What Are People Pinning From Your Website and The Nature of Handmade... TRULY

Pinterest and Your Website

Wanna see what people are pinning from your website to Pinterest?  Put this URL into your internet address bar (but substitute the name of your website where it says “yourdomain”) and remove the space after the “h” at the start… I have those there so this won’t become a hyperlink.

h ttp://pinterest.com/source/yourdomain.com

I don’t think it works with Etsy shops, though… or at least I couldn’t get it to work with mine.  I used my regular website and got to see what others posted from there.  Neat!  

Good tool, too, to see what sparks the most interest with the viewing public.

Handmade?  Guess Again

So you think your jewelry is handmade?  Probably not according to FTC standards.

“… the entire shaping and forming of such product from raw materials and its finishing and decoration were accomplished by hand labor and manually-controlled methods…”

 §23.3   Misuse of the terms“hand-made,” “hand-polished,” etc. (click here)

(a) It is unfair or deceptive to represent, directly or by implication, that any industry product is hand-made or hand-wrought unless the entire shaping and forming of such product from raw materials and its finishing and decoration were accomplished by hand labor and manually-controlled methods which permit the maker to control and vary the construction, shape, design, and finish of each part of each individual product.

Note to paragraph (a): As used herein, “raw materials” include bulk sheet, strip, wire, and similar items that have not been cut, shaped, or formed into jewelry parts, semi-finished parts, or blanks.

(b) It is unfair or deceptive to represent, directly or by implication, that any industry product is hand-forged, hand-engraved, hand-finished, or hand-polished, or has been otherwise hand-processed, unless the operation described was accomplished by hand labor and manually-controlled methods which permit the maker to control and vary the type, amount, and effect of such operation on each part of each individual product.

The question is… handmade by whom?  If I put two things together, a pendant that was handmade by someone and a chain that was handmade by someone else… do I refer to the piece as “handmade” when I list it? 

For argument’s sake, let’s say that is so.  That would still discount a lot of us… how many of us use machine-made components?  Clasps, chain, etc?

This is all food for thought, but does anyone care about FTC regulations.  The proliferation of non-handmade “handmade” items on Etsy, eBay and other places is not going to change.

But I think in our hearts, it’s good to know what handmade is SUPPOSED to mean. 

Now, having said that, let me show you some of the handmade things I created recently. 

The chain is purchased.  The circle was made from silver sheet, the headpin/bail was fused and formed by hand, the components on either side of the pearl were sawn by hand.

Here’s one I found from 15 years ago (yeah, it was stuck in a drawer… don’t ask me why).  I can call it hand assembled, but not handmade.  I’m sure the crystals and glass pearls were machine made, as well as the vintage Lucite leaves.  I designed it and I put it together, but I didn’t (nor did anyone else) hand form the components.

Purchased chain, completely handmade (by me) pendant (okay, except for the embedded CZ).  I mixed up the metal clay, formed the piece, fired it, and polished it all by hand.

Same for these earrings (except for the pearl).

Anyway, it’s just something to think about.

Some Interesting and Useful Articles from Metalsmithing Basics to How to Stop Worrying What Others Think

Here’s a great article by Kate Richbourg: Metalsmithing Basics: Tips and Tools for Cutting and Sawing Metal Like a Pro

And an article on pricing by Carolyn Edlund: The Price is Right

Here’s an in-depth tutorial on the basket weave earrings that are part of the PMC accreditation course.  “Silver Metal Clay Weaving Tutorial - Make Woven Fine Silver Jewelry from Metal Clay Paper or Sheet” by MSchindel

These were mine:

Now this one is a little off the above path, but being around jewelry makers all the time I certainly see my fair share of people worrying what others think of them (guilty as charged!).  So here’s a little reminder article.  I say reminder because if you’re like me… you’ve HEARD all this before.  You KNOW this stuff.  But putting it into practice is hard to remember.

The article is 4 Steps To Stop Worrying About What Other People Think Of You by Dr. Kelly Neff.

So that’s it for today… just some (hopefully helpful links).

Oh, wait… I will show you something I made for one of the EtsyMetal challenges.  The challenge theme was “jumprings” so I soldered some bronze jumprings into a bubble pendant (meaning you use this to blow bubbles with soapy water).  The tiny message in resin reads “Kid at heart”.

And then I also made this pair of earrings (while I was soldering anyway).  Those are tiny vintage rhinestones in resin.

Classes I've been Teaching and Attending

Most of December, January, February and March were and will be taken up with getting ready to teach, teaching, or being taught. 

In December, I held my first official jewelry making class.  We did the trio of spiral earrings.

It being my first class and all, I forgot to take photos of the ladies’ finished pieces, but let me tell you they looked exactly like the photos above.  These women rocked!  Little to no previous jewelry making experience and they did some pretty involved techniques.

Here you can see one of them fusing ball-end headpins.

And here we’re all hard at work making our spirals.

A few days later I was off to Hadar’s where I picked up more skills in the metal clay techniques I’ll be teaching.

Also received my certificate of accreditation after the year long course learning Hadar’s clays and techniques.

I’m now listed on Hadar’s website as one of her accredited teachers.

In January, I returned to Hadar’s for more learning.

In February, I taught my first etching class. 

The students were amazing!  So creative and easy to work with.  I was astounded at what they produced.  I didn’t photograph any of the pieces they made from the computer printout images, but it looked like the stuff shown on the class flyer.

Where I thought they really excelled was in the more imaginative pieces where they drew their own designs and/or incorporated stamps and stencils onto bracelet cuffs.  These designs were etched in under five minutes.

 

Then it was back to Berkeley for another couple of days of metal clay.

So I’ve added a link on my website for upcoming (and past) classes.  I’ve got two classes I need to go to in March, so I may not plan any more classes to give until April, but hopefully we’ll keep rolling through the summer with more classes.

And for anyone who doesn’t live in the area, two of those spiral earrings are made in my eclass with CraftArtEdu.  Click here to see the class.

USPS Postage Increase January 26, 2014 with Instructions for Updating Etsy and eBay Listings

Starting Jan 26, 2014, new USPS prices for domestic packages (which is anything more than ¼ inch thick).

“Online” is the price if you print the postage at home

“Stamps” is if you go to the post office or otherwise place actual stamps on the package

International rates aren’t changing; just the highlighted domestic postage rates.

For instructions on changing or updating your shipping prices on Etsy and eBay, check out my blog post from this time last year (the previous postage rate increase).

I have been unable to confirm the new price (if there is one) for Priority Small Box Flat Rate when purchasing from a physical post office rather than online.