Harry Potter themed Hogwarts house colors bracelets. . .

I love Harry Potter and I know I'm not alone in that love.  I have made bracelets in house colors before in multiple patterns, matching earrings and necklaces for the Helm's chain too.  

 And I must admit I love them all, they are great color combinations, they are some of the most searched and most loved listings in my shop.  So last week I started another set of them in a new pattern.

 I'm really liking how they are turning out and I'm thinking these will have matching earrings too, maybe necklaces I don't know it's kind of a dense pattern so necklaces would be a lot of rings.

 

RainbowMaille on Instagram. . .

I've been working on the Instagram, learning hashtags, trying to post regularly, attempting to be engaging and interesting to gain followers.

The cats, Harry Potter stuff, and wire trees seem to be the most attention getting.  The food stuff not so much.  So cute cats, house colors, and wire trees it is.  In the week I've been at it I have several photos with lots of love, the Hogwarts school crest trees has 19 likes and even a couple of comments.  I have 7 followers already which I think is pretty decent for only a week.

The real challenge will be if I can make it translate to some sales on Etsy.  I've read plenty of other sellers in the forums say that their Instagram does generate sales so hopefully it will work for me too.

 https://www.instagram.com/rainbowmaille/

A little work. . .

The tiny butt took a liking to the window seat and unlike his big brother he also took an interest in my craft supplies.  LOL  So I packed up all the wire and beads to keep the baby from chewing on them and scattering them about.

I am still crafting just in a more focused way now, with everything packed I have to know what I'm looking for to get it out.  Instead of looking at the scattered pile and randomly picking things I have to have a plan before hand.

Due to kitten attacks I didn't get to finish it in one sitting as I have always previously done but I did get it finished and I am pleased with how it turned out. 
    

So life goes on, new listings get added.  I've started an Instagram for RainbowMaille but I am including photos of my cats and food, as a way to show I am more than business. 

 

tiny disruptions . . .

Of the adorable 2 pound kitten variety his name is Jaspurrrr and he does purr a lot even when he's biting the hand that's trying to pet him.  LOL   He is our 3rd black cat, the tiny one in the middle.  ;-)

He's been with us just over a week and although, initially very shy and skittish he is adjusting well and has started playing with everything, literally everything.  I had to pack up all my wire and beads for the tree sculptures off the table because chewing on wire is not the best thing for tiny kittens.  :-/  

Now that he's getting used to the house and his brothers I am hopeful that I can get back to a bit of crafting soon.  o:-)

Crafting break. . .

I am taking a short break from crafting new items because I adopted a new kitten.  <3  He's an adorable 4 month old tiny 2 pound baby who like all babies thinks every thing should go in his mouth.  LOL 

So I have packed all the beads and wires for the trees into a tote and stacked all my jars of jumprings in the cabinet for a bit so I can focus on the ball of super cuteness I brought home.

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That was a little keyboard dance. LOL 

Woo-Hoo. . .

I finally received all the charms I have been waiting on to re-make the Hogwarts Crest themed wire tree.  Someone custom ordered the idea of a Harry Potter themed wire tree with all the house colors, I took it a step further with the notion that I could add charms to represent each house.  Being a Potter fan myself I did a bit of checking and studying and realized it would be fairly easy to make the school crest by separating the colors into quadrants and placing the right charms in the right place.  Finding the right charms turned out to be a bit more of a challenge than I anticipated by I succeeded.
 

I literally fell in love with the completed tree, it turned out even more fabulously stunning than I imagined.  I really wanted to keep it for myself but knew that I couldn't as it was a custom order and must be delivered to the proper owner, who had actually ordered it as a gift for a friend.  Happy Birthday/Merry Christmas lucky recipient.  

It took me 4 days of research and scouring the net to find all the animal charms in large quantities.  I originally bought the first set from a fellow Etsian where they were incorporated into a set of wine glass markers, but knew I could not afford to buy them at that rate repeatedly.  I finally found what I needed as far as the animals and I decided that I wanted to change the center H to a block letter instead of script to make it closer match the real school crest.
 

Mine is a larger 7" version on a silver hoop, where the original custom order was a 5" version on a gold hoop.  However, I am happy with the larger one in some ways it holds the charms better and makes it look not quite so crowded.  Although I think I will stick with 5", 6", 7" sizes for this, I don't think it would look right on a 10" or 12".  However, I am seriously considering small 3" individual house versions too.  I have not made multiples yet to add to Etsy but when I do there will likely be 2 listings, one for the whole school crest and one for individual houses.

 

Well nevermind then. . .

For months I have been reading repeated forum threads by buyers about how some sellers never answer their conversations or take several days to reply.  I understand their frustrations waiting for days on end for a response would annoy me too.  I personally try to reply as quickly as possible, I put the app on my phone so even when I'm in my shop working and not at the computer I can get the phone ding notification.  I know not everyone has a smartphone, not everyone wants to be that connected, everyone has to sleep sometime, people deserve to have a life, whatever.  

I noticed a Facebook feature I thought might be helpful on Etsy so I posted a discussion thread about a "response rate" stat being added to shops along with sales and reviews.  I thought it would be handy if there was a stat that clearly stated this shop has a 90% response rate with an average 4 hour reply time, just so buyers would have an idea what they are getting into.  For instance if it said this shop has a 10% response rate with a 4 day average then people would know not to expect an immediate answer.  I happen to think it's a great idea, just another tool for buyers to choose a seller they will be happy with, a way for sellers to have solid data and possibly improve their customer service.   

I understand that the Facebook system is flawed, and I don't think Etsy should just copy Facebook, there would have to be adaptations but I think it's doable and I think customers would like it even if it seems shop owners hate the idea.  I am a bit shocked by the snarky defensive negative responses by sellers honestly.  I don't understand the resistance to something that could help you set your shop above and highlight good customer service.  The insane notion that not having a 100% would be a bad thing or that sleeping at night and not responding within minutes to every message would somehow kill your shop just boggles my mind.  

I'm having one of those "please get a grip and come back to reality" trips.