100 items!

Well, I got to 100 items listed in my Etsy shop so now all I have to do is wait for the deluge of views and sales. Yeah right. Anyway, it's a landmark of sorts so I shall allow myself to feel smug about it for at least twenty three minutes. . . and counting. . .

My 100th listing. Another set of my groovily distressed cufflinks

It does leave me with a possible dilemma. I keep making things so I guess I should keep listing things, but it feels a bit like throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. A bit uninformed and random somehow. Still, if you don't list it you can't sell it, and you can't get feedback on it either, and it's nice to get likes on things. It can indicate which things are more popular and confirm your own gut feeling that something is good. (or indicate just how delusional you actually are).

I have several earring sets all ready to list. . .

I just bought some Cernit polymer clay, on recommendation, as I want to make some more buttons but don't want them snapping in half like my first attempts. That was embarrassing. So far, tests have gone well and it is very strong stuff. Even quite thin buttons are practically unbreakable. It takes texture nicely too.

Cernit buttons, about 3cm in diameter. Featuring some new textures too

I got the porcelain version without realising how see through is was, so I got some opaque to mix in with it and to use for image transfer stuff. It works really nicely. So now I am set up. . .

A couple of cernit image trans beads, only mildly distressed

Getting there slowly. .

Nothing terribly exciting to report over the last week or so, though I sold some beads which is always encouraging.

I have been making stuff however. Like these cufflinks, using small image transfer beads, greviously aged with sandpaper and inks etc. I really like how they look. I've had a good reaction from those who have seen them so, I will see how they fare on Etsy. I should probably wave them at some shop proprietor or gallery or something. I need to find the right kind of venue.

I've also been making a series of textured earrings, using some old stock of coloured polymer clay and the usual surface treatments. I'm going to try some stud/post earrings soon. I've ordered some sterling silver findings for that, as a lot of people do seem allergic to copper and nickel.

As all my disk beads had sold I figured I had better make some more, so I've been doing that too.

I am aiming to get to 100 items in my Etsy shop, but every time I get within reach, somebody buys something ;-) Listing stuff is a bit tedious if you do it according to good SEO practice, you have to find various ways of saying the same thing as Google punishes text that is too similar, apparently, and you don't show up in searches. (not sure I show up in searches anyway to be honest, but I have to keep the faith). So if I post ten similar earrings, I have to vary the wording in subtle ways, while keeping all the keyword phrases in place, and making it read as though it might just be english as we know it. . . Not much fun. I hope it's bleedin worth it, that's all I can say.

Image Transfer mutterings vol 300. . - So much for Dye Sub

Well, after meaning to get round to trying out my dye sublimation heatpress on baked polymer clay for ages, I finally tried it out today. 'Disappointing' is the word. For a start, the poly clay stuck to the top 'platen' of the heat press and had to be hurriedly scraped off. Then the paper stuck to the clay during the dye sub process and had to be soaked off. And once everything had dried out from that it all looked extremely dull and uninteresting.

I tried Renaissance wax on top but that wasn't much better. I tried fine sandpaper, to see if I could sand down to something stronger, as the image would be part of the clay, but it was only fractionally better.

The left hand one is sanded and waxed and buffed. It's sort of OK, but not really worth the effort.

I was perplexed because on the right substrate, in this case an mdf coaster coated in a special pvc related substance, the image is bright and pretty clear. Polymer clay should have the right chemical make up to take dye sub inks. . .

So, forget dye sub, says I. I might try cutting up an mdf coaster and dye subbing onto the bits in order to make small image tile things, but that feels a bit like cheating, as I wanted to find ways of getting better images onto Polymer Clay. . .

Oh well. . .

At least the mice in the garden were on my side. Look what they left for me to find under the damson tree. These would be fun to incorporate into some kind of jewellery I think.

And these, they left were left under the cherry tree.

Thanks mice ;-)

About time I posted something - Apologies - Various updates

Just a pretty pic without much relevance to this post, but at least it's something new. Image trans bead with some rustic spacers as a possible earring. A bit too derivative in style though maybe (?) and there is a lot of it about. . . Not entirely comfortable with it.

Shop stuff - Well, I'm still getting my head round SEO and Relevancy. . I've attacked about half my shop's content and 'optimised' it, to my understanding anyway, which may be flawed so I might have just wasted my time. .
It seems to be working. I get about 40% more views, which is nice. And the keywords in my stats now resemble the ones in my listings. Still F all from Google though. hmmm.
Was that boring? sorry. . . sigh. . . What is happening to me? ;-)

Image trans beads as described below, antiqued up. Maybe good for stud/post earrings, or rings. I need to get some blanks to play with. The learning curve steepens. . .

Image trans stuff - I refined one of the techniques I use a little bit more. You can get a slightly dull, not ever so sharp but perfectly usable (for my purposes) image transfer from lazer copy paper by laying the image onto the polymer clay and leaving it for at least an hour, (less might work fine) until the image is visible through the back of the paper, like the paper has soaked up the oils from the clay somewhat. Then bake for the normal time and peel off the paper. A slightly crisper image can be obtained if you coat the clay with a thin layer of clear liquid clay first and lay the image onto that.
It's less work than rubbing the paper away with water and your finger, and it doesn't distort the clay, but then it's not raw clay anymore so you can't wrap it round anything.

I'm going to try cutting up a dye sub tile blank if I can, into small squares and transferring onto them, to get a really crisp image. Or smashing a tile into shards and transferring onto them. . . and then seeing how I could 'antique' them.

I need to get back to making some texture sheets and textured dangle beads and stuff, SEO and image trans has been engrossing me and I need a break.

Onwards and upwards.  . or at least, not downwards.
J x

Oh yeah, and I'm on Instagram, in a tentative way  @jonburgessdesign
Not quite sure what to do with it yet.

SEO and suchlike

So this is my latest semi obsession, SEO or Search Engine Optimisation. It seems to be the thing you have to do to get more views from outside Etsy, which is something I haven't been getting much of.
It's to do with 'keywords', words that people use to 'find' your shop or items for sale. If you can second guess what they might type in to the search bar on Google or somesuch, and make sure that word or phrase is in your title and description, then you stand a good chance of getting on the first one or two pages of that google search. In theory anyway. It gets horribly complicated the more you go into it. Not surprisingly there is a whole industry built around SEO with it's own gurus and ubergeeks to help you succeed. . . .

It all seems a world away from making nice things and trying to sell them. . .

But there is a way of finding what keywords are popular, or rather trying out your ones and seeing if anyone used those words in a Google search, and if so, how many did likewise. You can go to Google Adwords keyword planner and sign up (without having to spend anything), which gives you access to a text box in which to type your keyword or phrase. The number of searches using that phrase comes up in the results list. It's interesting stuff, with some words being madly popular and others drawing a big fat zilch. It's not always predictable and you will often find that your item title in Etsy has a lot of entirely unproductive words in it.
Then to get found on Etsy, you have to have keywords and phrases that people use on there too. You can test keywords by typing them into the search bar and seeing how many results come up. It tells you at the top of the page.
It all gets confusing because the phrases that got zilch on Google can often get you thousands of results on Etsy search. . .

example - 'Boho jewelry'  9,900 on Google - 267,000 results on Etsy
or           - 'Rustic Necklace' 170 on Google - 30,000 results on Etsy

Not quite comparing like with like so I might be drawing wonky conclusions . . .

So really, I don't quite know where I am with all this. I'm giving it a go anyway. I'm trying to use some phrases for google and some for etsy in the titles of my items.
I guess the holy grail is to get people to your Etsy shop via Google, while at the same time making it easy for those who went straight there without your help, to find your stuff.
I think it takes a while for any changes to filter through the system Google wise, so I will just have to see if my views improve over the next week or three.
My brain hurts. . .

Surface treatment - When does 'Distressed' become 'Messed up'?

Is there actually a dividing line? I am really enjoying seeing how close to total irreparable messed-up-ness I can take my image transfer bead 'ageing' process. It's a learning curve, and once you have taken a process too far, you can take a more informed view on how far to take it the next time.

Here's how things start out. Images transferred onto poly clay squares, in this case, using dye sub paper and kato trans liquid. This shot is after baking, obviously. You get a slightly fuzzy, out of focus effect, and some randomly dodgy edges. All of which is fine, as it all adds to the finished look. Neatness can be achieved with more care, if neatness is your thing.

Here's a shot of my desk with some of the above as finished beads, after the 'distressing' or 'messing up', (whichever it is deemed to be) process.

A closer view of the greeny brown ones. Sanded quite hard, as scratching Kato clear is not as easy as plain baked clay. Also, the scratches aren't visible until some darker ink/paint/whatever is applied and encouraged to sink into them.

This is what happens when the process is taken a bit further. These beads are slightly different in that the image trans process was the more usual one using a laser copy/print and water on plain white clay, or a 10% kato trans, 90% white poly clay mix. (Images 'stick' better with a bit of trans clay in the mix).

As there is no liquid clay involved, the surface scratches and distresses more easily. The image comes out sharper than the dye sub ones too. The other thing that happens with this method is that when Renaissance Wax is used at the end of the process, and rubbed in, it starts to dissolve the image. If you apply it carefully and leave it to dry for half an hour or so, it will buff up without too much of the image disappearing, but if you rub it in hard and buff up after a couple of minutes a fair bit of the image is removed. I like both effects. The top left bead has almost entirely lost the image, but looks cool all the same. imho.

These next ones are where it gets close to or over the dividing line between 'distressed' and 'messed up' that I am wittering on about. I like the kind of 'ghost image' of the pattern in red that gets left on the two on the right. This technique does make me wonder whether I should make some beads with no image on them at all, just madly messed up surfaces. I like the look, and losing the image, as in the bottom left bead, doesn't detract from it's coolness all that much. But overall, the ones where the image is still reasonably discernible are my favourites. How 'bout you?

Clayhem, no more. . .

BEFORE - working with a bit of MDF sat on top of an open drawer as a work surface, with all the random boxes of stuff strewn around. Not to mention the tatty curtains, bits of 80's recording gear, guitar cases and boxes of blank tiles and coasters etc etc etc etc etc etc in the background. . .

AFTER - makeover time. . . I put this spare washstand/writing desk in the corner (top left in the clayhem pic), put a bit of foamboard on top to protect it, stuck a big tile I rescued from the dump on top to work on and arranged all the things I use most around that. The best thing is that I can leave them all there and come back to them as and when I have time/motivation. The shelving on the left is where the beads, clay, texture sheets and wire etc live, in various "Wham boxes" (which seem to be in shops everywhere these days). I'm addicted to storage boxes with compartments now. . . Pliers and other tools are in the drawer on the right, printed images in the drawer on the left.

The fast food container that seems to contain a urine like liquid is actually full of water that was used to clean yellow acrylic ink off a brush in case you were worried, or thought I had a secret ingredient in my work. . . I also use it to cool beads out of the halogen oven (floor, bottom left)

Notice the new curtains (OK, not new, charity shop, six full length velvet curtains for £25. Result!) and notice that I painted the wall, whoo! . . .

This is all part of getting the house in order so we can sell it in a month or two, but whatever the motivation it's nice to have a dedicated workspace for claying and jewellery work.

The interesting and unexpected knock on effect of all this order imposing activity is phychological. I feel calmer, and more in control now that I occupy a more ordered space. I wasn't aware of feeling particularly stressed or depressed before but I am aware of not feeling that way so can only assume that I must have been feeling that way to some extent. Well well. . .

cheers,

Jon x