Shop of the week: Wellspring Creations

Shop of the week: Wellspring Creations Our shop of the week for January 25-31 is from Northern California. When shopping in Wellspring Creations you will find beautiful pieces of jewelry that combine lovely stones or crystals with wire: necklaces, bracelets/cuffs, earrings, and rings. Judy, owner and designer of Wellspring Creations, shows her love for taking a straight piece of wire and turning it into something unique. "With wire and a lovely stone, my imagination simply blooms and I get to play with symmetry, asymmetry, and geometric design." She would like all of our readers to know that "I find unusual stones; sometimes beads (with a drilled hole) or cabochons (a flattened, polished stone with no hole). Many of my finds come from only one mine in the whole world! I consider the stone and how best to wrap it so that the stone is secure and the setting shows off the stone, rather than overwhelms it. I prefer using natural stones and high quality wire, mostly sterling silver, but often work with fine (nearly pure) silver, copper, and 14K gold filled wire. Since I put a lot of time and consideration into each piece, I prefer the components to be high quality, so they last well. I try to make every piece an heirloom." Her designs ship internationally so everyone can enjoy one of her beautiful pieces of work! One of the things I love about Judy is that she is always tweeting about her team members sales and the Etsy Twitter Team's important information. She is always Direct Messaging her fellow tweeter's just to see how they are doing. When asked about how she uses twitter and her tricks she told me: "My followers are my Twitter friends. I follow people that I find interesting and engage in conversations. I think of Twitter as a cocktail party: I go to meet new people, touch bases with old friends and, occasionally, talk about my work. Most of my tweets are comments or responses to other people's tweets. I retweet when it's something I personally find interesting or think others would. I sometimes tweet about my work process--what movie I'm watching while I wrap a pendant; if the light/weather is good enough to photograph my work on a particular day; and a few times a week I tweet a link to an item in my shop. I probably tweet links to others' items a bit more than my own to provide some variety and introduce folks to other handmade artists in a gracious way." Judy's new years resolution for her store is to work on her photographs so that they "look as good as the jewelry I'm trying to photograph! This is often reflected in feedback from clients delighted how much better their purchase looks in their hand than the picture they saw in the Etsy listing!" Judy is offering a free handcrafted gift with any purchase from my Etsy shop during the week of January 25-31, 2010. Use code: SOTW in the comments at checkout. To learn more about Judy and Wellspring Creations please follow the links below: Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WSCreations Etsy Shop: http://www.wellspringcreations.etsy.com/ Facebook: http://www.artist.to/WellspringCreations Blog: http://www.wellspringcreations.blogspot.com/ Thank you Judy for sharing all of this information with us. We wish you a very successful 2010! Written by Jen K. http://www.jenco13.etsy.com/

shop of the week , lost mitten

Shop of the Week: Lost Mitten

When stepping into this week's Shop of the Week, LostMitten.etsy.com, you can feel Lauren Y.'s love for all things that come from video games. Lauren's shop includes handmade crafts, Perler Bead goods for your office and home, needlepoint creations, Nintendo DS cases, and more. In addition to video games, she loves to knit and crochet! You have to check out these amazing fingerless gloves and awesome hats! A perfect gift for this chilly season (and I do mean chilly)! Lost Mitten is also known for a variety of pinback buttons.

Lauren's shop ships internationally and is located in Brantford, Ontario, Canada (near Hamilton, Toronto, London). Lauren would like all of her customers to know that "Each item in the Lost Mitten Etsy Shop is lovingly handmade by me. The designs and concepts for the creations are a collaboration between myself and my fiancé, Paul. My shop has been open since September 2006."

Here at the Etsy Twitter Team we love to share our tricks and favorite ways to use Twitter. Lauren has told me that she just "loves to tweet about my handmade creations and anything else that happens in day-to-day life. I have met some awesome people through my tweets, so I feel that it is important to make these connections and friendships for an improved Twitter experience. I think it is important to establish a balance between tweeting for your business and tweeting about yourself because people don't want to feel like they are being advertised to all of the time. They want to hear about your interests and other interesting things, too!"

So true Lauren and we love to read your tweets about what’s going on in your Etsy store and your day-to-day life!

Lauren's favorite part of her craft is when she finds out that one of her items have made a wonderful gift for anyone or themselves. Her favorite items to make are the Perler Bead items that she started to make in 2006 when her shop opened on Etsy. Lauren also enjoys taking on new challenges in her craft. (Please convo her for custom made items.)

Since it is the beginning of 2010, we have challenged all of our members to take on a New Year’s Resolution. Lauren admits (like most of us here at ETT) that Etsy becomes addicting. She hopes to spend more time creating this year as a part-time job. We wish you tons of luck, Lauren, in this new resolution and want to say congratulations to you and Paul on planning your wedding.

Follow her on Twitter: @lostmitten
Fan her Facebook Pages: http://www.facebook.com/lostmittenetsy
http://www.facebook.com/lostmitten
Read her blog: http://lostmittenblog.blogspot.com

This week ONLY (ends January 17, 2010):
10% off all items for anyone who mentions this article! Mention "Etsy Twitter Team" in comments at checkout and after payment is received via PayPal she will refund you for the amount of the discount.

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade lostmitten.etsy.com