A New Collection!

Well, I've been thinking more and more about creating more series. With this set, I'm hoping to create a beautiful piece of art you can wear wherever you go! I started with "La Scapigliata" by Leonardo Da Vinci and I absolutely love how it turned out. There is a beauty and innonence in this picture that so often spoken of but rarely seen. I've always loved this painting ever since I first saw it, it reminds me of a princess in some far off fairytale.

I've been searching through public domain paintings and I've found some others that I will definitely being adding soon to my newest series.

The Tree of Life by Gustav Klimt
Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo Da Vinci
Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

The Enchanted Castle by Francis Danby

Ivy by Alphonse Munche

Apple Tree with Red Fruit by Paul Ranson

If anyone can recommend any paintings they love or would love see on a pendant, please feel free to leave a comment!

Just added my shop to Flickr!

After reading a couple of threads on the Etsy forum, I decided I was going to create a Flickr photostream of all of my pendant photographs.

http://www.flickr.com/people/jeweldivas/

In case your wondering whether its an option to add to Flickr, here is some tips and pointers I used:

- You are NOT allowed to put your etsy address on your photo descriptions
- You CAN use etsy as a tag, I also used Etsy and my shop name
- Send your photos to the groups that you join to get more exposure.
- Join lots of groups
- Add lots of contacts

And then after I was done, I was wondering through the list of treasuries and found out that PamperingBeki (PamperingBeki.Etsy.com) had included my green dragonfly clay pendant in her Loving Etsy Style treasury.

Treasury Madness!!!

Well I did again, I decided that I really wanted to make another treasury with absolutely no preparation. As soon as I clicked on treasury, I knew I was going to run into problems because I didn't have a clue what theme I wanted to do. But after playing with the color search engine and finding a green swirl pendant, I was set. My new treasury is called, Something A Little Different.

My first theme....Zodiac Symbols

Yesterday, while I browsing on the web, looking for new ideas, I came across this collage sheet of Zodiac symbols by veryverdi (Veryverdi.Esty.com). The instant I saw the collage sheet, I wanted it, like badly. Each symbol is accompanied by absolutely gorgeous fairy representing their respective symbol. After seeing, I decided this was going to be my first theme, I'm hoping to start really soon on it. I'll posting pictures as soon as they're done. I've been on sort on sort of creating spree lately, so hopefully they'll be done within a day or two.

I've always been fascinated by the things that are rarely or never seen but so often spoken of. I think the imagination is one of those things that gets us through life. Even if it isn't something you can't feel or touch, doesn't make it any less important to you. My own imagination is probably my biggest inspiration, keeping life interesting and even inspiring at times.

Creating a Series...

After some thought, I'm considering creating some of my pendants in sort of series or a theme. For my first set, I'll be using a set of black birds with colored flower backgrounds. When I found these pictures, I absolutely fell in love with them and had to have them. So I meshed them together with my pendants and this is what happened. There are 4 different birds images in total, all available in green, blue, pink, or brown. I'm hoping to create all of them soon. I have hopes of creating more matching sets around a specific theme in the future. If anybody has ideas for themes that they would like to see, please feel free to leave a comment!

Just Launched My New Etsy Store

After weeks of debating and hard work, my first Etsy store, JewelDivas, is up and running. I am proud, you bet. But I've come to sort of crossroads, what I am going to do, to promote my Etsy store. How can I drive traffic there? After stalking the forums (I mean research) for quite a while, I've been thinking about intergrating the a few things into my marketing strategy. Now, I'm real some of these are strictly Etsy related but I'm sure alot of them could be used in any business.

1.) Join the forums, get yourself known.

2.) Create a blog, update regularly.

3.) Build a website, to help to establish a professional web presence.

4.) Advertise on other sites:

- http://www.dawanda.com/ - another handmade search engine similiar to Etsy

- http://www.flickr.com/ - a photo search engine

- http://www.craigslist.com/raigslist.com - a local classifieds search engine

- http://www.stumbleupon.com/ - StumbleUpon discovers web sites based on your interests

- http://www.squido.com/ - a knowledge sharing site

- http://www.facebook.com/ - a social networking site

- http://www.myspace.com/ - a social networking site

- www.Trunkt.com - the premier trade directory for creative entrepreneurs

- www.Kaboodle.com - a knowledge sharing meets shopping site

- http://www.weloveetsy.com/ - a social networking site specifically for Etsy

- http://www.craftster.org/ - a craft search engine

5.) Offsite Advertising - local papers, craft shows, craft groups, bulletin boards, community flyers

6.) Adding your business logo and website to your vehicle

There are hundreds of ways to advertise your shop and I'll be more information as I come across them.