Determination Pays Off

My first on-line storefront on etsy.com has been undergoing some needed improvements over the last year in an effort to gain traffic and increase sales. Well I am happy to report that I've had great results I've seen a measurable increase in traffic and sales from the improvements I've made. The most noticeable improvement has been in monthly visitor traffic during the last quarter of 2012 which increased from 411 visitors for the entire month of September to 650 visitors during December. And what's more notable is it's just January 22nd and my monthly traffic has already doubled to 1,372 visitors to http://www.simplykaties.etsy.com. Now if I can get those visits to convert to sales........... 

I've been thinking about how I go about doing that and here's part of my plan;

I've been increasing my jewelry making skills with the learning of new forming and fabrication techniques. In July I purchased my first heat tool, a small butane torch and proceeded to teach myself how to create joins by soldering two pieces of metal wire together. Let me tell you that despite how easy everyone on YouTube makes it look, it's not and I'm having a devil of a time trying to create a bezel setting for a pair of gemstone earrings that have been in the making since September. My friend and fellow jewelry maker from the Netherlands, Mx says the trick is to make sure that both pieces - the surface of the bezel wire and the back plate are flush against each other with no gaps between the pieces. Well - this is my problem and why I haven't yet been successful with a bezel - I have gaps and it's most likely because I'm trying to use (recycle) a vintage copper plated brass picture frame that isn't flat anymore, its gotten warped over time and no matter how much I pound on it trying to flatten it, its still got lumps and bumps.  I think the best remedy for this problem is to go in another direction and find a different back plate, one that's flat and complete those earrings - finally.

Vintage Copper Plated Brass Picture Frame Recycled into Bezel Wire and Backing Plate

Successfully Soldered Bezel Wire sitting on backing plate

Bezels aren't all I've aspired to accomplish with my new skill of using heat to create hand crafted jewelry. I've also found that it's easy to heat the end of a piece of wire to create a ball head pin as you see here

Fine Silver Gemstone Earrings

 

 

I've also created pendants with the technique of sweat soldering,

And I've recently learned to punch holes in wire to create these copper wire earrings

Hand Crafted Copper Drop Earrings

I've got plenty more to show you and am looking forward to keeping you updated on what's going on in my world so check in from time to time. And if you have any ideas or suggestions or just enjoy reading this blog tell me, leave me your comments I'd love to hear from you!

Till next time, keep your dream alive and strive to learn something new!

See you soon.......