written September 21st, 2009 ·
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I am doing my first giveaway right now and anyone can receive these fun dangles of mine for free! Katie from the blog A Plumber’s Wife asked me to do it and I am very pleased to see that there is already some interested gals out there who have entered! See the giveaway here and enter by doing a few simple things to help support me and Katie’s blog! Thanks to all who enter and good luck! Giveaway ends October 3rd.
Pass this on to your gal pals!
Posted in My Jewelry
written September 17th, 2009 ·
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I was in the Etsy email! Oh yeah! I was actually online for alllll to see:) There was an Etsy newsletter that was sent out entitled All Over The Map where they feature a few sellers from chosen cities around the world. And this time, they chose Berlin! And guess who was featuered?!?! As soon as I saw Berlin in the email my heart was pounding so fast, I was wishing and hoping and yes, I was there! Then before my eyes, as I was online an old friend of mine snatched up the earrings that were featured:) My 4th sale. So yes, that was the best part of my Tuesday. You can now find my feature on Etsy’s blog here. Documentation:
My earrings among some other fun Berlin sellers.
I check this website craftcult everyday to see if I have been featured anywhere in the Etsy world and it finally says something other than ChicHandmades is not featured… when I check it. What a nice feeling:)
Posted in My Jewelry
written September 16th, 2009 ·
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So yesterday was a very exciting day! In the morning I was actually feeling a bit overwhelmed because I am juggling a few things on my plate right now. I am trying really hard to get my jewelry sold in a few shops in Berlin. My process for this includes walking around the city visiting shops to see if my jewelry will fit in and then usually calling back afterwards because the bosses aren’t there to make any decisions. I’ve also been trying to find some more markets to sell at, so I’ve been visiting them on the weekends. And then last week I was given an exciting offer to teach a Pilates class for 5 weeks while the regular teacher is at a training in Thailand. So I have to learn the class by heart and be able to teach it in German in 6 weeks! And then of course, there is my Etsy shop and my design work for my masters application portfolio, which has been a bit neglected lately. So many things.
Then I went to the yoga studio where I am working now in exchange for free classes and I was talking to the boss and he kind of mentioned that he might want me to teach some classes next year as the studio is expanding and doing really well. I am not getting too excited about it, but it would be a great experience! So that brought my spirits up. And then we had a huge attendance at our vinyasa class that day, when we normally have about 8 in a class. So that was fun and the energy in the class was great! So I really pushed myself and it felt good.
After yoga I went to the art store to buy some supplies for a display stand for my jewelry. A store in my area picked out about 20 pairs of earrings of mine to sell! Anyhow, they were having a 20% off sale a the art store. That made my day even better. I got some fun fluorescent paints and some wood beads to make a crazy huge statement necklace. A girl has got to do some experimental projects once and a while!
I got some paper for my stand and started building it when I got home. I had made a really rough prototype out of paper already, but it was looking seriously weak. So I decided I would attach the Ikea frames I had for selling at the market to the front of my paper constructions. Anyhow, I wanted to do a kind of step by step process for the making of this stand for my blog, but unfortunately I have no step by step process. It was very experimental and I just made the design decisions as I went along, solving problems one by one. So here are some images. This is my very first promotional/presentation stand for my first retailer in Berlin!
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Posted in Life in Berlin, My Jewelry
written September 4th, 2009 ·
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Posted in Etsy Treasuries, My Jewelry
written September 1st, 2009 ·
3 comments
I sold my earrings at the Mauerpark market again on Sunday! It was a very cool day in Berlin and I think there was a good crowd there, but unfortunately not many sales. I sold half the amount as last time (the first time I sold my things at a market in Berlin). This time I mixed my products, instead of separating each style of earrings onto separate boards, I mixed it up and also had prices above each pair. So perhaps this was a mistake? Or perhaps it was just this time, this crowd turn out that wasn’t in the buying mood. One girl, as German, bought a pair of my paper/plastic creations and she said she really wanted to buy something special and extraordinary because she already has a huge earring collection, so that was a great compliment!!! I will be researching this coming Saturday and visiting other markets that I can potentially sell at.
Oh and something pretty funny happened actually. This guy is walking by and he stops at our table and leans over and picks up my cell phone, which had been lying a foot away from me. He takes it and examines it and completely seriously asks me if it is for sale!!! And I was just so stunned, I stammered I’m selling earrings! haha. Oh man. And then he was a bit embarrassed and gave it back. He was probably scouting the whole market only for cell phones! I didn’t initially say anything because the first time I sold at the market, this happened twice to Nina and I. But on those occasions the people were obviously joking! This guy was dead serious until he realized I was selling something far from cell phones!
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Posted in Life in Berlin, My Jewelry
written September 1st, 2009 ·
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Some nice Etsy sellers made treasuries of sellers who haven’t had a sale yet and I was included! Check them out. read more…
Posted in My Jewelry
written August 26th, 2009 ·
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I am featured in 2 places online right now, but only temporarily, that’s why I’ve taken screen shots:)
I am featured in a treasury right now (on treasury west)!!! My first feature… These treasuries are very temporary, so I def wanted a screen shot of this. It is a very nice treasury to be in.
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Posted in My Jewelry
written August 26th, 2009 ·
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Since I sold my jewelry at the market in Berlin almost 2 weeks back, I finally got some real life feedback as to which of my earrings were most attractive to buyers (which ones I sold basically), which was great because I haven’t gotten this kind of immediate feedback from Etsy yet. With this in mind, I created a ton more of my paper/plastic earring creations the other day. I wanted to post a little about my process, because it is so fun for me! Addictive actually. I sat for hours on my living room floor cutting out pieces of plastic, colored paper and recycled postcards into funky shapes and coordinating them with other colors and layers. I made a mess of my living room and I’ll be doing it again soon!
I took the suggestion of my friend to be a bit more wacky with my color combos and to add more layers with text (this is where it comes in handy to have tons of old magazines and postcards lying around). My next idea is to incorporate more images into my designs and maybe even of Berlin (since most of my customers at the market were tourists). So take a look at these fun process pics.
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Posted in My Jewelry
written August 18th, 2009 ·
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I was a busy bee all last week preparing for the market on Sunday. I made tons of new earrings, handmade envelopes (to be used as bags) out of old magazines, I printed and cut out labels (with descriptions detailing the earring materials for the envelopes) and I had to finish creating my stands. Below you can see my bags the I am using to package my earrings. I really like them. They are colorful and graphic and of course, the best thing is that I am recycling! I did manage to almost cut of my finger tip making these! I guess I got way too into the grove and stopped concentrating! I was probably really into my Harry Potter audiobook:)
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Posted in My Jewelry
written August 18th, 2009 ·
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So I sold my jewelry for the first time at a market this past Sunday! It was very exciting. So exciting that I actually only slept about 3 hours the night before because of anxiety! Eeek! So I was definitely exhausted even before the day started, but the beautiful sunshine and the perfect temperature of the air at 7:30 am made me happy. And it was of course great that I had a good friend with me to pass the time and share snacks with! The day started slowly as Berliners are really not early risers on the weekends. They are usually still coming home from the clubs at 7:30 am. I did actually see a few drunken couples wandering home on my way. read more…
Posted in Life in Berlin, My Jewelry
