Preparing to Reopen

You may have noticed that my Etsy shop has been in vacation mode since late January.  I closed my shop for a mini maternity leave.  My beautiful son was born on February 7th, and we are adjusting to life with a 4-year old and a newborn.  I could dedicate an entire blog post to that alone, but overall, it has been much easier than I thought. 

So now that I'm getting into the swing of things, and even getting a few hours of sleep here and there, I want to reopen my shop.  I need to update some listings and change some of my policies (like turnaround time, which may be longer initially), and of course, list some new pieces.  I'm toying with the idea of a grand reopening sale, once I can get some new pieces designed, completed, and photographed.

I hope to reopen in the next couple of days.  Stay tuned!

My Etsy Shop is Open for Business!

A week or so ago, I hinted that something new and exciting was about to happen.  (By the way, congrats to those who knew that the title of my last blog post was a reference to West Side Story.  You're my favorite followers!  ;)  Have I ever mentioned that I love musicals?)  Today, I am happy to share with you that I have officially opened a shop on Etsy and I couldn't possibly be more excited! 

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been very busy designing, researching, making jewelry, and setting up my website.  I'm thankful to have a forum such as Etsy on which to launch my site.  The fact that there is already a shop format and built-in customer base certainly makes things a lot easier for a newbie.  I worked with a fellow Etsian to design a banner/logo and business cards.  You may have noticed the new banner at the top of my blog -- didn't she do a great job?!  She was so great to work with, and she's a great example of why the Etsy community rocks.

Even with all these great resources, it's amazing how much time it takes to work out the details of a shop launch.  Perhaps I'm just a perfectionist, but I wanted to decide exactly how to package an item before listing it for sale, and of course, find the best deal on those supplies, and it's time-consuming to research those things.  Then there's the matter of researching and determining how to price my pieces.  This should have been the easiest part for me, since pricing is what I do for a living, but I found it to be extremely difficult to put a price on my time.  And don't get me started on the time I've spent doing photo shoots.  With an online shop, the photography is so important, as the potential buyer isn't able to touch and feel the jewelry, so I sincerely think it is time well spent.  . 

It has all been very fun and exciting, and I'm happy that the shop is up and running.  I have just a few items listed so far, but I will be adding more in the upcoming weeks.  You can visit my shop here or use the links at the right-hand side of my blog.  I also set up a facebook page so please visit and "like" my page, if you haven't done so already. 

Many thanks to those who have been encouraging me to do this for quite some time.  I truly appreciate your support.

Requirements for November photo shoot in New England

I am committed to doing my photo shoots in natural light, even when it's 20 degrees out.  And windy.  Though this poses some challenges with jewelry (e.g. Earrings keep swinging in the wind, making it difficult to focus.  Eyes fill up with tears, also making it difficult to focus.), I have discovered one thing that makes the blustery photo shoots a bit more tolerable -- these gloves!

I can tuck my chilly fingers into the mittens between shots, and remove the mitten part when I need to change settings on my camera or adjust jewelry.  I guess my thumb is always cold though.  In addition to my jewelry shoot today, I tried to get a few pics of my son to use on our Christmas cards.  We had to do this very quickly because a) It was cold, and b) I didn't put a coat on him.  I know, I'm a bad mom...but I did let him wear his mittens.  Don't worry, he ran around the whole time and worked up a sweat, so I think he was warm enough.  I can't decide if it's more difficult to photograph jewelry and correctly capture the color of the stones/metals, or to photograph a toddler who just wants to run and look everywhere except at the camera. 

He's pretty cute though, so I guess we'll keep him.  By the way, he's crafty too.  This is a cool bird feeder that he made at preschool.  Doesn't it look yummy?

So, back to jewelry.  What do the following items all have in common?

They were all used as props in today's photo shoot.  I think I'm finally discovering ways to take better pictures of my jewelry, although it is still really challenging and requires a lot of patience.  It certainly helps to have a good camera again!  I probably throw away 10-20 pictures for every one that I keep.  Ah, the beauty and luxury of digital photography.  Of course, there is still room for improvement, but I'll share a few favorites from today. 

I'd love some feedback.  What do you think of these photos?  What kind of feel do they have?  What do you think of the jewelry? 

I have been a very busy girl, and I will have a lot more to share with you soon.