Star Seller. . .

Etsy is often glitchy and weird but this month has been especially interesting, I was randomly awarded a "star seller" badge on December 23rd like it was a Christmas present or something. 😏  I say "randomly awarded" because I know did not meet the qualifications.  I readily admit I did not qualify for December, not enough sales, not enough revenue, no fresh reviews. 

Yet right there on my shop is the little purple star, which I do appreciate as purple is my favorite color.  😇 

Now in just a few days it will be January 1st a whole new year, also a whole new review period for me to not qualify. ~LOL~  😂  I am interested to see if my current star disappears or sticks around.  I am wondering if they changed the criteria to qualify but I have re-read the articles and links from my dashboard and while there are some changes none of them should have resulted in my Christmas star. 

I am curious because while I did meet the sales and revenue this time I am still short a "fresh" review. 😕 Like all the 5 star reviews I've had in the last 6 years don't even matter.

Etsy 2021 "Year in review". . .

I know etsy has done these year-end reviews before and I thought I had posted previous ones but maybe I named the post something else and that's why I can't find it. 😏  Or maybe they didn't do it last year, or maybe they did but my shop didn't get one because it was closed half  of the year or something, who knows it's etsy.  😄  

I did get one this year but it's not really that great because. . . well I was closed for several months early in the year, it's for the online shop so doesn't include in-person sales, and the "star seller" just became a thing in September it didn't exist before that. 

Yeah not particularly impressive, I know 😕 What can I say year 2 of a global pandemic, closed most of the first quarter, oh well.  I do love the optimism of the "so far. ." in the sales graphic, but there are less than 2 weeks left in the year so. . .  I'm not expecting much.😆😉   Although, I am only one $40 sale and 1 fresh review away from getting a "star seller" again, I really doubt I'll get it.  

  

Black Friday weekend Sale. . . .

Well of course RainbowMaille will be having a BlackFriday Sale!!

As a matter of fact I plan to have "BlackFriday" last all weekend 😉 so the sale will start on #BlackFriday (November 26th) but it will continue thru #SmallBusinessSaturday all the way until #CyberMonday 30% off everything 

I have been busily adding gift wrap options to #goimagine listings, while adding listings. 😁 I've updated some photos, worked on seasonal keywords, scheduled sales, made graphics and promo stuffs.  This whole "one woman show" business means I'm always busy with something, I wish I had a "marketing department".  I need a nap.  😴  But right now I'm planning and scheduling social media stuff. 

I can't believe I actually have products in the #goimagine gift guides!!  😁😍

https://goimagine.com/holiday-gifts-2021

Happy Holidays. . .

 Welcome to November and the countdown to Christmas! 😃

RainbowMaille is having a month long 10% off sale in both shops to help you get your holiday gift shopping done early. 😉  

https://goimagine.com/rainbowmaille/  

https://www.etsy.com/shop/RainbowMaille  

I have been working on getting all of the wire trees listed on my  goimagine.com and I am really close, only a handful left to go.  Yesterday I changed the banner on my facebook page and both shops.  Today I'm going to set up a "gift wrap" option in my goimagine shop, there will be a charge but only a couple of bucks. 😇  Just working my way down the holiday checklist. 

Progress. . .perhaps

 

I have been trying not to think about the fact that I will likely lose my "star seller" badge next month but with the stupid emails and permanent reminder on my dashboard every time I log into etsy, it's kind of hard not to think about. 😕  

There is a survey link at the bottom of the star seller page and I have taken it before but I decided to take it again. . . see I am still bothered by the phraseology of etsy's original spin on this program trying to say how it was all "within the seller's control".  I have said all along that virtually none of the criteria are within my control, yes I control how long it takes me to respond to a message but I cannot control when people message my shop.  Yes, I control when I ship my packages and to use tracking but I cannot control when people order or how much they order.  😒  Trust me I am a total "control enthusiast" and I know when I am not in control. So I filled out their survey again and wrote paragraphs explaining how wrong I think it is to be punished for not receiving a bunch of messages, like I'm sorry my descriptions and photos are so good that I don't get a dozen dumb "how long is this necklace" type of questions.  

I think what I wrote finally got through to someone because I noticed a change on my star seller page this morning.  Now, all I did was suggest that I could delete all the measurements and material info from my listings and force shoppers to message my shop if messages were so important to etsy's program. 😏  Now the metric for messages has a note under it that says it doesn't count since I didn't have any messages to respond to, which is better than the "Not there yet" note. 

So at least it won't be the stupid lack of messages that costs me my badge, I'm just short on the orders and $$$ requirements. Maybe in the next 10 days I'll get a big enough order or maybe more than 1. . .what miracles happen right?!  😁😂😅😇  

On a more personal note I'm feeling incredibly lazy and demotivated the last week or so, not sure if it is end of market season exhaustion, early onset S.A.D. due to the weather, the dental issue that has flared up, oncoming depression, or a combination of all of the above.  I have been fighting and forcing myself to work on listings, update tags for holidays, pre-schedule my sales, but what I really need to do is a massive photo shoot so that I can add a bunch of listings to goimagine.com I have a new pattern of stretchmaille bracelets, I have new barrettes, I need to get more art listed and wire trees too.  Unfortunately, it seems that any day I feel up to it the weather is all wrong and the lighting is bad.  😕

Welcome to Fall. . .

So honestly I was actually pretty surprised that I got the "Star Seller" badge for September but it was a nice birthday present. 😇  The way it works on a 3 month rolling window is still a bit weird but by qualifying for September's star it basically meant October's star was set. 

However, I will most likely lose my "Star Seller" status next month 😏 and I'm not going to let it bother me if that happens because the criteria are weirdly odd and oddly specific.  I do have all month to meet the requirements but none of them are within my control so there is quite literally nothing I can do about it. 

Pouring Topcoat. . .

Since I first started trying pouring acrylics last year I have been thinking the about the "finish" (sealants) the whole time.  There are so many options and each has their pros and cons, some of them are complicated, some of them are really pricey.  😏  I have decided to try them all, ok maybe not "all" but most, including this jug of stuff that I had never heard of before finding it in the store. While this is not as complicated as the ArtResin two-part mixable stuff I will point out that it was pricey at nearly $40 and I got it on sale. 😐

I selected a couple of paintings to test it on, the pink/yellow one is just not my favorite color scheme and the other has a wrinkle-y textural finish that I wasn't happy with already.  I didn't want to test on one of paintings I actually liked just in case it didn't go well.  😉

Turns out I'm really glad I did this test on lesser pieces as it did not go exactly right.  The directions say to pour it on and tilt the canvas to spread it around and let it run over the edges and then stand it at a 45* angle to dry and let the excess run off. . . Well that sounds simple enough but in reality this stuff is pretty thick doesn't like to run or spread as easily as the paint did and that whole standing at an angle to dry left a helluva drip edge. 😕

The trouble is it didn't all run off the edge like it was supposed to, for the most part it's ok, it's a shiny smooth finish except for that booger line across what was the bottom where it sat. 

Being somewhat disappointed in the result I started thinking about what I was going to do to "fix" this. The directions say you can do a second coat and orient the dry position in a different direction but looking at the thickness of the line I didn't really want to create a second line on another side. I considered sanding it down but after many days it still felt tacky/squishy not really "cured" so after a week I decided to shave it down with a razor blade. Maybe not the best idea but it did get rid of the humpty-hump, at least on this canvas.  

The second test canvas was always going to be challenging due to the textured finish but this stuff claims to be "self-leveling". 

Yeah . . .well that didn't exactly work out either, yes it went into all the creases but it did not level them out. 😔 Plus it left thick spots too, so not a really smooth finish.

And since it's blobby thick spots are not on the edge they were even harder to try to trim and deal with. I admit I have not been very successful with the second canvas yet. I tried a second coat on the pink canvas thinking if I spread the topcoat and kept it level that it would dry level and even out the previous hump.

That was not ideal as the trowel caused some tiny bubbles and even though I checked level on my table I didn't check the level on the canvas itself. . .so the tacks(feet) weren't even and I noticed it having an edge again. 😒

So I scrapped most of it off and waited a few days to try yet again.

Third times a charm. . .This time I checked the level on both canvas and table. I did the tilt and spread and let the excess run off on to the second canvas. I also had my blow torch ready to pop any bubbles. 😉 Then I left it to dry level and worked on the second canvas.

Good news, that seems to have worked it leveled out and it's very shiny and mostly smooth.  Bad news, it's been over a week since the third coat and although it's "dry" it hasn't really "Cured". 😏 The edges where it ran off is thicker and seems to be rubbery, it's not tacky exactly because it's not sticky but if you push a fingernail into it, it seems to hold the indent for a while. 😕  I consider this bad new because I have no idea how long it will take to fully cure or if it ever will.  If it never hardens then I cannot sell or ship this canvas as wrapping it for shipping would cause it to arrive with lines, creases, surface weirdness, there is no way to know.  

As it is I just have to leave it sitting around. . .waiting. . .poking it every couple of days to assess the "cure" stage.  I am thinking about trying it on third canvas, knowing now what I didn't know then. I want to see if I can get a good even smooth finish in the first coat.  Then I can see if a single coat actually "cures" the way I think it should and compare it to the repeat-offenders.  😎 

Sometimes I get frustrated and lose sight of art being "experimental" by nature. When you are #learningbydoing you have to accept failures and just think your way around to doing it better next time. 😇

Labor Day. . .

Labor Day, of course is known for the sales, but to me it's a sign that summer is over and for my business it's a sign that farmer's market season is almost over too.  

I have a couple of event dates left but mostly I'll be spending the next month trying to re-do photos, update and add listings and prepare for the holiday shopping season.  

I've been so busy this summer with not just business but life stuff too, to the point where I didn't get to do a lot of the stuff I had planned. 😕  I have not yet even tried the ArtResin finish on a pour painting.  I have not actually made some of the new rubber chainmaille designs I have floating in my head. I only ever made the one LouHi barrette when I was figuring out the pattern, I wanted to make more of those and to try the pattern in bracelets too. 

I did manage to achieve the etsy star seller badge, to my surprise, but with the sales/order requirements I'm not sure how long I'll be able keep it. 😏  

I did manage to break the 100 member mark for my goimagine facebook group and I did have the bracelet giveaway I had planned and advertised. 😇

All Hail the conqueror. . .

Ok so it's been months and the first attempt was frustrating to say the least but I think in my secondary attempt I have finally conquered the evils of the facebook Pixel.  😑

Please don't ask me how, as I'm not entirely sure.  😕  

Please don't ask me for advice because I have no real insights on how or why the damn thing works or doesn't. 😐

All I know right now is back in June I couldn't get it to work right, it only ever loaded 5 listings from goimagine and I tried loading things manually but after a couple of weeks they just started disappearing. I tried all the help links and looked through lots of settings in the maze of facebook's backside, business manager, commerce manager, etc.  I finally got frustrated enough that I just went in and tried to delete it all, and while I did manage to delete the "shop" itself and the shop tab from my page the dysfunctional pixel remained. 😓  

Actually the bad pixel is still there even now, I just started over from the beginning steps and created a new pixel. 😏  So I now have the RainbowMaille2 which seems to be working and I changed the name of the previous one to Badpixel.  I have no idea what I did different but this new one seems to be working much better. 

Of course I don't want to jinx it because it could still decide to fault out or not complete.  As it currently sits I have 66 active listings on goimagine.com and so far 55 of them appear in my commerce manager and as of now 53 appear in the public shop.  😁  While it's not perfect and not complete it is waaayyy better than last time's 5 so I'm going to quit messing with it for today and hope that it finishes itself.  😇  ~fingers crossed~

I never really liked the saying " if at first you don't succeed try try again " but sometimes a little persistence does pay off. 😎

Art experiments. . .

My art has always been a hands on learning process and some experiments work out better than others. 😅 My experiments in pouring acrylics last year had a questionable start but quickly improved.  The mix was off in my first batch and the very first piece "cracked up" badly as it dried. 😏

I got better at mixing the paints and understanding how pouring acrylics works, I even started having fun doing it.  I did eventually manage to make a few that are really cool looking.  😍 

Now I have to move on and learn the next steps in how to finish and seal poured paintings.  I have left them to cure for a few months and researched how to clean the silicone/cell magic stuff off the finished dry painting.  I have also researched different types of finishes from standard varnish, to spray sealants, ArtResin and decided that I want to use different finishes on different paintings.

So this weekend I attempted to clean a couple of them and test different finishes, sadly it did not got well.  😕  I think it's because I didn't get all the silicone.  The first one I tried standard varnish I've used before and noticed it didn't want to coat evenly and actually ran away from some spots, when it dried there are spots with no varnish.

It's hard to see the dull spots in photographs but in person they are pretty obvious.  The second one I tried a new spray sealant, I used this spray on a different painting and it worked fine but on the pour painting it sort of foamed and dried with this weird rippling water texture.  

It is very shiny and it looks pretty cool but it's not right and it's not the smooth even finish I was hoping for.  😔  #artfail 

    

Making _____. . .

Well there are a lot of ways that can go. . .making the best of it, making do, making inventory, making time. . . I have done all of those lately.  😇  

I am making do and making the best of things with etsy's ridiculous new "Star Seller" stuff.  I still find the program stupid and not an accurate measure of a shop's customer service but since it's there and there is no way around it, if you can't beat them join them. 😕  So I politely responded to a spammy request for donations with a real answer and a coupon instead of just marking it as spam, because messages marked as spam don't count but messages replied to promptly do.  Then after days of that not being reflected in the dashboard, I had to write into help and point out that if the dashboard never updates and is based on faulty data . . .well it took a week but I finally got a second metric. 😁  Now all I need is someone to leave me a fresh review before the end of the month.

I've made new trees including a couple with the fairy door in the trunk and so so many barrettes that the tray is the fullest it's ever been.  😉

I also made some time to not do business stuff because my husband (wonderful man that he is) got me a very cool anniversary gift this year. . . A trip to the Zoo, I know you may be thinking that's not that impressive or aren't you a bit old for that, BUT this trip to the zoo included a meet and greet with Penguins and art made by penguins while I watched.  Seriously totally awesome, I love penguins so getting to meet up close and pet them was amazing, they are so cute and the little rockhoppers were very personable. 💖  And I have not only a ton of photos and great memories I have a canvas they "painted" with their little footy prints. 😍  

this is me petting a penguin, she was so soft and liked being petted, the keeper said she was a hand-raised rescue so very used to people 

Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to mount/frame the canvas they made.  

Etsy "Star Seller" badge. . .

Great. . .etsy has come up with yet another new badge program. 😕

I logged in today and found an announcement of the "new thing" of the season. I went and read the article and find myself disappointed, as usual, because there are buried criteria that means in spite of my 100% shipping rate I will likely never achieve the badge. 😔 Then I found myself actually annoyed by the statement that it would all be "things that are within a seller's control" which is blatantly untrue. I know they were saying that trying to give leeway and assure people that postal delays would not count against the seller mainly because they would require tracking to qualify. However, there are other qualifiers that are not within the seller's control, like the minimum number of orders and $ amount of sales in a 3 month rolling period. Ohh and only "fresh" reviews count, so my years of all 5 stars don't matter. 😖 That's right my 37 perfect 5 star reviews in the last 5 years equals nothing.

Also it seems like I'm being punished for having clear descriptions.  I rarely receive etsy messages initiated by customers, unless it's to ask for a custom order which like I said is rare, most people just buy the already finished item listed.  I don't get a lot of questions about "how big is this?" or "what's this made of?" it's all in my listings. Now this lack of messages to respond to quickly will count against me?!  😒 Please explain how that is fair. . . 

This is not my first ride on this Merry-go-round back in 2018 etsy tested a similar Shiny Trophy program, it was called "super seller" and the badge was in the shape of an actual trophy. ~LOL~ 😄  I had for about a week.

I guess I really shouldn't complain even if I never qualify for the new shiny badge at least it's better than the stupid ODR program they tried in between.     https://rainbowmaille.blogspot.com/2019/11/etsy-backhand.html

Special Secret project. . .finished

I started this monster on June 16th, the week after my first event weekend, it was my husband's idea that a LARGE display piece that could be seen from a distance would be a good way to get attention for the wire trees.  Now I'm not saying it was a bad idea, I'm just saying it took me weeks and caused me many hand cramps because it's hard to tell scale in photos but that thing is on a 19" hoop 😳 making it the largest wire tree I've ever made.

I have nicknamed it the "ridiculously oversized tree".  The day I found the giant hoop in the store, at first I was shocked because I had never seen a hoop that big, then I thought "wow what luck, exactly what I needed".  After I brought it home I hula-hooped with it in my office, no that's not a joke I wanted to see if it really was that big so I slipped it over my head and then over my shoulders and had a holy crap moment when the hula-hoop notion worked. 😲

All fun & games ended when I set to work on it, I ended up on the living room floor for the wire cutting portion because my bench was not big enough to accommodate 5' foot wire lengths. 

Getting the trunk twisted up and the branches separated out was a pain in my hands, unlike the small trees where I use pliers this bundle was too big and the thicker gauge wire is stiffer making it much harder. I had to actually hammer the trunk to get the flatness. 😏 

That is not only many feet of wire but many strands and due to the huge hoop very awkward to try to hold and work.  So I think it goes without saying that this is a "display" only piece and I never intend to make another this size, but just in case let me repeat that. . . This is a Display Only piece and I have Zero plans to ever make another this size.  😐

The finished monstrosity is rather impressive though and I managed to incorporate several different techniques and options, from the "Fairy door" in the trunk, to the wire bird's nest, knots in the branches, top 3-D canopy with dangling leaves, if I attach a "keepsake vial" it will be everything except a "family tree" and I am not doing it over to add a second trunk. ~LOL~ 😎