Lunar Skies Jewelry & Fine Art: February 2012

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Sonoran Sunrise Jewelry

My newest offering will be available very soon in my Etsy and Artfire shops, and on my own web site. I'm pleased to preview it here. What do you think about this stone?

Sonoran sunrise comes from the State of Sonora (Mexico). It's been on the gem scene now for a only couple of years and has become quite popular. It is primarily green to blueish green and red with a bit of black. The green is chrysocolla. The red is cuprite, and the black is tenorite.

My ArtFire Store: http://www.artfire.com/users/lunarskies

My Etsy Store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/LunarSkiesJewelry?ref=pr_shop
My Jewelry: http://www.lunarskies.com
My Sculpture: http://www.lunarskies.com/pages1/fineart.html
My Cabochons: http://www.gemalchemy.com
Creating The Hive Artisans Group: http://www.creatingthehive.com
Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/Lunarskiesjewelry.quentin.eckman?sk=app_106171216118819

http://www.facebook.com/Lunarskiesjewelry.quentin.eckman?sk=app_106171216118819

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Hosting my first Giveaway. I need advice.

Here's my plan so far. Right now I have 41 items in my Etsy Shop listed at $69.00. I want to offer one of them as a giveaway. I plan to create a photo album on my Facebook Fan Page so viewers can easily review which or my items sell for that price. Participants will choose an item, then contact me with their choice. They can have a second choice, or have two chances at the same item by referring a friend, as long as that friend participates as well. I will use a random generator to select from the chosen items, so there will be a winner for certain. If the winning item has been chosen by more than one entrant, I'll use another random generator to select the ultimate winner.

I will also offer to let non winners buy the piece of their choice at a 20% discount at the close of the contest. This would have to be on a first come first served basis.

So here are my questions:
1. Should I suspend the sale of my $69.00 items until the end of the Giveaway? (I'd hate to loose a sale by doing this, but I have to be sure the giveaway winner gets the piece they've selected).

2. How long should the giveaway run?

3. What are the most effective ways to let people know about the giveaway.

4. Are there some obvious flaws in my plan.

Any suggestions are welcome.

You can visit my easy store at:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/LunarSkiesJewelry

My ArtFire Store: http://www.artfire.com/users/lunarskies

http://www.facebook.com/Lunarskiesjewelry.quentin.eckman?sk=app_106171216118819

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Petoskey Stone Jewelry, Fossilized Coral and SIlver

My latest creations feature the pride of Michigan, Petoskey Stone. These stones can be found on various beaches in Northern Michigan with many of the most popular being those surrounding Petoskey and Charlevoix. Similar fossil corals occur in a variety of locations, however the name Petoskey stone should only be applied to those from Northern Michigan.

Petoskey stone is a rock and a fossil, often pebble-shaped, that is composed of a fossilized coral, Hexagonaria percarinata. The stones were formed as a result of glaciation, in which sheets of ice plucked stones from the bedrock, grinding off their rough edges and depositing them in the northwestern portion of Michigan's lower peninsula.

These pieces will be available in my Etsy Shop today.

My ArtFire Store: http://www.artfire.com/users/lunarskies

http://www.facebook.com/Lunarskiesjewelry.quentin.eckman?sk=app_106171216118819

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Sonoran Sunrise, look what Mother Nature did!

I just cut these cabochons yesterday. Sonoran sunrise comes from the State of Sonora (Mexico). It's been on the gem scene now for a only couple of years and has become quite popular. It is primarily green to blueish green and red with a bit of black. The green is chrysocolla. The red is cuprite, and the black is tenorite. This material will make some beautiful pieces.

My ArtFire Store: http://www.artfire.com/users/lunarskies

http://www.facebook.com/Lunarskiesjewelry.quentin.eckman?sk=app_106171216118819

Sunday, February 12, 2012

So you want to be in an Etsy Treasury? Don't kill your chance!

I've been curating about five Etsy Treasuries a week lately. It's fun, and I get to see many wonderful items. You've probably been told on many occasions that top quality photos are a must, both for selling and for getting featured in Treasuries. There are lots of great post available with outstanding photography tips. But I feel compelled to mention the following because I've not seen it posted before. The picture of your item that shows up in a Treasury is the thumbnail of the first picture you placed when you listed/edited your item. Etsy uses a 1000px x 1000px image for the main or enlarged image in your shop. But the thumbnail it generates is smaller and rectangular (the top and bottom of the image gets clipped). What may be a great image when enlarged and un-clipped may not be suitable for a treasury. I'll use one of my sculptures to demonstrate. If the image I placed in the first spot in my Etsy shop was cropped like the image on the left, the thumbnail would appear something like the image on the right. The primary object in the photo barely appears in the thumbnail. That may keep curators from using you item even if they like it, and it suits the Treasury they are creating.

One solution is to use a detail shot of your item for the first picture. If you've already got a detail shot in among your images, you can just drag it to the first position when you edit your item. As a curator, my objective is to get a front page Treasury, so I'm looking for great pictures, and that means the thumbnail has to be great too.
Thanks for reading this post, and good luck with your Etsy Treasuries.

My ArtFire Store: http://www.artfire.com/users/lunarskies

http://www.facebook.com/Lunarskiesjewelry.quentin.eckman?sk=app_106171216118819

Monday, February 6, 2012

Do you have a Fan Page?

I've been working on my Facebook Fan Page. I'm finally starting to get it, I think. I used a template provide by Pagemoto. It was pretty easy to use, and it's free if you just want to build one page. If you want more pages/tabs you can buy different monthly packages. I'm just going with the freebee for now since I haven't even built a contact list. So this is sort of a quiet opening. If you want to go to my fan page click the image below or this link:
http://www.facebook.com/Lunarskiesjewelry.quentin.eckman?sk=app_106171216118819
If you want to give it a "Like" that's cool with me.

My ArtFire Store: http://www.artfire.com/users/lunarskies

http://www.facebook.com/Lunarskiesjewelry.quentin.eckman?sk=app_106171216118819