A new year A new plan

Well that's the idea. Last year I had virtually no time for my self or my lovely man. It was all about the jewellery. Being obsessive is not all it's cracked up to be. So my New Year's plan (we stopped resolutions years ago - when they stopped working) is to get a much better work life balance.
My first plan of action has been to take off most of the custom pieces from my site and shop, if it's made it's for sale, if it's not made, it's not for sale.
The relief I feel knowing that when that bing bong for a sale comes in that its something that is already made is incredible.
What I am hoping, is to get a bit of my life back, to be able to relax a bit, get back to creating - what I want to create, and get back to being a bit more regular with my blog.
7 or so years ago I did a journalist course. The reason I did the course is because I love writing - I decided again getting a job in journalism for many reasons, but the love of writing is still there and I miss coming here and blathering away.
So watch this space!
And... A very happy and healthy and peaceful New Year to anyone reading this.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Win a Solid Silver Pea Pod!

I belong to the lovely metalclayhead team and there is an article about ME this month.  If you comment on the post (not this one but the metalclayhead one) - you'll be in with a chance to win!  That's all you have to do.  
Click here to go to the post

Good luck and thank you 

xxx

Sometimes you just want to do something different!

So, I was standing outside the kitchen looking in, when I found myself thinking 'now Alan's picture is exactly the colour I want to wear with my jumper'.  Alan is the BF and he is an artist.  He tends to leave his pictures on a shelf in the kitchen to dry.  It suddenly hit me that I could make it into jewellery.  I did, and then found myself talking to another artist friend and so now I have two very different styles and a new shop.  Quite a little diversion from the silver, but I just fancied something for a change - certainly not giving up on the silver just wanted to make some big bold things. So here they are - in my new shop on etsy: SxtraS

New Site is finally launched

Well - here it is, new site is finally up.  I think all the links and redirections are working - (if anyone see's anything that doesn't work do please let me know).
So - now I am going to sit down and celebrate with a nice cuppa tea!

New Projects - splashing the colour!

I have been so caught up with new sprojects I have been a bit lax on here, which is a bit of a shame. Anyway, here is one of my projects, I have been playing with sterling and cold enamel, and having just the biggest blast. Playing with colour is just amazing, and I adore how well it goes with silver. I don't think my neighbours can be too happy though as I've been banging and hammering away like a mad thing, but I'm pleased with the results.

Of course, now I have to get all the photos done and uploaded etc etc, but I have a date in mind and I still have time, so that's ok.
The summer has been mad with new ideas and projects started, but my work room looks like a bombs hit it, I wish I could sit down and make one thing and finish it at a time - just never happens though! Ah well. More to come!

Internet Marketing and Me! - Twitter

I am not here going to claim to be an expert, or even astute at either social networking or marketing - however I have some observations, and I thought I'd get them out there. If you have anything to add that would be great.

I'll start with:

TWITTER

When I first started trying to sell online I kept reading that twitter was the way forward. I love all things computery, so decided to join that weirdest of worlds that is twitter. I read that to be successful you needed to follow as many people as possible and to have a gadzillion followers yourself. So night after night, I would try and find relevant people I thought would be useful to follow, and strangely enough the oddest people started following me. It took a month or probably longer and I eventually had 690 followers, I was following about 450 or so. I would diligently tweet my new uploads and hey presto I would get an extra 30 odd 'views'. I quickly discovered these views were not real views but 'bot' views. (bot being short for robot) .

Slowly I realised what a bore it was just to see page after page of adverts for random garbage I wasn't interested in by people I didn't care about.
I read that you shouldn't just post links but comment and tweet interesting facts and that people would find you more interesting.
I did this, it made no difference, I was shouting in the wind, no one ever responded, they just posted their links and ran.

I went through and unfollowed those that look like obvious robots, still the same thing happened.
I left for a while, my followers went up, more random people followed, and then more marketing drivvle followed. I started to not particularly like it and only used it once in a while to post a link to get some views. No one liked me either ;-)

So, a couple of weeks ago, I lost it, and realised what a complete and utter waste of time it was and just unfollowed nearly 400. I now follow about 40. These 40 are people who have interacted with me or are friends. Suddenly I am enjoying it again, I post something, someone replies. I see posts that are fun or quirky or interesting.
I have to say in a year of having nearly 700 followers I never made a sale from it (as far as I know). I know many others have a different take, but I have honestly got very little except a tiny bit of fun from it. I have tweeted many times 'is there anyone out there?' and no-one responds.

I am sure if you are Calvin Klein or Victoria Beckham the world awaits your tweets, but if you are thinking that having hundreds of followers that you have never interacted with and who only ever post links is going to get you anywhere, then I wish you good luck. I suppose it's worth bearing in mind, how many of those links do you follow? if the answer is very few, then that is probably what will happen back unless you are very engaging.

So I read somewhere that if you go to a party and just go up to random people and say 'look this is my product' buy it, you'll become very unpopular very quickly. And it's pretty much the same. So, I have stopped looking at it as a way to sell or market my items (except rarely just to get bot views up) and have now decided to try and make connections with people.

Just my thoughts. And you? what have you found?

And here are a few of them

So, finally I've gotten some of them photographed and uploaded, it's just all such a time consuming business. I loved making these. They are part of a collection which I'll show in the next post.

New FBML Welcome page on Facebook.

Ove the weekend I updated my welcome page on my facebook page. There is an option of using FBML to have a stand alone page that new visitor see when they visit your page. To see it in its full size either click on the link here or go the fine silver tab above. It's really nice to be able to personalise it instead of just a whole pile of comment afer comment. However, this is the second time I have done it and each time I forget how I did it last time!!! I have made notes so I can remember for next time but not sure I'll understand them. There are some great tutorials around, however, they have mostly been written by very computer savvy people, who just don't get that an awful lot of us aren't really much good with html. Anyway, love the cut and paste function. (Don't you just wish it was available in your life!!). That's all for tonight - I was jolly pleased with it, hence me posting it here!!

Coming to the end....

The end of the year is nearly here, and my fingers are frazzled. I must have made forty gadzillion little peapods, each one a little bit different, and so many have new little homes. These last two months took me by surprise, I wasn't really prepared for the Christmas rush. Next year I will be! So, time to sit back, ponder on next year and dream a little. Thank you to all my lovely customers.
Oh by the way, I am having a massive new year sale (50% off) on my gemstone, lampwork, crystal and sterling items for the new year. If you would like more details sign up for the newsletter with the link above. Have a very happy and restful holiday period.

Winner of Olly the Owl

And the winner of the lovely Olly - the solid silver owl ..............

To celebrate the launch of the new site, SomethingXtraSpecial offered one lucky person the chance to win a small solid silver Olly the Owl. M. Dunn added her name to the mailing and is the lucky new owner of Olly. If you would like to be kept up to date with offers and giveaways, please add your name on the left to the mailing list.

Just waiting for Margaret to contact me with her address so I can send it.

Congratulations Margaret!

Launch of New Website

Thrilled to announce the launch of my new website. I had a free website before, that I was very pleased with but objectively it really wasn't very good. There was so much faffing to put light box pictures up and to get the pay pal buttons to add items to my shop. Now I have taken the plunge and paid for a site and the difference in use and look is incredible. Anyone wondering whether or not they should invest should really think about taking the plunge. It looks so much more professional, it is so much easier and I think it is hugely more attractive than before.

That's my news for this week. If you pop over to the site to have a peek, there's a little yes/no poll (anonymous) and there's a mailing list to fill in if anyone is interested in hearing when there are new items going up. The pea pods will be up soon!!! (I love my pea pods).

Glass and Lampwork

Anyone who knows my jewellery will know that I just adore using glass and lampwork. Man there is some amazing stuff out there. Of course there is also a lot of pretty cheap stuff as well, but the quality is very different and this is reflected in the price. Once you go upmarket a little you find the quality and artistry increases until you arrive at the true artists. The next few posts are to show some of the truly stunning things that can be done with glass. Very kindly the artisans involved have allowed me to use their photos.