I’ve been busy!

I just posted two new items on Etsy: a wire-wrapped pendant, and a crystal-accented keychain. I’m actually quite proud of these, since I completed them whilst in the depths of a rather low mood. Nonetheless, they turned out beautifully–I hope they find good homes!

Speaking of good homes, I found the most adorable little accents on Etsy–little houses by thelittlereddoor. They’re hand-built ceramic houses, all of them unique and so tiny! I love their shop banner–featuring a sweet little row of houses spelling out their name 🙂

Nifty article on Etsy-related twittering!

I found a fantastic list of twitter tips for Etsy craftsmen! Of course these can all be modified for whatever you sell, wherever you sell it, but some of them are fantastic!

You can find the original article here!

One highlight of the article promoted the use of a website called Twitter Karma to manage your followers/following. You need your username and password, and it loads your followers/following lists, and lets you compare who is just following you, who you are only following, and who all is mutual friends with you. I went through and found a couple people I forgot to follow when they added me, plus some people who I only ‘added back’, but then they un-followed me just as quickly! Very useful 😀

Also, a nice list of twitter ettiquite from the article:

-Twitter Etiquette:
*Don’t spam with auto DM’s (direct messages)! This is one of the fastest ways to get yourself unfollowed.
*Don’t just post links to your “stuff”. If you’re only going to take about yourself, soon you’ll only BE talking to yourself!
*Retweet interesting and helpful posts from other people.
*Interact with other tweeters – reply to their messages, ask them questions, congratulate them on sales, etc.
*Aim to tweet at least every few hours (but NOT every few minutes – don’t overwhelm the system with a million tweets per minute!).
*Keep your tweets interesting. Vary from links, to questions, to observations, to “regular” stuff. Share all your fav finds on the web and try to be as helpful as possible. But try to keep links to a minimum so you don’t get reported for spamming (you can do this easily but offsetting link tweets with another non-link tweet).
*It’s ok to block “questionable” followers. This will mean different things to different people, just go with your gut.

The article was written by She’s Batty Designs on Etsy, whose twitter can be found here. I hope you find it as interesting and informative as I did!

An Etui! (Gesundheit.)

My mother ran across the coolest box in the history of boxes–an Etui.

Here you can find a picture of one, as well as in Sparetime Crafts‘s Etsy shop.
It’s a box inside of a box, with padded sides, that all folds out like a flower! Apparantly, they’ve been used since the 1700s, when no proper woman would be caught without one, containing the various necessities, such as sewing thread, darning needles, a comb, and so forth.

There are some truly beautiful ones out there!  These look so useful, as well! Some aren’t much bigger than about four inches square, to hold a nice little needlework set!

This idea is brilliant, as soon as I get a chance, I really want to try and make one of my own! Everyone should have one, it seems 😀

A New Craft!

Handmade Green Drop Earrings

So, in my quest to find something that works for me, I’ve tried my hand at jewelry! As a matter of fact, I’m quite pleased with the result. I turned out 6 pairs of lovely green glass earrings, which I’ve promptly made available for sale in my Etsy shop, Eclectically Inspired. (Link opens in a new window, so feel free to browse and come back!)

I’m actually really excited about it, I’m hoping this will be the start of something I can do for a little extra money. I love Etsy, there’re so many amazing things on there, I’d love to be counted amongst the artisans represented there.

I’ll have more odds and ends up soon, I think, since I’ve got a lot of materials to play with, and, so long as my job hunt continues as it has, lots of time to play with them!