Spring Fling!

Well, its almost time for the Spring Fling show this weekend. Its on Saturday at the Will Rogers Auditorium. Should be great! I'm really looking forward and all my stock will be priced to sell.... Gotta move the merchandise. I'll be concentrating in Metal Clay designs mostly from now on. I'll still be doing some wire wrap as I like doing that but I really want to improve my Metal Clay designs. Wish me luck!

Review of two artists

My Etsy site received some new reviews on LinkReferral and I wanted to share two of the artists with you.

The first artist is KuteKlipboardsbyAmy who happens to live near me in Flower Mound. Amy is also a member of EtsyDallas Team as well as EtsyTexasCrafters. As her shop name implies she makes and sells decorated clipboards. But wait, these are no ordinary clipboards. Here is a sample of my favorites from her shop. Not only does she do the clipboard but she also decorates binder clips to be used as gift card holders, photo holders and could also be used as place card holders at a dinner party. Contact her for your special requirements.


The second artist I found is someone I reviewed on LinkReferral and she returned the favor. RioRita is from Haifa, Israel and does some of the most beautiful silver and gold work I have seen. I can't really pick a favorite piece as every one I look at becomes my favorite. Please check out her shop and her alternate sites she has listed in her Etsy announcement.

Preparing for Jingle Bash

I've decided not to list any of the new jewelry I am making since it will all be going to the Jingle Bash next month. It seemed silly to list the stuff and then have to de-list what ever doesn't sell before the show. So,,,, all my new stuff will be only seen at the Jingle Bash in Dallas. Then I will have to start making stuff all over again for Etsy cause I'm sure I am going to sell out!! I may not blog much between now and then since not only am I making jewelry but also helping hubby with a couple of his clients. For those of you who are in the area don't forget to come and for the rest of you, if there is something on Etsy you are interested in you better snatch it up now before it goes to the Jingle Bash.

Grand Opening-Michele Cook Designs

Ok, everyone has to check it out! I bit the bullet and opened a new Etsy store with the name Michele Cook Designs. The link is http://michelecookdesigns.etsy.com. I've got some new stuff listed and lots of pics in the camera waiting for treatment so they can be listed. I'm getting geared up for the Christmas season and a show in Dallas at Hermann Hall on November 22nd. I have added a place on the left margin to list shows I am attending so everyone will know when I will be where. I've been working hard on my display tables and will have pictures to post in a week or so.

I am also signed up with the Indie Collective which is a collection of independent artists. I'll be listed there as a seller also so check it out at Indie Collective.

I am also signed up with ProPay to accept credit cards so if anyone wants to buy something but not use PayPal I can process your credit card with ProPay.

I did actually close the michele38 Etsy store because it was getting confusing so if you have that address bookmarked or had given it out please give out my new store. If you go to Etsy.com just type michelecookdesigns in the search for user names. Be sure to type it as all one word, no spaces. I feel as though I am really officially a full time jewelry seller. Help me spread the word!

Check out my fellow eSMArts team members

Check out this luscious collection of jewelry from my talented fellow jewelry designers in our eSMArts Team!

Etsy eSMArts Team Treasury

Getting Ready for My First Show!!

Ok, I've been reading all the posts about booth and table displays with great interest and I saw these in a catalog today and they seem like a good idea for some decorative accents on my table. I can't decide if I should use the white ones, the colored ones or a mixture. They are very inexpensive.

I also realized that I would be able to change the votive cup for the holidays. The same catalog had some cups shaped like jingle bells in red and white that would be cute. So, I'm taking a vote and I will post a poll on my blog. Everyone needs to vote for white, colored or combination. By the way, the colored ones change colors automatically. The description says they fade in and out of 7 different color combination of red, green and blue. I like the votive cup they show in the picture but I'm not sure if I can buy them also or not. WalMart will have some cheap. JoAnn's will also, and probably many in holiday themes and on sale! My first show isn't until November but I want to be prepared! Ok, don't forget to vote!

Twitter

Ok, I signed up for Twitter. Not sure exactly what I am supposed to do but I've done it. Lets see now how it works. I'm not sure how to search for people if I don't have an email address. But I did send invitations to people in my address book. So far so good. If anyone wants to invite me to follow them please do so. I'm so connected now with LinkReferral, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs, Etsy, etc I can't imagine how I could ever feel alone again. LOL.

New Pendant

I haven't listed this yet in Etsy as I have just a touch more to do with taking better photographs. As a matter of fact, my hubby has been working on a light box for me and I'm trying to figure out the best background for my pictures. Once I'm done with that I'll be posting more to Etsy as well as redoing the existing photos.

The light box is very simple. It is a cardboard box about 18" square. He cut out a square on each side leaving about 1.5" border. The bottom is solid and the top has a square hole about 6" square cut for the camera to look through. This allows me to take pictures from the top looking down on the jewelry. Then I took white tissue paper and covered the cutouts on 2 opposite sides leaving the other 2 opposite sides open. If I want to take a picture straight on I can set up the camera outside the box by one of the open sides. I can use this outside as well as indoors. When using it outside I place one of the covered sides facing the sun. Inside I have 2 lamps with 60 watt bulbs that I place about 4" from the paper. Both ways work well. I also have lined the top with aluminum foil and will probably do the other parts as well to reflect more light. I have taken some pictures to show you what I'm talking about.

The last two pictures are using the light box. The one with the PCM pendant is at night with the 2 lights outside the tissue paper and the bracelet is outside with the sun shining in through the tissue paper. Believe it or not the backgrounds in the two pictures are the same. See what a difference light makes?

I have put together all the advice I've read from the eSMArts Team as well as other groups about photographing jewelry, my hubby made me a light box. Now its just up to taking new pictures. Keep checking my Etsy store for new pictures.

I've been busy!

I have been a busy girl the past few days. I have learned how to do Bubble Share, you can see it above the post, signed up for LinkReferral, got advice on my blog from there, and signed up for Blogflux where I can get stats on how many people visit my site, where they are, what my ranking on Google is and lots of other stuff that I can't quite figure out yet!

I'm also designing a line for Christmas. I'm thinking of doing a show in Dallas called Jingle Bash. I'm a member of the Etsy Dallas team and they are doing it.
Isn't that the cutest picture? I love it.It is an indoor show and I will have lots of people to help me with the set up. I'm really looking forward to it and am working like a mad woman to get enough stock made up. Wish me luck and for those of you who are in this area, come by and see me!

Up and Running Again!

WooHoo! My hubby worked his magic again today and got my blog set up to use my domain name. So now you can go to Michele Cook Designs and you get my blog. You have to create a CNAME with your domain registrar (what ever that is) and then go into the settings for your blog, click on publishing and choose custom domain. It takes a bit for all the servers to update and for it to work right, but I think it should work fine for mine now. He also created an email for me at michelecookdesigns.com and set it to forward to my regular email so now I also have michele@michelecookdesigns as an email. I can use that on my business cards and will have some continuity.

I've also been working on the pricing for my new jewelry and will get it listed on Etsy tomorrow, I hope. Whew! Its been a busy day but I'm glad to be back on track. I even ordered some wire from Lois at ABeadedAffair. She has this great copper wire in square and half round. You should check out her Etsy store here and see her great stuff. She has the most beautiful wire wrap jewelry, chainmaile, beads, etc. Her blog is great and she has a wonderful triple strand of pearls with blue sapphire beads shown there. They are also in her Etsy shop. Check her out, you won't be sorry!

Once I get that wire from her I will be a wrapping fool! I have a beautiful Black Onyx cab that I want to wrap. I saw one that Lois did in her store that she did in copper wire and it is beautiful. I'm going to try that. I may try wrapping it sideways this time and see how it comes out.

New Blog Address

If you try to get to my blog you may find you get redirected to Google. Never fear, my blog is still there. I have decided to change my blog address to michelecookdesigns.com instead of the blogspot address. I used Blogger's redirection feature but I have to wait until the DNS servers update. It may take a day or so. Since there is always a delay in the updates I decided to do this at this time while traffic is a bit slow. I'm being optimistic that my jewelry sales are going to take off and I'll get lots of traffic on my blog as well as Etsy store. The old blogspot address will redirect you to the blog but if anyone has my blog bookmarked you can update it to michelecookdesigns.com. One day I may have a regular website but for now I would like everything to be as consistent as possible. My email address will stay michele@michelecook.com for now. One thing at a time.

I also want to work on a video for my blog. I'll let you know when I have that done. I know you can use One True Media which is connected with You Tube.

So stay tuned and if you get Google, keep trying. My blog will be back up in no time.

Its been a while I know.....

Ok, sorry I've been gone so long. I really didn't mean to but this past couple of weeks have been pretty hard. Anyway, I'm back on track. I've been working on the pictures of the new jewelry I have been making. I have been having trouble with lighting and have been working on several options. I finally have some decent pictures so I'll be listing them this week on Etsy. I've also been doing some research on local shows and what I would need to have to get started but I really think it will have to wait until spring. There are 2 or 3 good shows I could do locally this fall but I need a tent, tables, banner, stock...... And I don't have those things yet. I think I'm going to concentrate on just making as much stock as I can and get ready for the new season next spring. There are several shows in the Dallas/Ft Worth area so hopefully I can get a good start then. When ever I am getting ready to design new pieces I try to look at as much jewelry as possible in the Yahoo Groups both Wire Wrap and Metal Clay and magazines. When ever I do I can go back to my stock and see more possible ideas. Here are a few of the things I have been working on this week. I already showed you my copper and green disk earrings. I also have a necklace with a hand formed S clasp. It turned out really nice. I had the idea of making a zig zag of sorts with the copper wire over the round beads. I really enjoyed making this set. Another set I made recently is a beading set with these lovely blue and white swirl glass beads. I grouped them with some lovely blue seed beads in a larger size and some irridecent purple, blue small seed beads. I made coordinating earrings also. That's it for the preview. If you want to see more you will have to go to my Etsy store at Michele Cook Designs.

You Tube Montage

Ok, here is something cool. As many of you know while I've been laid off I've been working on my jewelry business, setting up the blog site, my Etsy store etc. I'm also a member of several Yahoo Groups, one of which is eSMArts, etsy Social Marketing Arts Guild. There are so many wonderful, talented and giving people part of that group. Please check out the Montage on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/ChezChani . I don't have any pictures in it as I just ran out of time getting it done, but it is beautifully done and really showcases the artistry of the guild members.