Listing Motivation!

I've been making (but not listing) much jewelry this past year.  (Nor am I wearing it, because... well, because I'm saving it to list!)   So lately I'm thinking, "How ridiculous is this?!"

So, it seems to be time I stop/slow down on some other activities and get some of these items out in my store!

    

To commit myself to doing it, I'm posting a "sneak preview" of a few of the listings here, just to keep me honest! 

Let's see how this works!  ;-)

(I don't know that listing items in online stores is anyone's favorite activity!  What do you do to make it faster/easier/less painful/more enjoyable?   Please, drop us a comment!)

Have a good week, whatever your tasks are!   

~Sharyl

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Metapolies™ Store Update -- And then there was one...

Is it with sadness that I announce I have closed my Metapolies ™ store on the Artisan Component Marketplace.   I started with the project before the site opened last year and was honored to have been selected by Marla James to be even a small part of its development.   I think ACM  provides a terrific opportunity for artisans selling their handmade beads and components, and sincerely wish I could continue with it.  


...I encourage you to continue shopping there and if you haven't taken a look yet, please do!     (Shop ACM here.)  There are beautiful hand-made art beads from around the world!   I'll feature some of them in future blog posts.

I'm finding that in addition to other commitments, trying to keep up multiple stores at once is not currently feasible for me, so I'm going back to having just one online store, for a while at least.   Because I need to be able to sell both my components and jewelry, I decided to keep the Metapolies™ store on Etsy I opened last year.  



The store on Etsy is now much better stocked with jewelry, polymer clay beads, and metal components.  I have many more items (especially jewelry) ready to list and hope to get those added in the near future.

My thanks to you all who have visited my stores as I've added, subtracted, and experimented with store venues this past year.   It has been a great learning experience for me, and I hope you have benefited by it in some ways also.  
  
For now,  a sigh of relief for me, as I settle down to my remaining store.  I look for many good things to come from this!  I'm hopeful the additional time will allow me to keep the store full of interesting items for you, and I'll be able to refocus my attention on:

•  creating new designs, 
• blogging, and 
• marketing.

My sincere thanks and best wishes to all,

~Sharyl

P.S.  To recap:  

• "Sharyl's Jewelry" on Artfire = closed
• "Metapolies" on ACM = closed
• "Metapolies™" on ETSY = open
• "Metapolies.com" website = open

I'll be working on updating whatever links I've not yet changed in the next day or two.   
      
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Most and Least Favorites

I think we all have our favorite parts of the jewelry business.  In addition to actually making the jewelry, learning about new tools, and techniques, and getting to meet nice people with similar interests, I've had one part of it I never expected to enjoy.   Photography!

My, how awful my photos were in the beginning! I've written multiple bog posts about it and my progress along the way.  (I had a period where all photos looked yellow, and another when they all looked blue.)  

For quite a long while I was in a macrophotography group and we shared our close-up photos each Sunday.  

I really enjoyed from that and learned a lot.  (I love taking photos of flowers, but also practiced on jewelry photos, furniture, buttons, all kinds of objects!)  And I've learned a lot from Facebook groups, blogs, books, and more.   There's always room for improvement and hopefully, I'll keep improving at photography as well as my jewelry and bead making skills!

My light tent for indoor jewelry photos.
Most of my photos are taken this way
so I can photograph in the night and all kinds of weather!

I'd love to hear hear what YOU enjoy most!   The feel of clay between your fingers?   Getting to pound on metal?    Jewelry displays and shows?  

I have 2 "least favorites"  too.   One is listing items ready to sell in my stores.  

My laptop stops smiling at me... 

and looks more like this during listing times.  I have piles of beads and jewelry that need listing.  I'll be trying to do more of that soon!    I am liking "copy" feature in Etsy rather than having to recreate every entry from scratch!   If any of you have other special tricks, procedures, or routines for listing products in your store, I hope you will share!


Finally, my absolute least favorite thing about the business is figuring TAXES.  I don't mind paying them nearly as much as I dislike preparing them!   UGH...   In fact, that is the task I've been working on lately and finished today... just in time to meet with the accountant.  




Now if any of you have found a way to keep good records throughout the year so you don't have an annual (or quarterly) nightmare, I would FOR SURE love to hear your secrets! For now, the good news for me is that hard part about doing my taxes this year is done--Oh happy day!

Please drop and line and share your most and least favorites and any tips you'd like to add!  I love hearing from you!

~Sharyl

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Images:
Photograph of Light Tent by Sharyl
Clip art:   wpclipart.com

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