Back on Etsy

Over the past year I have been asked repeatedly by people if I would ever sell on Etsy again.

I would reply with a quick "no."

People could not understand why I was against setting up shop on Etsy (again!)
Don't get me wrong, I love Etsy! It's great! I have purchased many items on there. And I still do on occasion. But, well, let's see...6 sales in 4 years? Hmm, not a good sign!

It's just a lot of leg work photographing and posting new products, typing up all kinds of info and listing and re-listing with zero return. I'm not sure where and why I failed but Etsy just wasn't working for me.

Seems no matter where I went, people would ask me if I had a website to showcase my work. They wanted to see my jewellery designs on-line. They would often mention Etsy to me as if I had no idea that it existed. "Yes, I know all about Etsy," I would say, adding that I had signed up back in 2005. "It's just so saturated with jewellery sellers and there is a LOT of competition," was my often repeated excuse.

Then one day, I heard through the grapevine about a site where I could create an on-line portfolio easily along with a monthly fee - of course. So I decided to do just that. The site is called wix.com. I spent hours and hours uploading images and typing text into my soon to be new on-line portfolio. I was so excited and really keen to get it done. This wasn't going to be an e-commerce site. It would just serve the purpose of displaying my work. I really enjoyed the easy to use web tools and all the interactive widgets on there. And I really liked hitting preview and having a glimpse at what the end result would look like.

Despite the extensive work I did on that site, I was still not 100% happy with it. There were constant technical glitches and often my hard work would disappear (by accident) into cyber space and I had no idea why and then I'd have to begin over again. How frustrating!

Weeks and months came and went and still I had not launched my new site. I desperately needed to set up a site to showcase my jewellery. Etsy came to mind. I toyed with the decision daily. A photographer friend of mine wanted to provide a link to my jewellery site from his photography site, yet I STILL had no site set up. "Just get something up there," he said..."a site of some kind or whatever." "Just do it!"

Becoming impatient with myself and the situation at hand, I sat down earlier today and spent 2 hours uploading images and typing out descriptions. Yes, I re-launched my former Etsy site.

I'm not expecting much this time around. I just want to have an on-line reference for anybody that may be interested - now or later - to see what I've been creating. If I do happen to sell something along the way...bonus!

Anyway, If you have any suggestions or ideas on how to improve the selling power of my Etsy shop, please let me know.

You can find my Etsy shop widget on the right hand side of my Blog.

Retail Therapy

Okay, so now that we are all caught up I just wanted to emphasize how important retail therapy is when you need a pick-me-up!

Etsy, as we all know, is a GREAT place to shop and despite my current unemployment status, I can still find some wonderful and unique items that won't break the bank.

Pretty Raccoon, a Toronto-based, on-line store sells a vast assortment of woman's clothing in a variety of colours and styles. They also sell some funky vintage clothes, but what I had been ogling for quite some time was their line of screen printed tops and scarves. So pretty!

Another bonus is that the Canadian dollar is almost on par with the U.S. dollar, so I did what any savvy shopper would do, I seized this opportunity. I purchased a black boat neck top with a white chandelier print and a raspberry scarf with silver seagulls printed on it.


My order arrived 3 days after I made it...how's that for expedited service when you shop local. I just can't wait to try out my new purchases. I feel better already.

Bijoux's new jewellery on Etsy

After a bit (who am I kidding) - A LOT of thinking, I decided to give my jewellery shop on Etsy a bit of a makeover. Nothing too major. Just a new banner which I created myself and some new items, like the earrings that you see on the right sidebar.

The rings, although not recently made, have been re-posted on the shop with a new, lower price point. These are the only rings I have in my collection and I won't be making any new ones until these sell, so get 'em while they last.

One of my inspirations for creating new pieces of jewellery, is thinking about exotic, distant lands, that I would like to visit one day: I was inspired by Morocco! I love the use of vivid colours in Moroccan tapestries and home decor. I love Moroccan jewellery. Heck, I even love Moroccan food. I made a necklace with this in mind. I pay homage to Morocco by using an assortment of second-hand beads that I picked up at a flea market over a year ago. These beads just shouted "Morocco!" and so a new necklace was born.

I have only listed 10 items for now but will be adding more to the batch on a regular basis. Coming soon are some new bracelets that I am working on and many more necklaces, some new and some re-structured.

Go ahead, take a peek. Tell me what you think.