Sterling chains with some sparkle

I have added a series of Sterling Silver chains to my ETSY shop, covering 16", 18", 20", 22", and 24" lengths.  Those tend to be the more common lengths.  Since I hand cut all my chains and then add the clasps, I can make chains in literally any length.

These Sterling Silver chains are made with flat cable chain links, and finished with a 5mm spring clasp. The 2x1.5mm links in this chain give it extra sparkle because unlike many chains that use round wire to form the links, this chain has had the links flattened slightly, which results in a larger flat surface area to reflect more light, and hence they have more of a sparkling appearance.  These chains can be worn on their own, to create a light and airy appearance, or can be stacked in combination with other necklaces. It is a fairly light weight chain that probably would not be good for larger pendants or dangles.

I felt that this would be a good addition to my listings, to offer customers the option of a plain chain.  If it seems to be popular, I could add medium and/or heavier chains for larger pendants, and also as an option for men.  Time will tell whether this will be an area to be expanded.  One other possibility might be to go to large link chains for both men's and women's bracelets.  Lots of possibilities here.

Jewelry Making Journal

I have been fortunate enough to have a write-up about my jewelry featured on Jewelry Making Journal's website. You can see the article by clicking here.  Jewelry Making Journal is a combination of online magazine and community journal.   It’s the place where friendly jewelry artists from all over the world are sharing jewelry experiences, creations, ideas and knowledge.  I have enjoyed reading many of the sections and write-ups on JMJ and recommend it to anyone who has an interest in handmade jewelry.

They have just recently decided to add a section called Men Making Jewelry, and my story was the first  in that new section.  While men are definitely in the minority when it comes to making jewelry, we are still a part of that community and this addition gives us an opportunity to share our perspective.  Hopefully other guys will take the opportunity to add a posting in our new forum.

Learning some new lessons.

It has been several days since I posted anything here, and I need to be more faithful about finding the time to keep this blog updated.  My last post concerned the opening of my Vintage shop on ETSY and that has gotten off to a slow start but then that seems to be the way of life.  It just takes time to get things set up and then get all the Titles and Tags working so the traffic gets directed to your shop.  Nothing seems to go as quickly as you would like it to.  Learning to be patient is one of the biggest lessons I am learning as a seller on ETSY.

On my jewelry shop I did get a new item set up and listed.

Tiny Silver Sideways Cross Necklace 

This really is a cute piece and I am very pleased with the way it looks.  The cross is quite small, just under 1/2", but the light weight chain seems to match up with it very nicely.

I am finding that it takes a while to get things standardized, and get all the bugs ironed out.  I ordered some Sterling Silver chain from a supplier that I had not worked with before, and it was just very slightly smaller than the chain I had used before.  The problem popped up when I tried to use my "regular" jump rings.  The "old" rings were just a little bit too large to fit through the new chain links, so I had to order some new smaller gauge rings to work with the new chain.  That delayed making a couple of new necklaces that I have been wanting to put together.  I guess the lesson learned is that you need to find the parts and pieces that work, and then stick with them.  Don't change things without understanding that the changes won't come back to bite you.

New Vintage shop

It's been a few days since I posted anything and that is because my wife came up with a brainstorm.  We are in the process of getting our house ready to sell, because we are going to move closer to the kids and grand kids.  In our book, family is what makes the world go round.  And we are planning to downsize so many things are going to have to go.  So wifey recently said, "Why don't you put this on your ETSY shop" or "You could see if you could sell that on ETSY".

While the concept was good, it didn't seem like listing an Antique Victorian Birdcage right next to a Cross And Infinity Loop Necklace was a good strategy.  So I opened a second ETSY shop to list Vintage merchandise.  Right now I have 15 items listed and have several others to add.  Figuring out how to set up the first shop was the hard part, but setting up a second one was pretty easy.  I read in one of the forums that when you open a second shop, one of them becomes the red-headed-stepchild, meaning you don't pay much attention to it.  But that doesn't seem to be the case with me thus far.  I have also read that some ETSY sellers have 3 or 4 or even 5 different shops.  Not sure I want to go quite that far, but at this point 2 seems to be very manageable.

If you get a chance, stop by my new shop From Years Back and take a look.  Who knows, you may just fall in love with that Antique Victorian Birdcage.

EtsyGadget

The other day while reading, I came across a reference to something called the EtsyGadget.  It is apparently something that ETSY is still developing and it is still in the beta stage.  While there is very little information about how it works, EtsyGadget is apparently designed to help you improve the tags you are using in your ETSY shop, and in turn improve your position in ETSY search results.  I have played with it a little bit and plan to spend some more time trying it out, but it does seem to offer some very helpful suggestions for improving listing tags.

I mention it here because it is not released into mainstream ETSY, but you may find it a useful tool to help you with the 'titles and tags" phenomena that has everyone puzzled.  Here is a link for you to try

EtsyGadget

I hope you find it useful.

Necklace lengths

I just added a couple of charts to my ETSY site showing different necklace lengths for use by those who maybe aren't sure which is the proper length.

Another method is to cut a piece of string to a certain length and then hold it around your neck to see how it will fall on you.








Hopefully these charts will prove helpful in selecting the proper length to order when purchasing a necklace.

Free shipping offer

Go to my Facebook page and 'Like' to get a Coupon Code for Free Shipping in the USA through July 31, 2013

Click here for my Facebook page

Buying supplies from ETSY sellers

When I first started making jewelry, I went online and found several videos about how to make this or how to make that.  Two of the video websites were Aunties Beads and Artbeads, both of which are in the business of selling supplies and tools to make jewelry.  So some wizard figured out that if they made some videos about how to make a beaded bracelet, or a twisted wire necklace, and then provided a list of the materials and supplies needed to make those items, someone like me would watch the video and then place an order for the beads and clasps.  It worked.  I ordered what they said I needed, and when everything arrived, I made the bracelet or necklace.  They sure made it easy.  And that system works just fine if you are planning to make just a few pieces for family and friends.

Then I decided to open an ETSY shop and start selling my handcrafted jewelry online.  It is my expectation that I will sell a much larger total volume of various items, meaning that my need for component materials will increase significantly.  There are companies that are willing to sell you one or two or three pieces at a time, but their pricing tends to be higher, often time significantly higher.  When your volume requirements being to increase, that is the time you need to start looking for companies that deal in comparatively larger orders.  You will have to order larger quantities of each item, but the unit pricing will normally be much better.

Over the last few weeks I have spent quite a bit of time looking for future suppliers of my needs, and developing a list of specific component part requirements.  The plan is to identify sellers that offer several of the parts that I need, and then compare their prices at various minimum order quantities.  Right now I can only afford to buy lets say 20 pieces of a 4mm open jump ring, 20 gauge, 925 Sterling Silver.

But as my sales volume increases, I will be able to order 50 pieces at a time, or later on even 100 pieces.  So what I did was to compare the prices from several different companies at different quantity levels, insuring that all of the prices were for the same 4mm open jump ring, 20 gauge, 925 Sterling Silver.  I want to be sure I am comparing apples and apples.  What I determined was that there was one company that seemed to offer better prices for 50 and 100 piece quantities, and so I tentatively selected that company for this item.  I then went through all of my other component parts, one by one, and made the same tentative determination.  This took a lot of time, but hopefully it will be well worth the effort n the longer term.

Ideally I would like to be able to buy all of my different parts from the same company, to simplify ordering, combine purchases to possibly secure better pricing, and reduce shipping costs.  It was not possible to find one company that had the best pricing on all my items, but I was able to select 3 companies that would be able to supply almost all of my requirements, at competitive prices.  So I placed orders with these companies, for the smaller 10 and 20 piece orders that I can afford right now.  This will give me the materials I need to be able to make items to ship to customers as orders are received in the coming weeks.  But almost more importantly, it will allow me to evaluate the quality and customer service of these companies.  If they seem to be companies that I would like to deal with in the long term, I will place larger orders with them as my needs dictate.  If, however, their performance is less than expected, I will change to other suppliers.

This comparison initially included both Etsy sellers, classified under the category of Craft Supplies, and also other companies I located through various Internet searches.  I wound up with all companies that sell on ETSY.  There are different reasons why, but it was relatively easy to determine the credibility of each company I considered.  I can tell how long they have been selling on ETSY, how many sales they have made during that period, and what type of feedback they have been receiving.  Comparable performance information can be much more difficult to reliably determine for other non ETSY companies.  I would also prefer dealing with a fellow Etsian, rather than someone out there in who knows what part of the universe.

This whole process of identifying and qualifying various companies to supply your materials requirements is definitely time consuming, but it is a necessary part of establishing your company on ETSY.  Your pricing needs to be competitive, your profit margin must be acceptable, your quality must be obvious, and dealing with the proper supplier companies goes a long way towards meeting those objectives.

Silver and black necklace

I recently added this necklace to my shop

 To view it click here

 I think it will make a striking addition to any jewelry collection, and can be worn with pride wherever you go.

Monday was a big day.

Last Monday was a significant day in the life of Jim Davis Designs - we got our first order !!!  Even though I live in North Carolina, I'm sure they heard my shouts and cheers clear out in California.  After waiting for about 7 weeks since I opened my ETSY shop (and not waiting very patiently I might add), I arose on Monday morning to find an order sitting in my Open Orders file.  Somehow the world seemed a little brighter that day.  And it has renewed my inner fire, knowing that more orders will follow.

Then on Tuesday I received a message from a lady who was interested in one of my bracelets, but wondered if I could make it into an anklet.  Eureka, do I smell a second order in the works ??  We exchanged a few back and forths, and finally she indicated that she was ready to order, so I set up a "Special Order" listing so she could go ahead and place her order.  After several hours of waiting for her to place her order, I got a message from her indicating that she was having difficulty paying with her charge card.  The ETSY procedure for checking out, and the associated screens, can be a little confusing so I gave her instructions about the steps to follow, and at this moment I am still waiting to see that second order appear.  It is frustrating when you get that close to a customer order and then run into an obstacle over which you have no control.  But things do seem to be looking up with 1 1/2 orders under my belt in just the last 3 days.

I am working on some things that I am hoping will increase the traffic to my shop, because it is all a game of numbers.  The more views you get per day, the greater the odds that one of them will turn into an order.  You can have the greatest products in the world, at tremendous prices, but if no one ever sees them your sales will not happen.  So one of my next posts will get into my marketing activities.  I the meantime, I need to go ship an order :-)

New items listed

I have just added two new item listing to my ETSY shop.

Fine chain necklace with single pearl

Silver necklace with faceted Swarovski crystal

Both of these are in keeping with my new direction of more silver chain necklaces and bracelets, with fewer beads.  These both have a simple and clean look, with a simple understated elegance.

I would be interested in any comments about my pieces, both of these but also anything else in my shop.  Feedbeck is very welcome.  What would you like to see??

The ebook is published

I am excited to advise that my efforts to get my ebook published have been successful.

It is available on Amazon Kindle by clicking here.  At $ 4.99 it won't break the bank or make me a millionaire, but I hope it will be an interesting read, especially for those whose lives have been, or are being, touched by cancer.

In pursuit of an ebook

While the original intent of this blog was, and still is, for discussing things about my ETSY shop, I was just reading some other blogs and find that few if any of them are exclusively focused on describing ETSY activities.  Somewhere along the way some posts are about other aspects of life as a blogger. I guess among other things it introduces a bit more of the human side of things into the discourse.

With that in mind, one of my other projects recently has been preparing to publish my first book - or to be more precise to publish an ebook on Amazon.  It has taken more time than I had expected, but it is getting very close to completion and I am getting excited about the prospect of having something available on Amazon for people to download to their Kindle, or any one of several other devices.

The whole thing started just over a year ago when I was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer, Non Hodgkins Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma to be precise.  At the beginning of my treatment, someone suggested that I should consider writing a blog about my experiences.  They said that it would help keep family and friends informed about my status, and might also be a form of therapy for me.  Well sure enough, it did function to keep others informed about how I was doing, both physically and mentally.  And to my surprise, I was very good therapy for me, providing a forum for me to express what was on my mind.

Now that I am through with my treatments (chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant and radiation therapy) people are telling me how much they enjoyed reading about my progress, my ups and downs, my fears and my triumphs, and how inspirational they found my writings.  Several of them have said that I should write a book about my experiences.  The end result is that I decided to turn my blog into an ebook, and make it available to others, in the hopes that it might inspire some hope and strength as they face struggles in their lives, whether from cancer of some other form of difficulty.

Strangely, it was my battle with cancer that got me into making handcrafted jewelry.  During my ordeal I was looking for ways to distract myself from my difficulties, and find something to keep my mind occupied.  Having always enjoyed working with my hands, making jewelry seemed like something that I would enjoy.  And now that the cancer is gone, the enjoyment of handcrafting something that can be worn and enjoyed by others, remains.  In fact it has grown to something that I am very passionate about.

Sometime in the next few days I hope to be ready to upload my book and hit the "publish" button at Amazon.  It is exciting and I will continue to report on my progress.  In case you are interested, my blog, titled My Lymphoma Journal, can be seen by clicking here.

Future direction.

This an example of the type of items I am planning to emphasize more in the future.

Fine chain Sterling Silver cross necklace

Today I added this to my ETSY shop and hope to have more coming in the near future.

Finding focus

The past week has been spent on several different tasks, like adding a few new listings/items to my ETSY shop, experimenting further with new titles and tags, and deciding on some sale pricing for the upcoming ETSY Christmas In July promotion, which is an annual event.  Participation in this is strictly optional, but it appears that most sellers do get involved to varying degrees.  I decided to reduce the price of my earrings by 20% for the month of July in hopes that the additional buyer traffic, normally generated by Christmas In July, will be attracted to these sale prices, and then perhaps start looking at the other products in my shop.  Being a newbie, I have no idea what the reaction will be to these lower prices, but I guess one way to learn is through trial and error.  Ask me in a month if it was a success or not.

Something that has been occupying much of my thinking lately is the style, or type, of jewelry that I want to offer going forward.  From all that I read, supported by my own research and experience, handmade jewelry is a very crowded space on ETSY, with by far the most sellers of any category of products.  Since you are, therefore, competing with very large numbers of jewelry sellers, you need to have some specialty or style that you can be identified with, and that will separate you from the masses. I believe that inexpensive to moderately priced beaded bracelets, necklaces and earrings dominates the jewelry landscape.  If you have a nice, well made green beaded bracelet, with a reasonable price, you are only competing with 58,000 other green beaded bracelets (that is based on an actual search I just did) and your chances of getting found are somewhere between slim and none.  So in my opinion, green beaded bracelets is not something you want to feature in your shop, regardless of the price.

My thinking at the moment is to begin shifting away from most things beaded, and move almost exclusively into Sterling Silver chain necklaces, with some bracelets, featuring high end 92.5% Sterling Silver chains, clasps, charms and pendants.  I believe it will also be desirable to offer buyers a lower cost option of silver plated chains and clasps, while maintaining the higher quality charms and pendants.  Later on I will probably add gold chains and charms as well.  I will initially try to concentrate my pendants into a few select materials such as rubies, turquoise or other semi precious natural stones.  Finally, I am planning to offer a line of Sterling Silver jewelry for the bride-to-be and her wedding party, featuring primarily white Swarovski pearl crystals and/or freshwater pearls.  I believe that this shift in emphasis and specialty will go a long way towards helping me carve out a little niche within the jewelry market, and over time will allow me to build a base of customers who like my style, feel comfortable with my quality and pricing, and will continue to buy from someone they know and trust.

As I sit here outlining my future plans for Jim Davis Designs, the thought crosses my mind that I am laying out a blueprint for some of my competitors to follow, and maybe I should just quietly implement these ideas without telling the world.  But then I am realistic enough not to think that the whole world reads this little blog of mine.  Plus, even if someone from ETSY decides to copy my thinking, I don't think it will make all that much difference in the overall scheme of things.  The original intention of this blog was to provide a place for me to chronicle my jewelry making activities, and talk about successes and failures.  If nothing else it will be good therapy for me, and if some others enjoy reading about my comings and goings, then so much the better.

So ends the post for today.  I hope that you will stop by my ETSY shop from time to time to see what is new and, now that you know about my clandestine future plans, to see how I am progressing.  Take care and happy shopping.

Let me tell you about ETSY

I started this blog back on May 4, in conjunction with the opening of my handcrafted jewelry shop on ETSY. At the time, I was not sure just how this blog would fit into the overall picture, but I wanted to go ahead and have it set up so that later on I could come back to it. Well "later on" has arrived and I want to get started with my blog posts. How frequently I will be posting is unclear, but I hope to keep everyone informed on a reasonably timely basis. My current intent is to attempt to chronicle how my start up efforts are going, including my problems and victories along the way.

 Etsy is an e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items as well as art and craft supplies with the same conditions handmade or used goods/vintage. So when I wanted to find an online outlet, ETSY was by far my first choice. It is well established, well known, and has almost all of the bells and whistles that you would want in an online retail sales portal. I had already begun producing some items to list in my new shop, and getting things set up, and the listings established was really quite straight forward. In no time flat I was in business, with a shop and a few items, and ready to have the orders start pouring in. Well, the orders did not quite start pouring in as I had hoped and expected. In fact here it is 6 weeks later and I am still waiting for that first sale. I have no doubt that it will come, but it is definitely taking longer than I had expected. There is a very active and extensive member community of sellers at ETSY, who are more than willing and able to answer questions and share their own experiences to help a newbie like me get started. There is also a large amount of information available from ETSY itself on the how-to's of life in ETSYland. So after many hours of reading and messaging back and forth with my brethren (or more correctly sisteren) I have spent countless hours on the following tasks (just to list a few):

 * One suggestion was that I should make more items so that I can have more listings in my shop. Who wants to walk by a brick and mortar store, look in the window and see just a few sparse items on the shelves. They probably won't be impressed and will just keep on walking. So I set about making some additional bracelets and necklaces. One problem is that I have now invested several hundred dollars in materials and tools, have used most of those materials in my finished items, and don't really want to invest additional $$$ until I get some sense that this thing actually works as advertised. I am confident that it will, but should my worst fears materialize, everyone in the family will be getting jewelry for Christmas this year.

 * One thing that I had not anticipated was the importance of being able to have almost professional level photographs of my products available. With the large number of sellers on ETSY, particularly jewelry sellers, it is extremely important to have first-class A-1 quality photos of each and every item. When a potential buyer lands on the main page of your shop, and sees 24 pictures of your various offerings, they had better look pretty darn good. Because he/she has most likely already been to other shops and your "shop image" had better be equal to or better than those others, or that buyer will move on to the next shop. I have a very good digital camera, but the camera does not have a very good operator. At this point I would characterize my photos as passable. But I need to spend more time reading the owners manual and taking pictures. My skill level still has some improving to do. 

* "Titles and Tags" is a phrase that I am tiring of quickly. The same applies to "SEO" (search engine optimization). This is the heart and soul of how someone finds you on ETSY. Unless a buyer wants to browse through literally several million individual listings, they will most likely enter some search parameters - much like doing a Google search. They are then presented with a much smaller list of potential matches. And the search engine utilizes the terms contained in your listing titles, and the tags associated with that listing, to determine if you are a potential match. So getting those titles and tags right is the difference between showing up on page one of the search listing, or page 1,374.

 * Market yourself outside of ETSY they tell me, which involves social networking. Being a member of the boomer generation, I was not raised on hashtags and pins. But I am now a registered member of such household names as Pinterest, Facebook, Wanelo, Stumbleupon, WeHeartIt, and Tumblr just to mention a few. I have learned to pin, post, like and favorite with the best of them. Well to say I am up with the best might be a slight exaggeration, but you get the point. BTW I just got a message from WeHeartIt that I am now being followed by someone named Cristel, who is originally from Antwerp Belgium and now lives in Borsbeek. I have no idea where Borsbeek is located but maybe Cristel will be interested in purchasing my cream colored pearl glass bead necklace and bracelet???

 I find that this initial post to my blog is getting lengthy, and I need to get back to my ETSY shop to tend to my various details, so I will leave you now with one shameless product listing

If you are interested in seeing my shop, or perhaps buying this summer sparkler bracelet and becoming my first customer click here.  Otherwise I will see you in the not too distant future with another update on my progress in the world of ETSY.

Green bracelet

Here is one of my recent pieces, a cute casual bracelet made with green ceramic beads and a .925 Sterling Silver toggle clasp.  It will definitedly get some admiring glances.

To check it out, along with the matching earrings, click here.

Welcome

Welcome to my website, Jim Davis Designs.  I have recently decided to begin selling my jewelry pieces online, and this site is part of that marketing effort.  Much work remains to be done to get my Internet presence up and running, and I hope that you will bear with me as my efforts progress.

Thus far, my primary retail location is on ETSY.com and this is where you can browse and purchase my jewelry pieces.  Please visit me at

Jim Davis Designs

I also have set up a Facebook page and a Pinterest page, which are also works-in-progress.

Thanks for stopping by, keep checking back for improvements, and, as the saying goes, excuse the mess while we progress.