I have been very remiss on paying attention to this blog.  It has been several months.

Today one of my items was featured in a Christmas treasury on Etsy.  These Christmas red flower earrings were selected for this treasury.

You can view the entire treasury on my Etsy treasury page.

CK Silver - Timeless and Elegant, Extraordinary Customer Service - BESTeam Featured Artist

I am so delighted to feature CK Silver a BESTeam member shop on Etsy.  Cindy and Marilyn, a mother daughter team, create classic pieces of jewelry that you will be proud to wear anytime, anywhere.  They use nature for inspiration and enjoy creating from what God has already created.  Their pride of workmanship carries over to their customer service.  They are always willing to work with you.

Enjoy the colors in this Southwest Autumn Necklace.  The beautiful turquoise stands out against the brown jasper and red garnet, a very pleasing combination.  CK Silver also has matching earrings and bracelet for sale to go with the necklace.

These Spring Tulip earrings feature lovely soft colored beads with sparkly crystals handwrapped with sterling silver wire to the earrings. They are lightweight and very pretty. CK Jewelry has a number of other earrings in different colors made in a similar style.

A different elegant style is featured in these Agate Sparkle earrings.  Notice the wonderful circular swirl of sterling silver at the bottom of the earrings.  Beautifully crafted, and there is a matching bracelet available for sale as well.

This next bracelet is dear to my heart.  It is a Fruit of the Spirit bracelet.  Each crystal represents one of the Fruits of the Spirit from Galations 5:22.  The sterling silver dove represents the Spirit of God.

Please make a visit to CK Silver at the Etsy shop or visit with them on their blog.

  

Are you a handmade artist who also blogs and has an Etsy shop?  If so, please consider joining BESTeam.  We promote each other shops and share marketing tips. 

Ardent Reverie - BESTeam Featured Artist

"Two crazy sisters", Melanie and Meghan Mina, have put their "two crazy styles" together to create exciting handmade designs that grab your attention, and tempt you to buy.  Their Etsy store Ardent Reverie has lots of great items in a variety of mediums. Being a jewelry fanatic, I was immediately drawn to their garden mosaic necklaces and their solid perfume necklaces.

The necklace above features flowers, pearl, Czech glass and amethyst artfully arranged on a square pendant. This is one of the garden mosaic necklaces available from Ardent Reverie.

Another spellbinder, is this Solid Perfume Necklace.

This item is totally different from the jewelry and so beautiful.  This Crane Hairclip is an origami design in printed fabric designed to wear in the hair.

Wear this elegant sophisticated Holly Shawl to a party or an afternoon tea.  The crochet work in this is exquisite and the large buttons are a fabulous design element.

Melanie and Meghan also have a website, Ardent Reverie.  You can find out much more about these two sisters and their creations there.  They belong to BESTeam, an Etsy group dedicated to promoting one another's shops and helping each other learn more about marketing on the internet.  If you have a blog and an Etsy shop, please think about joining us.

Creative Grandma Dreams of Retirement - BESTeam Feature

Her name is Agnes, and this lady is a busy person who crafts, spends time with her six grandchildren, works a full time job, and is doing a countdown for the time in a few years when she can retire and do the HAPPY DANCE!

This week I want to take you to Beader Bubbe's creative world.  Her shop on Etsy reflects her style and love of crafts.  She makes jewelry, and she finds that much of her jewelry goes to family and friends before she has an opportunity to post it on her Etsy site.  Here are some of her pieces that made it to the Etsy shop.

The first one caught my eye right away.  I like hearts .... a lot!  When I used to do decorative painting, I found myself painting hearts into many of my designs.  This Hearts of Glass pendant is simple and elegant.  It features red hearts on a pink background encased in smooth glass.  Beautiful!

This Unakite Accent Beaded Bracelet will accent your wardrobe any season of the year.  The oval unakite beads are rich with both greens and oranges.  So nice!  Sometimes unakite semiprecious stones are mostly green and don't offer the contrast that this bracelet has in it.

Beader Bubbe is also featuring the work of SuzieQ.  SuzieQ has hand painted this tote bag with Dora, and the bag is loaded with goodies for the sweet little girl you buy it for.

Agnes of Beader Bubbe also has a blog and a facebook page. Visit her there.

                                  Blog                                             Facebook           

Join Agnes and others as a member of the BESTeam (Boosting Etsy Shops Team) on Etsy if you have an Etsy shop and a blog.  We are a nice group of people who take seriously promoting one another's creative endeavors through our blogs and other social media.  Stop by our BESTeam blog for a preview of our work.                      

Oh, and by the way,  I am also one of the wannabe retirees on the countdown.  I could create jewelry and write blogs all day long if I had the opportunity. Happy arts and crafting!

LeAllyson

Handmade Artisan Jewelry from Gilliauna

Bits n' Beads carries an impressive array of handmade artisan jewelry that is beautifully designed and constructed with quality materials and attention to detail.  It is hard to know where to start first when telling you about this artist's work.  You can find something in most any price range for yourself or for a gift.

Gilliauna creates fine handcrafted rosaries with exquisite detail.  I am especially drawn to her Holy Rosary Handcrafted in Blue Ceramic and Pearls.  The fabulous cross is unique with a gorgeous rich blue inlay.  In addition,  a gold-plated Madonna and child is the centerpiece.  This piece contains 191 links each of which is turned by hand.

You can find delightful practical items such as beaded key charms, beaded eyeglass holders, beaded id badge lanyards, and beaded bookmarks.  This shop also offers beautiful earrings, bracelets, and necklaces.

Here is one of Bits n' Beads made for fun pieces,

and a vintage inspired piece

and an elegant piece for a very special occasion.

A visit to this Etsy BESTeam member's  Bit n' Beads shop will surely delight you.  To find out more about the artist's work and thoughts visit her blog, The Meandering Musings of a Consummate Shopper, and find her on Twitter and Facebook.

Jewelry Marketing Successes

Sometimes I have trouble seeing how far I've come because I can see how far I still have to go to meet my goals. Does that ever happen to you? If you are creating handcrafted jewelry and selling it, do you feel like you are succeeding at what you want to accomplish?

When I look at the numbers and all the time I put into trying to sell my jewelry, I sometimes get discouraged. So I decided to stop and look back over 2008 to see what I did in the last year. I was pretty surprised!

• I doubled my overall jewelry sales last year from the year before. This was combined online, craft show and word of mouth sales.
• I started this blog.
• I redesigned my website, www.plumbeadacious.com and now publish it via a different web host.
• I redesigned one of my Etsy shops, www.leallyson.etsy.com to focus on Filigree Romance jewelry
• I joined ShowMeEtsy, an Etsy street team, and participated in one of their craft sales.
• I've tried a little bit of social networking.

What are your successes? Please leave comments to share them. Celebrate your successes!

A few items I sold this last year:

Filigree Romance - Vintage Inspired Jewelry

I decided to update my Etsy shop that I called LeAllyson's Creations. It is now called Filigree Romance. I really enjoy the feminine look of Victorian vintage inspired pieces made with gorgeous Czech glass and Swaroski crystals, and then decorated with antique brass, antique silver or copper filigree beadcaps and beads. Have a look at the designs I posted at Filigree Romance. Several of my favorite pieces of jewelry are pictured here.

Blue Porcelain Earrings

Here is my newest earring creation posted on my Plumbeadacious Etsy site. These are made from porcelain and display lovely small flowers. They are a good size earring, and will look great with jeans. I have these beads in several other colors, white, yellow,and green. If you are interested in another color, contact me.

New Website on GoDaddy

After two years of hosting my website with CityMax, I decided to start over and create a website using GoDaddy's Website Tonight. I am so pleased with this site builder. It is very user friendly, and I can preview my updates prior to publishing them. That was not possible with CityMax unless I created a whole new page and kept it hidden, and then replaced the old page with the new. See my new PlumBeadacious site hosted by GoDaddy.

I also decided not to have my own shopping cart on my site. Everything is listed on my Etsy shop, and the new website will link customers through to Etsy. When I tried to list jewelry on my own website and on Etsy, it became difficult to track what was for sale where. Sometimes I had things posted both places, and sometimes I found that I didn't have certain items listed at all.

Watercolor Blues Necklace and Earrings Set

Show Me Etsy - St. Louis Artisans

I am so pleased to be a member of the up and coming Etsy team, ShowMe Etsy! We are an energetic group of artistic entrepreneurs who have banded together to support one another's endeavors and to have some fun. Last night we met at a local Starbucks and talked non-stop for two hours, yet managed to make plans, yes, even important decisions, for upcoming events. We have a blog, a webjam site, and a flickr site.

Some people will participate in some arts and craft shows this week-end and others will participate at shows in August and into the fall. Come on over to our web page to learn more about all we are doing. We're looking for other Etsy artisans from the greater St. Louis area. We do cross that big old Mississippi, and have members from Illinois too. So check us out!

I will be displaying my jewelry at the Cool Art Hot Jazz Festival with this group on August 15, 16 and 17 at Queeny Park. Come see us!

Summer's End Necklace

Crimson Passion

Longing for summer and carefree times is what inspired this design. I call these earrings Crimson Passion and describe them as sassy and a little bit naughty. Makes me feel young and daring! LOL! Hope you like these and my other designs.

I have posted these at my Etsy shop, Plum Beadacious.

For those of you who create handcrafted jewelry and sell it online, how many places do you list your items for sale? I've been thinking the more the merrier, but sometimes I have trouble tracking what is for sale where. I need to get better with lists.

I have items listed at:

• My website - Plum Beadacious
• My Etsy shop - Plum Beadacious
• My other Etsy shop - LeAllyson's Creations

Then I talk about and show my jewelry at:

• My other website - LeAllyson's Creations
• Flickr
• Here on my blog - Beadaciously Yours

Please comment and let me know where you list your items!

I Can See Clearly Now

Today was my day to go to my opthamologist for a thorough eye exam. Of course, I had my eyes dilated and also had my peripheral vision tested by doing a visual fields test. This left me blurry eyed and squinty as I left the doctor's office in the late afternoon. Somehow with the help of sunglasses I made my way home, thankfully a short distance down the road. My vision is finally returning to normal, enough to put a couple more of my jewelry creations out on my Etsy shop, LeAllyson's Creations. These items are bright and lively. When I placed them under my lights to photo them tonight, they about knocked my eyes out. (The result of dilated eyes.) Actually they are a gorgeous combo of orange and green, bright but not glaring, and are perfect for the upcoming spring.

Plum Beadacious on Etsy

I started a new shop on Etsy called Plum Beadacious. It is the same name as my regular website. I also have a shop on Etsy under the name LeAllyson, called LeAllyson's Creations. I started that first about a year and a half ago. When I came up with the name Plum Beadacious for my website, it was too late to change my Etsy name. I finally decided to start a new shop. I am not sure if I will phase out the LeAllyson's Creation shop, or just change the focus of that shop.

Anyhow, I purchased a custom designed banner from an awesome designer on Etsy. She is creative, delivers the product quickly, and very helpful. If you need a banner for a very reasonable price check out henryrabbitdesigns at Etsy.

This is the banner above that she created for me in less than 24 hours. Isn't it absolutely beautiful?

Etsy Shops Directory

I joined the Etsy Shops Directory. What a fun place to browse and shop. Lots of people revew each others shops. Have a look at it. See my link lower right. Look for me under the Jewelry section. You can select the shop you want if you know the name. Just click on the letter of the alphabet for your shop. Mine is L.