Feature Friday - texasbeads and BeadzNBling

Another great week as flown by and it's time for another Feature Friday! And no, I'm not featuring two people this week - I'm featuring one fabulous seller who manages two shops - texasbeads and BeadzNBling.

texasbeads and BeadzNBling, as both names suggest, focus on all things beads. texasbeads is a supply store where the jewelry crafter can find a variety of products. For those who don't make their own jewelry, BeadzNBling is packed full of beautiful, handmade jewelry.

And now onto the questions!

1. Tell us a bit about yourself, your shop(s), and what brought you to the Etsy community.

I was born in frigid Minnesota and went to school for formal art training but somehow was sucked in by Corporate America and never followed my dream until now. I always had my hands in to some sort of artsy crafty goo and the creative juices just never failed me. Since 1992 I owned an Australian Great Barrier Reef Diving Internet Tour Company and just retired from that insanity two years ago, so this is when I started back creating jewelry again and have been doing local shops and fairs. I just only found ETSY mid July after an Indie Show. The girl next to me talked about ETSY all weekend and so I got home, signed up and voila!

My first shop is beadznbling.etsy.com and that opened end July 09, and texasbeads.etsy.com is only a week old and already 9 sales. Beadznbling is OOAK jewelry and the 2nd shop is all about sterling silver gemstone clasps and pendants, beads and beading materials. I LOVE shopping for supplies but either don't have the time to create or the outlet to sell the created items....so best of both worlds here!

2. Besides creating beautiful things for your shop(s), what do you spend your days doing?

I'm back in Texas (for the 4th time) and call it home for good. I absolutely adore creating jewelry and glad to have found ETSY as a platform to display and sell my items. When not 'creating, listing and hopefully selling' I love to play golf, watch sunsets especilly if lucky enough to be on a beach!

3. What sources do you draw you inspiration from and what is your creative process(es)?

I am totally obsessed with water thus the reason most of my items are products of the ocean. Pearls, abalone, shells and so on. My inspiration is usually a certain color and I just take off from there. Now that I am building up supplies for Texasbeads.etsy.com I will have at hand, just about anything I need! Like I said, best of both worlds and loving it!

4. What market (group of people) do you see your items being for?

Lynn kinda didn't answer this one.  :) But, if I may do so for her, I'd say that her jewelry shop, BeadzNBling is filled with beautiful designer pieces of jewelry that are suitable for people from all walks of life and that texasbeads target audience is people who love using quality materials to make their own jewelry works of art.

5. We skipped this question (About your top three books, music, movies, and websites) too.

6. What are your favorite features on Etsy? What new features would you like to see added?

As said before, I adore ETSY...like, where have you been all my life? The people I have dealt with in selling, buying, labs, support, forums etc....all seem to be a certain type of person....I guess we are all alike in that we have 'happy hands' as my mom called them. We love creating, doing, sharing our talents. I'm amazed at some of the fabulous artisans I have seen while cruising ETSY and am more and more impressed as some of the quality each and every day.

7. How do you market your work? What has or hasn't worked for you in the past?

So, how do we get noticed? Thank goodness a re-list is only 20 cents. I think keeping fresh is the key. Once you get past around page 10 or 20 in a search, the buyer gets bored and moves on so list then re-list. Tough to do when you have 100s of products in your shop but I really think that is the key to selling on ETSY.

Want to find out more about relisting? Check out this forum thread for tips and ideas: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5849800

8. What do you like most about the Virtual Labs?

Virtual Labs..what do I like about them?? Wow, the first day I went in to a lab I was tossed back and gave a big 'what the..'. Couldn't for the life of me figure what was going on, and now that I have been in so many labs (try to visit often as I can) I see the newbies asking all the questions I was too afraid to ask. The chat and chatter, bomb blasting, beer tossing is hysterical let alone the text. Honestly, I see people making friends in these pre lab sessions and I think it's just wonderful. I, myself, have come to really like a few in the labs and they just make me laugh!

Check out the latest Virtual Labs Schedule!

9. What topics or events would you like to see added to the Virtual Lab offerings?

Now that you have formed Team Lab Rats, I see great things ahead with the two of you at the helm. I would love to see helpful items discussed and the sharing of ideas/knowledge. What's working, what's not. Things that will help us all get a leg up. Social Networking at it's finest!

Lynn wanted me to let everyone know about the following special offer she's holding to celebrate her Friday Feature! Please read the details down below:

I will offer a free gift with purchase to all Lab Rats! A lovely pair of sterling silver freshwater pearl drop earrings value $15 with a purchase of $20 or more (before shipping) off the Texas Beads site. Good thru Monday 7 Sept. Just mention FREE STUFF FOR LAB RATS in the message to seller box.

Have a fabulous long holiday weekend everybody! Allysattic out. :)