Spring Desires

I am taking a break from listing...phew! I have decided to peruse some of my faborite shops on Etsy, and have found some delightful pieces I am drooling over!

The Becky Cosmetic Case


This lovely cosmetic case is made by by MaryJMaalouf. I search her page often, and am always inspired by her beautiful handbags, and by the gorgeous colors she selects.


Blueberry Patch Soap with Sweet Almond Oil and Shea Butter


DressGreen has amazing handmade skin care products. I actually have several of their bath soaps, and adore them!


K I N D L Y. E A R T H... Emerald green quartz and gold earrings


Lastly, I am drawn to these gorgeous earrings by CrowandIris. Gorgeous gorgeous color, perfect for the spring.

A few up coming pretties!

I've spent the day creating, and these lovelies are coming soon!



Fable Bay

Spring Creations

You may be aware, the last 6 months of my life has been turned upside down (in a good way). My family sold our house and moved in with my brother, aaah:), while we waited for our new house to be built. That means that I no longer had an office space, and was trying to keep on top of Fable Bay orders, and to continue to create. That was the hardest part. My brothers house was 20 miles from my kids' school, and I drive a gas guzzling monster. So most of my days were spend driving them to school, and waiting....not exactly delightful. This meant that creating was done in late evenings, if I had the energy for it, and photographs were taken about every other weekend. I listed very very little during that time. I let a whole lot of old pieces expire, and I had a few burnout moments, where I considered whether I wanted to keep doing this.

Ultimately, the answer was YES, I love being creative, and I adore making things with my hands, especially beautiful things. We moved into our house about a month ago, and in the last month I have been able to build my office space, and get myself setup. I still have a long way to go before I am fully used to the place, but already, I feel like my life is getting back on track.

Long story short, expect new things from Fable Bay! I have been working like crazy, and am listing often now! in the same respect, expect things that have been in the shop for a while, to go bye bye:) once they sell, or expire, some of these long term items will not be returning.

Tomorrow I am updating (although i did list a couple today, i just couldn't wait:))


Fable Bay

Photo Editing

Probably one of the most challenging parts of listing new jewelry is capturing quality photographs. Viewing items online is not as personal as shopping in stores, and having beautiful photographs can often tip the scale, to really capture the attention of a client and entice them to buy.

I have no professional training with photography, and have basically been lucky to have a really brilliant camera. I have learned, over time, some techniques that help capture the colors and give a photo an eye catching angle. However, editing seems to be the tool that truly differentiates a fabulous photo from an average one.

Often for one piece I can take up to 40 to 50 shots to get just a couple good ones to work with. This is a lot of work! I have recently started playing around with Photoshop, to be able to perfect color and hue, and today I stabbed at altering one photograph to suit a listing for 5 different colors. I have a pair of Czech glass poppy earrings, available in a multitude of colors, I literally took 30 different shot of me wearing each color, and came up with only ONE outstanding shot.



Here is the original photo. I like the feel of this photograph, but wasn't sure I could reproduce it for each color, as it is difficult to photograph myself with my DSLR camera. So I turned to Photoshop for some editing help. Below you can see that I have switched to black and white, increased the brightness and and contrast, and then adjusted the hue to match each color that I have to offer.







I have only attempted this because these earrings are all identical in size and proportions. I have also been very careful to modify the hue to resemble the color I have available, to make it an honest interpretation.

My Poor Blog;)

My poor neglected blog! I always think of great things to write about, but somehow never make it there. OY;) I am full of ideas, but never fully prepared, LOL.

Last weekend, for example, I went to my very first Gem Show! So excited to go. I packed my daughter up to go with me (she's 4, but already obsessed with jewelry). We took a 4 hour drive to Seattle, and had a super great time. I found lots of stunning, beautiful gems, although many were still just too pricey for me, YIKES $800/strand made me scared;).

I had great plans to document the whole adventure and write about it here on the blog, but....I forgot my camera at home! Me! The lady who basically has a camera attached to her body 24/7, forgot the camera. seriously, i need more sleep, lol.

I got a few after the show, in the Seattle Center Fountain, with my daughter, but failed to take any cell phone shots inside. Sometimes I wonder about myself, lol!


Adyson at the Fountain. At first she was terrified of falling down into the pit.



But eventually, I couldn't keep her out of it;)

and to not disappoint, here are a few shots of the gems I did get.



AA grade Peach, White, and Grey Moonstone: So lovely!



AAA grade Mystic Mandarin Quartz: OMG!



Moss Amethyst

The rest is viewable on my Facebook Fanpage. Stop by there, become a fan, and take a look! :)

Clowning around with Kidlets;)

I had just wanted a photo of me wearing my snazzy newly embroidered jacket, but somehow it turned into the fam clowning around with my camera. I nearly had a heart attack a couple of times, but my 3 year old loved taking pictures of the rest of us;)


Here are the kids and I together, we set the 10 second timer for this one. Obviously 10 seconds has surpassed my daughters patience threshold;) either that or she's competing with Zoolander for model of the year;)


Adyson took this one;) She wanted to take one of Daddy, so I am not in this picture because I'm having a mini panic attack standing next to her, since she's less than careful with my camera;)


Just the girls;)

Gemstones, gemstones, gemstones!!

Ok, it FEELS like I have waited FOREVER for these gemstones, but oh boy was it worth it! If you follow me on facebook, you have already seen them, but I just can't help myself;), I have to give you a view of them here too!

Black Spinel
Mookaite Jasper
Amethyst
Moonstone
Green Onyx
Garnet

It's going to take me days to get to each of these, and make beautiful new items, but if you see something you like, you are welcome to send me an email, I would love to create a custom order for you! Checkout my facebook fanpage for more gemstones, even though I wanted to, I have not listed them all here;)

Giveaway...drawing...freebies!

Its time for another DRAWING! To be entered become a fan on Fable Bay's Facebook fan page and leave a comment on my wall to be entered into a drawing for a free pair of Gemstone Earrings!

Lutescent Earrings by FableBay.etsy.com


All fans who comment on the fan page until Feb 28th will be entered.

HeartsforHaiti.etsy.com

I wanted to get the word our about HeartsforHaiti.etsy.com. I have donated to this shop, and hope to draw attention and raise money for Haiti Disaster Relief.

This is an Etsy shop of donated items from hundreds of Etsy shops to raise money to rebuild Haiti. 100% of the proceeds from this shop (minus Etsy fees and Paypal fees) go directly to DoctorsWithoutBorders (http://doctorswithoutborders.org ) in bi-monthly increments. This shop has permission to use the DoctorsWithoutBorders name and a separate bank account and Paypal account have been opened to maintain the integrity of this shop.

Items have been donated from many individual shops; each shop has included their particulars ( country, shipping time) in each listing. All items include seller-donated free shipping (most worldwide, see individual listing) because the need is SO great, HeartsforHaiti wants you to buy and help support Etsians helping Haiti. The theme for the next few weeks is on heart items but we have more than just that. Please browse our sections and know that your purchase in this shop not only gets you a great Etsy item but it also helps alleviate the needs in Haiti through donations to DoctorsWithoutBorders (MedicinesSansFrontiers ).

If you would like to donate an item to HeartsForHaiti.etsy.com, please send an email to etsyforhaiti@gmail.com for a copy of the donation guidelines.

We can make a difference, together :)

HeartsForHaiti.etsy.com

Th1rteen R3asons Why

Clearly I spend the vast majority of my free time working on Fable Bay. But when I have done all I can do, or am feeling burned out, I always love to turn to a good book. Lately, with the holiday season, I have not read in weeks! For me that's like an eternity. :P

Last night I picked up a book I've had sitting, collecting dust, for a couple months. Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher. This novel is written for young adults, but has a gripping tragic story that sets it apart from trendy bubblegum stories teen novels often take. This book is written about a very taboo topic, but it's gritty and intense and 100% suspenseful.



Hannah Baker is a teenager in a small to medium sized town, who faces struggles many teens do. She is subject to ridicule and degraded by her peers, has acquired an unearned reputation, and her life has fallen apart. Hannah chronicles on audio tape, her 13 reasons why she has decided to kill herself. The tapes are delivered to the 13 people who played leading roles in these events. In the days and weeks following her death these individuals will learn how their actions affected her world.

Our perspective is Clay, #9 on her list of 13. In Thirteen Reasons Why, we follow along as Clay travels the town listening to Hannah's explanation for her decision to commit suicide, and to learn the role he played in her decision.

I read this novel in 4 hours. I could not put it down. It's heart breaking and controversial subject is intense and very real. I recommend it to you, although I realize the topic is hardly cheery, I think most will enjoy it.

I love Etsy Treasuries!

I love the treasuries. The Treasury is an ever-changing, member-curated shopping gallery of handpicked items. These treasuries give artisans a chance at exposure, and buyers the chance to explore the site and find absolutely stunning items which might otherwise be buried in Etsy's categories and difficult to find.

I have made a few, none really all that impressive, but this one I felt was note worthy, even if only for myself.:) stop by, check it out. you never know what you might find!

I named this one Wintertime Hothouse.

DRAWING WINNER!

jlangsam was the lucky winner in FableBay's Black Friday drawing! I plan to have more drawings in the future! It was a lot of fun, and hopefully brought some traffic to the page! Now that Black Friday is over, lots of work is still ahead of me to catch up on all the orders!:)

Give Away!

FableBay is having a drawing!

All buyers who purchase $50 or more will be placed in the drawing for a free necklace worth $45!

All purchases over $50, placed between November 22 to November 27 qualify! Purchase $100 or more and be entered TWICE! I will Notify the winning buyer Saturday November 28th. Happy Holidays!

Name Crazy

Coming up with new names for my items can seriously drive me crazy. It is so easy to just give the rundown of an item, but I hope a well planned name is more impressive. To me it certainly implies thought and consideration. But I must admit, I am not really verbally creative. I love making jewelry, but without my Thesaurus, my jewelry's names would be nothing more than an itemized list.

But thankfully, dictionary.com has become a handy tool I use quite often! From here I try to explore color synonyms, and sometimes I discover amazing little things about a word I didn't know before. Take my new necklace, Moss Winds Necklace, this necklace is so lovely and brilliantly colored, but I had no Idea how to convey that in a small phrase.

SO...dictionary.com:) Of course my first action was to search for synonyms for green, there are plenty to choose from, apple, aquamarine, beryl, bice, blue-green, chartreuse, fir, forest, grass, etc. So, there's the color synonym, but sometimes a one liner doesn't feel complete. This necklace is transparent and round and truly reminds me of a crystal ball, except it green, so oracle and crystal ball weren't really fit. So again I chose to punch in a related word looking for a nice synonym. Premonition, related to oracle, came up with some fancy possibilities and some not so fancy:) Like, prenotion, presage, presentiment, wind change, winds, etc. Winds caught my eye, so...

Moss Winds it is.



Ok, so it might not be as unique as coming up with something right outta my own head, but after naming 149 items, my mind doesn't mind taking a break. This little research project also gave me some useful terms to use for tagging also!

Getting Serious

Part of jewelry making depends on having the right equipment. For the last 6 months that I have been selling on Etsy, I have had a scarce budget and have improvised in order to make the items I am creating. Slowly over time, I have been picking up things here and there, but today I made a significant purchase, and really, it's silly, because it's not an overly expensive piece either! I bought a bench block, hammer, and earwire guide!

These items are going to seriously affect what I am going to be able to create! I am so excited. Today I experimented with copper wire, it's beautiful and versitile, but also much less expensive than sterling silver wire, so practicing with it is great, less pressure to make it perfect the first time;)





These experiments actually turned out kinda cool! What do you think? Are they list worthy? I am going to keep practicing for now. Maybe pretty soon I will be confident enough in them to list them on Etsy...

Time for a new Banner on Etsy...

I like to use my own photos to create eye catching and unique shop banners. But this can be challenging when Etsy stipulates that banners can only be 760 x 100 pixels. this is relatively small, and makes being creative a tad more challenging.



The above picture is one of my new items in my shop. this picture is unedited, but I love the design, background contrast, and think that retouching it can really make it a great focal for my shop.

first I modified the exposure, then cropped the file down to a similar size to which etsy allows.




Then I added my shops name and cropped it a final time to meet etys requirements:



What do you think of the new banner?

Like the earrings shown here? view them at my shop: Tarragon Earrings

Etsy FP

FableBay was on Etsy's front page last evening! I've been on the front page a few times, but it hasn't seemed to bring any sales. So I was super excited to see that my Scarlet earrings, which made it to front page, sold last night!

The collection is So Lovely too, created by CurlyGirlCrochet



..

New Items...Sometimes take a while...

I have been working on getting new items in my store, and sometimes, what SEEM should be simple enough, isn't....or at least it's more complicated than you might anticipate.

My new earrings, Merlot, are hand formed and hammered sterling silver hoops, wire wrapped with grade AA Garnets. But wire wrapping is slightly more tricky than I thought it would be. I had the darnedest time not deforming the hoop, and evenly distributing the gemstones was another challenge too.

BUT after what seemed like 10 times as long as it should have taken, I have these gorgeous earrings to show!! I know with each new pair I make, it'll get easier and easier. Learning to do new things can be challenging, but in this case, it's worth it:).

Optomize Your Tagging to Increase Exposure

Timothy Adam Design has featured on of my items on his blog, in his Etsy Top 10 list!

Getting your shop name out there in cyberspace is more work than you would think, so being featured with an established blogger is an amazing opportunity, and I am glad to have gotten the chance.

Bringing traffic to your sight is vital for sales, and there are lots of great ways to increase your exposure! Direct traffic on Etsy is highly desired, as you know these shoppers have an account, and are usually familiar with the Etsy shopping procedure. But getting all these shoppers to your shop can be a bit challenging.

Tagging your items is probably one of the most simple ways to increase item exposure. Every tag you add increases the number of times your item will show up in a search, so be creative, and consider digging out a thesaurus!



These Neptune Earrings, for example, are quite simple, they are aqua blown glass beads on silver hoops. The most obvious tags might be: aqua, blown glass, hoop, silver. But Etsy allow for 14 tag lines, and using every line available to you is in your best interest, so think about ways your potential customers might search for earrings. These earrings aren't just aqua, they can also be considered teal or blue, or green. The hoops aren't just silver, they are in fact sterling silver. For this item I managed to list 30 tag word!

(jewelry, earrings, glass blown hollow, bead beaded hoop, sterling silver, bright aqua teal, neptune azure, striped dangle, customizable ring, cricle inch, feminine teen day, evening cocktail, fable fablebay, orbit globe blue)

Be creative, consider all the words that might describe your item, and don't forget that Etsy Admin uses genre terms to create their own lists to put on the front page. Dark, Romance, Rustic, Autumn, Modern and so on are all terms themes Etsy Admin have featured. So think outside the box when describing your item, and fill every tag line you can!