New "Puff Pendants"

As artists we are always looking for other ways to promote our work to the public.  We've been on Etsy for six weeks now and have finally made our first sales through them.  We're use to dealing one on one with friends and clients who know us and our work but using the internet is a whole new arena.

It's been a long haul for the past month and a half as there is so much work involved.  You think of the time spent creating your art, but there are countless hours added with photographing, editing the photographs and then documenting every little detail.  When things weren't moving at first, I started thinking that maybe it was the price.  But we had no problem selling at those same prices before so why should we sell for less because it is on Etsy?   I've been experimenting with our Etsy shop to see how it could be improved.  I would post different items in different ways to see what sort of interest it would get.  For instance we started with posting some of our jewelry pieces as sets but then decided that people would prefer the option of buying only the earrings or pendant separately, so we decided to split the sets up and will now go more with a "mix and match" theme instead.

Another thing about selling from this type of venue is getting known as there are so many other  sellers and thousands of items being listed every day.  You have to find some way to be noticed and stand out.  That is why I'm so excited about our first Etsy sale.  One of the items sold was one of our new "Puff Pendants" shown above.  The pendant is textured and hollow with either cane slices applied such as the leaves and pansies in the centre, or a faux cloisonne dragonfly on the other two pendants, creating a 3-d effect.  It is then finished with a clay bail in which a rubber cord fits through nicely so the pendant is balanced and stays in place.  This was a lot fun to design and make and spurs me on to create more along this line.