ones for the "Critters" aren't with the rest. So, I used one of the other earrings that I had made previously as a pattern. I also couldn't find my quilter's template vinyl to make a new one, so ended up going to JoAnn's to get some because Hobby Lobby didn't have any that I could find. Fortunately, they are right across the street from each other these days. Since I had already used one of the other earrings as a pattern, I already had those in production.
The feet and hat were a little more of a challenge. I cut them from yellow clay and then carefully stuck them to the body. I wasn't sure they would stay and later found out about some liquid polymer clay that can be used to join pieces. I got some, but it was already too late for that project! They did stick, though, so all is well.
The polka dots were another challenge. I was going to put little dots of white clay on and then press a smaller dot of blue clay on top. I changed my mind and made a very simple cane. A cane is clay that has been formed into a shape, then wrapped with more clay to create a long, usually tubular shaped piece that has a design in it. It can then be sliced and baked to make beads or other items. You'll be seeing more of that sort of thing in upcoming pieces. So, I made a "snake" of blue, then wrapped it with white to create the cane. I then sliced off some very thin pieces to make the polka dots. They turned out sort of wonky, but that is part of the charm of these cute roosters!
Once they were out of the oven, I sanded and polished them. Then, I had to decide about the eyes. I finally decided to paint them. When they were dry, I coated them with acrylic to seal them and give them a nice shine. I discovered that it is best to do several thin coats, allowing dry time in between.
It was finally time to attach the findings. Once again, I went about things a bit differently than I had done before, mostly just to try out other processes. I had put a hole in the rooster's hat and needed to attach a jump ring because I couldn't just attach it to the earwire. Previously, I had put an eye headpin into the top of the hat to attach the earwire to. I'm not sure yet, but I think I prefer that method and will probably do that most of the time in the future. However, my headpins, like so many other things, were MIA. I have been to Hobby Lobby yet again and now have a supply of headpins as well as a third size of jump rings! I got the earwires attached and was finally able to take pictures. With the pictures done, I could actually open my store!
Whew! I forgot how long it can actually take to make a piece! A lot of that time is baking and drying time, but it makes the process for some of the pieces pretty lengthy, especially if it is necessary to bake pieces then attach other pieces and rebake. For many of these pieces, it is not a quick, do it in an hour type project! But, it is loads of fun to see them taking shape!
I'll share stories of other pieces in future posts. And there are more pieces in the works, along with a few custom items. Stay tuned!
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Welcome!
Who knew it would take this long to open an Etsy store? I have a few pieces of jewelry that I made several years ago to sell, but I never sold these particular pieces. It should be easy enough to get that set up, right?
Wrong!!! First, I had to come with a name. Thanks to all my Dressing Your Truth friends on Facebook for helping me with that!
Then, it was time to set up my store. I went to Etsy and created an account. I have a lot of experience with computers, the internet, setting up websites, filling out forms, and that sort of thing. Let me tell you... Etsy does not make things easy! When it asked for my shop name, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to put spaces or not. From what I had seen and read, I presumed they didn't want spaces. Then, I wondered, "What if they did?" So, I tried putting spaces and it wouldn't let me. Whew! I saved it and moved to the next step.
List my items? Already??? I wasn't quite ready for that, so I looked at the bar across the top of the page to see what the next step was. "Get Paid". Hmmm... How do I get paid when I don't have anything listed? I clicked on it anyway. Oh!!! It's for HOW to get paid! Well, why didn't they say so??? I proceeded to fill out the information.
Today, when I was looking at the steps again, I happened to leave my mouse hovering over one of the steps and discovered that there was a pop up box that explained what that step was for. Now, why did they feel they had to be cute with the step names instead of just saying in plain English what it was for? Can you tell I'm a little annoyed? I guess that's what happens when you are feeling a little stressed at how long something is taking!
The final step is "Billing". When I had first looked at it, I thought maybe that was the one where I would enter the information for how I was to get paid, but since I had already done that step, I knew that wasn't it. I clicked on it and discovered I was to enter my credit card information so they could collect their fees. Simple enough. So, I did that.
Now, it was time to go back to "List Items". I needed pictures of my pieces. I looked them over carefully to see what was worthy of selling. Several items had spots of paint on them that wasn't supposed to be there. I cleaned them up, but I couldn't get all of the paint spots off of some of them. I picked out the ones that looked the best and took some pictures. I didn't have a good location. The lighting was bad. What I chose to display them on wasn't great. I wasn't happy. It was late, so I decided to try again the next day in daylight.
Meanwhile, I had been collecting supplies and watching some tutorials to see how I could improve my work. I had done very little with colored clay in the past. Most of my items are made with white clay that I painted after it was baked. I had made some dainty little roses with colored clay and they turned out nicely. I can't remember what I was going to make with them, so I'll have to think of something! The tutorials inspired me to try some new things. I made several trips to Hobby Lobby to take advantage of their 40% off coupon and found out the clay I wanted to use was on sale this week! That meant fewer trips!
I made a couple more goes at the pictures and still wasn't happy. Every little flaw showed and I found some that I hadn't noticed before! I was probably being too picky, especially since I'm not asking a big price for these items, but I don't like selling inferior quality and after looking at some of the other offerings on Etsy and watching the tutorials, I felt I could do better. I wanted to do better.
I got out my unfinished pieces and started sanding to smooth them out a little before painting them and broke a little piece off of the first one! I have some other broken pieces, too, so I decided there must be something wrong with the clay. Either I didn't bake it long enough or the clay itself was too soft to begin with. I think it was probably the latter. The little roses are made of a different brand of clay and seem very sturdy even though they are quite delicate looking. I need to make new pieces and that will take a some time, depending on how elaborate they are. I don't want to sell something only to have it arrive broken or break when a customer goes to wear it. That causes unhappy customers and I want happy customers!
So, I am going to be working on some new pieces. It may be a few more days before my shop is open. Thanks for your support! I will keep you updated here on my progress!
Wrong!!! First, I had to come with a name. Thanks to all my Dressing Your Truth friends on Facebook for helping me with that!
Then, it was time to set up my store. I went to Etsy and created an account. I have a lot of experience with computers, the internet, setting up websites, filling out forms, and that sort of thing. Let me tell you... Etsy does not make things easy! When it asked for my shop name, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to put spaces or not. From what I had seen and read, I presumed they didn't want spaces. Then, I wondered, "What if they did?" So, I tried putting spaces and it wouldn't let me. Whew! I saved it and moved to the next step.
List my items? Already??? I wasn't quite ready for that, so I looked at the bar across the top of the page to see what the next step was. "Get Paid". Hmmm... How do I get paid when I don't have anything listed? I clicked on it anyway. Oh!!! It's for HOW to get paid! Well, why didn't they say so??? I proceeded to fill out the information.
Today, when I was looking at the steps again, I happened to leave my mouse hovering over one of the steps and discovered that there was a pop up box that explained what that step was for. Now, why did they feel they had to be cute with the step names instead of just saying in plain English what it was for? Can you tell I'm a little annoyed? I guess that's what happens when you are feeling a little stressed at how long something is taking!
The final step is "Billing". When I had first looked at it, I thought maybe that was the one where I would enter the information for how I was to get paid, but since I had already done that step, I knew that wasn't it. I clicked on it and discovered I was to enter my credit card information so they could collect their fees. Simple enough. So, I did that.
Now, it was time to go back to "List Items". I needed pictures of my pieces. I looked them over carefully to see what was worthy of selling. Several items had spots of paint on them that wasn't supposed to be there. I cleaned them up, but I couldn't get all of the paint spots off of some of them. I picked out the ones that looked the best and took some pictures. I didn't have a good location. The lighting was bad. What I chose to display them on wasn't great. I wasn't happy. It was late, so I decided to try again the next day in daylight.
Meanwhile, I had been collecting supplies and watching some tutorials to see how I could improve my work. I had done very little with colored clay in the past. Most of my items are made with white clay that I painted after it was baked. I had made some dainty little roses with colored clay and they turned out nicely. I can't remember what I was going to make with them, so I'll have to think of something! The tutorials inspired me to try some new things. I made several trips to Hobby Lobby to take advantage of their 40% off coupon and found out the clay I wanted to use was on sale this week! That meant fewer trips!
I made a couple more goes at the pictures and still wasn't happy. Every little flaw showed and I found some that I hadn't noticed before! I was probably being too picky, especially since I'm not asking a big price for these items, but I don't like selling inferior quality and after looking at some of the other offerings on Etsy and watching the tutorials, I felt I could do better. I wanted to do better.
I got out my unfinished pieces and started sanding to smooth them out a little before painting them and broke a little piece off of the first one! I have some other broken pieces, too, so I decided there must be something wrong with the clay. Either I didn't bake it long enough or the clay itself was too soft to begin with. I think it was probably the latter. The little roses are made of a different brand of clay and seem very sturdy even though they are quite delicate looking. I need to make new pieces and that will take a some time, depending on how elaborate they are. I don't want to sell something only to have it arrive broken or break when a customer goes to wear it. That causes unhappy customers and I want happy customers!
So, I am going to be working on some new pieces. It may be a few more days before my shop is open. Thanks for your support! I will keep you updated here on my progress!
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