The future

I’m scared about the future of my business.

Switching from Ebay to Artfire is a big part of this.  While sales have lacked for months on Ebay, I was comfortable there.  It’s familiar.  Artfire looks great and the fees are so much better than Ebay, but it’s a young site and doesn’t have the traffic and popularity of Ebay.  Losing that traffic (even if it wasn’t resulting in sales) is scary.  I’m going to have to put more work into promoting and I really don’t know how to do that.  Rather, I do know some ways, but lack the opportunity/money/ability to do them.

And then there’s money.  I don’t have much.  I’ve just barely had the sales to cover my Ebay fees and for a few months I’ll have dual fees (Ebay and Artfire Pro account).  Speaking of Artfire’s pro account, due to their recently announced fee hike, I’ll need to go pro a month sooner than I had planned to lock in a lower rate.  I’ve got the funds to cover this month’s Ebay fees and a month of Artfire Pro, but that’s about it unless I get some sales.

And that means I have no money for supplies and possibly won’t be able to cover fees after this month.  I’ll be able to take a bit from our tax refund but that’s going to a desperately needed purchase of clay. (I’ve been out of translucent for months).  I’ve been self-supporting (meaning paying for my own expenses, fees, taxes, etc as well as supplies) for over 5 years so losing that ability is devastating mentally.   Not to mention that our household funds can’t really afford to support me either.

So I’m sitting here, trying to think of alternatives, ways to make this work, how to increase sales and honestly, I’m not coming up with anything.  But closing the whole thing down isn’t appealing either.  I’ll still create.  I can’t imagine not creating.  But without the business to raise money for supplies, eventually I’ll run out and then I’ll be completely out of luck (not to mention, overflowing with creations taking up space).

Sorry to be so depressing but I needed to vent.  If you’ve got  suggestions or ideas I’d love to hear them.

I’m moving from Ebay to Artfire!

If you would like to join my mailing list, please visit this address: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sparkliesandmore/join

I will be closing my Ebay store on March 30th, 2010. The newly announced fee changes make it impossible for me to continue selling on Ebay.

For the month of February, I will continue listing auctions on Monday evenings as usual, however, unsold auctions will not be added to the store.

Starting March 1, I will no longer list auctions and all remaining items in my Ebay store will be put on clearance for 50% off.

You can visit my Ebay store at: http://stores.ebay.com/Sparklies-and-More

I have opened a shop on Artfire and I also have a shop on Etsy.

These can be visited at: http://www.artfire.com/users/dystini and http://www.etsy.com/shop/Dystini

I plan to be using my Artfire shop as my main selling venue. New beads will be found there, starting March 1, 2010. Currently, there are older beads as well as my ebooks available there. Etsy also contains my ebooks as well as my non-bead creations.

If you have not yet joined Artfire and would like to, please use my referral link: http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=power_up&refuid=59324

If you have not yet joined Etsy and would like to, please use my referral link: http://www.etsy.com/register.php?referral=Dystini

Other sites of mine you may be interested in:
Website: http://www.sparkliesandmore.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/dystini

Artfire

I’ve joined Artfire.

Visit dystini’s ArtFire Shop

I’m sorry

I’m sorry I’ve been neglecting this blog for so long.

Here’s some pics of what I’ve been working on.

Huge bead giveaway.

You’ve gotta check this out!

Silver Parrot

One more

One more Squidoo Lens:  What I’m working on this week. http://www.squidoo.com/wiwow

Just listed on Etsy

Marirraya the Red and Gold Phoenix  http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25233946

Neptunes Playground Vase  http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25234493

Squidoo and Twitter

I’ve discovered Squidoo and created 2 lenses.

Dystini – a biography http://www.squidoo.com/dystini

Color Recipes in Polymer Clay http://www.squidoo.com/crpc

I can also be found on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dystini

Too much time to think

Sifting through sandpaper chips when changing grits leaves a lot of time for my mind to wander.  This is what it wandered to tonight.

How many times do I handle a bead from creation to ready-for-sale?

1. Creating the bead.
2. Putting the hole in the bead.
3. Putting the bead on the baking tray
4. Removing the bead from the baking tray (this is a group thing where I may not touch each and every bead).
5. Putting beads into tumbler for first grit (another group thing).
6. Switching grits (in which I touch every bead as I sift through the sandpaper chips).  Repeat 6 times.
7. Sifting through the last grit.
8. Spreading beads on towel to dry (group thing).
9. Buffing each bead.
10. Putting each bead on a wire and dipping in glaze.
11. Removing beads from drying rack (group thing).
12. Placing bead on rack for final bake to set the glaze.
13. Removing beads from racks (group thing).
14. Removing wire from bead.
15. Stringing beads into sets.
16. Photographing (once into the photo box and once out, as a set so group thing).
17. Placing in “to sell box” (group thing).
18. Removing from box to list (group thing).
19. Placing on pegboard as listed (group thing).

So I touch each individual bead at least 15 times, possibly as many as 25 times.  Add to that, moving them to the clearance section of the pegboard and/or getting them ready to ship and you can add another 2 or 3 times.

I’ve got to find a more efficient method to separate beads from sandpaper chips.

Flower cane Mosaic

Flower canes

I’m so in the mood for Spring but here in Wisconsin we have another month and a half to 2 months before I can even think about going out and playing in the garden.  These flower canes will have to tide me over.

Now there are several awesome flower cane artists on Flicker.  I could have easily done a whole mosaic for each one but I chose to limit their appearances and find others who also made gorgeous flower canes.

1. New Polymer Clay Flower Canes, 2. 1 032, 3. Black and White with translucent background, 4. new flower cane, 5. Turquoise flower cane, 6. Aug flower canes, 7. Turquoise & Brown Flower Cane, 8. Translucent and white flower cane, 9. violet flower, 10. Spring Blends To Blooms, 11. Tulip cane, 12. after reducing, 13. New Millefiori Canes, 14. matriochka fleur rouge 1 et 2, 15. Spring, 16. rose cane, 17. Blue and green flower cane, 18. blue flower, 19. pansies, 20. cane476, 21. Polymer Clay Canes, 22. S-121k, 23. Barb’s Garden Cane, 24. Cane Making, 25. c-004, 26. Polymer Clay Flower Canes (raw), 27. Group Photo of Polymer Clay Flower Canes, 28. green flower, 29. flower canes, 30. 1 137, 31. Tulips, 32. pink&violet canes, 33. cane513, 34. Polymer Clay Millefiori Sunflower Cane, 35. Leah, 36. cane423