International Sales

I sold the clutch that is my avatar on Etsy yesterday.


I'm thrilled to have sold it, but I'm also a little sad--and I don't know if I should change my avatar or not. I had been thinking about changing it to a skein of yarn, but I'm still not sure. (I will probably eventually make another clutch like the one that sold.)

I posted a while back about adding international shipping to my Etsy shop and it seems to be starting to pay off. My last two sales were international. (One of which was the clutch.) And hopefully there will be many more. I had been so scared of sending things out of the country, but it really is much easier than I had expected. The only thing I don't like about it is that I have to actually go to the Post Office, rather than sending it to work with Chris (who is a mail carrier).

So Many Beads...

I just mailed out a custom order of felted beads. Ninety beads. I have never made this many at once before. The big ones were a bit more difficult to make than I was expecting so that took me a little while, but I got them done pretty quickly.


And it was my very first international order. Much easier than I expected--although I do have to go to the post office and I don't for domestic shipping.

I have begun adding international shipping to my Etsy listings--finally. (And I am adjusting the US shipping prices at the same time. That way the shipping price will actually pay for the shipping.) I'm not done adding it to my entire shop, but I should get it sometime this weekend--unless something comes up. I expect I'll now get hundreds of orders from all over the world, since I'm certain that not having international shipping was the only thing holding me back.

And I put up a banner in my shop today. It's not the best banner ever, but it looks pretty good--and apparently it's really important to have a banner. I can see how it would make you look more like a real shop. So now I look more professional, I guess.

Shipping and More Tatting Practice

As you may or may not know, as of today, new shipping rules have gone into effect at the USPS. So I am working on changing my shipping in my Etsy shop to reflect the higher prices. I still haven't quite figured it out so I haven't changed any of my listings as of now. (I also want to add international shipping prices at the same time since it will take quite a while to change all of my listings. And I'm not quite sure of the pricing on that right now either--or what countries I want to list in each listing.) These shipping changes are even more confusing than I originally thought they were. I am pretty sure I won't be able to ship my items as large envelopes any more because they are too thick and I am completely befuddled by the non-machinable surcharge. Ugh. And my SO works at the Post Office, but since he's a mail carrier and not a clerk, he knows nothing at all that's useful to me right now. So hopefully I will have that done soon.

More tatting practice last night... I have now learned how to tat a split ring and chains.


(I don't have a picture of the chains because they aren't really much different than rings, so I didn't practice them much.) I love split rings--I think I could make jewelry that I like out of just them. Once I get a little better at it, that is.

International Shipping

I have noticed that I've recently gotten a few hits on this blog from outside the US. (I'm a bit amazed to have gotten any hits--let alone ones from other countries.) And, in case anyone went to my Etsy shop and noticed I do not offer international shipping, I wanted to post about it. I am planning to offer international shipping in the near future--even though I'm slightly terrified of doing it. The USPS is changing all of the shipping rates on May 14th and, as I can't really seem to understand the changes without the handy rate calculator (which I assume will be updated then), I am waiting until after that to begin offering international shipping. Another reason I am waiting is that I will have to also change my US shipping prices at that time and I so do not want to have to change each listing twice. If you're interested in buying from my shop right now and you aren't in the US, please contact me and I will work out international shipping charges on a case by case basis.