these days

Some of you might have noticed, that my jewelry shop
is back alive again. Just re-filled them with my expired
stock, but as I announced on my profile, I will start adding
new items in June. Even without any sales yet, it feels good
to be back in business.



Tomorrow I'm going to take photos of the first items for
my art shop and list them one by one. The past days I found
myself often stuck in bookkeeping the ideas instead of creating
itself. Sometimes creativity flow could be almost as bad as
creativity drain, no? I haven't got any idea yet, how to
photograph them, so I'll play around to figure it out. And the
packaging stuff haven't arrived yet. But I don't want to wait
any longer. I'm way excited and curious of the reactions (if
there are any LOL - it's hard to stand out on Etsy nowadays)
and alone this feeling is worth to open a fresh new shop IMO.

*

BTW.. for those of you who live in Germany, pull out your
(knit) needles and materials and be part of this action.

*

Last night I pulled out Epi's CD, which I bought three years
ago. My favorite song is the Great Eagle Dance. You could
listen to it on the right menu bar, but if you had a chance to
watch him, go for it - the music is enchanting.

*

Thank you for the peeps, who welcomes me back by putting
my items in their treasuries!
It's the little things... by wavyshell
... blue sky, bright sun ... by SoFino
Into The Forest by StemDesigns
Treasury time by tricotaria
Sunray by JKphotography

Haven't got the time to make new treasuries myself. Hopefully
in June :)

soon

A few days ago I set up a new shop on Etsy, where I plan
to sell my artwork (although I sometimes claim - not all,
but some of - my jewelry to be art too, I mean rather non-
wearable, decorative artwork - the jewelry lines will stay
at glasfaden). I'm hoping to (re)open both shops in this
month - no exact date yet, but I'll let you know. At the
moment I'm busy building stock and preparing the new
shop - making banner, writing policies, calculating
prices, etc. The banner is now uploaded. How do you like it?

I'm also reorganizing our home to optimize my work flow.
A while ago I moved my computer to the bedroom, but it
was a real no-brainer. I need a cool (or even cold) room to
be able to sleep (thus, it normally remains unheated in
winter), but I need it warm to be able to work in front of
the computer. So, I had to move my computer out of my
bedroom again. Temporarily it is in my living room (since
a few months now *cough*), but I think, I'm going to move
it back to the corridor again (my dream to have an e-piano
at that place won't be real so soon anyway).



The studio (expanded to the kitchen if needed) is now meant
for the production and the materials I need for it. My bedroom
is now the storage room for non-jewelry-related materials
(fabric, wool), ready-to-ship products and final packaging
materials.

What kind of artwork I'm making for the shop? Well, it has something to do with light and shadow is all I can say for now.
Stay tuned! :)


No, this photo has nothing to do with my work. I simply love
any kind of light reflections or shadows.

what a day

It has been a busy week for me. It's school holiday.
Because my boss is having a holiday too, I worked on
the B&M store each day except for today. So, I thought
my son could finally invite friends to play today and he
did. Two of his friends were here the whole day long.

I made some fresh ice tea (green tea with lemon and
sugar) for them. Since it was still hot (hot ice tea..
funny :)), I served them in mugs. And since I only have
some boring blue Ikea mugs, I needed something to
mark them, so that the boys won't mix up their mugs.
I then made wire tags with their initials to hang on the
handle.



I wanted to make some crepes for lunch, but I didn't
have enough eggs. I decided to take the boys to the
supermarket, as I didn't want them to do something
crazy at home. So I sent them out of the door, I went
out myself, closed the door, put my shoes on and...
gosh! I didn't have any key in my pocket! Arrrghhhhh!!
Something must be wrong with me - I have never locked
myself out of my apartment for the last 20 years and
suddenly it happened twice within a few weeks! And of
course, I haven't deposited a second key to a friend.
Again, I had to call the fire department *sniff*

So, that was the bad part of the day. But! There was
luckily also a good part of the day as well :) I got two
sales and.. I was three times on Etsy front page today.
Unbelievable!! That has never happened to me before..
Thank you, moonovermaize, 3FUN and joojoo! Also my
big thanks to rawartletterpress, felicitycrew, joojooland
(yes, it's the talented Afi, who runs joojoo and also the
PersianGarden), Lori411 and slinkymalinkicat, who
have brought my items to the front page in this month!

Oh,.. and my showcase on Paper 'n Stitch is up since
last Tuesday.

changing

Changing weather, so I'm changing my banner too :)
My Etsy shop and here. Well, actually the reason was
I was browsing my banner folder, wanting to have the
same one for PaperNStitch. Yes, for the first time in
2 years I'm doing marketing outside Etsy - running
from 10/27 to 11/22 (now that I finally have enough
stuff in my shop ;)).

But I'm wandering.. back to the banner. Well, I didn't
have a bigger version of the last banner. As I saw my
very first banner (well, actually it's a pre-version of
my very first banner on Etsy), I fell in love again with
it. So, I decided to take it as my new banner. Icy cold
is all that I can say ^_^

So, let's take a Hokkaido soup to get warm again :)

Wanna make one? I can't give you an exact recipe - as
you know, I never follow any. But these are in this
soup: Hokkaido pumpkin, potato, onion, water, vegetable
stock, cream, salt and pepper (pepper! Normally I never
put it in pumpkin soup, but my son wanted it so and it
tastes just great!). As decoration on the soup I have
a borage flower, a Jiaogulan leaf and some chive.
Guten Appetit! :)

soon

Almost exactly 1 year ago I got the letter, that I could
rent this apartment, where I live now. Right after I
signed the contract I was so giddy planning, preparing
and repairing that I couldn't work on my own shop.
After the move some personal reasons has driven me
to do a journey. I was blocked. If I ever produced a thing,
I didn't have the gut to sell nor to show it to anybody.
I could only make things 'for fun'. I felt lost. Uprooted.
So, I left my shop and Etsy behind, give me some time
and concentrate myself on my real life, like gardening,
cooking or baking.

Working in the garden (esp. weeding!) helped me a lot
to find my path back. Growing root again. But to tell you
the truth, without some people (incl. you, dear readers!)
I wouldn't be here. Your visits and comments are very
much appreciated. Thank you!!


left: those are the things I want to plant next (horseradish,
peanuts, ginger and curcuma). I know, I've said, I didn't
want to add anything anymore to the garden ;) But as I saw
the horseradish, I just couldn't stand it. And thinking of the
cooked fresh peanuts my mom often has made.. I simply
have to give it a try. Today, while passing the weekly market
I had a vision, that I'm selling there too - veggies! I like this
vision somehow ^_^


My accompany while yesterday's gardening :)

Bits by bits my motivation is back. Remember the visit
of a friend three weeks ago? She was looking forward
to do lampworking together with me. She brought some
of her actual favorite glass rods as a present for me (and
a very handy multi tool for the garden. thanks, F! :)) and
she has also brought her 'special' tool with her, but I've
disappointed her. All my lampwork tools were more or
less still in the boxes. I'm sorry, F! Even if we didn't work
on the torch, her visit has given my motivation wings (I
went to bed at 1 am, got awake at 3:30 am and couldn't
sleep again as my head was full of business ideas!). That's
when I knew, I can do it (again) once the time is ripe.

The next motivation was a purchase from a returning
customer. Thanks, L, for your support!

Then I got two critique requests in a row on Etsy. I felt
so happy. I've been a member of the SASsy team for a
while, but I was never active in the thread nor in the VL.
This was the first time I got the opportunity to help
other sellers since I joined SASsy (well, I hope, my
critique has helped them ;) Thanks for your trusts, L
and J!).

Last not least I got a mail from a friend, which made me
feel honored, giddy and ashamed at the same time. Well,
ashamed of course, that I've neglected my shop and
didn't even touched my torch (except for the move ;))
for such a long time. I can't say more, but: thanks, A,
for thinking of me!


The photos are taken at around 9:30 pm. Amazing light, isn't it?
Wanna see, how busy the sky was at that time?

Everything was simply calling for me to start again.
It was high time to set up my workspace again. I did
it yesterday. My workspace is almost ready. Only one
more box from the cellar to be unpacked. Afterwards I
only hope I haven't forgot, how to do it ;) I have never
made such a long break before!

Oh, Sunday, I'm looking forward to you! First, there's
the yearly BIG flea market in town. After that I'm going
to sit on the torch ;)

Talking about flea market..My son wants to try as a
seller too, as it's free for children to have a stand (a
blanket on the pavement). He wants to buy a computer
game. The vouchers he's got for his birthday aren't
enough. Now he's in a 'working' mood. He asked me to
give him some jobs (read: housework). He bargained
the 'price' for hanging, ironing and folding the laundry
with me. Today he gathered 3,50 Euro :)


left: My son made me a shawl using finger knitting technique,
which he has learned on the day care.



Happy Weekend!!

busy, busy

I'm quite busy at the moment with the other blog -
the EST shop catalog. First I thought, it would be
easy to manage it, but I've overlooked many
things. So, I've got to repair things. And new
ideas keep coming too! But I think, the site looks
nice now and slowly I get a routine too :)
I really enjoy working on this project.

Mondays are somehow my day - I got sales mostly
on Mondays. So was yesterday. I've got a sale as
I woke up (and I went to bed at 4 am ;)).
Later on I've read in the forum, that my item was
on the Etsy front page. And later in the evening,
as I came back from my choir session, I've found
two more sales. Yayyy! But then I realized, that
I had my first non-paying customer :( Everything
on that transaction has made me suspicious. First
I asked a friend, who had also the bad experience
before - just to make sure, it's a fake buyer.

Then I asked support for advice. Impatience as
I was, I contacted the buyer too - per email and
per convo. The mail address was a fake - my mail
couldn't be delivered. But today he has answered
my convo. I didn't expected, he would even reply.
So his honesty has shocked me, even though I'm
thankful for that. I knew, that it'll happen to me
one day, since it happened to many sellers lately.
A sad fact. But I guess, it's naive to think, that
everybody is good. Or? Anyway he was honest
and I respect honestly!

So I re-listed the brooch. The lost of views, like
it has happened a few days before, is nothing
in compare to the lost of hearts. Oh, well,..
it's just like in real life *lol*

first sale

Aww... I really neglected my blog
after I make it public *sigh*

Many things happen meanwhile.
I've added 2 items to my shop.
I've sold one of them just on the next day
- my first sale yayy!! -
and sent the necklace to my customer.
I've signed the handmade pledge.

I'm planning to list some more items
on Sunday (hoping of a sunny Saturday
to take some photos).

hopes

Today I've set up my shop policy in my profile.
I hope, I didn't forget anything.
I hope, it's a good weather tomorrow,
so that I can take pictures of some more items.
And I hope, I can end my listing on Sunday.

I've got to go to bed.
It's very late now.
But I'm satisfied, I've done this step.

registered

I've finally registered my business last Friday. Yayy!!
Busy taking photos and editing them.
Design business cards and arranging texts.
Hope to post the first items by the end of the week.

In additional I've got a phone call yesterday.
I can start a small job in a tiny, beautiful shop.
Within 'roses'.

setting up my shop

I have always postponed it.
Today I've sign up a shop on Etsy.

I've chosen glasfaden as shop name.
That describes what I'm selling.
Glas means glass.
Faden means actually thread,
but it has something to do with fabric
- my felted items.
Glasfaden itself means glass stringer.

Next step is taken.