Etsy won over galleries...

here's my set up last night for pics... you can't see it but the lights have a fabric panel over it to reduce glare.

the picture after it's edited.  I know I need to work on photos!

I trust and hope everyone had a lovely Holiday Season!! (if you didn’t, go buy yourself a piece of jewelry as a pick me up.  If you did, then buy one to celebrate a great holiday!! )

A few weeks ago I was debating if I would look for gallery opportunities in the area or really work on my Etsy.

I admit galleries is probably the best option money-wise, and less work overall . Etsy involves lots of time : selecting jewelry, taking pictures, writing descriptions, coming up with tags and researching people's search patterns... in hopes of increasing sales, and doing what I can to promote my listings.

But Etsy allows me much more flexibility and to keep control.

I admit, I have control issues.

I've been in several galleries over the years, and most of them were really good experiences while they lasted...but most of the galleries folded on me. ( I suspect most galleries have a short life -- it's a hard business!) I've had one "bad" -- it closed without me knowing about it, and I never got all my jewelry back. I'm unsure if pieces sold that I wasn't paid for, if things were stolen, or mixed up with some other artist's items. one piece was broken... again no idea how that happened.

I admit, this makes me a wee bit leery of galleries.  The stress of the worry that something will happen… I have enough stress in my life.  At least listing on Esty I don’t have to worry about stolen items and galleries closing without notice.  And when I sell on Etsy, I’m only losing about 8% in fees, instead of 50-60% which is the standard commission at most galleries.  Granted to date, my sales on Etsy have been meager.

Becides if I do Etsy I have that backlog of jewelry available to me for shows.  If get low in inventory during show season, it's a snap to deactivate that listing and put it on the table.  Honestly this happens every year by late July.  If it’s in a gallery it’s not reachable or usable. 

Checking out and chatting up galleries requires time during the day, not something I have much of as I work full time in addition to my jewelry business.

Etsy I can take photos, edit and list whenever I wish. I've got it set up so I can do it from my iPad in the studio, which is darn handy. ( I bought key board for my iPad which I love)

So Etsy it is. I"ve already started listing more jewelry ( I"m over 130 entries already) and my goal is to list 20-30 pieces each month, until I have at least 200 in the shop.

I"m also listing items from my main line, Mechanical Romance. That category is now over 25!

In the coming weeks I plan to update my Etsy banner and icon .   I’ll have periodic sales in the hopes of increasing traffic.  I’ve started to pin my listings on Pinterest, which has already helped increase it!

I don't like the idea of investing so much time creating the listings and sprucing up my shop front if I'm not going to get anything for it.. I"m just going to have to take a leap of faith.

It wouldn't take more than a few sales a month to make it worthwhile.

 So that’s the plan.