Getting Serious with Etsy

Well, not really serious, since my product descriptions are full of sarcasm and puns, but you know what I mean. Since I've been laid off, I have more time to devote to jewelry making and marketing myself, so that's what I'll be working on this fall. I've made some new awesome rings, and as winter nears I hope to start doing more knitting as well. I put in an Etsy widget that's visible at the bottom of this blog. So, now all I need to do is get my blog read by million of people, who will then see the link and be directed to my Etsy page. And the money will start rolling in!

Rings Around the Rosie

I have been having intense jewelry-making evenings lately - and have a lot of fun things to show as a result. (How dorky is it to call sitting on the couch with various pliers "intense?") Some of these will end up on my Etsy shop, others are too cool for the internet and will become part of my ever-growing, ridiculously-oversized jewelry collection. There is an 8-carrot ring in there that some guy with a great sense of humor will snap up on Etsy.

Etsy!

I finally opened my own Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/xen0phile

I hope to add a lot more in the next few months, and once winter comes around, there will be a lot more knitting in there. What fun! I hope people buy things.

5-Carrot Diamonds

In a conversation with my cousin a few months ago, I came up with the hilarious idea to make a ring of carrots and talk about it as my "5-carrot ring." Which is, of course, only funny when you know enough about diamonds to know that they are sized in a unit of measure (??) called a karat. Carrot, karat, haha.
I enlisted the help of my coworker's friend, who is an expert in polymer clay vegetable making. She came over one night and helped me make a bushel of carrots.

Before we even got started, Jill showed me this pin she made when she had her own vegetable jewelry company, and I knew that I had found the right person for the job. I mean, look at that magic! 

Cut the clay....

Make the carrots...

Stick them together in an artistic way...

And, the final results. A 5-carrot ring (on the left) for my cousin, and an 8-carrot ring for .... me? Etsy buyer? We will have to see. All that remains to be done here is to superglue the carrots onto a flat ring.

In exchange for the wonderful tutorial on clay carrots, I gifted Jill a pink wire ring I'd made. A fair trade? I think I definitely got the end of the deal!

Not Quiet on the Jewelry Front

The past few weeks have been full of jewelry making. I cleared the junk off my kitchen table and now have it covered in jewelry-making parts. I've made the first few things for the start of an Etsy store, and I've gifted some things to friends now. A wire ring takes just a few minutes free-hand and I created 2 Barbie accessories necklaces that will make someone very happy. In the last 2 months since I've updated this blog, here are the jewels I've created:

The one in the middle is a pin that belonged to my Grandma. Now it is a ring worn regularly. 

Neon orange floppy disk earrings and an old 5-inch floppy as a fascinator. I was inspired by the royal wedding. The first time I wore it, the cook and the waitress at a restaurant I went to argued about whether it was for graduation or for fashion. The cook, when I told him fashion was the reason, he said, "I knew it. I told her! I know fashion when I see it."

A new idea I had to combine jewelry and knitting. I liked it so much I've already made 2 others.

And I saved the best for last. These are what I might call my masterpieces. The pink Barbie necklace is made up of real accessories from my Barbie box back in Connecticut. For some reason, little child Anna decided to rip off her Barbie's head and cut all her hair off.  Cool? Weird? I vote cool, of course. The Ken necklace is made up of accessories I found while tag saleing. I got an entire Barbie suitcase full of dolls, accessories and even 2 My Little Pony toys for just $4. Mind you this included a Ken wheelchair. It was worth every penny!

Crown Jewels

I've made some more jewelry recently.

 I bought this pig at a tag sale last fall. I screwed a metal screw+jump ring thing (I don't know what they're really called) into his head and now have a new favorite necklace!

 My coworker gave me a floppy disk and challenged me to make something with it. I made a pendant with some hot pink wire and a nice blue rock. I even made a matching ring.

 This was almost too easy to call "jewelry making." I bought the silver bracelet and super glued the teal rock on. An emergency trip to buy nail polish remover and unglue my fingers and I was able to admire the final result.

I made these pig earrings out of US Bank pig keychains. A little nail polish remover to get ride of the US Bank logo, 2 hoop earrings and done!

I've also bought some new jewelry over the past months:

A great neon green snap bracelet watch, a triceratops necklace, a pig in a wooden box necklace from my friend Matte, 2 wire wrapped rings from my friend Breezy's etsy store and a massive and intensely awesome neon green plastic wire mountain of a ring.

The problem will now be that when I move abroad again, I will have to get rid of some jewelry. I have a lokum box and 3 dresser drawers full of earrings, necklaces, rings and bracelets. I love my life.

Jewelry Inspiration

My good friend Breezy recently opened an etsy shop. She makes awesome jewelry! I was lucky enough to get a one-of-a-kind necklace from her as an exchange gift to the purple hat I knit her in November. We went to Michael's together, I picked out beads and she did the rest. It turned out amazingly.

Her etsy store got me looking in other etsy stores, and 4+ hours later (boy, is etsy a time-suck), I decided I wanted to try making some rings of my own. I went craft supply shopping yesterday and already have 4 rings to show from a productive morning.

I been searching for months for ring blanks, rings with a flat top that things can be glued on to. I finally found them yesterday! The coin is 2 Algerian dinar with a cute camel, and the map of Minneapolis was a free gift from an etsy seller. There are so many more things that would be awesome glued onto rings, so I'll now be on the lookout when I'm out and about.

Wire rings are a lot harder than I thought, because the wire bends easily, doesn't lie flat and gets unruly when it's long. But considering it was my first time, I'm happy with the results! It seems like an addicting (but expensive) hobby, so I'm sure I'll have many more fun things to show off!