Building a business is Never-Ending!

Whew, building an Etsy business is never-ending and exhausting. I have been hard at work for two days working on all of the details needed to promote my shop. I recently learned that Instagram (an iPhone app) has been helpful for other etsy sellers, so I have spent the last few hours setting up my phone with Photobucket to upload my pictures from my computer, then taking them from that app on my phone and putting them into my photo album on my phone, then finally adding them to Instagram. The cool thing is that within one minute of adding a photo, I had a stranger like it! I will have to check my stats later in my shop to see if I am getting any traffic from it. I have also been Stumbling some of my work, including my coasters and nightlights.  I have pinned a few things onto my Pinterest page, as well as my Facebook page.  Besides all of the promoting, I have made a few new items and photographed some more that I need to list. Busy, busy! I can't wait for my hard work to pay off.

I spent President's week in Banff, Alberta, Canada at a photography workshop (that is a picture of Lake Louise above), so my shop was neglected the week I was gone plus the first week back as I recovered from the long days in the cold snow. It was a lot of fun dedicating my time to my other hobby, but very exhausting as we were on the go from 6:30AM until 6 or 7:00 PM. Well, time to get back to work :)

New items!

I have finally been able to post some new items in my shop. Creating new fused glass art has kept me busy these last few weeks and I have been unable to blog. If you look to the right of this post (on my blog page) >>>>> you will see my "Etsy mini", which shows thumbnails of my fused glass pendants, coasters, etc. I have made a few sets of glass drink coasters, as well as a few nightlights, and one suncatcher (although I have a suncatcher ready to go in the kiln tonight). My first set of coasters can be seen here. I was quite proud of these, as the design was inspired by a failed experiment. I was so happy when what I envisioned in my head came out of the kiln looking very close to what I wanted. I have found that I enjoy the pieces that require more designing than the basic ones, even though the basics might be easier to make and sell. For example, my husband wants me to make and sell more dichroic pendants. I could easily take a piece of dichroic glass, cover it with a piece of clear glass and have a beautiful pendant. However, I prefer to use smaller pieces of dichroic glass and arrange it artistically.
I was happy to hear from another etsy seller that she thought my items were beautiful and unique, unlike any she had seen before. That is what I strive for whenever I am creating my fused glass art.

Not sure what happened!

Ugh! My last post was all messed up! The picture is covering half the words. It was not like that when I wrote it. Maybe blogging is not for me :(
Well, if you want to know what the post said, let me know, otherwise, enjoy the picture and feel free to visit my shop to see more examples of my work.

First fused glass bracelet posted in Etsy shop

I just posted my first fused glass bracelet in my shop!  I originally planned on connecting 5-6 pieces of fused glass together to form the bracelet, but when they came out of the kiln, I just wasn't feeling it. I put all the pieces aside for a week or so and thought about what to do with them. I finally decided to use just one piece for the bracelet and to make necklace pendants out of the others. This is what I ended up with:

I think it turned out pretty cool for my first attempt. I actually don't wear bracelets myself (which is why I have a tattooed bracelet), so it is hard for me to know what people will like. My friend liked it, though, so probably others will too.
I also did my first wire wrapping this weekend. I added some wire and beads to the other pieces from the original bracelet idea. Those will be listed later this week.

My kiln has been busy most nights cooking up a variety of things. I am almost ready to list another set of coasters, plus a few more pendants. The supplies to complete my nightlights arrived and I just need to assemble them.

It is so exciting to be trying different things each time I load my kiln! I hope that the diversity that I am adding to my shop will pay off with more  views and some sales!

My first fused glass necklace posted to Etsy!

I just posted my first fused glass necklace that I made in my new kiln! To see it, please visit my shop.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/eyeseesage

Well, okay, I will also put a picture here :)

So, I am still working out the kinks with learning how to do this blogging thing, so hopefully the shop link will work. I still need to learn how to make it look like others I have seen, where there is a word as part of a sentence that gets clicked (i.e. to see more, click HERE, with HERE being the link). All of this blogging and Etsy stuff (SEO, etc) sure seems to have a steep learning curve!
Right now I have a few small pieces in the kiln that I am hoping to use to create some coasters later this week. I am still coming to terms with the amount of actual time it takes to fuse my items (10 hours for larger pieces, plus the cooling of the kiln time, which can be a few more hours). Somehow, I guess I thought that I would be doing more than one firing per day on the weekends. I did manage to fire Friday night, Saturday during the day, and Sunday during the day. I will have to wait until Monday night for the next one, because the kiln will not be done cooling before I go to bed. Due to the size of the kiln and the way that I am designing these coasters, I figured out it will take three total firings to complete them. I am so glad that I bought the bigger kiln, otherwise it would probably take five firings for 4 coasters.
Over the next few days, I hope to post more items in my shop. Have a good week!

Experiments in failure

Okay, so I figured out how to run the kiln. I know how to cut and assemble glass. Now, I just need to work on choosing colors better! Case in point, I have a piece of dark purple glass that I knew would look black when fired unless used as a suncatcher or nightlight. Well, I thought to try it for a fan pull, with a piece of glittery blue on top. I thought that the blue would show up through the purple (I fired upside down because of a loop technique I was trying). Well, opened the kiln this morning to a nicely shaped dark piece of glass. Ugh, not at all what I was hoping for. Same thing with a pendant using similar colors. Later, I picked up a suncatcher that I made and some of the rays dropped right off! I am not sure why that happened. To put a positive spin on it all, the suncatcher pieces can be used to decorate something else, the dark blobs can be broken and used in molds, and I am learning from my mistakes. Still don't have anything to add to my shop www.etsy.com/shop/eyeseesage, but will keep trying :) Got a lot of work ahead of me.

I got it!

Came home from work, fed the dogs, then looked in the living room and saw a big box! My kiln came before I got home and my son didn't say anything! I asked him why and he said, "You didn't ask". Teenagers! So, I have been getting ready by buying and cutting some glass. My plan was to read the manual tonight then fire up the kiln on Saturday when I have the time and can keep an eye on it. But, I couldn't wait! So, my first kiln firing officially started at 7:05 PM. When I wake up, I should have the makings of four pendants and one nightlight. I took a picture of the prefired pieces and will post them with a picture of the completed firing later. I am so excited to see how they turn out and to start creating! Stay tuned...