Ways to Promote Your Jewelry

As you've read in this blog, we've been selling our sea glass jewelry at art fairs and festivals. We've also been selling them on the web at Etsy. Etsy is a large website that hosts stores for artisans, suppliers and vintage sellers. Etsy is an easy way to get your product for sale on the web as they provide the website, simple steps to get started and also a check out/buying cart. I would recommend Etsy to artisans just getting started on the web. You a can see our Etsy store at http://sistersjewelrydesign.etsy.com/

Okay, so we are on the internet, but how do people hear about us? Find us? Well, at festivals, we give out our cards which list our Etsy site. We list our site on all our emails underneath our names. This is advertising and a way to promote our sea glass jewelry, but it isn't enough to just be on the internet. The internet is HUGE, so we have to do things to promote our site. First, we joined liked minded sites to promote our Etsy store like Facebook - you can see my Facebook page of Sisters Jewelry Design at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sisters-Jewelry-Design/328818121698 there you can like our page and tell others about us. Also I joined a site that promotes Etsy artists called "We Love Etsy," http://etsylove.ning.com/ This ning site gives you a home page where you can talk to other artists and/or advertise your work with pictures and comments - like - "hey, look what I just created." We also pay for a small site on Handmade Spark which is a marketing service for people on Etsy. What I like about Handmade Spark is you can find everything we are doing in one place, ie., blogging, shop, twitter etc. You can click on this following url to go see my site on Handmade spark -http://www.handmadespark.com/myspark/SistersJewelryDesign

Here is a badge they give to you to put on your sites then you click on the sign and off you go to my advertising site. There are other sites to promote your website/store on the web and just a few are Linkedin, Stumbleupon, Handmade Artist Hangout and more. You can twitter about your jewelry - promote your work! There are so many ways to promote your art on the web even this blog is a way for me to share and PROMOTE our sea glass jewelry.

You can spend hours promoting your work on the web or you can hire other people to do it for you. You can spend money on Google ads, we haven't done the ads yets because I want to have a website first. Hours and money can be spent on advertising.

We've also tried a few unconventional ways to promote our sea glass jewelry. My sister Shirley belongs to several charities and is often called to help decorate or set up an auction, a dinner, a lunch. Recently, she was involved in a charity where you buy a table and invite friends. Well, often when you buy a table at an event you can decorate it the way you want! Shirley decided to do a center piece of sea shells and our sea glass jewelry. Here are a couple of pictures of the table (sorry about dimness of photo).

Note how the sea glass necklace on a card lays over the napkin or is tied around a star fish.

One man at the table did take a necklace home by mistake - his wife called Shirley the next day to say they had her necklace. Our jewelry wasn't for sale at the event, but everyone at the table got a good look at some of our pieces. You never know when someone needs a gift and will remember something they saw recently - like our sea glass jewelry. You can also contribute a piece of your art to a charity for auction which is a great way to promote your product.

Another way, we advertise our jewelry is by having it in a case at Shirley's Travel agency. The case filled with jewelry sits on a side table and above the case hangs a picture of sea glass jewelry. Sometimes, someone takes a look and/or even buys a piece. Here are a couple photos of Shirley's set up -

The above ideas are just a few ways we are trying to promote our sea glass jewelry. It is an ongoing learning process. We'd love to hear from you readers if you have any suggestions.

Stay tuned as next we tackle creating our own website!

Bend Art Festival - Don't Quit

From Ashland, Oregon, we traveled to Sunriver, Oregon near Bend. We had a few days on the river before the weekend art festival in Bend, so we took advantage of the free time and went fishing on the Deschutes River which flowed right outside the cabin. Steve was in heaven, he could fish all day and into the night which he did. Sometimes, you have to leave the jewelry making behind and just relax in nature. It is Shirley and Pat's cabin and they came up to the river on Thursday with our Mother Jane in tow. Two of Shirley's kids came over to the cabin too and we all had a fun dinner laughing and talking to family - a big part of what Sisters Jewelry Design is all about. I've mentioned in earlier posts that Shirley and I started our company as way to spend more time together doing something we love - collecting sea glass and making jewelry.


On Friday afternoon, July 8th, we headed into Bend, a half hour drive from Sunriver, to set up our booth. If festival organizers give you an afternoon before the festival to set up, do it as it will save you time and aggravation on the day of the festival. And we got there right on time, as we'd just had the experience of being late to set up in Ashland (see earlier post). We got to the street, found our spot and pulled the SUV into the lane to unload. It was tricky as the there were booths running down both sides of the road and in the middle. We had a middle space. Needless to say, there was a lot of careful driving between the booths already set up and anxious vendors yelling "don't get to close to my table, etc."

Here is a shot of a bench sculpture that is at the corner where we'd turn in to set up our booth.

And here is a picure of the street where we set up our booth. Our booth is the fourth one down in the middle. This picture gives you and idea how close the booths were. Because, we were in the middle of the street, we set up using only the two sides of the tent that connected with the other tents, so customers could walk through the tent. The walk through idea is good in that no matter which side people walk they can enter from either side. The bad or downside of this type of set up is that often people just cut through your space to get to the other walkway. In the future, if posssible, I'd prefer to have a space on either side and not in the middle. There are pros and cons for either placement.

Here is a shot of Steve looking down the street from our tent.


It was a bright sunny day and it got hotter as the day progressed, which is another reason to worry about where your booth is placed. Sometimes, you don't get to choose where your booth is situated, but if you have the choice take into account - weather, foot traffic, light If you are indoors, you'll notice that people enter and usually turn right so a good spot for your tables would be to the right of the door. We watch the flow of traffic and are still trying to figure this all out. There is psychology behind how people move through a room or down a street. Think long and hard about product placement.


Here is a shot looking through our tent.

As you looked through our tent to the other side you could see a vendor playing a long guitar and selling cd's. I don't know what it is but we can't seem to get away from these music men. This man was nicer, but after two days of listening to his music all day long it got old. The first time, he took a break, I thought great, a little quiet, but then he loaded his cd into a player and we got more music. I don't want to ever hear "Greensleeves," again or "Free Bird." Also crowds would gather in front of his booth blocking the walkway which did little to let traffic into our booth. Here is a picture of my mother Jane and Shirley's husband Pat - in the background you can see the music vendor. Bend was a two day art festival that covered four blocks of art, crafts, stores and food. And the days were long, going until 7 at night. After the first long day and without many sales, we thought about not coming back for Sunday's sale. It had been really hot and really discouraging. As we drove back to the cabin at Sunriver, we talked for ten minutes about quitting , then for the next twenty minutes we talked about why we should go back on Sunday - we were there, we'd paid for two days and sales might get better.

Sunday dawned bright and early. We were out the door by 6:15 and heading into Bend. It was going to be another hot day. After setting up our displays again, we took turns going to Starbucks for coffee. We talked to other vendors and looked at other people's wares. There were some really fine artists at the festival. I wanted to buy a copper salmon sculpture, but Steve pointed out that we hadn't sold enough to cover the cost. I ended up buying a photograph of a river scene in Oregon from the vendor across from us. Then we got down to business. Again, the sun started to beat down without mercy. There were lots of people, but mostly lookey-loos. By lunchtime, we were discouraged again, having made only one sale. Shirley was still smiling, but she was no longer standing. The day trudged on with a few people saying they'd come back. You hear that a lot, but don't count on it. Our boredom was high. We talked Steve into watching the booth and Shirley and I walked the blocks then stopped for an icy blended drink. We ate cookies, we talked on the phone - anything to make the time go faster. Finally, around 4:30 a young woman came into our booth, she'd visited earlier. Well, now she was ready to buy. She bought a sea glass pendant and then her mother arrived and she bought one too. They had barely left the booth when another woman with her daughter came into the booth and started buying and buying and buying. She wanted gifts to give all of her girls and some friends too. She bought pendants and necklaces. She bought more in that last hour than we'd sold Saturday and all of Sunday. She made our day which is why I've titled this piece "Don't Quit." Sometimes, you have to wait to the very end to make sales. And sometimes, those lookey-loos do come back after seeing everything else at the festival. So don't quit when the going gets tough. Sea glass pendants - one in sterling, one in gold filled wire. On top a sea glass necklace with sterling wire wrapped pendant. You can find us on Etsy at ttp://sistersjewelrydesign.etsy.com/

Fort Bragg Sea Glass Festival - Part Two

In the last post, we left off as we were walking the path to the beach in Fort Bragg. The path forked and not knowing which path led to the famous Glass Beach we decided to go right. This path ended in a patch of pink blooming ice plant and a glorious view of the coastline. You will note the rocky landscape in the above picture. I was surprised as most of the beaches I'd been to were easily accessible.
There was nothing to do but hike on down to the beach.

Here I am looking a bit unsure of the climb. But it turned out to be a gentle hike down through sand and rocks to the beach.

I don't know what I'm thinking here, except that my husband can stop taking my picture so I can look for sea glass. It was a negative tide so I started off toward the water. Almost immediately, I found sea glass. I was in heaven. It seemed that everywhere I looked there was sea glass. Most of the glass was tiny, but I didn't care. I lost track of time, as I looked for pieces of glass. There was a lot of white, green and brown glass which is natural as they are the most common colors. What was unusual about Fort Bragg sea glass as compared to Mazatlan sea glass is that Bragg's glass is much thicker and I'd guess older. The texture and frosting was delightful. As I moved closer to the water I found larger deposits of sea glass. As you can see in the next picture the glass was as thick as gravel on a road. Later, when I talked to Captain Cass, who owns the Sea Glass Museum, I'd learn that I wasn't even on Glass Beach - I was north of Glass Beach because I'd gone right instead of straight on the path. Oh, well, at that moment, I didn't know any better and I was happy as a clam to do my beachcombing. Steve and I stayed on the beach for a couple of hours then we had to return to the motel where my sister Julia and her husband Gary were waiting for us. Julia and Gary had come to Fort Bragg to spend time with us all and Friday was the only day we could do things together. I wanted to stay on the beach all day, but hey, sometimes you have to be a team player, right? My other sister, Shirley, partner in Sisters Jewelry Design, had arrived the night before with her husband Pat and become suddenly ill with the stomach flu. She loves beachcombing as much as I and for her not to get out of bed, I knew she was really sick. I was hoping it would be a one day illness as this was a free day, but tomorrow we'd be selling our jewelry at the Sea Glass Festival. I had my fingers crossed that Shirley would recover.

This is a picture of Julia and Gary at a restaurant, we'd gone to the night before down at the wharf.

Anyway, we went back to the motel, checked on Shirley, she was sick, sick, sick. Pat was going for a two hour bike ride and we decided to go with Julia and Gary first to a botanical garden, then we planned on locating the sea glass museum so we'd know where to set up our tent for the festival.
At 18220 North Highway One, is the Mendocino-Coast Botanical Gardens. They are really magnificent and worth a visit if you are in the area. You can visist their website http://www.gardenbythesea.org/ to learn more about the gardens. There are incredible rhododendrums twenty feet tall and amazing sculptures by California artists. There are 46 acres of trails and gardens so you can spend a lot of time just wandering around. Here are some of the pictures we took of garden as we walked out toward to the coastline.

First view of entering the gardens. Following are all pictures taken in the botanical garden.

Julia and my husband Steve stand by one of the many garden sculptures. Here is another shot of the glass sculpture. Some amazing photos of flowers in the park taken by my sister Julia.

As we walked through the park and walked and walked, I coughed and blew my nose constantly. My headached and I wished I was back at the motel in the bed, but I hadn't seen my sister Julia in a long time and I wanted to spend time with her so I gutted it out. I must say when we reached the end of the gardens at the ocean it was well worth the walk as the view was gorgeous - inspiring to say the least.

After we left the botanical gardens we drove a few blocks south on Highway 1 and turned into the spacious driveway of the Sea Glass Gallery & Museum. The exact address of the museum is 17801 N. Hwy 1, just 11 miles south of Fort Bragg. The museum is open daily from 10 to 5 with free admission. Be sure to talk to Captain Cass who owns the museum. His website can be found at http://glassbeachjewelry.com/

Cass is a wealth of information on sea glass and the beaches surrounding Fort Bragg. You can also pick up one of Capt. Cass' Glass Beach Guides and Map. I was beginning to love maps after the fiasco in San Francisco. From Cass and his map, I learned that I'd gone to one of the newer glass beaches I should have gone straight on the path then left. Fort Bragg has three glass beaches - each site was once a dumping area for the town. The oldest site, 1906-1943, is hard to reach without a kayak. When a dump area filled up, the townspeople would move further down the coast. The second oldest site, 1943-1947, is off the Old GP Mill Site and it has a "No Trespassing warning" - people still climb down the rocks and kayak around to this site. Not me, as I don't have a wet suit and I don't kayak. You can contact Captain Cass as he offers ocean kayak tours to this site weather permitting. Then there is Slag Pile Cove, 1949-1967 and Glass Beach 1949-1967. Suddenly, I couldn't wait to get back to the beach and find the older site.

After getting the information about where to set up for the festival the next day, we headed off for lunch down at the wharf. A quick sandwich, then a stop at a bakery for cookies. At the motel, Shirley was still sick as a dog. Julia and Gary wanted to go up the coast to see the seals lying on rocks.

I wanted to go to the beach, but the tide was coming in and my head was pounding so I went to lie down. Took some aspirin, but couldn't relax, the beach was calling my name. Finally, I got up, coaxed Steve into going and stopped to get Shirley's husband Pat. We drove down, parked and walked the path to the end where land dropped off to rocky cliffs. Then we had to follow a narrow path to where we could drop down into the rocks. (the path was like a ledge of dirt over hanging a cliff!) Yikes, I was glad I was wearing tennis shoes. Finally, we made it down onto the sand - well, you really couldn't see much sand it was all sea glass. Sea glass in layers and layers. We'd hit the "mother lode." We stayed until it was dusk picking up sea glass. I found some beautiful pieces. When they finally dragged me away from the beach I thought I'd go collapse on the bed as I was still sick and coughing like a maniac, but when we got to the motel, my brother Marty was there. Marty had ridden his Harley down from Oregon to see us all. A family reunion, so of course, I stayed up and talked with my brother. We went to dinner and then all talked some more. Poor Shirley couldn't even leave the bed she was still so sick. Here's a shot of my brother Marty on the left, my husband Steve and my brother-in-law Pat. I think they were having a "happy hour." We made an early night of it as we had to set up our jewelry booth at eight in the morning at the Sea Glass Festival. Cass had told me when I'd talked to him that some of the vendors weren't coming - in fact, there would only be three of us. I went to bed worrying about the festival - would anyone come? Would we sell any jewelry? Would Shirley still be sick and not able to help me?

Find out in Part Three what happens.