The Shift

Now that I'm getting my feet wet again in the blog world, I'm noticing an interesting shift.

All that energy I was putting into my Etsy shop, (or guilt about neglecting to put more energy into the Etsy shop as the case may be), I'm finding a much more satisfying outlet from the blogging and sharing that's opening up for me. I'm much more excited about mine and other people's art when it's about the creative process rather than sales.

My venture into Etsy has been rewarding and gone through it's own developments. Originally I joined to be able to have a public shopping cart for my lampwork bead website. I must admit that it did give me more exposure. I rarely got hits on my site for orders and the communication between the time of interest in an order and a sale coming to fruition was frustrating and often resulted in no sale at all. I definitely got more orders through Etsy but have found that the prices I was accustomed to getting in Alaska were not so competitive with the Etsy market.

I started adding vintage buttons and some other vintage items that I'd been holding on to and suddenly I was getting more hits and sales. The Numinosity site soon morphed into a vintage site and I found the need to set up a new shop for NuminosityBeads.

I've come to realize that for online lampwork bead sales you need to be somewhat of a pro at photographing beads and jewelry with a lightbox to be able to capture the sparkling qualities of your creations as well as capturing customers. Somehow that has been on my "must do" list for quite some while. For the time being I use a scanner which delivers passable results but not what Etsy lampwork customers are accustomed to seeing these days. You only have a moment to wow them with your pics. You certainly can't catch the drape of a finished jewelry piece on a scanner.

So through all this I find myself shifting toward altered art perhaps due to the wealth of tattered, rusted and vintage goodies that seem to be laying at my feet everywhere I go.

I've decided to afford the luxury of following this path wherever it may lead ( sometimes quite literally as in my last post).

I'll still be making beads and jewelry for my in-person sales and galleries but can't quite seem to go full-tilt businesswoman with it for the time being. Perhaps with the slowing of sales in this current economy I'm putting less focus on sale driven creating too.

All of the time I spent lurking in the forums on Etsy is being transformed toward time on reading other's blogs and feeling my creative flow spilling over with excitement. I'm infinitely more inspired by photos of other's work rather than shops and promos.

I feel as if I've entered a new world of sharing and possibilities, every day a new avenue to explore. I'm excited!