This is kinda scary to start...
I've been selling for over 3 years, and it's made for a decently profitable hobby and easily pays for itself (which I can't say the same for many other hobbies). But, as a job it takes A LOT of time and I make well below minimum wage.
So, in January I want to start turning this into a more viable occupation.
The first step is to raise prices. There's something called "perceived value" where someone may perceive an item to be lower quality than it actually is if the price is low (and vice versa with a high value item). My chainmaille is worth a lot more than what I've been pricing it at and, in effect, I've shafted my sales because people perceive it to be cheap, low quality workmanship. One quote that has kept reminding me I need to change things was "I only buy earrings that are over $10. Anything lower and they're probably really low-quality. You should raise your prices."
The second is to start shipping internationally! A lot of you will be happy to hear about that. :D
I've been getting a few messages asking if I ship internationally, and so far I've only been able to respond with "I just haven't yet." Now seems like a great time to start...
The third and more time taking step is that I will slowly be changing photos of other items, and listing new varieties of items. I've already been working in some of the new items and pictures over the last couple of months, but now I need to speed up the process to cover EVERYTHING listed. Yeesh...
I've sort of wanted to do this for a while, but I've been a full-time student. Now that I'm done with my degree requirements, I'll only be taking a handful of classes for job skills and "personal enrichment", so I plan on dedicating most of my time to the chainmaille business.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Lots of New Pretties! Part 2
I find it silly how finals and the lack of time to work on chainmaille comes at the time of year when I should be focusing the MOST on my craft. Oh well, I'm through it until January!!
New Items:
OH SNAP!!
Just learned how to use photo-buckets collage tool. We are going to become very close friends.
Earrings:
The design on the left side (Partisan... working title) has already been really popular. I really like them too. I made the first pair of them over a year ago, but my recent supply order included a bunch of the really good colors in the size I needed for them.
I've made the design in the upper right in the past as well (Elytra), but the only larger scales I had were stainless steel. Not that gray is a bad color to work with, but I just wasn't feeling it. :P
The lower right design is called Aerial, cause it reminded me of angels, in a sort of iconic way, but "angel" seemed a little too unoriginal.
I was messing around with the larger scales a bit, and I ended up with possible earrings/pendant sets!
Yea/Nay?
Gibbets:
The rings I was missing for making the Partisan earrings are also one of the kinds I need a lot of for the mantid gibbets. I went nuts with black, but I'll try to make some red/gold/purple ones too, eventually.
Persian Crosses:
More about these under "custom orders"
Custom Items:
I've been slow on getting these up, but credit should go where its due.
Thank you very much Harriju for ordering the celtic star pendants :D
Sometimes I'm afraid to forgo the bright colors and make something plain and elegant. They turned out great!
Thanks to Murdock for asking me about crosses. Persian weave crosses are pretty common in the chainmaille community, but I'm dissatisfied with the way weave holds together (picky artist here). Because of you I found a very stable way of making them. (the arms don't flop down the sides. BIG plus! :P)
and THANK YOU VERY MUCH Malasig!!
*cough*
If you're one of the people getting one of these as a Christmas gift, give this dude a freakin' hug. I know I will when I see him next. :3
New Listings:
New Items:
OH SNAP!!
Just learned how to use photo-buckets collage tool. We are going to become very close friends.
Earrings:
The design on the left side (Partisan... working title) has already been really popular. I really like them too. I made the first pair of them over a year ago, but my recent supply order included a bunch of the really good colors in the size I needed for them.
I've made the design in the upper right in the past as well (Elytra), but the only larger scales I had were stainless steel. Not that gray is a bad color to work with, but I just wasn't feeling it. :P
The lower right design is called Aerial, cause it reminded me of angels, in a sort of iconic way, but "angel" seemed a little too unoriginal.
I was messing around with the larger scales a bit, and I ended up with possible earrings/pendant sets!
Yea/Nay?
Gibbets:
The rings I was missing for making the Partisan earrings are also one of the kinds I need a lot of for the mantid gibbets. I went nuts with black, but I'll try to make some red/gold/purple ones too, eventually.
Persian Crosses:
More about these under "custom orders"
Custom Items:
I've been slow on getting these up, but credit should go where its due.
Thank you very much Harriju for ordering the celtic star pendants :D
Sometimes I'm afraid to forgo the bright colors and make something plain and elegant. They turned out great!
Thanks to Murdock for asking me about crosses. Persian weave crosses are pretty common in the chainmaille community, but I'm dissatisfied with the way weave holds together (picky artist here). Because of you I found a very stable way of making them. (the arms don't flop down the sides. BIG plus! :P)
and THANK YOU VERY MUCH Malasig!!
*cough*
If you're one of the people getting one of these as a Christmas gift, give this dude a freakin' hug. I know I will when I see him next. :3
New Listings:
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Lots of New Pretties! Part 1
I hardly know where to start!
I guess unpacking is the best place.
New Items:
I laid everything out on my bed so I could go through the packing list (ya, I know, I have really cool sheets)
I filled in all the gaps I had in my 18g 1/4" rings since January (FINALLY!!), and doubled the kinds of scales I have. The top two rows are "anodized" metals, and the bottom two rows are "base" metals.
I also got 5 new colors of rubber. They're "glow in the dark", but I'm not as impressed with that as I am the colors. The major down-side of them is they're 5 times more expensive than the normal ones. I didn't order very many of them (the 5 little trays in the picture are 3/4 of my inventory), so I probably will be using them more for highlights or wrapping marbles instead of bracelets.
That's all the new items for "Part 1"
Back to homework.
New Listings:
I guess unpacking is the best place.
New Items:
I laid everything out on my bed so I could go through the packing list (ya, I know, I have really cool sheets)
I filled in all the gaps I had in my 18g 1/4" rings since January (FINALLY!!), and doubled the kinds of scales I have. The top two rows are "anodized" metals, and the bottom two rows are "base" metals.
I also got 5 new colors of rubber. They're "glow in the dark", but I'm not as impressed with that as I am the colors. The major down-side of them is they're 5 times more expensive than the normal ones. I didn't order very many of them (the 5 little trays in the picture are 3/4 of my inventory), so I probably will be using them more for highlights or wrapping marbles instead of bracelets.
That's all the new items for "Part 1"
Back to homework.
New Listings:
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