Happy New Year of the Ox!

Happy New Chinese Year of the Ox!

Here's a page on squidoo that I loved reading while thinking of this opportunity to be inspired:
http://www.squidoo.com/2009YearOfTheOx

Be the Ox that you always wanted to be and make sure to wear a hyde tonite for good luck in the New Chinese Year!

Do you have a google analytics account?

I hope you're enjoying your week-end so far.

I've been looking at google analytics for the last hour trying to make sense of the traffic that comes to my website and etsy accounts.
The one for my website I've had for a couple of years. I've used these data (1) to work on tagging the pages with the keywords that people use to search for me, (2) to create a homepage and a navigation system that is user-friendly and enticing.
Now I have analytics on my two etsy accounts where I have yet to accumulate enought data to make sense of it.

Do you have a google analytics account?
Whether you do or not, hop onto timothy's adam page
http://timothyadamdesigns.blogspot.com
and check out the tutorials on how to get an account on google analytics and start tracking the traffic in your etsy shop.

Let me know what you think and how it goes.

Marketing Blossoming Hearts

I hope you have a peaceful and wonderful Martin Luther King Day!

Among many things you might choose to do today, a suggestion that I heard on the radio and would like to pass on is, "If someone flips you off on the road today while you're driving, smile and wave back."

Speaking of love and peace, here (above) are a new pair of earrings from me. Please let me know what you think of this design. I thought I would call this collection The Blossoming Heart.

I'm getting ready to write an essay for The Crafts Report for their Insight section which"highlights artists' ideas for marketing their products/business and the successes they have achieved in doing so." Fortunately the essay has to be short because I don't have that much to say on this subject.

I find marketing to be the hardest part of being an artisan. Here are a few things that I've been doing on a regular basis to market my work:

1. I've maintained a website for a few years now where I show old and new work, teaching schedule etc.
2. I opened a studio/showroom downtown Natick about a year and a half ago where I work and offer un(finished) pieces for sale.
   
3. Several galleries carry my work.
4. Almost two years ago I opened an etsy account [lilianabead.etsy.com] where I offer beads and more for sale to a market that I hadn't considered seriously before, i.e. other designers who incorporate lampwork glass pieces into their jewelry.
   
5. I work very hard on coming up with new designs that are specific to my style and aesthetic preferences.
6. I make sure that all collections I intend to offer on a regular basis have titles.

Here are a few things that I've done recently to market my work including engaging the social media (which I never felt was my strength but would love to work on making it one):

1. I have a second etsy account [lilianabeadjewelry.etsy.com] where I will offer one-of-a-kind finished work.
2. I have work for sale on my website.
3. I now have a blog which you're reading.
4. I have a facebook account.
5. I am going to post photos of my work on my flickr account.
   

And here are a few things that I would like to do:

1. Keep up with everything I have and am doing and constantly reassess the results.
2. Develop relationships with a couple of galleries the owners of which will open wholesale accounts to carry my work.
3. Get more involved with my community.
   
4. Stay enthusiastic and maintain a healthy work ethic which allows me to enjoy my family and still bring income.

I have the feeling that I've said enough :)
Thank you for following this blog; I'm looking forward to your comments so we can have a discussion about issues we all care about.

Creating Heart Jewelry

Frank Lloyd Wright said that, "The heart is the first feature of working minds."
Among other meanings behind this quote, it also describes best my relationship with hearts: when it comes to creating hearts my brain kicks in as it says, "So what are you going to make?"

The truth is that I've made many many heart pendants and necklaces over the years and yet here I am thinking about them again and again as if I've never made one before. Re-creating what I've already made is not satisfactory to me.

With St. Valentine on our doorstep in addition to the fact that hearts sell very well all year around, I am thinking of new designs. Designs that are not too much of a cliche and which would reinforce the form of the heart in a subtle way.

The form of the heart is what appeals to me very much and making that form in glass is one of the most sensuous experience to me. Watching and guiding the hot glass as gravity wraps it with its charm and power is simply hypnotizing.

Well, no more words. One more heart ... that I really enjoyed making.

Inspired by the Stamen - New LilianaBead Design

Sometimes I hear, "Oh, I could do that."
My question then is, "Did you do it or did someone else get to it first?"
Inspiration is deeply individual fueled by our social experience.

I spend a lot of time thinking about designs. I like to take pride in my work. The source of that pride is the time, effort and skill I spend on designing glass beads and jewelry, and more.

Right now I'm working on new designs in jewelry.
Here's one that I created this past week while looking at structures of plants.
This collection is inspired by the structure of the stamen.

I'm making the first exemplars of this collections available in my etsy shop: lilianabeadjewelry.etsy.com

Please don't hesitate to give me feedback on this collection.

Today is the day!

I'm finally here and quite excited about it too :)

The reason why I haven't done till now is that I never thought of myself as being able to keep a blog. But I'm willing to give it a try because I am sure that I am going to love the community.