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http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prayers4Theresa/180827847061
Catholic girl living in Seattle and making rosaries by hand. My beads and other fun holy medal gifts can be found in my shop http://prayers4theresa.etsy.com
I will keep a few extra magnetic clasps on hand for a couple specific customers who have requested them, but when my inventory goes down I will not be reordering more. These customers have been notified.
One of the reasons my recent craft shows were such a huge success is that I have started accepting credit cards. I had 16 sales through credit cards the other weekend alone.
Because it was so busy I didn't have the opportunity to see any of the other vendors or do any shopping for myself. That's OK though because I made a lot of sales! My best-selling items at the school were the cellphone charms. I had less than 10 left when I went home for the day and spent the evening at home making more so I could have them for my Sunday show. The purse fobs were also a big hit!
On Sunday I was selling at my church's, St. James Cathedral, Avent Bazaar. This is my second year selling there and the difference was night and day! The church event was only 5 hours long but I made MORE at this show than I did at the school. I was amazed!
Secondly, thank you to everyone who has followed me here on my blog and on my Twitter as I frantically prepared for this show. Thank you for the tips and tricks I learned by reading all of your blogs and Twitters and Etsy forum posts. Thank you for your words of support and encouragement.
This was a big risk for me - sticking my neck out into the "indie" community and trying to sell my Catholic goodies among all the fine and funky jewelry, knitted comfy things, hand-sewn clothing, soaps, and other goods made by our crafty community. My products really speak to a small market of people - I know this and I embrace this. So this was a real test to see if I could hold my own among them.
How did I do? I know you only want to hear about the money. lol Well, I made back my booth fee. That's about it. But I did not walk away totally discouraged. I was paid in compliments, smiles, and kind words. I got some great ideas on how I can branch out my offerings for future shows. I made some friends and I got my name and my business out there. Lots of business cards were taken. Some custom orders may be on the horizon.
To celebrate Advent (a little early) it would be my pleasure to give this rosary a loving home. I will ship it to you for free if you win. Details about the contest are below, but first, here's a little more about the rosary you can win:
It's been long aparant to me that I will never be an Etsy Featured Seller. Even if suddenly there was a run on rosaries and religous gifts (possibly the panic of 2012? LOL!) I'm pretty darn sure I still would not be a contensant in the running to be an Etsy Featured Seller. There's one major thing holding me back from this Featured Seller dream - I don't make mass produced items. I can't twitter the phrase "sold and relisted" very often.
I will admit I get jealous of those who can sell and relist their most popular items. These are also the people with the numbers of sales that I can only dream of. But I also hold a great deal of pride that I offer items that can't be found anywhere else. I don't make normal "jewelry". I make items to inspire prayer - and invigorate Faith. I don't see how making cookie cutter duplicates would possibly be appropriate since Prayer and Faith are such uniquely personal things.
Out of the 11 different items I make, there are exactly two things which can be reproduced fairly easily as long as I can continue to get the parts needed - and those would be my Mini Medal Brooches and my Holy Medal Cell Charms/Zipper Pulls. Everything else is One of a Kind (OOAK).
My beads are as unique as my customers. My customers are not carbon copies of each other so why should their products be? I specifically buy most of my beads from other Etsy sellers "destash". They don't want or need the beads anymore so they sell them. While it may not be wholesale pricing when you're just scooping up 10-20 random beads, having a good selection of beads means more to me than saving a penny or two. I make up those pennies when I buy my findings in bulk.
I started with a couple boxes of business cards and stuck labels on the back of each card with a promo code for shopping at my Etsy shop. Using the promo code in the "Message to Seller" part of checkout process the customer will get 10% off the order and free shipping. Not a bad deal, I'd say!
Still busy ramping up inventory for my three upcoming craft shows. Yesterday I started making a whole pile of my Purse fobs/keyrings/zipper pulls - like this St. Patrick one.
The pictures are a little dark since it's just a cameraphone and terrible office-lighting. But it was great to share the little creations as they were made throughout the day.