handmade necklace – Bead Yarn & Spatula

Etsy Shop Update

My Etsy Shop has been open for just about a month and so far so good. I’ve made three sales, added some bead, crystal & pearl snowflake ornaments and had to adjust how I do my listings. I still haven’t fine-tuned the latter, but I am sure I’ll get it eventually. This is the issue… the necklace from my first sale came in different colors, I thought by listing each of the colors when one was purchased that color would be eliminated from my inventory, unfortunately I had listed my quantity as 1 so the necklace was then sold out, so I had to readjust the listing and the others that I had set- up similarly. I had a similar issue with my following sale of 2 snowflake ornaments… I had to manually remove them from my inventory. So, I have some research to do on listings.

I also ran my first sale over Black Friday weekend and promoted Small Business Saturday. And that’s pretty much where I am.

Here are the Snowflake Ornaments:

If you’re interested in one of the ornaments or are looking for a piece of jewelry for yourself or someone else on your list check out my shop: CraftedByFran

Etsy Shop – CraftedByFran

After making jewelry for a few years and creating pieces to give as gifts, sell to friends and at a few local craft fairs, I finally decided to open an Etsy shop. Truthfully, I’ve been thinking about it for a while but held back because I thought it would be difficult.

So, what did I think it would be difficult? Figuring out shipping costs for one. I did a little research and discovered that this stumps many would-be Etsy sellers. There were a few other things as well: the whole creating a listing, taking good pictures, do I have to give my pieces “names?” And a few other silly little things. In the end, I am opting to offer free shipping and decided not to give most of my pieces a name since they are one-of-a-kind. And after creating my first listing and learning how to navigate the process it became a lot easier and not as daunting. Let’s be honest, trying anything new is a learning process. Soon enough I’ll learn what works and what doesn’t. There is one thing that always gets me… Tagging. Which ones work best and which ones don’t. I have that same issue with my blog posts sometimes.

Below is the link to my shop. Feel free to like a piece, like my shop or maybe you’ll find something perfect for you.

CraftedByFran

Here are some of the pieces available now…

A Quick Multi-Strand Necklace

During a shopping trip to my local A.C. Moore I came across this pendant while perusing the jewelry section that immediately caught my eye.

I knew that I wanted to use it as the focal point of a multi-strand necklace. At first I wasn’t sure what type of multi-strand – all chains, a combination of chains and stones or all stones. After attending a bead show and a few trips to A.C. Moore and Michaels I was able to find strands of stones that perfectly complemented the colors in the pendant.

I started off by laying out the strands using a multi-strand bead board.

Once I had them strung on beading wire I haphazardly intertwined the three strands.

I actually got these three hole end bar links on clearance at Jo-Ann’s (what can I say I’m a craft store junkie) and they ended up being just what I needed for this necklace. It’s not pictured here, but, I attached a toggle using jump rings to the single loop side.