6 Simple Ways to Grow Your Handmade Business NOW!

This post is from, The Fine Lime, a delightful and very skilled artisian who makes fresh, squeezable, handspun yarn. I invite you to read her post and while there, check out her fabulous yarn.

The HOLIDAYS are coming, and for many of you, its the busiest season!  Try these simple ideas you can implement right away to improve your ......click here to read her list

 

SALE

To celebrate Colombia Independence Day (July 20), Utah's Pioneer Day (July 24th) and Even Christmas in July (July) we will offer three coupon codes for you to use and save at our Etsy shoppe. If you have any questions, please let me know.

• Use: shipping15 to get FREE shipping within the USA
• Use: save20 to save 20% on any piece
• Use: save 50 to save $50 on any order over $200

Coupons expire July 31, 2015, midnight, MST

www.etsy.com/shop/galleonsgold

new camera

We have upgrated to a much better camera, to hopfully take better macro pictures of our jewelry.  It has been a long time in coming.

Well, it came today.  So we played around a little with it.  Here are two rings that we will be putting up for sale soon. 

I didn't do much editing....and I need to work out a few things, but I think I am going to like our new addition. 

Now the work begins....


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We still have a few openings in our jewelry making & silversmithing classes.  Click here for details.  And in May we will have classes available 2-3 times a week.

New Year

~ ~  Happy    2013 ~ ~

Come celebrate the new year with us! Save 13% in our Esty shoppe.  We have over 90 hand-crafted, one of a kind, fine pieces as well as vintage jewelry that are currently for sale. 

Use coupon code:  

new2013 

at the check out for your savings.

update

We haven't posted much on here lately, but we certainly have been busy.  Here is an update of some projects.



*** Due to student's requests, our jewelry classes will be held on Tues and Thurs evenings.  Saturday mornings are available upon request.  Looks like this schedule will be it until the end of the year.


*** Rene has teamed up with Ogden City School District in Northern Utah.  He will be teaching a  FREE jewelry class.  The class will start July 30th and will run M-TH for two weeks from 10am -- 11:15ish. This is for teenagers and adults.  Let us know if you are interested or call 801-737-7790 to sign up. Space is limited to 10, so sign up fast!


*** We have added about 20 new pieces of jewelry to our Etsy Shop.  Click on the picture below to be taken to our shop.  Enjoy!

Weekend Sale

We are having a great weekend sale in our Etsy shop.

The more you buy ---- the more you save!!

 

Good:

Buy 1 item in our Etsy shop, save 15% 

use coupon code: save1

Better:

Buy 2 items in our Etsy shop, save 25% 

use coupon code: save2

Best:

Buy 3 items in our Etsy shop, save 30% 

use coupon code: save3

Click on items to the right or below to be taken to our Etsy shop.

Sale ends Monday, May 21st 7am(ish) MST.

new projects

New items for sale is our Etsy shop:

And here are some new rings we have been working on -- they shall be for sale in our Etsy shop shortly.

Enjoy!

Photos of new items

We have some new items for sale on Etsy. Enjoy the photos.

silver and turquoise necklace set

upclose of sterling silver necklace

turquoise and coral set

New items for sale in Etsy shop

We have been busy the last few days and here are our new items for sale in our Etsy online shop.  Please click on each picture to see more information about the piece. Enjoy!

Sterling Silver Textured Snake Ring

Sterling Silver Butterfly Pendant

Pendant with a snake and a bird's head

Sterling Silver Flower w/ Colombian Emerald Brooch

Mother of Pearl Fish Necklace

Sterling Silver Flower with Colombian Emerald Brooch

Sterling Silver Smooth Snake Ring

Silver-Nickel Textured Snake Ring

Sterling Silver Ring with Rhinestones

yet another favorite

You are my sunshine,

  My only sunshine.

You make me happy,

  When skies are grey...

What makes you happy when skies are grey??  For my friend, Kit, it is painting small pleasures. But to be honest, I have never seen her not happy. She is one of those people who always has on a beautiful smile with happiness radiating from her.

And so today, I highlight Kit's blog, http://www.paintinggrey.blogspot.com/

Kit started painting to find a sense of self after her first child was born. She uses oil and watercolor, but has also used acrylics a little.  I love her various bird collections. They bring a sunshine into a room and when you look at them, you can't help but smile.  She also paints little, little watercolor scenes and turns them into necklaces, which I find ever so charming.

I knew when I first met Kit we would become freinds.  Maybe it was because we are both young moms, or that we both married Colombians, or maybe it was because we both like to try new things---what ever the reason, I know you will like her and her painting too.

Other than her beautiful work, I enjoy reading about the stories behind her paintings. I hope you do too!!

You can purchase her orginal paintings or prints from her blog. She also has an Etsy shop.

You'll never know dear,

   How much I love you.

Please don't take

   My sunshine away.

Reminder:

Just a week left until Mother's Day.  Need some jewelry?  Want something unique? Please check out our Etsy shop.  

Receive 20% off your order when you use: FORMOTHER at the checkout.

Here is a sampling of our products:
  

News, news, news

Spring is coming and it is so delightful out. Our flowers are starting to bloom and the grass is green again. I get so excited this time of year to get out and play in the dirt.

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Rene has a temporary gig teaching a jewelry class after school to some teenagers. They are having a fun time. The goal is to have some jewelry pieces made so they can give them to their Moms on Mother's Day.

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We have no definate plans yet for the fairs and markets to sell our jewelry at yet. We are anxious and want to get our calendar finalized. I do hope it happens soon. If you have any favorite places, let us know. We are always looking for new places to sell our jewelry.

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Taking beautiful and fabulous pictures is still a struggle for me, so I am looking for a community photography class. I think that would help!! Know of any in Northern Utah?
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We are still waiting for our tax returns to come.  I did great keeping track of our personal deductions, receipts, etc---but not so good with the business end.  Uggh, it was quite the chore to get it all organized.  Therefore, this year, I am getting a system together to help with the organization.  I will share it with you in a few days.

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We are having a Mother's Day sale for items in our Etsy shop. Please enter coupon code: FORMOTHER at the check out to receive 20% off your order!

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Have a Facebook page? We would love for you to be our fan! And we will be your fan back too!

https://www.facebook.com/GalleonsGold 

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Did you know we give demonstrations and one day classes to schools, church groups, scouts, etc???  We are happy to travel to Davis, Weber, Morgan and Box Elder counties in Utah.  If you would like us to do something in another place, please let us know and we can see what the options are.

FREE shipping

The end of March marks many anniversaries for us.  Six years married, seven years in our house (for me anyway) and one year having our Etsy store.  To celebrate, we are offering a coupon code for FREE shipping on any item in our Etsy store.  To use, enter the code during check out. 

code: FREESHIPAPRIL

This coupon code will be valid for two weeks until April 20th.

New photos

We have some new photos of these frogs, toads and gecko brooches. (They also have a hook on them so they can be used as necklace pendants.)




They are replicas of Pre-Colombian artifacts housed in the Gold Museum of Colombia. These though, are 18k gold plated brass. They will be for sale in our Etsy store soon.

Another Treasury

I was thinking of Colombia tonight and all the fun things my husband has taught me about his homeland--- the art, the fun festivals, and Christmas Posadas.  So I put together this Colombian Treasury on Etsy. Please click here to see it!

PS This is our piece:

Another New Treasury

We created another fun Etsy treasury.   But first, I should explain the treasuries---an Etsy treasury is an ever-changing, member-curated shopping gallery.  I put together the collection.  The gecko brooch is ours, while the rest is from other artisians. 

(The fun praying mantis was created by our friend, Kit. Click here to see her blog and here to see her Etsy store.)


Ok- so now that it is explained and I put in a plug for Kit---------------

We want to announce that we just created a fun new Etsy treasury:

Cute & Cuddly Creepy Crawlies.  

Click here to see the treasury!

Enjoy! Because I know you love to hate and hate to love these creatures!! 

Treasury

We made up a fun "Wake Up Little Susie" Etsy treasury. It is a fun collection about waking up yourself or others to the morning beauty then wearing beautiful jewelry. Thought you would like to see it:

Click here to see treasury :)

Enjoy!

New Pictures

Well, I did it!! I figured out how to down load pictures from our new camera to the computer.  After struggling and agonizing, I resorted to reading the owner's manual.   Come to find out there was a CD you were to download to the computer first. Who knew?? Silly me. 

I know, I know. I should have read it first.  But my thought was since our other camera was hooked up and we eaily downloaded pictures from that, we could easily plug in our new camera and *wink* pictures would be downloaded as easily.  Nope. It just didn't work that way.  We tried this and that and everything in between.  But nothing worked until we read the manual. Let this be a lesson to me and to you!! Read the manual!

And as a bonus, I learned some cool tricks I can do with my camera.  Fun!  Fun!

So.................I have been busy today uploading to our Etsy sight.

Please check out how it looks in our Etsy store by clicking on one of the pictures to the right.

musings.....

It is a quiet Sunday morning. Earlier, I was looking over our books for Galleon's Gold. We seem to be stagnant lately and wanted to see what the books showed. Then it got me to thinking----

I fantisized that when Rene and I started to sell his jewelry, that all we had to do was dabble here or there and then the people would just flock to our websites, farmers' market booths, Etsy store and to our home--- clamoring to purchase the jewelry and we would have a waiting list for people who want to take his jewelry class.

HA! HA! HA!!

Reality has way of not quite working out the same as fantasies. Isn't that how life goes???

I have found, looking over our books this morning, that overall, our sales are increasing. (Which comforts my heart...for don't we all want evidence of increase as a result of our efforts??) But the increase isn't as fast or as much as I would like. Patience, I am reminded, patience. Another friend reiterated to me the starving artist phrase. And more patience.

Sign...........

So with a renewal of our dreams, we press forward. September goals include:

• We still need to figure out how to download our pictures from our new camera. I think this will help a lot with the Etsy sales.
• We are in the process finding and signing up for fall/holiday boutique and fairs to rent booths at. We will let you know when/where they are.
• Begin compiling a mailing list of the multitudes of business card we have collected over this past year.

Best wishes to us in our endeavor and to you with your dreams.....