Tag, You're It Blog Award

My friend Sandie of ZaftigDelights was gifted with a blog award, and tagged me as one of the next 10 to receive it. Each person tagged is invited to give 10 facts about themselves and tag 10 other bloggers. I loved what Sandie wrote about herself in her blog and thought it would be fun to participate. So here goes:

1. I'm a second generation Italian American. My mom was born in the US, but dad was born in Italy. I grew up with Italian spoken all around me, but unfortunately only a few choice words stuck.

2. My husband and I met in a bar. Upon seeing me struggling with broken beads on my hat, his first words to me were, "May I be of some assistance?" He asked if he could follow me home, and it must have been fate that I didn't lose him after the red lights I ran to get rid of him. As they say, the rest is history.

3. I'm a founder and president of a 501c3 organization called the Natural Fibers Group. It's a specialized guild dedicated to preserving the tradition of collecting, processing and using natural plant fibers in basketry and art. We have members from all over the US and Canada who join to receive our newsletter and share information.

4. I was not raised with an appreciation for nature and the universe. I credit my husband for opening my eyes. Now we live on a secluded 75 acre property, surrounded by Weyerhaeuser forest land. Lots of wildlife around, including deer, bear, bobcat, coyote and fox.

5. In another life, long long ago, I worked at one time or another for the FBI as a fingerprint technician, the IRS in Internal Security, and ATF as a firearms tracer. Blaahhh.

6. As a kid, I drew very detailed pictures of pirate cats and dinosaur skeletons. I dreamed of going to Africa, finding buried treasure, and becoming a paleontologist.

7. My favorite film genre involves SUSPENSE! Dramas, mysteries, horror, adventures all qualify. Not to say that I don't appreciate other good movies.

8. At one time I owned my own landscape design business, specializing in blueprint design and consultation. It was a lot of fun working with clients, designing for them, and seeing the transformation when the work was completed by contractors. Working for myself was the best job I ever had-- loved my boss!

9. I used to be a 3-4 pack a day chain smoker. Happily, that habit stopped long ago.

10. When we lived in a suburban area, I used to play tennis every day. Back then I had a pretty powerful serve and a zinger of a forehand. What wonderful, fun exercise it was!

Well, there you go, 10 factual tidbits, for what they are worth. And now I'll pass this task, er, I mean award on to 10 other blog owners, to act upon or not, as they see fit!

Bahar Collection
Crazy Daisies Designs
Beautiful Bridget Designs
Kims Crafty Apple
Beadstylin's Random Musings
Sweet Surrender Blog
Mermaid Treasures
Amanda Yu Design
Inbaliya
Lama Works

Win These Earrings!

The Etsy Treasury Team is sponsoring a giveaway featuring these lovely sterling earrings from StrandsofLight! Go to the Treasury Team Blog and enter 5 times for 5 chances to win- it's easy!

Thanks to webmistress, Sandie, of ZaftigDelights and KnitzyBlonde, for doing such a great job with these monthly give-aways!

I Won George!

Lucky me! I love give-aways, and this one was sponsored by the great Etsy team, HandmadeMN, through their blog. They have fabulous shops in their team, and great weekly give-aways!

I won this adorable little guy named George, artfully needle felted by Denise of the Eyes of Time blog! Do check out her blog for more great creations. She is one talented lady!

Hopefully soon she'll be adding her amazing fiber work to her Etsy shop, Stars Apon Thars, which features very cool repurposed goods.

Thank you so much Denise, and thanks to HandmadeMN too! Below are some wonderful items from Denise's shop.

from Stars Apon Thars

Shop Critique Tips- Watermarks and 2D Wall Art

My intention was to leave in the middle of HeyMichelle's shop critique and grab a treasury, but it wasn't to be. Instead, I was once again transfixed on the savvy marketing advice that can be so crucial to Etsy selling success. Three points stood out enough that I wrote them down.

Between actual shop critiques, Michelle actually told one seller quite strongly: Take those watermarks out of your pictures! They lower your chance to be featured and it's a turn off to customers. Remove them all together or move them to the bottom where they can barely be seen.

The next point is related to the above. One of the critiqued shops had beautiful jewelry with her shop name displayed in almost every photo. Michelle said to take the shop name out, you don't need text in the photos.

In one of the last critiques a 2D artist was featured. Some of the work was shown framed. Michelle said she liked this because it gives a buyer an idea of what it will look like hanging on their wall. She added that personally, she likes framed work for the gift guides because it shows better and sells better. She qualified that by adding that it may not be as important in the searches.

I take these tips pretty seriously, as Etsy admin obviously has information/stats and insight that the average Etsy seller doesn't have. Sometimes it takes some ego adjustment and a willingness to try something different to change the way we do things. I know it did for me. Whether you agree or disagree with Etsy's ideal of how to present your work, the point is that those who take the advice and run with it have a better chance for more success.

Please visit the Etsy Virtual Labs for great discussion. They usually have shop critiques once a week. They are well worth the time!

Luxeliving, Aprons on Etsy

If you like to wear an apron when entertaining, crafting or just doing things around the house, check out Luxeliving on Etsy. I've just received this beautiful custom apron (right) from Luxeliving after winning the give-away in her shop. Thanks so much-- I love it!

She also carries some darling mother-daughter apron sets, a great idea promoting that special bond!

Visit her shop for more cute aprons like the pink one shown below. You may also want to visit her blog.

Honeydew: Do You Love Me? Earrings I Won!

A little Tweet told me about a wonderful give away sponsored by Cleveland Handmade, a great collective of local artists and craftspeople selling a lovely variety of creations online.

I entered and was lucky enough to win these beautiful green turquoise and silver earrings (above), sweetly named "Honeydew: Do You Love Me?" They were designed and generously donated by Marcia of Daisy Made Designs. Do take a look at her shop for more beautiful jewelry. Marcia also does custom work using your own special trinkets, charms and mementos, fashioning them into meaningful heirloom jewelry pieces! (right: Marcia's personal treasure necklace)

I'm excited to have won and would like to thank Marcia and Cleveland Handmade for making it possible!

What do Horses and Baskets have in Common?

Did you know miniature horsehair baskets are only made by a very few basketmakers and are highly collectable? Here's your chance to own one of these incredible miniature wonders for free!

Visit Pamela Zimmerman's blog: Catching the Moon: Weaving My Life and have 5 chances to win this basket!

You'll also want to visit Pamela's Etsy shop, Bazketmakr, for everything from finished baskets and woven wearables to supplies.

Report on 5/28 Etsy Lab on Tagging, Titles and Descriptions

Here are the notes I took during this interesting discussion, which also included info on the new "relevancy search." I hope there are some helpful tidbits here for those who couldn't attend.
______________________

I was one of several etteam members who attended the 5/28/09 lab. Leading the lab was Danielle, with Sean, Eric and Amy.

Titles:

• Should be accurate and specific.
• Title your most important words first in both title and description. What is it, then descriptive words
• Don't use "free shipping" or "sale" as first words in title (Danielle recommends using towards end of description)
• Danielle said to put subcategory in Title.
• Google will pick up 160 characters of title and description.
• Don't make title too short or too long. Danielle said 3-4 words.

Description:

• Vintage & supply searchable by description in Advanced Search
• Break description into short paragraphs or bullet points instead of one big block of text
• Give dimensions of item, don't forget to include metric
• Tell your story- makes them add the item to their cart-- show your personality, love, ideas, heart, why, how, inspiration-- connect to the buyer and show you're a real person behind the handmade item.

Tags/Relevancy:

Main category, then most important 1st tag is a subcategory. This will become even more important in time as the relevancy search is tweaked.

Suggestions for types of words to use as tags:

• what is it
• materials
• where used
• style
• motif
• shop name in just a few listings, not all
  
• team tags do not bump down relevancy. (They are working on finding a new way to tag for teams.)

Using plural vs singular tags, and word variants: item comes up in search either way.

Use all 14 tags- good for relevancy. They will be continually adjusting the relevancy search.

The relevancy search is not the default search and they have no plans to make it so.

Fresh search results are one goal of relevancy, so date listed is also factor.... keep items freshly listed..add new items, renew, relist.

Materials:

List all your materials

Misc:

Order of Importance in Searches:
1. tags
2. titles
3. description
4. materials

A good way to be found is to add your link to Google base.

Etsy will have an option for moving around our shop items and it will be "launched soon."  Danielle has already tested this feature and thinks it's cool!

For further information, visit these Etsy Storque articles:

Hitting the Sweet Spot with Etsys Most Relevant

Sort Search Results by Most Relevant

Charming Winner of Give-Away

The lucky winner of my handmade pottery charms that I donated through the Treasury Team Blog is..... Krystal of Solsisters.etsy.com!
Congratulations!

Click on the link above and take a look at the fabulous bags she makes! I'm excited that Krystal won, and maybe we'll see some of the charms as embellishments on her bags!

Thanks to everyone who entered our first Treasury Team Give-Away! We hope you'll all subscribe to our blog for useful and fun information, and future give-away contests! Etsy Treasury Team Blog

Give-Away on the Treasury Team Blog

The Etsy Treasury Team is sponsoring the first give-away on their blog! The prize is a stoneware pottery charm mix that I created, a $30 value. Please go to the Treasury Team Blog for all the details.