fancy footwork

Our Valiant hero - 5 by 7 print

I've been working like a Trojan these past few days, trying to keep the business afloat and move house- which has been a chore to say the least, as the past tenants were a little lax on the housecleaning front, which means spending valuable hours steam cleaning carpets, washing down heavily marked doors and generally making the place liveable.

Poseidon wakes - 5 by 7 print

I've also started a sort of putting my eggs into more than one basket. I have the Big Cartel shop (a little neglected right now) and the Artfire shop, but this week when I went to de-activate the Etsy shop, I found I couldn't. I realised that not only am I attached to my little Etsy patch, there are things about Etsy as a site that over-ride their problems, things I can't find anywhere else. Not least of all the wonderful shop I've built from scratch, all that feedback and a hug gallery of sold orders so custom clients can get a feel for what I do.

design for a Christmas card- might be too late on these!

Then there's the design. Artfire people are very sensitive about the look of their site, claiming that seller tool development is higher on the schedule than rearranging the furniture. Which I totally agree with, but their tools are already so highly developed I think they could do with spending a few days giving themselves a make-over, especially now as they plan to step up to a huge marketing campaign.

shiny prints yay!

Anyway- back on track. I've not de-activated the Etsy shop. I've reactivated all the listings that I imported into Artfire and updated it with my most recent work, so now all my work is available on both sites. I've still a little tinkering to do so the listings aren't identical (Google doesn't like duplicates) and there's some shipping details to clean up, but apart from that it's all there. My photography work all goes into my Artfire shop, but on Etsy it stays in my little brown sparrow shop, where it will hopefully soon be joined by my original illustrations.

Christmas card design - next year I think.

My main reason for this is simple- more eggs in more baskets. After a month or two I shall collate the data, determine which venue is best and concentrate my efforts on that one. Big Cartel will be streamlined into more of a showcase site, where my best work gets featured. I'm very happy with the design over there but I don't know if I'll keep it forever, I have yet to analyse the data and I know it's suffered this week with me juggling several projects at once.

The Melody Sweet - 5 by 7 print

I guess some people who chide me for being so picky on design, but to me it's vitally important. Not just that I've always been a visual person, but that I sell body decor, which is purely visual in design. There are very wide boundaries in jewelry, and though you are hampered somewhat by form follows function you really can do anything, making it a blank canvas. It's important to me that my shop reflect my unique brand (as much as I'm uncomfortable about that word) and I feel Etsy's pared back simple design allows me the freedom to showcase my intensely textured imagery without looking cluttered or over the top.

Anyway- blah blah blah. I best get on with my day!