Etsy Reloaded

I am having a tidy up of my Etsy shop, ready for an onslaught of new listings later today! This is partly because of the new postal prices - I'm actually putting international prices DOWN - and also because I've run out of propane, so I can't melt anymore glass until a new tank is delivered!

For a while now I've been charging more than I wanted to on international deliveries, after having too many going missing in the post I've upgraded to 'signed for' service. From customers responses I noticed they seem to have got there a little quicker, however I was partly subsidizing this and it still made postage very expensive and off-putting. I also had the unexpected problem that many USA customers have PO boxes, and as PO boxes can't sign for parcels I couldn't use the Royal Mail's International signed-for services anyway! So, as soon as I can figure out how, I'm going to start offering it as an optional extra instead, or just pay for it myself if it's a larger order. Oh, and go back to crossing my fingers when I go to the post office.

It's just as confusing for UK deliveries too, lots of the old smaller weight options and sizes have been removed, so it looks like everything I am going to post will fit the 'small package' size - so long as I don't overdo it with the bubble wrap and make the envelopes more than 8cm thick! It does allow me to post up to 1kg though, so for most UK deliveries in my Etsy shop it will now cost a flat fee of £3 if you buy 1 thing or 20!

Still confused, or confusing? I'm just glad I don't work at the post office, the Ladies at my local branch are the ones I feel sorry for as they try to unravel all the new size regulations. It was so much clearer and easier when it was just a matter of weighing a box!

In 'other news' I've been playing around with my second 'little kiln' which goes up to much higher temperatures (shown here at a chilly 880degrees centigrade! I've had it up to 958 deg C for these casts.)

Cooling down from 950deg C, this was taken as it hit 880 deg C!

However it's still not going to plan, although I've had some unexpected success with some beads I slumped into flat cabochons, I litterally popped them in at the last minute before firing to take advantage of some spare space. I've just fired some more, a few will be cropping up in my Etsy shop too.

 

Volcano Blues

I’ve been putting a lot more into my Etsy shop over the past few weeks, and it’s been great as I’ve been sending little worlds and marbles to USA, Norway, and my furthest yet sale to Australia! My past ‘assaults’ on getting my Etsy shop to work have always fizzled out, so it’s been great getting on a roll again with it. I should have know something would throw a spanner in the works!

Yes, it’s all about ‘that’ volcano with an unpronounceable name in Iceland. With Etsy being such a US based site with international sales I’ve been reluctant to list anything more until I know the Royal Mail is back to normal(ish). I’ve been checking their updates, and it’s still all delayed. Sending to the USA is quite badly effected as they are now sending a lot of recent mail by boat now! Ekk! And a slow boat too!

I’ve been using the time to make another little batch of little worlds. I don’t do these often enough, they are soft glass and it takes me a little while (and failed attempts) to get back into the swing and not blast the glass with mad amounts of heat! These have come out completely different to the last lot, some have got only very light reactions to them, I guess I’ll have to call them ‘Mostly sunny day’ worlds! I’ll need to clean them and pair them up before I can list them, another for my ‘to-do’ list!

I am also concentrating a lot of torch time to glass sculpture. This is quite a departure from the ‘practical’ world of jewellery to make things with ‘no purpose,’ so I was glad to stumble across a quote (I think it was on the Folksy forum) that the purpose was ‘things to make me smile!’ In the course of this I seemed to meander off the very arty project to make some very silly and fun sculptures instead. I hope to have got some special props and more made before I photograph these, so I’m going to keep these under my hat for a bit longer. I suspect they might get me on the front page of Regretsy* though!

In the meantime here’s a snap, courtesy of NOAA public access program, of an older icy scene and what I hope isn’t the type of ship being used for mail to the USA!!!!


*(If you haven’t come across Regretsy yet, it’s one of those snarky blog/websites that point out the odd/funny/disastrous things people list on Etsy. Although most of the stuff is rather ‘suspect’ I personally feel one mans junk is another’s treasure, and at least these people are making something. Not that I want to buy any of it though!)

Photo Credit:US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration