Friday, September 28, 2007

babies!


I've been spending the past few days packing up my place, to move to a larger apartment with my man. My neighbor Beverly stopped by yesterday with baby Felicia. Felicia had fun opening up boxes, making up stories she read in a blank book, and getting into general mischief. She was enamored with my bead boxes, and she loved it when I shook glass jars full of buttons and marbles. That's her getting very excited about a jar of cocktail forks that she found in the box.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

saturday

spent the day strolling through the Upper East Side, hitting my favorite flea market and wandering through Central Park. I can't wait to clean up and photograph my new finds, which b and I sorted through from a table piled high with trinkets and junk.

I've been thinking about all the good blogging tips Amy of greenjeans gave at the American Craft Council talk on Wednesday night. She and Rena discussed how keeping a blog can improve visibility for your business, and she suggested the following:

•post photographs to catch readers' eyes.
•mention the name of your business in your posts to increase the likelihood that it will come up in a search. for example, there are other businesses named greenjeans, one of them being a restaurant in toronto. mentioning amy's business name increases the chance that her greenjeans will come up if someone does a search for it on google or another search engine.
•set up an rss feed for your blog so that people who read multiple blogs per day can be notified of when you post. many people prefer to run down their list of daily blog reads quickly, only reading the most recent post. having an rss feed also reminds people to read your blog if they're not inclined to keep them bookmarked or use another method.
•post often!
•be patient- she mentioned at first having just a few readers, but in time her readership has increased.

Some of the benefits of keeping a blog that Amy and Rena mentioned are:

•it's the easiest free advertising a business can take advantage of. there are several free hosting companies, google (blogger) and typepad being among the most popular.
•both sellers of handmade and small production goods, blogs enable Amy and Rena to provide back story on their designers. This leads to the creation of community, as readers/ customers become acquainted with the artists and are able to follow links to the artists' own sites or other sources of information.
•This, in turn, benefits both the shop owner and the artist, creating a new business paradigm of cooperation versus competition.
•If you own a web shop, posting photos of new goods on your blog can create interest and even pre-sell items. Rena mentioned the incredible success she had selling online the in-store show she did with collage artist (and her now business partner) lisa congdon. I don't think rena anticipated the response she would get online when she started posting information on this exhibition.
•this sort of leads into the benefits of having an online shop, but they both mentioned the ability to sell internationally. (and the relationship of having a blog that leads people to your shop from all over the world.)

a few questions were fielded from the audience. one woman talked about being an artist who has exclusive gallery representation, and how she has to monitor what she says on her blog, as she is not allowed to represent herself. this philosophy was very contrary to the way Amy and Rena operate, as mentioned above, in their desire to spread the word as much as possible about people whose work they sell.

the salon was very graciously hosted by the american craft council, publisher of american craft magazine and home to a significant collection of craft and design books, catalogues, and periodicals. it's located on the 6th floor of a building on spring street near lafayette which is home to poet's house and marc jacobs' studio. the library is open to the public by appointment. there was great food and drink provided, and the salon drew a good crowd. the event was videotaped by both etsy and faythe levine of the indie craft documentary.

it is great to see the american craft council, which has historically supported the traditional craft arts such as woodworking, ceramics and metalsmithing, become acquainted with the current diy/ indie/ crafter movement. there was a bridging of generations at this event, as the younger crafters bring hand work into the electronic age. I look forward to attending more events, or browsing the collections there.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

indian summer

it's a warm, sunny day near summer's end here in bed-stuy. just a brief update in between wash and dry cycles, as b is out interviewing for a job. we've been on a hardcore apartment search, as I get on top of all the early-autumn demands of this business. last week I sent a collection of my work over to the sundance channel, as I continue to contribute to the wardrobe for the green. this week I completed a new collection for modishoppe, a wonderful online boutique I will be selling with for the first time this fall. coming up, I will be restocking bracelets and key chains at rare device. btw, I will be attending a talk this evening,"Blogging the Handmade: Creating Community, Conversation and Commerce," at the American Craft Council Library given by rd owner rena tom as she swings through nyc. I hope to report on it, as well as the feral childe spring 08 fashion show I attended last weekend. more on the agenda...just wanted to check in. enjoy the fabulous weather if you can.

Friday, September 14, 2007

collections

And now to let you know what I keep inside all those little boxes: My pin collection. The enamel blue leaf and turquoise butterfly come from my grandmother's travels in Scandanavia. I bought the ceramic pointing finger in Philadelphia, when I was in high school. The square one is a 1"x1" etching (my grand feat was pulling it through the press) I made while at VCU. The bulldog is from an old family friend who worked for Mack Trucks. Most of the rhinestone pins were gifts, as was the large filigree oval. A few others I picked up in nyc antique stores. Probably the most unusual one is the circular shell pin, hand painted with warriors on horses. That one belonged to my grandmother.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

sneak peek



The Sneak Peek of my apartment is up today on design*sponge! You can also view a full set of these photos on my flickr page.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

weekend update

while I'm sure many of you are out there enjoying the spectacular late summer weather, I thought I'd give a little word. after a nine-month ldr, my bf is moving here tomorrow. so lots of work to be done before he gets here. new clasps are in order, to get some pieces finished and shipped out. I was surprised this a.m. when the mail man buzzed the door. he was bringing me a box of some old pieces that had been lost in the mail months ago. so look for those in my sale section before the end of the weekend. maybe today- who knows?

and...remember the sneak peek I mentioned a while back? well look for it this week coming up. I am so excited about this. design*sponge is an excellent resource for unknown, up and coming, international, and just plain interesting design- mostly home, furniture and interior. but I am oh so lucky to have d*s (the über-talented grace bonney) be a fan of my jewelry.

ttfn. if the weather holds out, we should be hitting the beach tomorrow.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

williamsburg yesterday













p.s. I could have titled this post hasidim, hound, homeboy, hipster.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

another view



of the finds from yesterday before I start hacking them apart.

not so laborious

the fall issue of N.E.E.T. is online now! check it out.

found treasures



the manhattan flea markets are becoming harder and harder to find. and yet, there are still some hidden gems out there. I found these treasures waaay out on the upper east side.