Some new jewelry, and my business cards!

My business cards showed up earlier this week!!! I was really excited, because I wasn't really expecting them this soon. They look very nice, and they will be VERY handy for marketing, etc. I can start passing them out to friends, family, and people on campus. I will also be able to put them in my orders when I ship them out. (that is, when I finally make a sale...)

But on another note, I made two new pairs of earrings, and I'm going to make another necklace and maybe some other things tonight. I have a cute idea for a necklace that I want to put together, and I also bought a wire jig at the store the other day, so I want to make some sort of cool wire necklace.

* If anyone has tips on how I can take better quality pictures of my stuff, that would be greatly appreciated.

New Link

Thanks to Mike for stopping by and leaving his link, I've added it to my favorite links ---->
http://mikesmoneyrants.blogspot.com/

Some more jewelry

I've made a few more pairs of earrings and a necklace, but of course I have been too busy/lazy to take pictures. I want to get 10 or so things up in my store before I start putting signs up on campus to have people go there. I know that things are always slow for people starting out, but I'm so desperate to get a sale.... I just want to have a feeling of accomplishment, a feeling that people like my stuff enough to pay for it. Is that silly? I would just feel a lot more confident about my stuff if I knew people liked it...

In other news... I also picked up the paperwork today to start an organization on campus. That way my roommate and I can find some other people that are interested in making jewelry and get together all the time. And if we're able to set up a table in the student union to sell stuff, we'll get a lot more "coverage" because hundreds of students walk through there every day. And people tend to make purchases on impulse a lot more when they can actually see something and have it in their hands, right?

Slacking Off...

I got sick over the weekend, so I've been slacking off terribly... I haven't gotten a chance to look for a template, nor have I worked on any new pieces. I do have some ideas for a few cute pairs of earrings though, and I' m hoping to work on those tomorrow after I get done with work and class, so we'll see how that goes.
So far nothing has sold in my site... I'm waiting for my business cards to get here, because having something tangible that I can hand out to people will be helpful. I'm also going to make some signs with my email and website address on it to hang up on the bulletin boards on campus. Every bit of advertisement will help, right?

Layout

I have received a few comments from people saying that I should search for a template to change my layout a bit. This is something I have been considering, I'm just not sure what I am looking for yet. I want the basic color scheme/design for this site to go along somewhat with the logo that I make for my jewelry biz. I have been playing around with a few ideas, but haven't gotten anything cool yet.

If anyone has any ideas, feel free to share them with me. I promise to give you credit for your work, and a free jewelry item from my store if I end up using your design.
Thanks all!

New Bracelet

I ended up having to stay longer than expected at work last night, so I didn't get a chance to work on jewelry as much as I would have liked. I did make a really cute bracelet though. I listed it on Tangerine Sunshine. It's so fun though, I think I want to make another to keep for myself!

Thanks!

I would like to thank everydaywear for reviewing this new blog in her blog. It's great to have a little bit of support getting started! Thanks!!

A little bit of business.

Well, between last night and today I've gotten some of the business out of the way. I came up with the name last night -- after debating over several ideas, I ended up with "Tangerine Sunshine"

I heard about a site called Etsy from a fellow poster on myLot, so I thought I would give it a shot. I originally created an account with my default username, then realized I ought to make on that goes along with my shop title. Deleting the old account and starting up a new one took a bit, and I did give out the old link to a few people so I have to notify them of the change, but I think this one works much better. My shop can be found at www.tangerinesunshine.etsy.com :) I also set up a new email account to be used for this blog and my shop -- tangerinesunshine@gmail.com. After deciding on a name, setting up and email account, and creating the store, I ordered a few free business cards from VistaPrint. So now I have something to mail out with any orders that I might get, and also to hand out to people at craft fairs, coffee shops, or anywhere people might be interested. Every little bit of marketing will help, right?

Today I put a few listings in my shop. My camera is on the fritz, so some of them aren't the best quality, but I now officially have stuff in my shop! I also signed up for Google Adsense, filled out my profile, and started putting some links up in this blog. I think that's enough of the technical stuff for one day, now it's time to have some fun creating jewelry!

A little introduction...

My post yesterday didn't say all that much about me, so before I "get down to business" I would like to introduce myself a little bit more. I am 20 years old, currently going to school for a double major in Anthropology and Ethnic Studies, with a minor in Spanish. I work about 25 hours a week in an on-campus office and at a Cold Stone Creamery. When I'm not in class or working, I'm usually playing video games, cooking, or, of course, making jewelry! I did a lot of jewelry making when I was younger, including buying all of those Lisa Frank jewelry kits (I was a huge LF fan!). Last fall I finally got back into jewelry making when I realized how much fun it it is to create funky pieces of jewelry for myself that I can't buy anywhere else. Once my collection got a little too big for just me to wear, I started giving stuff to friends and family for birthdays, Christmas, etc. At some point last month I realized that this little "hobby" of mine was getting a bit expensive, and I realized that I needed a way to finance myself, so I decided to sell a few things. I put a few listings up on ebay. Only one sold, but hey, at least I had sold something! I got a little frustrated with my lack of success, so I searched around to figure out other outlets for selling my growing pile. And this, my friends, is where the journey begins...

A new start...

This is the start of a new project for me. Since last fall I have really gotten back into making jewelry -- bead stuff, hemp, bracelets, necklaces... all sorts, really. Well, the "casual hobby" has gotten to be a bit expensive, so I've decided that I need to sell some of my stuff to help finance my growing addiction. This blog will be a way for me to chronicle my experiences -- successes, failures, frustrations, new ideas... everything that comes along with running a little side business while still going to school full time and working 2 jobs.

Wish me luck!