Over the weekend, I relaunched my online jewelry store…sort of. It’s still at Etsy, but I’ve gone back to my original name: Eleventh Midnight. I was never happy being JewelryNiche. It lacked character.
I even have a plan to make sure the shop has some life to it this time around. It has a schedule, a somewhat strenuous to-do list, a spreadsheet, and a GNotebook all to itself. It probably needs its own gallery, but for now, I think I’m okay with what I’ve got.
In the week or so leading up to the launch, I had the chance to sit down and talk with other artists about completely unrelated things. Naturally, I was asked what I was up to myself, and I told them about the shop and the work I’d been doing to get ready. They were both amazed. One has a website that she could never get herself in sync with, and the MySpace she pretty much gave up the website for. The other has never really been online much, but would love to explore oit once her home office is up and running.
I ended suggesting a few things to both of them, and thought you guys might enjoy seeing the list.
- deviantArt- Don’t let the name put you off. dA is a great place to show off completed pieces and works in progress across a number of artistic discipline and get feedback on them. It’s a thriving community of very supportive people who love to share and talk about their craft. (Just avoid the drama trolls.)
- Etsy- Etsy is an online center for artists and crafters to sell their work. Nearly every you find on the site is made by the person selling it, except for supplies and “vintage” items (which may or may not be made by the artist). Etsy allows you to search by category, type or item, and even color. For artists, it’s a nice, low-cost way to put your creations before a wider audience. It’s very easy to set up and use.
- Google Apps- None of us really wants to talk about it, but there’s more to creating than just creating. Personally, I use GCal to keep track of when I’ve done things so I know, GMail to handle my email needs, Google Docs to keep an inventory of what I’ve got and where (that I’ve just realized is out of date at the moment), and Google Notebook to record patterns of what I’ve made, ideas for future projects, lists of where to shop for certain supplies or of where to check out for supplies.
- Todoist- This time around, I have a to-do list dedicated solely to my jewelry shop. It has a “production schedule” of sorts, along with ideas for new pieces, tips for keeping myself focused, ideas for my classes, the custom pieces I’m currently working on (which as of today is only one because the main part of it is totally vexing me).
(The list accidentally came out alphabetically. That’s funny.)
There are other great crafting sites out there. You just have to look within your own crafting niche(s). Great ways to share, to get feedback, to sell, to just participate.
