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.
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.
No one is perfect and there is no such thing as a perfect jumpring. To see exactly what I'm talking about you can click on the photos to make them full screen and better see the details up close.
Jumprings are generally made by coiling wire on a mandrel and then slitting the coil. The problem with this method is you lose a little material with the cut, the width of the saw blade, which means when the rings are closed tight they will no longer be exactly round. Also depending on the blade and exact process there can be burs, sharp edges or angled ends instead of flat. Machine cut are even worse than saw cut though as they have pinched ends that will never butt properly. I have learned this the hard way in my years of making chainmaille. I have become very particular about the rings I order.
I also have a tendency to spend hours working the rings before I begin assembling them into anything. I like to make sure they are flat and as close to perfectly round as I can get them, that the ends butt tight and proper, that they line up side to side and top to bottom. Call me crazy but do aim for perfection. I am not saying I always achieve it but at least I try.
I have seen some cheap and sloppy chainmaille for sale, whenever I see low price chainmaille I can't help but wonder are they using cheap poor quality rings or are they just sloppy because they rush and don't care?
Maybe it's both, maybe they don't know any better, maybe they just don't care. I just wonder how long something like that will last, as every misaligned, sloppy closure is an opening for snagging and stretching. Plus it can't be comfortable for your jewelry to scratch you all the time or get caught in your hair. :-(
My chainmaille is not cheap because I use quality rings and I work hard to make it as smooth, snag and scratch resistant and comfortable to wear as possible. I don't sell $8 or $10 bracelets I can't sell my work that cheap I spend too many hours working on them to undervalue them that much. Again I am not claiming to be perfect, I am not saying my chainmaille will never snag, I'm saying if you look closely quality is often visible.
I'm thinking about expanding into more social media but I'm wondering if it's really worth it. I know it takes time to be active on multiple platforms and it takes time to build up a following on each one. Ideally I'd like to have lots of followers everywhere liking and buying my stuff, recommending it to others, but I'd rather be making stuff than advertising.
I already spend quite a bit of time keeping up this blog and the Facebook page while regularly working on the actual Etsy shop, editing listings, adding listings, etc.
I don't use Twitter, I mean like at all, I don't have an account I've never looked at it, I don't follow anyone. I am actually pretty clueless about Twitter and how it works, I know there are tons of people who do use it, I know it's pretty much everywhere you look everyone's talking about it.
When I use EtsyRank there is a page just for social media reports, where aside from Facebook and LinkedIn it recommends and analyzes Twitter, Pintrest, and Instagram. Now I know my Facebook page is not the most popular and is under trafficked. I don't have an account on any of the other sites so it's been basically a blank page with a row of red X's.
However, I noticed yesterday that someone tweeted one of my listings of a wire tree sculpture. I was a bit shocked but happy to see it and even happier that 2 others "re-tweeted" it. :-o The original "tweet-er" also posted it in her worldpress blog.
I am starting to get frustrated again. I know my SEO good, I have all "A" graded listings now. I have promoted listings on too. Last month I only had 327 views resulting in 37 favorites, I had 3 orders but there were all a result of custom orders from a show not really etsy-web based. This month after all that SEO work and turning on promoted listings I have 564 views (and there is still a week left) but so far only 32 favorites and no sales. :-(
I've been doing a lot of reading about etsy's search changes, crazy theories about shop black outs, rotations, bucket sorting. I have no control over how etsy sorts, manages, or presents search results and it's so frustrating. I blog, I facebook, I try to stay active and regularly list new items all things that should help lead to sales but I don't seem to be getting anywhere.
I am splitting categories on the the new wire tree listings putting some as art and some as home decor to try to get more exposure. I have even posted in the "promo" section of the forums even though there is a general consensus that no one actually shops from there and it's just all sellers continually drive-by posting their own stuff.
I get views and I get favorites and for weeks I was happy about it thinking it would lead to sales but now I'm really wondering if it ever will. :-/
I have been contemplating new chainmaille patterns I would like to learn but I have been absorbed with the wire tree sculptures lately.
When I go to the craft store I always find new beads and accents that I think would look cool on a tree. I have quite the growing pile of stuff but I think I have to stop for a while. I have added a full dozen wire trees to the RainbowMaille shop but I have only sold one this month from the regular listings. :-/
I keep making more, trying to make different color combinations to have a variety available so people can have their favorite color or find one to match their decor.
I have at least one of every size listed except the large 12" which I am working on now. I have been reluctant to list the larger ones because I am still waiting on USPS to delivery my order of shipping boxes.
