Stats!

Etsy has finally given us sellers some stats! We can now use google analytics with our shops so we'll actually know where our traffic is coming from. This is just so helpful! I'm looking forward to playing around with project wonderful ads and the like to see what kind of traffic I can drive to my shop.

In other news, a bunch of pendant making supplies have arrived and I am just itching to try my hand at pendants. I think a lot of my photos would make for pretty ones and I really hope they turn out as wonderfully as they are in my head.

Treasury!

I was featured in an Etsy treasury today, how exciting! I love love love that necklace that is featured beside my bracelet at the top there, it's so gorgeous. Thanks ClairesArtfulThings!

You can see the treasury here http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=31615 until it disappears on Friday. : )

hmm

I really, really want a macro lens. I feel like I would blog a lot more because I would have fresh, lovely photos to share much more often. I guess I should start saving up then. I'm guessing they're around $3-400 my goodness.

Hey there. New Year's always really jump starts and motivates me to improve myself. This year I want to focus on several areas. Most of all I really want to buckle down and build up my business. The past couple months have been good, I have been putting more effort into finding new venues to sell my items. I've done a couple craft shows, sold at the farmer's market several times, and got my mirrors into a local shop. Now is the time to really build up my etsy shop. I'm putting the prints into the jewelry shop, and I will be adding mirrors. I'm also excited to start making up some pendants and other small gifty items.

Tonight I've been a busy bee, made a new banner, and listed several new items. Once I get my shop in full gear I'll start getting organized and working on my promotional efforts. I really need to get an advertising budget too, haha, or else how will anyone ever find my little shop?

Building a brand

As you may know, I run a small business called Paper Pattern Silk. I sell mostly at local craft fairs, the farmer's market and online on Etsy. I tend to operate on a part time basis, but really want to buckle down and focus on building a sustainable brand and client base. So I thought, I should start writing down my goals and thoughts in my blog so I can keep track of them as I work towards building up my business.

My main goal for now is to build up a recognizable brand. I need to develop a logo, which I am working on. It's silhouettes of lupins. I chose them because they are my favorite flower, they have an interesting shape, and here in the Maritimes it is commonplace to drive by hills and fields just full of these beautiful flowers. They bring up fond memories for me, and I love them.

Next I am trying to figure out what colors to use as my main business ones, on displays, on my business card, and on my website. I doodled a very lackluster lupin in photoshop to get an idea for some colors, and have made a small chart of them:



I have such a hard time narrowing it down to just a few colors. Color is pretty much the reason I create anything, it is my inspiration and excitement in the art world. There are just so many possibilities, and each one says something so completely different about your business. I really want to make a good choice that reflects me and my work.

Paper Pattern Silk sells pocket mirrors, illustration & photography prints, jewelry, handpainted silks, knitwear, pretty much everything. I'm not one to stick to one medium, I like to dabble in many. This makes it difficult to make branding decisions that will affect so many variables. The illustrations tend to be very delicate, with children and whimsical elements. The jewelry, however, takes on a more contemporary, modern design focus. I also need to leave room for my surface design career to come, which is a large deal of why I chose the name. After I graduate I intend to freelance design wallpaper, fabric, greeting cards, etc, while still making art, silks, and my other handmade items.

It's so difficult to find a happy medium between my various styles, I want to be taken seriously as design focused, but don't want to lose the whimsical fun side either.

My goodness it is going to take a lot of thought to decide on my colors..

Hello. It's been a while. I'm overhauling everything, and will get to this dear sweet blog soon. :)

I hope you're all feeling lovely today. Oh the possibilities!

Loan approved!

My SEED business loan was approved! I am so excited. My loan papers are in the mail and will hopefully arrive sometime this week. Then I will take them into the bank and start getting all the supplies ready to get my business off the ground.

I'm really happy about this, it took weeks and weeks of putting it together, usually spending several hours a day researching, rethinking, and working out the problems.

I've been making a lot of jewelry while I wait to get my mirror making machine, but now it's really pulled me back towards what I really love doing, which is the jewelry. So I'm doing even more rethinking, it is so hard to choose which direction I want to go in.

Next time I go home to visit my family I might bring some jewelry into the market and see if the jewelry shop there would be interested in carrying it. I went there once before, when I was probably 16ish, and brought in some jewelry. It was pretty junky at the time, cheap wire, lots of spirals, ugly beads. But I was proud of it. They didn't accept it at the time, but I did sell a ton of it at school.

So that's pretty much how I've been spending my summer break thus far, making and listing jewelry. Oh, and I've also set up a new design blog that I've been spending a lot of time finding interesting things to feature. It is HERE if you want to take a peek. I might change up the layout on this blog to something similar to that one, now that I think of it..

Have a great day!