SFEtsy Team Gathering

Yesterday some members of the SFEtsy team met at Miranda's (HairPetals) lovely home. There were seven all together, and the other members who attended were Terri (heronmoon), Larissa (Larissa07), Chelsea (BirdNerd), Jen (bfbeads) and Maile (Fossa). Unfortunately Maile had to leave early, but at least I had the chance to meet her in person. It was really nice finally putting faces to these names and having the ability to spend time chatting about team topics and life. Terri gets an award for traveling the farthest, because it took her about 3 hours one way to get to Miranda's home. Each of us brought samples of our goods and we were able to see first hand what talent there is in the group. Even though there are great pictures on each person's Etsy site, having the ability to examine things up close and to feel and see the different colors and textures was a treat. I was impressed with the creativity and level of craftmanship, and am honored to be a part of the team. Special thanks to Miranda for opening her house and making me feel right at home.

Team spirit!

There are many benefits to being a member of a team, and I have recently joined the Etsy Wedding Team. This team is comprised of a number of talented Etsy artists - to check them out just follow the link on the right hand navigation. What better way to customize your special day than to add handmade items that meet your every need from stationery to accessories and attire. In addition Etsy offers tips in their Handmade Wedding Series, so if you're looking for information or advice that's the place to go.

All In A Day's Work

Part of the fascination of making jewelry is that there isn't a time that I don't want to create something new. I wake up in the middle of the night and fuss with colors and shapes in my head working on designs that will come to fruition the following day. This must be the luckiest time of my life that I can spend the majority of my day working on creating something special for someone who sees the beauty in my pieces. Did I have to live a major portion of life and go through particular experiences in order to understand that I have the ability to design unique jewelry? Was the beginning some kind of sentence...a good one of course, but still time spent on things that maybe weren't as meaningful as what I'm doing now. Or maybe it was a building block of learning experiences that brought me to present day. Whatever the past was I'm now in the present and enjoying every moment I spend on making special pieces using different mediums. I've already grown so far and continue to explore and learn based on the materials used and creative juices that flow.

I'm lagging...

I have this brand new blog and am not being very good at making posts a priority. There's just so many other things going on that I don't think about adding content on a regular basis, which needs to change or nobody will want to read this :)

What's new with me? I had a bridal show at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds on Feb 10th. It went very well and it validated my feelings about focusing in the bridal jewelry market. Here's a photo of my booth.

My target market consists of custom jewelry for the brides and working with them to match the perfect set to their attire. It also includes jewelry for the bridal party (i.e. matching crystal or pearl necklaces) to be given as gifts or purchased individually. I'm also designing tiaras and combs. These are equally exciting for me because of their unique nature and endless design styles and color combinations. Check out my website http://www.lindadavisdesigns.etsy.com/ to see some of my pieces. There are also hair pins too.

My next endeavor is to market to the bridal stores in the area and when the weather gets better to attend some local Farmers Markets. I know in my heart that I'm in the right place and doing exactly what I should be at this very moment.

Do you Like Lemonade?

I'm crazy about citrus, so when I saw the shop name Lemonade I just had to write a feature about her. She is part of FEST (Florida Etsy Street Team), and since my team SFEtsy is partnering with FEST to promote each other, I've chosen Lemonade to talk more about. Her shop consists of material goods such as coin/wrist/pencil pouches, aprons, headbands, and other must have items. She uses beautiful fabrics to design these lovely items and I admire her unique clever ideas when making things that are very useful. Next time you're surfing Etsy make sure and check out Lemonade's shop - she's got really neat things.

Etsy Teams

Part of the incredible community that makes up Etsy are the street teams. There are different goals depending on the type of team, which is a very diverse mix in itself. They are grouped by geography, genre, philanthropy, etc....whatever makes sense for a group of people who are all dedicated to the same cause. In the month of January the "Etsy Team Tips" include promoting other teams. Since my team, SFEtsy, was interested in participating, we were paired with FEST (Florida Etsy Street Team) - here is their BLOG. In order to create visibility for their team I created a Treasury for them called "A Big Shout Out to FEST". Since the treasury is a fluid, rotating tool I'm copying a picture here for you to see.

Promoting other Etsy shops and teams is a great way to get to know fellow artists, increase awareness about buying handmade goods, and building a bigger and better community.

Oh the Storms!

Here we are in the middle of winter, trying to accomplish things like attending an SFEtsy gathering, but alas, the weather prevented most of us from getting to the coast. My intentions were good and I definitely planned on being there. I packed up my appetizer, a sampling of my jewelry, and plenty of business cards and off I went. My first stop was actually the Brocade bridal show in Milpitas - reason being is that I am going to be a vendor at the show in Pleasanton on February 10th and wanted to check out the vendors and see how they set up their booths. After running in and out I was back on the road with GPS set to guide me over to the northern coast. The weather was in what I would describe as a "holding pattern". It wasn't as frightful as the night before where the winds were about 100mph with heavy rain, so I figured that I would ignore the road debris and just make the best of it. Highway 280 north was clear and easy to navigate providing that I wasn't speeding, and after exiting onto highway 92 I felt that I was in good shape and almost there. I climbed to the summit at which point there were a number of flairs and a police officer directing people to drive south on Skyline blvd. due to the other side of 92 being closed. Relying foolishly on my GPS I followed the crowd, turned south on Skyline, and was "told" that in 6 miles I could turn right on "County Road". Well when I arrived at County Road it looked more like a logging road going into a forest. At this point I decided that the only destination that made sense was "home", so I punched in the updated destination and my GPS then took me through Woodside and south to home. It was an adventure and I was sorry that I missed not making it to the SFEtsy gathering, but it appears that there weren't many other members able to get there either so better luck next time and hopefully the weather won't prohibit us from meeting each other.

Treasury Countdown

The Etsy Treasury is sort of like an online auction except that you are waiting for each of the individual treasuries to expire so that you might be the lucky one to post a new group of Etsy items. Typically they have some sort of theme covering a number of topics or causes. I was lucky enough to get two in the recent past: the first one included my fellow SFEtsy street team members and the second one had a cowboy theme. As of this moment I have 4 hours and 10 minutes to wait until another group of treasuries open for grabs. My theme for this one is "I believe in PINK". UPDATE: The fight against breast cancer is something that always lies in the back of my mind and as of now is a daily topic because I'm a recent survivor. I'll have to create another post soon covering this lengthy topic that could go in many directions...back to the Treasury. There are many cool themes and I can spend lots of time surfing the numerous topics and items. Sone of the benefits I've found about spending time in the Treasury is that you can gain visibility by posting messages to the curator, and also heart sellers and items so if you aren't ready to shop at that particular point you have the items saved to your favorites. Have fun and enjoy the creative themes.

It's Official

Well today I started my blog and now feel more official. This is just a little piece of me that feels "baked" because even though my jewelry is out of the starting gate, and friends tell me "you've done it!", I still feel like I'm weeding through the process and channel of how to sell and what to focus on. Time always tells the truth and this will also be the case regarding my jewelry business and livelihood. With a little luck and a lot of drive I'm confident that I will get exactly what I want and what is meant to be. This is a photo of my son and I recently.