My day-job is managing a sweet little boutique that sells locally made clothing and jewellery. This means that I'm lucky enough to have an "in" for a retail location to sell my wares!
It was becoming obvious that I would have to start selling some of my pieces... I had too many laying around, and the materials are expensive so it would be nice to have the final products at least pay for themselves. When I started to feel like my work was solid enough to offer to others, I put a couple of them in the display case.
Mine are the ones in the front row. All of these are sold now!
I just added this giant beauty this week. Turquoise is one of my favourite stones!
When they actually started selling, I had to make more! So crazy! So now at this moment I have 5 rings in the display case. I might make 1 more ring and a couple pairs of earrings, just to fill up the little display rack, then sit back and see what sells. I don't expect them all to sell as fast as the others did a month ago as the tourist season has now come to an end and our foot traffic is much much less.
these beauties are currently for sale in the shop
It's been a really really exciting feeling seeing my pieces sell. I know the feeling of falling in love with a piece of jewellery, so to see other people having that experience with my work is just insane. It's really exciting to learn about where the piece is going, too. One ring is gone to San Francisco, one is on the hand of a nice gal from up-island, another is travelling overseas as a gift, and the little snake ring was snatched up by an amazing woman who is a nurse in our local prison.
this garnet power ring lives up-Island now
this cutie now lives on the thumb of a beautiful Healer.
I'm trying not to put too much pressure on creating. If I get stressed out, I put my tools down and go bug @mstafford while he's trying to do important things.
now living in Sanfran!
my current favourite available for sale... would love to keep this one!
If you had told me a year ago that I would be silversmithing and selling my work, I would have laughed in your face! I am having so much fun! But, I am going to have to find new avenues through which to sell as this little store is closing in November. So sad! So, online store, Instagram, and... do you think I should try to find a way to sell pieces here on the blockchain? For Steem? @mstafford thinks it's the best idea ever but I'm not sure there's a market for it at all.
labradorite beauty currently available
I made this one the other day but messed it up a bit so I'm keeping it for now. Also labradorite!
I'm still not very good at making necklaces, but this one was pretty easy to pull together, and it sold this week!
I have also fallen out of the habit of taking progress photos along the way for my steemit blog... I just don't think anyone is all that interested in seeing them. But I think I will try to keep blogging about my process as it's helpful for me to document the learning & making process.
make make make
another view of that labradorite beauty
Hopefully these pieces sell quickly. I may have to be patient and wait until our traffic picks up closer to November when the Christmas shopping madness begins. September and most of October are always a bit quiet, even in a tourist town like Victoria.
the drawing board...
In the meantime, I'm working on gathering/making images and building a separate Instagram account specifically for my jewellery. I know from experience with managing the social media for this shop, and my own when I was a pro photographer, that keeping a steady, beautiful, meaningful Instagram presence is bloody hard work. So, I am planning on starting to post to my new account on Oct 1st. Using post automation software, I already have most of the month of October scheduled. Hopefully I can keep the momentum going and continue creating jewellery and images and content for the account. If you feel so inclined, you can follow me over at @caitlynchapmanstudio :)
Thanks for reading! I really appreciate all the love and support I have found on Steemit in the past year and a half!
Peace & Love
Caitycat
They're all so good! So, have you been the salesperson when your rings have been sold? And have you told the buyers that you made the rings? I'm sure you're totally aware that part of purchasing is the story around the item, and I feel like that'd make the pieces so much more special!
I do actually think Instagram is the way to go... and if you keep with the automation software then hopefully you'll always be ahead and not feel so much pressure... but it might also encourage you to take photos when you're #vanlyfing for interesting jewelry background.
ANYWAY! So excited that you've become such a star. Sorry your little shop is closing... I'm sure there are cool markets to set up a table at?
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Thanks, man!! Sometimes I'm the salesperson but often I'm not. But my staff here are all absolute angels and are all trying hard to push my stuff (without being sales-y of course)! When I AM the one doing the selling, I always wait until a little bit into the conversation to mention that I made the item... I don't want to seem pushy or make them feel pressured to be nice because I do like to hear the feedback! But it's true- people tend to get excited when they hear that the pieces are made by the store manager haha they are usually really supportive and want to hear more about what I'm doing!
YES taking good/interesting/consistent product pics is proving a bit of a challenge (truthfully I could really use a new camera with a proper macro lens ...oops) and bringing pieces out vanning with me will be a good solution for shaking up the imagery a bit.
Yes I'm going to miss this quaint little shop but I'm going to continue working for the clothing designer helping her do markets and online etc so I may join her in selling some of my stuff on the market circuit. Lots of possibilities!!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Good work! These are sweet. Glad people are enjoying them. Btw, I got a finger tattoo!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Thanks, dude! YESS that's sooo exciting! I knew you would!! HA!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I love it!! And then I got a big forearm tattoo haha, I might have a problem
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
It gets real addicting real quick... good thing it's so expensive hahahaha
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Haha for real, I'd have so many if I was rich haha
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Hi @caitycat! You've been visited by the @ocdb curation team that supports the @c-cubed curation, congratulations on being featured on their latest exponential featured posts! Thanks for creating great content on Steem!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Thank-you!! Very exciting!!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Your rings are beautiful. The labradorite one and your favourite make me wish I could wear rings XD
Yay for successful selling, that's awesome :) Sad about the store closing though :< There may be interested buyers somewhere in the steemverse, maybe make a steem ring and see how that's received? XD Otherwise can you do Etsy or eBay or maybe a popup stall in a shopping centre or at one of those farmer's markets that seem to be slowly graduating into mobile bazaars? (or at least all the ones I've been to recently have seemed that way XD)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Thank-you thank-youuu!!! I agree- Labradorite is easily one of my favourite stones! I have a lot of labradorite cabochons waiting to be made into jewellery so stay tuned!
Yeah it's always sad to see a small locally owned store closing. Yes you're right I will be finding other avenues... markets are certainly a big popular thing these days, popups too. And @mstafford has some interesting Steem-based ideas so we'll see where that leads. I've got a lot of work ahead of me!!
Thank you for stopping by!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Super stoked for you. I've been waiting for you to turn into the ring making sugar momma that I always knew you could be. Keep it up, and take me with you.
You've got me inspired to try to build out this Steem-store service that I've had in mind. And you shall be my guinea pig.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Thanks, honey. I wouldn't be able to pursue any of my artsy stuff without your cheerleading.
Very excited to see what you come up with. Let's do it!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Questo post è stato condiviso e votato dal team di curatori di discovery-it.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Some beautiful pieces there wow! ❤️
Posted using Partiko Android
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Thank you very much! :)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit