LUXE is coming!

Behold, my new line LUXE is coming soon! Be prepared for luxurious handcrafted items soon to be seen in my etsy shop. I'll be making sets of stacking rings, some manly rings for the men of Etsy, along with some kickass earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. As the name implies, it'll be more of a luxury brand. I'll be using ONLY Sterling Silver, as well as some pretty neat gemstones including Chalcedony and Amazonite.

I can't wait, I'm so excited!

I've also added a lot of new items in my shop lately. I've been a busy bee. I've been using those Czech glass owl beads a lot, because lets face it, they're adorable! I've been using a lot of pressed flower beads and steel retaining rings, and I think I'm starting to create a signature Payson style. Pretty neat, I think.

I've also been using a lot of recycled components lately. Christopher has been kind enough to let me have his old guitar strings after putting on new ones, and I've created a lot of new earrings and bracelets with them. I think I'm going to do a whole new line of recycled jewelry and accessories, but I haven't the time right now, so I'll have to put it on the back burner. Which really does suck, because now I'm just collecting a whole bunch of JUNK for later use. Oh well, I suppose these things happen.

Well, time to get creating.

Don't forget the free gift with purchase, still going on in my Etsy shop!

Playing with fire

Everyone at work must think I'm a pyro or something because I was so excited when I bought my MicroTorch. I couldn't find it cheaper ANYWHERE! For once, I actually like my job.

Now that I've got my new toy, I'm going to try my hand at making some ball-end headpins and earwires. I've had this design floating around in my head for the longest time and I'll now actually be able to implement it.

Eventually I want to try making some little stacking rings or something out of both copper and silver. I need to buy a few more supplies before I can start soldering though.

I'll just stick with earwires and headpins for now, and see how that goes.

What to do while sales are slow.

As a lot of people have noticed, sales are EXTREMELY slow lately, even though May was Etsy's busiest and most profitable month to date. So what can we sellers do while sales are slow?

1. Work on improving your craft. There's always room to make what you do better.

2. Venture into other types of crafts. For example, I've been using the down time to create new and more interesting jewelry, start working with leather, learn basic metalsmithing, and creating ACEOs.

3. Work on getting your shop into tip-top shape. Work on improving your photography, rewriting your descriptions, getting the overall cohesiveness of your shop in order.

4. Work on your promotion. Join a networking site like Facebook or MySpace and promote yourself. Or work on starting up a blog or personal website.

Those are only a few of the ideas I've got floating around my head right now, but the fever is taking hold again...

Don't try this at home, kids.

I am excited! Today I got terribly bored and decided to try my hammering skills. So I dug up some old copper wire and got to work. It took a while to get the hammering technique down, and even longer for polishing. All in all, I think it worked out pretty good.

Here's a sample of what I've been working on:

When I get all the kinks worked out in the hammering and polishing process then I am going to oxidize them with Liver of Sulfur, and see how that goes. I can't wait to see the result.

I also decided to try my hand at making body jewelry as well, and successfully made a pair of CBRs that are just perfect for a tragus or cartilage piercing. They are 18g copper with a diameter of 10mm. The "ball" is a 4mm glass pearl that sits in there just perfectly. I'm going to see when I get more 4mm beads if the holes in regular beads are small enough where the bead won't thread itself onto the ring. If not, I'll just have to get 16g wire. I'm thinking of doing these in Sterling Silver as well, possibly Argentium because it's a more pure form of Silver, and marketing them on Etsy.

I'm proud of myself for my accomplishments today!

Don't forget the free gift with each purchase in my Etsy shop!

Excitement!

Today was exciting! The Boy and I were stuck in traffic most of the way, both times it was because of congestion around the Newburgh-Beacon bridge. So a 15 minute trip turned into a 45 minute trip. Luckily, I had the sound notion to bring my iPod with me today. I always knew it would come in handy. Anyway, today's adventures consisted of going to Fishkill to pick up The Boy's check, and then snailing our way over to Middletown, getting COMPLETELY LOST and spending $500 on a remote control car. For my part in being a supportive girlfriend, he took me to A C Moore, where I picked up a few things for myself. I got myself some leather, a stamp, some beads that were on clearance, and a picture frame for the gorgeous drawing I bought from fineartist on Etsy.

Today was also exciting, because I got my ring from markaplan from Etsy today! It is absolutely gorgeous! I lurves it. Now I have to lose 10 more lbs so I can get something else from my favourites.

I meant to go on about my new leather cuffs that I'm currently working on, but I got sidetracked by my shiny new ring. I've cut pieces of leather 1.5 inches wide and stamped them with an oil based paint. They're hanging up to dry right now, but here are some pictures of the progress:


I can't wait until they're dry so I can finish them! I've never worked with leather before, but it's something I've always wanted to do. I'm a big fan of cuffs, and I think this could be a pretty interesting project.

And remember my free gift with purchase in my Etsy shop from now until June 10th!

What's this? Free gift?

That's right. Now through June 10th I'll be giving away a free (surprise) gift with each purchase made from my Etsy store!

http://paysonwinters.etsy.com

I've been busy lately, promoting my shop and working on new items. I really want to take a metalsmithing class, but I don't know of anyone in the area who does them. My college doesn't offer one either, which makes me angry. I want to be able to make my own jewelry, instead of just assembling it like what I'm doing now. Anyone can do that. Not everyone can forge their own rings and pendants. That's what I want to be able to do. I want to add some unique items as well as some staple items such as hoops and rings and bangle bracelets. There's only so much you can do with beads, charms, and chains.

So as some of you may or may not know, I've started to diet again. I want to lose my weight slowly though, so my skin has time to shrink. There's nothing more disgusting than a person who's lost a tremendous amount of weight in a very short amount of time and has all that loose skin hanging off. No, that's just wrong. Anyways, I've been setting little goals for myself. I've just lost my first 10lbs so I bought myself this gorgeous ring from markaplan on Etsy. I'm going to do this for every 10lbs or so... Pick one item in my favourites on Etsy to reward myself for doing a good job. I think next I might get three of Gemma's Delicato stacking rings... I've been eyeing them for quite some time...

Aaaand I'm off. G'night.

No Excuses.

Well, I figure I might as well update this. I have been overwhelmed with school, work, and trashy romance novels. I have so much I need to put up on Etsy, on both of my shops no less, and a lot of re-listing to do as well. I also need to start SAVING the money that I make on Etsy, now that I have enough supplies to last me quite a while. I've spent a great deal of my personal funds to get myself going on Etsy and it's time that I pay myself back. Also, I want a new laptop of my own, because the Boyfriend is getting increasingly possessive over his.

Today is my last day of school, so I'll have a lot more free time after today is over. This is what I've been waiting for for the last 10 weeks! Now I'm free until August. I should be blogging a lot more, being able to devote more time and effort into my posts instead of just jotting down whatever comes to my mind before bed or in between classes.

I have so many plans for the summer, I don't know if I can accomplish them all.

Well, I'm off now, gotta go to class.