Happy February. . .

Happy February to all, Valentine's day is almost here.  

I've made some new trees, I've made some new earrings, I just keep adding things.  I have finally broken the 150 listing mark, now let's just hope it triggers some sales.  ~LOL~  

I've been enjoying playing with my paints on the side.  I really like the space-scapes there's no way to go wrong as long as it looks cool in the end, it's not like painting portraits or trees or "real" things.  I'm also thinking of doing some just totally random abstract art. 

I am actually reconsidering whether or not I should try to sell them.  I mean they are hard to photograph, but art is so subjective.  But as long as I stick to the 8x10 or 11x14 sizes shipping shouldn't be too high.  

Pre-Valentine's Day Sale

Valentine's Day will be here before you know it, so leave time for shipping and order early.  

I made pretty "flyer" style picture announcements for the social media pages like Facebook, instagram, and Pinterest.  

I think I may try to make a couple more, not sure which listing photo to use and I'll need to come up with another tag line too.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year !!

In 2018 I plan to make some personal life changes, not likely to impact RainbowMaille on Etsy . . . too much.  ~LOL~  

I want to shift focus somewhat, while I plan to continue making and selling chainmaille and the wire trees, I plan to take up painting.  I am actually excited about this prospect, I bought the easel and stuff months ago.  I did a few test projects over the summer Franken-Art and I really like how they turned out.  I have so many ideas of different things I want to try.  💫

I'm not sure if any of them will make it to the store for sale or if my walls will just end up covered in it.  Art is so subjective just because I like it doesn't mean anyone else will and it doesn't mean anyone will want to pay for it.  ~LOL~  I do know that the ones hanging in my hallway in their little shadow boxes are never going to be for sale because I'm attached to them.  💖

I am leaving the "gift wrap" option available in my shop all year round, since most of my ribbons are solid colors and not really "Christmas-y" I think I can keep it holiday neutral. 😉

Pinterest. . .

I've started using Pinterest for RainbowMaille, but since I've never been a "pinterest" person prior to this I'm finding the whole thing a bit odd and somewhat annoying.  ~LOL~  😄  

However, Etsy's new social media tool includes Pinterest so I thought I'd give it a go.  I have created multiple boards because I like to organize and keeping my cats separate from my art seemed like the thing to do.  https://www.pinterest.com/RainbowMaille/ 

I don't know how to get followers, unlike instagram where I've made it over 160 followers in the last year not exactly a huge following but better than the 2 on pinterest.  ~LOL~  😄  Short of paying for advertising and doing the facebook "boost" post thing I'm not sure how to get my stuff seen on pinterest.  😖  Worse yet, I am paying to promote some, so I've gotten some views and a few re-pins/saves but over half of them are mis-labeling my stuff. 😕  Like my wire trees which are clearly called out as wall art and home decor but people keep saving them to jewelry boards.  😟  My chainmaille has been saved to beaded jewelry boards in spite of the fact that there is not a single bead on it.  😵  It's making me nutty, it's not OCD compliant at all. ~LOL~ 😄

I'll keep trying and keep posting but I'm not sure it's doing much good.  I know all social media stuff takes time to build a following and be effective but good grief. (and yes that's a Charlie Brown impersonation)  😉

Happy Holidays to all . . .

It has been a good holiday sales season thus far, as Christmas comes and goes I realize my work is never done.  While many others will spend the holiday weekend blissfully lazy and enjoying family gatherings with days off of work, I will be once again editing all of my shop's listings.  😏  

Changes to tags, keywords, holiday, occasion, etc. as I shift from Christmas to Valentine's Day and re-work the gift wrapping description to apply all year round.  

Yep I have to edit all 140 listings. . .again, this is a continuous thing shifting focus with the seasons.  Happy shoppers are completely un-aware of the work on the backside of a business, they search, they find they buy, it seems to easy to them.  ~LOL~

Christmas is creeping closer. . .

We are in the grips of a winter storm and for once I'm glad to not have orders  😇  as I'd really rather not drive my shiny new car in this muck. ~LOL~

I've re-created the mini rainbow trees, I've made a new gold and pink super cute tree with fancy new butterflies that just got listed yesterday.  😉  Today I'm planning some new chaninmaille, we'll see how far I get with my plan. ~LOL~  

I've been working on establishing a Pinterest presence and it's an odd place I haven't quite figured out.  I post and pin and link back to my listings and I have seen some traffic from it, but I'm not sure how to get more people to save and re-pin and share. 

Pinterest is a bit like this blog I keep trying but it doesn't seem to have much of an audience. ~LOL~

Happy Holidays. . .

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪  

I've had several orders recently that I know will be gifts.  😇

I did a holiday craft party with a library youth group. 😊

It snowed last night, just a little bit but the green grass is now covered in white. 😉

I am somewhat surprised that no one has added the gift wrap to their orders, but it's ok. Etsy has continued to change and re-write things so I'm not even sure how many people get to see the gift wrap option.  To combat the Etsy oddities in layout and hiding things, I went ahead and created a listing to add gift wrap, it's the same $3 price point with the same sample photos and I made it a "featured" listing on my shop page so at least people can/will see it.  Ironically the gift wrap listing got favorite'd.  😄  

I am re-making the mini rainbow trees since they just keep selling. Plus I really need to get other new stuff made I'm back down to 138 listings and apparently 141 is my magic number.  After sales last week I was down and I found chainmaille rings that weren't listed yet so I added them and that put me back up to the 141 but then more sales. (not a complaint I'm ecstatic)

I am also noticing that whatever wire tree I put up as a "featured" listing sells.  I've had to change that row 3 times, the tree sells I pick a different one then it sells.  LOL  So I'm going to have to start paying attention and rotating things through there more often.