Millbrook Days, as far as I can remember

So, after waiting months to write this post, I really haven't anything of great import to say. All I can do is relate the most memorable points. (That, because I've forgotten everything that wasn't the most memorable. )

In the days preceding Millbrook, the thoughts consuming my mind was why the heck I, who has an inherent, irrational dislike and fear of speaking to strange people, had agreed to 2 days of public speaking to hundreds of people. Of course, my common sense kept chiming in and say it wouldn't be that bad, I'd probably enjoy it, it would be good for business,... but my un-common sense did it's best to drown that out.

And of course, once I got started, it wasn't that bad. I found the most comfortable way to get through the 'speechifying' was to erase from my mind the fact that they were people, and the easiest way to do that, was to speak to their foreheads or chins, instead of their eyes.

There aren't so many forehead designs as you might think.

By the end of the 'Days, I could have sworn I had seen some foreheads multiple times, but as they didn't appear to recognize me, I fancied I must be wrong.

There are only 2 points I clearly remember from that weekend, and neither of them are related to the monotonous torrent of rehearsed words, repeated thousands of millions of times, that I poured forth on the ears of the poor unsuspecting, uninterested victims who were so foolish as to stop by my table. They are:

1:My table was facing sideways to the afternoon sun, so after 2 days, one side of my face was roasted to perfection, while the other side was still marshmallow white. I had a few epitaphs given me by well-meaning dingle hoppers, including 'two-face', ( in the context of the Dark Knight), and the 'Phantom' of the Opera.

2. How much I aged that second day. I must have! In the morning I was accused of being Sandra (generally thought to be in her early 20's) daughter; in the evening, of being Mark's (usually assumed to be about 30) wife.

Millbrook Days Pics

This weekend was Millbrook Days, up near the Delaware Water Gap. Here are a few pictures from the first day. Maybe I'll post something about it a little later, but right now I'm too tired, my face is too burnt, and my voice is too hoarse to be able to think clearly.

Just to explain the pictures, though: Sandra was in her garden, Timothy is the apprentice blacksmith, and Virgina, Alissa and I demonstrated bookbinding in front of the garden. (Alissa also finished sewing my apron, and Virginia spent some time keeping Sandra company in the garden).

Front Page Follow-up

I average about 30 visits to my shop a day, and about 60-70 the weeks before Christmas, but I hit a new record when I was on the front page...any guesses?

164 visits, just for being on the front page for an hour. I can't imagine what happens if you're a featured seller, so are the only shop on the front page for the entire day! It's not likely to happen to me, though. It seems you have to be part of the "in" crowd, and I don't know how to get in.

Front Page!!!!

Amazing! One of my items was featured on etsy's front page at 8 pm, and I just sold it to some guy out in singapore. (let's see if the transaction makes it all the way through!) This isn't quite as exciting is being a featured seller on the front page, but almost!

It never rains, but...

pours.

I had been waiting for a chance to use my new RESERVED LISTING graphic, and I got my wish this week. Three times over, actually. The first one I finished was on Thursday. Wednesday night I got an email from a woman asking if I could have one of my large guest books (the one that says allow 1-3 weeks for completion) ready to mail to her the next day. Fortunately, I did have enough materials already in stock to finish it, (which I was glad of; I wasn't relishing the thought of turning down an opportunity to sell my largest book!) so I stayed up till 3 am, then finished the embossing the next morning, and express mailed it to her, and got it to her on time. I was in such a hurry, I forgot to take a picture of it.

The next one I finished was a pretty basic job, but I had to order new materials, so that classified it as "reserved".

The last one, (which was actually the first one I was asked to do) I just finished this morning. It was the most 'custom'. This woman sent me, (I'm guesstimating) 350 printed pages to be bound together in 2 books. I hadn't done that kind of work in a while, so I was excited to have a "new" and unusual project.

After I remembered the proper way to sew loose pages, it was pretty smooth sailing, and they will be shipped this afternoon.
So, so much for custom orders. I also had a 'ready-made' book sell (which wasn't actually ready-made, I have to make a new cover, emboss it and glue it tonight, so I can ship it tomorrow), I had to write the 'interview/questionnaire' mentioned in my last post, and I came down with some sort of flu, which hasn't made working exactly enjoyable the last few days, in addition to the normal routines of life, all this past week.

Once again...

...featured, this time by floweredsky, a seller on etsy who is featuring an artist from every state. Well, she is featuring more than one from New Jersey (What I deduce from this, but that there are more talented people from NJ than anywhere else?! Actually, that's not the first thing I deduced, but it's the one I liked best), but I am honored to be among them. Take a look!
click here

Any thoughts?

Can anyone tell me where and how I can take pictures of my books that has a white background, is either outside or in a window, is in a "context that make sense", has something interesting behind it, has something personal about it, shows the entire book, is zoomed in on detail, and is the same for each book so that people can recognize my work from the picture; all for the first picture of each listing?

That's what I need to do to incorporate all the tips I've been given for my photography. Now, I know my photos still need work, but just who's advice should I follow? I find it fascinating to look at the shops of people who give me tips, and about half the time I find that the people who told me, my pictures stink, need a lot of work on their own pictures. (Of course, I've told other people they need work on their pictures, but I always started by saying I knew my own weren't perfect. That makes everything OK, doesn't it?)

My own inclination is to ignore everyone (personally, my favorite way of handling conflicting advise). Instead, I'm going to try to copy one of my customers techniques, (who is a photographer, by the way) who never made any derogatory comments on my pictures, even though she actually knew how to take better pictures, because I love these photos: Rachael's blog.

But of course, these are large photos. I need to be able to capture someones attention in a 1"x1" square, out of 3,000 other 1"x"1 squares. $55-$150 worth of attention.

I also need a good camera to work with. Mine's broken, so I have to use Mom's lousy one.. Actually, she has a very good camera, that was very expensive when it first came out. But, a very good, complicated camera becomes a very bad, very useless camera in the hands of a user who won't take the time to read the manual to figure out how it works. I have so far discovered (by randomly trying buttons, {the same way I play video games} )that the only way to get a clear picture of white pages with writing on them in in-direct lighting is to put it on the movie setting. (Why does it take pictures on the movie setting? Haven't the slightest idea.)

After reading this post, one would probably get the impression that I'm electronically challenged. Let me enlighten you, if that is your belief. I can learn anything (within reason, I'm no "geek") if I have someone show me, or if I care enough to spend hours and hours on end figuring it out on my own. I also love on-line tutorials (how I figured out how to post links on this blog when the "cheat" link button isn't working, and how to apply the background, and what-not), and look for them whenever possible. Then you don't have to expose your ignorance to anyone.

As Stymie said: "Uh,uh. I won't show my ig-nor-ance to noooo-body!"

New Banner Finished!

My new banner, etc. for my store are finished! I'm so happy with them! I started posting in Etsy's critiques forums again; I had stopped before because I recieved so many negitive comments on my banner, avatar, photos, and descriptions I found it a bit depressing. It didn't even lighten my depression to tell other people that their pictures stunk. (Strange, isn't it?)

But now, I've only recieved positive comments on everything in my store (except for one person who said I should take new pictures of my books, and show the whole book in the first picture, and details in the later pictures. Humph! She obviously never tried photographing plain brown rectangles of leather and trying to make them look like beautiful heirloom journals in a 1" x 1" square), particulary my bannar and avatar. I can't wait until I have my next custom order so I can use my reserved listing graphic!

Continuation of Shop Makeover

I am continuing my shop makeover, and have come to the exciting part - I bought a custom banner, avatar, and "reserved listing" graphic, and they're almost done! I can't wait, since I think it'll make a tremendous change in the look of my shop (waaaaay more professional).

I sent her 3 paragraphs of description of what I was looking for (over-kill, I know) but it seems to have worked, because even though what she made isn't exactly what I had originally pictured, it has the same "feel" to it, and actually matchs my business cards (what I was trying to match) better than what I was picturing. This is what she made originally (click here), and I asked her to make just a few slight changes, which she is working on now.

Featured, again!

I found out this morning that I was again featured on someone's blog, about a regency dress I sold a couple of months ago. This woman buys lots of doll clothes, and always features them on her blog, and has quite a large following. Anyway, here is a link to the article:
the doll wardrobe.

I've really got to get my camera fixed, so I can work on getting my pictures better.

Gift Shop

I haven't listed anything in my Etsy store recently, which is nothing new, but is usually just because I was too lazy to make anything new. This time, I had a legitimate excuse; I was making things for somewhere else, the Gift Shop of the Noyes Museum of Art, to be exact.

In April, someone from the Museum's gift shop contacted me, saying that they were looking for new inventory for their gift shop, and they wanted to feature items made in New Jersey (the museum is located just outside of Atlantic City). I did a little research since I had never heard of them before, and found out that they are affiliated with the Richard Stockton College. Richard Stockton was one of the representatives from New Jersey that signed the Declaration of Independence. (Which had absolutely no bearing on whether or not I would consign with them, it just added to my stock of useless information.)

I contacted one of the other sellers on Etsy who sells their products there, made a few new books, and shipped them out. Now, it's a very small Museum as far as I can tell, and I'm not expecting a monstrous rise in sales, but it is a venue to get my name out, and it sounds good to say that you have your items in a gift shop, particularly in a Museum!

So, that is my exciting news I've been keeping to myself for the past month!

And speaking of sounding good, I have determined I no longer sell doll clothes. When ever you tell someone you sell doll clothes, they give you a little sympathetic smile and say, 'oh, isn't that nice'. So now I 'design and sell historically inspired miniature wardrobes'. And if you want to see pictures, I started a page over on the left that has pictures of all the dresses I have sold in the past year, and will be updated every time I make a sale. Looking at those pictures, I'm amazed I sold some of them. Some of my pictures are horrible! I wish I was a photographer!

Shop Makeover

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
~ Albert Einstein

If I don't want to be termed insane, and I want more sales than I am currently getting, I should start doing something different, right? I decided my "something different" would be a shop "makeover", starting with a new camera and picture angles, moving on to new titles and offering free shipping. Then I decided I needed a new doll. I had been thinking about it for a while, but came to a decision about it when one of my customers commented on how ugly my doll was, and how that had previously turned her off from my dresses. So I bought an American Girl doll, and backdrop.

American Girl items are scandalously overpriced.

I'm working on the pictures of my books, and am trying to get some new tooling designs, too; we'll see how that comes out.

I have also been trying to come up with a little more variation for my dresses, as they tend to get a bit boring after a while. I liked the way this one came out, though I think the over-sleeve needs a little tweaking; it's not quite big enough. I also started listing my dresses on Ebay again, and seem to be having better luck now than I did a year ago. As of Saturday, I was 7 (sales) for 11 (listings).

Most of my customers on Ebay have been people that own children's boutiques, or something, I think. I'm not sure yet what I think about my dresses being re-sold, but for now I'm just enjoying the extra sales.

So far, I've had more interest on Ebay in this dress than any other, though no bids yet. I have yet to decide whether it's owing to the dress, the doll, or the backdrop.

Featured again!

I sold one of my address books a couple of weeks ago to a photographer named Rachael. Last week, she emailed me, and asked if she could feature me on her blog.

It was the first time I had been "interviewed", and I was rather at a loss what to write, so I did my best with a limited amount of time.

I love her pictures, I wish I could get mine to come out that way! If I could, I would probably sell a lot more items.

Featured on Etsy!

Hooray! I was featured in Etsy's The Storque!

I'm not sure exactly how much this can help me, but it's the first time I was featured on Etsy (beside two "treasuries", which don't really count, because nobody looks at them). But this time my green address book (which I've already sold, 4 times) was picked by a moderator and featured in the store "blog" or "storque" (as you will).

Funny, I didn't notice until now that there was a typo in the listing. Figures, since now I can't edit it...

Rebound Charles Dickens

This is what I've been keeping busy with this week. I had bought a set of matching Charles Dickens books several months ago. Matching, because they're all falling apart. I would imagine they actually matched at one time, but you never can tell.

Well, I decided to do this one first, and list it in my store since it was a duplicate. I would have tried to salvage the cover if I could, but as you can see from the first picture, the leather would just flake off when I touched it.

Since it was part of a set, I would really have liked to made an exact copy of the cover, but I don't have very many tools, and I wasn't willing to invest in having a copy made.

So, being the contrary person I am, I decided since I couldn't have it the same, I would make it completely different instead.

On the whole, I am fairly pleased with how it came out. No mistakes, or anything. I just look forward to the time when I will have enough tools to make more interesting and diverse covers.

Second Custom Order Finished!

This was the second custom order I had for Christmas. I finished it just in time to get to the customer by Christmas, and everyone was happy with it, myself included.

First Custom Order Finished!

I finished the first custom order yesterday! It's so nice to be working with gold again! I have gotten a little tired of just doing the blind embossing. It looks nice to, but you can do a lot more with gold. I also like how it looks when you combine the blind and the gold together.

I've actually had several custom orders since last I posted, but I didn't have time to write about them, I was busy making them, and packaging up the ready-made books. I set a personal record of sales yesterday!

This is a book I re-covered a few years ago, "Masterpieces of American Literature". Don't look too closely at it, though. If you did, you would notice I spelled a word wrong, and I wouldn't want you to see that. (This was one of the first titles I printed, and was not yet used to reading the type, upside down and backwards. That was the only time I ever did it.)

This is a copy of Tennyson's poems that I re-covered. I did a much more simple design on the cover, but I actually like it better then the other book!

A closer view.

I didn't put the title on the spine on this one, I used a unique stamp, instead.

A front cover view of "Masterpieces of American Literature". The square pattern is made up of two tools; the 'line' segment, and the 'dots' in between them.



This book I didn't do much gold work on, and it looks rather simple, but it actually represents quite a bit more work then any other book I've made.

This is the only book I made that is actually sewn on raised cords. It is a stronger binding, than most, but still has it's down sides. It is worth more with the raised cords, because it takes many, many more hours. The reason I don't make many books this way is that the leather on the spine itself wears off very quickly, because of the way it is glued and sewn to the text block. I prefer sewing on sunken cords (you can't see them on the spine).

The books I sell in my store aren't sewn either way. I use a different technique, that allows them to be sew just using thread.

I'll post more picture of the other custom orders as soon as I finish them!

Christmas Custom Orders in Progress

Christmas is supposed to be the busiest time of year for pretty much anyone in the "sales" business. It is so for me as well , as long as we are all agreed that "busy" is a very relative term. I have 2 custom orders right now, and 2 more of my ready-made journals that I need to personalize and ship out.

I think I've made over 50% of this year's sales in this past month!

The first custom order is a very small lined book that I am covering in a full leather style with a black lambskin. The unique part of this will be the gold embossing, instead of the usual blind. I have been intending to add gold as an option for a while now, but I don't have any gold, and wasn't willing to invest that much money before I had made quite a few sales. Now I just need to figure out where I can buy gold, and get it shipped to me in time for me to finish the book and have it shipped before Christmas.



The other is a large book, 7" by 9". I will be binding it also in a full leather style, in a two-tone brown lambskin, and olive-green marbled endpapers. I am also doing this with a pre-sewn text block, since they want a lined book. The real custom"ness" of this book will be the embossing on the front cover. I am embossing a border, a double-straight-line frame, if you can picture that! I will also be doing the usual raised cord effect on the spine, and hand sewn headbands, as well.

I will post more pictures when I have finished them.

I've been thinking recently how amazing it is that I have made any sales at all online. Think about it: of all the people in the world, I need someone who wants to spend money; of all the things to spend money on, they have to decide on a book; of all the books to buy, they have to decide on a journal; of all the journals, on a hand bound one; of all the hand bound ones, one of the ones I've bound. And then of course, you have to consider visibility. I can't find myself when I google 'leather handbound journals' (only if I use 'hannahshandwork' as my keyword) and I know what I'm looking for!

When I think about that, I am thankful I have made as many sales as I have!