Charity Auction!

This Saturday, 26th January, there is an online auction on Facebook in aid of Galgos Del Sol, an organization  set up to help abandoned dogs in Spain. Here is the link to their Facebook page.

Many people have donated items to be auctioned, myself among them. I have donated this necklace:

I hope it raises a few euros! If you want to see more of my jewellery, have a look at my Bluetina website.

Here are some examples of the sort of thing I make:

Oxidized Copper & MOP necklace

Blue Goldstone & Oxidized Copper Bracelet

Sterling Double Spiral Earrings

Posting whole Etsy Treasuries on Facebook

Some of my team mates and friends have been asking for the secret referred to in my last post, so I am obliging!

This is the method that my team mate, Maya, passed on to me the other day. It uses Photoshop. If you don't have that particular program, I'm sure the method will translate pretty easily to other applications used for editing photographs.

First, get the Treasury in question on your screen and reduce it in size until you an see all of it. On my computer, with the Chrome browser, that is about 75%.

Then you need to print the screen. On my keyboard, bottom left, is a key with "Fn" in a box. Hold that down and press the one up the top, right hand side, that says "prt sc" in a little box. It doesn't say it's done anything but it has saved it to your clipboard.

Minimize your browser and open Photoshop, choosing the editing bit. Click on File, New and Image from Clipboard. The treasury will appear in the editing window just as it looked on screen.

Up top on the tool bar, choose "Layer" and "Flatten Image". Mine is an old version of Photoshop so yours might say "Merge Down" or similar.

Next step - crop the treasury so you can still see the title but you cut out all the Etsy gubbins. Then go to Image, Resize Canvas and change the width to about 1 cm more than the height.

Save it where you can find it again with the appropriate name. You can then upload it to Facebook just like any photograph. Don't forget to add the link to the treasury as the image won't be clickable.

Here is one I prepared earlier. (I've always wanted to say that!)

This is a lovely Treasury made by my team mate Kellie. I am in it, of course! Nothing like a bit of shameless self promotion! It is called An Eclectic Collection of Beautiful Items. Go see it!

If I've missed anything or you need any help, just leave a comment and I'll come back to you.

Treasury tricks....

I have recently learned how to make a whole Etsy Treasury appear, as if by magic, on my Facebook page. I have been playing with it non-stop! My team mate from the Shiny Happy People, the lovely and generous Maya, showed me how to do it, for which I thank her heartily. And now, not content with bombarding my Facebook fans with Treasuries, I am doing the same on my blog.

If you are wondering why there aren't any closing comments at the bottom of this page, as there usually are, it's because I can't make the cursor go down there now. I am technologically challenged today. Hey ho!

This is one of mine, Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

This is by Heyme, our dear Captain

Peggy's intriguing "It came in through the bathroom window

It was Christmas Eve in the Workshop.....

and absolutely nothing was stirring, not even a pair of pliers. That's because I'm sitting here, at my computer, doing a blog post to wish anybody who actually reads this a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I've been on Facebook and said Merry Christmas. I've even ventured over to Google Plus and managed to get into an argument before I could utter "Season's Greetings". That happens a lot!

I've been back to the UK and had my Grandchildren fix.

Thomas and Alex - Aren't they cute?

We are going out for our Christmas Dinner tomorrow, so I don't have to do very much. Suits me fine!

I am going to be doing a lot of thinking over the holidays. Bluetina had a crappy year, sales wise. Both the website and the Etsy shop. I am considering a change of direction, maybe....possibly....

In the meantime, remember this?

I was going to list it as is but I thought it needed a bit of tarting up. I started fiddling around with some silver wire and this is as far as I've got:

That little loop is waiting for a drop of some kind but the jury's still out on exactly which one. Watch this space!

Again, Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year! Let's hope it turns out better than the last one!

Featuring 3 Cedars Jewelry!

I belong to a lovely team of ladies (and gents!) on Etsy and we call ourselves "The Tarts". Don't ask - if I told you I'd have to kill you.

We are all very supportive of each other and regularly promote each others shops on Facebook, Pinterest, Wanelo and Twitter. Every week we concentrate specifically on just one of our members so I thought a feature each week would help keep my blog from shrivelling up from disuse and help somebody else into the bargain! This week it's the turn of the lovely Lyn from 3 Cedars Jewelry.

Lyn is a bit like me in the fact that she displays many different styles of jewellery in her Etsy shop.  She has managed to build up an awe inspiring inventory of 153 items so I have plenty to choose from!

This is one of my favourites:

Natural Agate Hearts Bracelet

Lyn is also into wire wrapping:

Grey Agate & Quartz Pendant

I think this bracelet is beautiful, and it has matching earrings!

Turquoise & Sterling Silver Bracelet & Earrings

Lyn also makes a mean pair of earrings! I love these:

Purple Ruby Sterling Silver Earrings

I hope you enjoyed that little meander through Lyn's Etsy shop. Next week, I'll be featuring someone else - I wonder who it will be?

Taking stock.....

in more ways than one!

I'm counting beads. It's that time of year and the bookkeeper in me has to take stock. I know I'm a bit OCD about it. I pick up a packet of beads or findings and I know I could guess the contents pretty accurately but no, I have to count the bloody things! It's going to take me days at this rate.

I am also "taking stock" in another sense. There has been a lot of fuss on Artfire lately regarding their proposed "Assurance Scheme". I have read many of the forum threads with a sinking heart. I do hate it when people I know and like start ripping each other to shreds in public.

The upshot of this being that I have reopened my Etsy shop. I am not leaving Artfire - I've put a lot of work into my studio there. But, so many sellers were upping sticks and leaving for Etsy, that I decided to revisit the venue. I haven't been there for aeons. It's another country altogether these days. Totally unrecognisable.

However, they appear to have done a decent job of overhauling the site and there are some new features with which I am muchly impressed. I only have one item listed as of today's date (my Solar System necklace) and that was just to test out the listing process. I will add more when I have familiarised myself with "circles, teams and treasuries" etc.

My Solar System necklace on Etsy

2012 is also the year that Bluetina will have her own website. At last! Finally! I have snagged an account at SupaDupa.com, a platform for building one's own boutique on line. The templates look very professional and customer service would appear to be second to none, according to friends of mine who have taken the plunge already.

All I have to do then is market them all to death with Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus! Oh, and blog, of course. Oh dear, I have my work cut out for me, don't I?

Tuesday, 2nd August...

Well, the water's back on! The pressure was ridiculously low to start with but it's back up to full strength now. I'm clean! Hooray!

My friend Pam gave me a tip about a venue for displaying my jewellery so this morning I went to La Alfoquia to check it out. C.A.T. Services  do all sorts of things like post, residencia applications, translations, etc.  They have quite a large office area which is about to expand and they want to fill it with many and various items for sale. They already have pottery, yarn, ornaments, books, small furnishings and costume jewellery.  I am going to spend the next two weeks making copper jewellery to display there. I have high hopes!

I have been following the copy writing thread in the Artfire forums. I have put quite a bit of effort and brain power (such as it is!) into producing good, long descriptions for the next lot of earrings to be listed. I also tested the titles with Google's Keyword Tool. Getting found by Google is the secret to selling on line.

I listed these yesterday. One in my Bluetina studio:

SS Heart Earrings with Red Accent Beads

and this one in Bluetinatoo:

Spiral Earrings in Copper with Haematite

I shall be interested to see how they do. I posted them on my Facebook page as well but I'm not sure I get any lookers from there. We shall see!

Now I'm going to dust off my pliers and get to work!

See you later!

Catching up....

This blog and I have not been getting along. I have been ignoring it, mainly because I haven't the foggiest idea what to blog about.

I was advised to start blogging by the people at Artfire.  It's supposed to increase traffic in one's shop by way of back links raising one's standing with Google. I think I understand that. What they want, though, is content and lots of it. Said content is supposed to be relevant. Relevant to my jewellery making, I suppose. Well, relevant is relative. I can't post anything about jewellery making yet because I haven't had the time to make any!

Also, since very few, if any, people actually read this blog, I have decided to post something here every day and treat it like a diary of sorts.  I'm talking to myself and there is nothing inherently wrong with that if it helps to sort my mind out.

I see the last post I did was about the Pisa weekend. Since then I have been to the UK for three weeks, come back with a really nasty cold and caught up with the bookkeeping for Shabby Sheep Boutique. That's my future daughter-in-law's shop in Brightlingsea, Essex.  Between them, Sheryl and my son, Ben, have four children.  Their life is hectic, to say the least.

This is Faye

This is Ethan

This is Thomas

And this is Alex

Opening a gift shop like Shabby Sheep in the middle of a recession is a very brave thing to do but it does seem to be going very well.  Sheryl is very quick to spot an opportunity and move the way her customers would like her to go.  Fish pedicures seem to be all the rage at the moment and she now has two tanks that would appear to be full of feet all week! Getting all the paperwork sorted was a Herculean task what with them being in England and me being in Spain but we got there in the end. Thank God for the internet, skype, scanners, drop boxes and the like. You really can do things at a distance now!

Now that Shabby Sheep is up to date, I can concentrate on Bluetina and Bluetinatoo.  I have more jewellery to make. I have more blogging to do. I have Facebook to keep up with.  I am trying not to think about Twitter but I'm probably going to do it. I have to do something about my descriptions - Google keep moving the goalposts on SEO so I'm not being found so often. I must remember to upload all my photos to Flickr. I must keep up with my obligations to Jewelry Creators Unite in Numbers, the Guild I belong to on Artfire. I have a list about three feet long of all the things I have to do. 

Well, I'm not going back to the UK until October so I have two whole months! Let us see what I can accomplish in that time. As it is very nearly the end of July, the next thing is a blog post for JCUIN. 

See you later!

An interesting few weeks....

My poor little blog has been sadly neglected.  I've been so busy these past few weeks that I haven't had time to blog about anything!

Unfortunately, I have not been busy making jewellery.  Real life has been happening to me - it seems to happen with alarming regularity and lightning speed lately. Another symptom of growing older, I think. Speaking of which, April saw the coming and going of my 60th birthday.  I am officially an old wrinkly, senior citizen, aged crone or whatever!  As the Spanish say "Soy una pensionista!" I may be of pensionable age but I have not been recompensed - I will not be eligible for my UK state pension until I'm 61 and a bit. They are gradually moving the pension age for women up to 65 and I was caught at the beginning of the sliding scale. My  poor husband (toy boy) is only 55. The way they keep moving the goalposts, he'll probably be 95 and out if it by the time he qualifies!

I spent three weeks in the UK visiting my Mum, having my birthday, seeing grandchildren, friends and relatives and it seemed that not a day went by when there wasn't something to do, someone to see, or somewhere to go. I took wire and pliers with me but never got to touch them. Since coming home to Spain, I have visited friends in Alicante, done lots of shopping, washing, cooking, ironing and cleaning but no creating! I'm trying to get back into the "zone" but it's hard. I managed one pair of earrings today so I've made a start.

I'm also trying to catch up with Artfire's Social Media Boot Camp course.  That's another thing I was intending to follow while in the UK.  Didn't happen, of course! I'm slowly working my way through all the Forum threads and making copious notes. We're doing Facebook at the moment. I already have a Facebook Page so I've got a head start there. Next, I believe, it's Twitter. God help me.....

Leading a double life...

I'm sitting here, at my Mum's dining table, with the TV going in one corner, the tumble dryer going in the kitchen behind me, trying to concentrate enough to write this blog post.

It's not easy – my brain doesn't quite know where it is yet, even though I've been here in the UK for five days. I'm typing on an unfamiliar laptop with a deadline because Mum's hairdresser will be arriving soon and they'll need the table.

Later, much, MUCH later.....

I started this blog post nearly three weeks ago. I am now at home, in Spain, typing away contentedly on my own computer. The only noises are the tapping of my fingers on the keyboard, the buzzing of early bees outside the window and the odd “clang” from Bryn's workshop.

It is a beautiful day – lots of sunshine and a temperature of 25 degrees C. Not bad for February! Back in the UK it was bloody freezing until the day I flew home!

I go backwards and forwards between Spain and the UK quite a lot. Three weeks there, six or seven weeks here, three weeks there, four or five weeks here, three weeks there and so on and so on.....

It does play havoc with one's life. Mum bought me a laptop so I could stay in the loop. Each time I visit I have every good intention of writing blog posts, rewriting the jewellery descriptions in my Bluetina studio, keeping up with my Facebook page, etc. but this almost never happens. I even take some tools, wire and beads with me so I can make something. This time, I took the boxes out of my suitcase, put them in the cupboard under the stairs and they were still there, untouched, when I packed again last Thursday.

I did see quite a bit of the grandchildren - I even went to stay with them for one weekend! That was great - I got to read the bedtime story and have lots of cuddles! The rest of the three weeks was spent organising things for my Mum and finding all the things on Bryn's UK shopping list. I swear it gets longer every time! I didn't see half the people I wanted to catch up with and, as you may have noticed, I certainly didn't manage any blogging!

Now I'm home, I have about six weeks to calm down, find out where my head is, stop trying to turn taps on the wrong way and get back into the “making zone”. I know just what will happen. I will have built up a good head of steam and have loads of ideas bubbling up when it will be time to put it all away, pack my bags and do the whole thing over again. Sigh.....

As I didn't manage to make anything, I have no new photos to post here and a blog post does not seem quite complete without a picture or two. You can look at my grandchildren instead!

Thomas and Alex playing the Wii (no batteries for Alex!)