Then there's Feedback...

I've gotten lots of great feedback. I check my Etsy a few times a day for any new feedback.
I do have three neutral feedbacks, though.
They are always disappointing.

My first neutral feedback was from someone who hadn't gotten their package yet. I had already shipped it (if they had checked Etsy or PayPal, it would've shown up "shipped") and before contacting me, they left some neutral feedback. The next day, they sent me a message about it, only to send another about 45 minutes later when they got it in the mail. Frustrating, no?

Second one was because something took too long to be shipped. I do have on my shop announcement (and now in my "message to buyer") that it may be as many as 10 business days before their order will be shipped. Maybe they didn't notice it?
I have a busy life. My main time for Etsy stuff is in the evening after supper and before bed. Not a lot of time there. I'd love to ship everything out sooner, but sometimes, I just can't.

My third neutral feedback was from someone who hadn't paid for their order yet. They bought something a two days prior and when I saw that they hadn't paid (I usually wait about 12 hours before saying something), I contacted them letting them know that I would not be able to ship their order until it was paid for.
The next day I notice a neutral feedback that said, (more or less) "Hi, still trying to get the hang of this whole paying thing... Can't wait to receive my fishbowl!"
That one was very frustrating.
Obviously the person is simply inexperienced(they could've just replied to my message and avoided the whole thing!). But it makes me look bad to have neutral feedback.

In every late (or potentially late) shipment, I include a little note to the buyer on a 3x5 notecard with a personal message about how sorry I am that it's late and whatnot.
I hope that'll help keep me from getting a lot of neutral or negative feedback.

Also, you know the people who send messages telling you how great your product is and how much they love it? I wish they would leave me feedback as well.

*sigh* Feedbacks...

NEWS: Etsy has just come out with this new feature called "Kiss and make up?" for neutral (and negative?) feedback! Wonderful. :)

Of Fish and Hippies

Well, about a fortnight ago, my Lightbulb Fishbowl was featured on Etsy Finds. This resulted in a torrent of sales and quite a few convos.
Several of the convos were pleas for me to take the fishbowls off Etsy and reconsider what I was promoting.

And after a lot of thought (and I mean a LOT), I have decided that I'm going to keep the fishbowls on Etsy (I did take them off for a while).
I have had fish for years. I love fish. Betta fish are one of my favorites because they are so versatile and live in such a variety of containers happily. I have kept them in old lanterns, antique soda bottles, jars, vases, and other such neat glassware. They've lived as long as the average betta should. They seem happy.

My newest idea was a lightbulb. And I haven't put them in the standard size lightbulb. That seems a bit small. But the vanity type lightbulbs... And the G40 kind (they hold about a quart of water) seem to do nicely. My fish are happy in there. And contrary to popular belief, they are quite easy to care for in a lightbulb.

Example:
Water changing. Simply pour out the desired amount (you can strain it through a fork if you're worried your fish may try swimming out (I've never had any trouble with it, though)) and fill it back up. With filtered water, of course. I read someone used a funnel for this.

Getting the fish in the lightbulb is not hard either. It is so easy if you put the fish in a bag (or if he/she came in a bag) and simply pour it in the opening. I always advise doing this over the sink or bathtub as a precaution. The person who used a funnel for pouring in water also used it to pour in their fish. I've never tried it myself, but it sounds like a nice easy alternative to the bag!

Oh, and if you are worried about an ammonia build-up, change the water more often! I'm lazy, though, and use carbon rocks which soak up the ammonia wonderfully (electric filters in most aquariums use carbon gravel stuff for this very purpose). Of course I do still change the water. But the rocks really do help!

Many of the naysayers who contacted me a fortnight ago would say something about cruelty... Either the fishbowl being cruel, or me.
Well, anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a cruel person... I love my animals SO much. Ask anyone who is even somewhat acquainted with me. I would never intentionally hurt any animal, and certainly not repeatedly over the course of many years.

I do not believe what I am doing is wrong or cruel.
Sorry if what I'm doing doesn't float your boat.
I have a vase version of the fishbowls still up for you who don't like it.

But anyhow...
Good day to you, and Happy Earth Day!

-Star

To everything there is a Season...

So this past weekend I took out my dreadlocks.
Yep, that's right.
Combed them out.
All 40 of them.

Why?

Well, I have been planning to take them out for a while now (I haven't taken good care of them so they weren't exactly the best dreads I'd ever seen), and this weekend I was staying at my grandmother's house. So it was an opportunity (not to mention I got a good bit of pushing from my grandma (she has always missed my "beautiful" hair ever since I dreaded it)), so with her and my best friend's help, we combed out all my dreads.

It was painful, I admit.
But combing out millions of knots that have been locked for almost 2 years usually is painful.

My hair is now quite long (almost to my waist!). And it needs a bit of conditioning care (it fared the dreadlocks surprisingly well and does not look very damaged at all).
I did trim the edges. I had layers back in the days before I had dreads. I liked how the layers would accentuate my wavy hair. So I created some new layers tonight. It also gives my hair more "body" so I don't have to do anything to it for it to look fine.

Funny thing, some people actually haven't noticed. They may think something is different about me, but can't place it. It's happened at least three times (that I've been told/witnessed).

Well, here are the before and after pictures:



P.S. For the "after" photo, I was showing my best friend the new headband I made yesterday.


So... I guess I'll have to relearn my hair now that it's no longer in dreadlocks!

Consignment Opportunity!

I was contacted last week by a fellow who is starting a shop called MADE in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Jackson Hole is a ski/mountain town which is also the southern entrance to the Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone and sees as many as 3 million tourists just in the summer.
John, owner and artist behind Strapped Belts, asked if I would like to send some of my lightbulb vases and lightbulb fishbowls to him for his store, starting out on a consignment basis. He's asked several other artists from around the world and I am among the ones who have said yes.
The store officially opens on May 7th, but I will have all the items shipped to Wyoming by the 1st of May.
Once the store is on it's feet, all the consignment agreements will be switched to wholesale accounts (more of my cup of tea) and all I'll have to do is sell my items to the store!
This could be a wonderful opportunity!

Every day. Except Sundays...

Pretty amazing how God works.
I asked for at least a sale a day while I'm in school (I figured it would be easy enough to deal with since I'm fairly busy anyway).
As soon as I asked... I started making at least one sale per day. Sometimes two. I made three on my birthday, actually.
And I did make a sale the first Sunday. But the second and third Sundays I haven't.
"'tis the sabbath," my friend Leesha says.
She could be right, though. >.>
Wouldn't surprise me. Haha.
But let's hope for a sale a day to continue. And I'm going to be asking for two sales a day soon enough. (I want to be able to eventually shorten my day job hours to 1-2 hours a day.)
So here's to lots of sales! :D

In other news...

Well, I did make a sale yesterday. It was the first lightbulb fishbowl I've sold. Packed it up and shipped it today. Now just waiting for the next sale... I'm hoping for one at some point today.

Today is my birthday. I'm eighteen.. A legal adult.
And instead of not feeling eighteen, I feel like I've always been eighteen. It's a "FINALLY" sort of feeling.
But today I'm not feeling very happy, for some reason...
Just a little down.
Even though several people (especially via Facebook) have wished me a happy birthday, and my math class sang happy birthday to me. My Dad texted me from work this morning. My best friend Daly sent me a nice happy birthday message, too.

But I've not felt that great since sometime this morning...
I hope the day gets better. I've really no reason to be sad.

Oh, also, I've not felt like eating (I think that sometimes happens when I feel down). I have been hungry. My stomach has made hunger noises. But I skipped lunch.
Still don't feel like eating.
We'll see how it goes. I'll be going to my grandmother's house tonight and I expect we'll be eating. Haha.
So hopefully I'll feel like eating then...

Waiting...

So I made three sales in two days (Friday and Saturday) and it was an amazing feeling. One was a UK order and the other two were in the US.
The Saturday orders I saw when I woke up (I love waking to a sale!).
I got them ready to ship, shipped them, and now I'm waiting...
Waiting for another sale...
It's been a few days.
One neat thing that happened yesterday was I noticed my views on Etsy (through Google Analytics) were sky high. Higher than they'd ever been before. I looked through the details, clicked to another website or two, and found that one of my grapevine bracelets had been featured on the Etsy home page! At 4am EST. So I was definitely still asleep. But I was pretty excited!
Unfortunately, my views today cannot compare.. And I did not make any sales from it..
But there's still hope!
Hey, I'm getting there!

And I'm still waiting. Hear that, God? I want to make a sale, please.

Yet another Etsy Treasury Feature...

I don't know if I'll list Etsy Treasury features for my lightbulb vase anymore after this. Since it's so popular... I may mention it as a bit of news, but no more screenshots for you people!
For the vase, anyhow.

New stuff I'll still include.

Here's the link:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=91089

I'm learning...

"If you make it, they will come."

So I've started to notice a trend here.

I didn't sell two lightbulb vases to the same person in Australia until I had a box big enough to accommodate both vases.

I didn't sell vases two days in a row until I had ordered and received a shipment of appropriately sized cardboard boxes.

I only sold one inkwell when I had an extra inkwell made and ready to go.

I didn't get an international order until I was ready with the customs forms.

So... Every time I take a step of faith and order boxes to ship stuff that I haven't sold, or make a few extra lightbulb vases, or get customs forms, I'll make a sell that has to do directly with what I got/made in faith.

Today, after realizing this, I ordered some small boxes just for my bracelets, earrings, and necklaces I make. I also ordered some boxes long enough to accommodate the length of my pheasant feather pens. I even got some lightbulbs in the beginning stages of being transformed into vases and inkwells.

Let the sales begin.

Featured in an Etsy Treasury!

Well here's another Etsy Treasury feature. Though it is not for the lightbulb vase! It is for my peacock feather pen! I'm amazed how much more popular it is than my other feather pens. It's like the complete opposite than what my mother said.

Oh, here's the link, if you're interested:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=118839

The Process of Creating: Feather Pens

So the other day, I had a new idea. An improvement on feather pens. You know the kind of feather pens you see nowadays that are basically an ink pen with a feather attached. Those are all fine and dandy, but the majority of them just look too girly... Too many pastel colors and ribbons. Yeah. Not for me.

I had a length of wire sitting around on my desk next to my sewing machine that I had saved because I didn't want to waste it. Then the idea clicked... Wire wrap the feathers onto the pen!
I tried it. And it looked pretty classy, I must say. My mom liked the idea when I showed her the ostrich feather pen I had created. She wanted to buy it from me, even. Interestingly, she didn't like the peacock feather pen I made next. She thought it looked too unique. But when I put the feather pens on Etsy, the first one to sell was my peacock feather pen!

I also have made an inkwell made out of a small lightbulb that's just perfect with these pens. I made it the same way I make the lightbulb vases here.

Lately, I've added a touch of super glue to these pens to insure the feathers stay exactly where I want them.

Also, one of the great things about my feather pens is that they're easily refillable if they run out of ink! I use Pilot G-2 07 pens and you can buy ink refills at Walmart. So they're eco-friendly as well as classy!

Blog Feature 3!

Say, this nice lady named Liz featured my lightbulb vase on her blog as well! I really like her post about it. :)
Here's the link:

http://agirlcallede.blogspot.com/2010/03/light-bulb-moment.html

I guess I'll start calling these posts "blog features"

Say! Another blog feature!! It's so exciting when people do this. :)

This one was by a woman in Brazil named Renata. She also featured my lightbulb vase along with two other nifty recycling ideas.

Here's the link:
http://dicasgreen.blogspot.com/2010/03/reutilize-e-decore.html

And here's a screenshot! :D

WARNING: It is written in Portuguese. I was able to more or less understand it from my knowledge of Spanish, but for anyone who can't, the description sentence reads (more or less)
"Some creative ideas for reusing that can give your house renewed decor."

WoW again!!

So I get home today and look at my email to see that a nice lady named Jodi Reeves has featured my lightbulb vase in her blog. She didn't write but a sentence about it, but hey, it's something!

Here's the link to it, if you're interested:

http://www.thecreativejar.com/2010/03/what-great-idea.html

And if you're not, here's a screenshot. ;)

The Process of Creating: Grapevine Bracelets

Ah, grapevine bracelets. You know, these don't really take much effort to make. The hardest part is sizing and smoothing the vines, I think.

I first came up with this idea while walking around outside around our grapevines and thinking about wreaths. I was looking for materials to make jewelry out of at the time and cut myself a length of grapevine to play with. With little thought at all, I fashioned it into a mini-wreath and put it on my wrist. I liked the look.. Very earthy and organic.
So I made a second one (slightly larger (for a fellow I never saw again)) and took my creations inside.


It didn't take much wearing before I noticed that the bracelet was indeed a little scratchy... I took out my pocket knife to smooth vine (there are all manner of bumps and protrusions and the like on grapevines). After smoothing and trying it on several times, I had a bracelet that was comfortable as well as groovy! I did the same to the second bracelet and set it aside (it stayed on my dresser for quite a while before it dried out in the wrong shape from not being worn and I eventually just threw it away).


So here I am, almost three years later, still wearing a bracelet (and two others) that I made not long after those first two. They're extremely durable bracelets; I've certainly been rough with them.
I've found that the more you wear them, the better they look. The oils from your skin sort of finish and polish the wood. After a few months, they really look nice. I still get compliments on my bracelets. :)


Also, after a bit of experimentation, I figured a sizing scale that works with most people (double jointed people are an exception as they can fit almost anything on or off their wrists).
So basically, the inside diameter of the bracelet should be a centimeter smaller than the measure of your palm from forefinger to pinky (at the base). This picture might help:





So my palm is about 7 centimeters. So I'd choose the 6 centimeter diameter bracelet.
Now, this sizing has an exception. If you plan to take it off often (if you play sports or something where you can't wear any type of jewelry), this bracelet sizing should work fine for you.
However, if you plan wearing yours ALL the time, 24/7, 365, then you may as well choose a bracelet that's 1 1/2 centimeters smaller than your wrist. It may take a few seconds to get on, but it won't be coming off unless you want it to. The bracelets I wear are that size because that's exactly what I do. I wear them ALLLLL the time.

And hey, these are easily unisex, too. My best friend has 2 (three at one time) that I made for him that he wears all the time. If he were around right now, I'd photograph his wrist so you can see how manly they look.


Anyhow, there's my story on the Intertwined Grapevine Bracelets. You can find them on my Etsy if you want to see more pictures.




Have you made anything different than wreaths with grapevines? And if you haven't, got any awesome ideas?

WoW!!

Look! I've been featured in an Etsy Treasury!!

It's my Clear Thinking Lightbulb Vase!!

And in such a nice spot... I'm in the top lefthand corner!! :)

The Process of Creating: Lightbulb Vases

My favorite redesigning idea is my Lightbulb Vase from the Clear Thinking series I've started which is comprised of ideas for recycling lightbulbs.

I started with a burnt out lightbulb. It was the soft white type. I had found an article online that showed a detailed process of how to hollow and clean an incandescent lightbulb and used it to help me with my first lightbulb.

I carefully hollowed it out with my pliers and a small screwdriver, then cleaned it by swishing some sand around the inside of the bulb. After rinsing it thoroughly, I let it dry as I brain hurricaned a way to make it stand upside down freely. I did not really ever like the wire idea (though some look pretty neat-o), so I was thinking more along the lines of something glued on the bottom..
I used a nickel the first time. Hot glued it to the center of the top (now bottom) of the lightbulb.
After a little thought, I realized if I planned to make several of these, a nickel may not be the best idea...
So I went to my Dad's toolbox and found a washer when I made my second vase. It worked marvelously! When I showed him my creation, he said he had some larger washers at the shop that I could use, and those worked even more wonderfully!

So after critiquing my design, I made a listing on my Etsy and have sold three since January! My vase also has over 300 views and has been hearted over 20 times! It excites me that it has received so much attention.

I will experiment with different lightbulb sizes for different uses. I have a smaller lightbulb I made into an ink well of sorts (well, it's more of a pen rest, or pen home). I really like it and hope it becomes equally popular as the vase.
I recently chanced upon two burnt out frosted glass lightbulbs that are the same size as my standard lightbulb vases... I'll have to put up a listing for them.

Have any ideas, tips, or tricks for recycling or redesigning lightbulbs?

And incidentally... If you attempt to hollow out a lightbulb yourself, please, PLEASE wear eye protection and wrap the lightbulb in a towel while you're working with it to make sure you don't cut your hands (or make a huge mess) if the lightbulb breaks.

A beginning:

Well, I'm starting this blog to share my process of redesigning and creating items that I either use to my own advantage, or share with the world via Etsy.
I also may share bits of diet-related ramble or just life philosophies.
It's a journey and an adventure; we'll see how it goes!
Feel free to share your own experiences and ideas along the way. I love hearing from people!

Here's to the adventure,
Star