Glass Menagerie - Fusings, musings and other frit....

Mobile marketing

2011-09-06T07:41:00.001-04:00

I've started looking into mobile marketing. Got a new smart phone and testing out qrcodes ...mobile website conversion systems etc...will keep u posted.

Silver Willow Gallery

2011-04-27T14:49:00.000-04:00

Along with 3 other wonderful artisans, I've taken over management of a small, non profit, gallery in Hampden, Maine. Since January this shop has been owned by my guild, the Jewelry Artisans of Maine Guild, but recently the guild decided it was best if the gallery were run by an independent group. Officially we take control of the Gallery on Sunday, May 1st.

Because we were owned and operated by the Jewelry Guild most of our artisans are jewelry artisans but we're expanding to include the work of other Maine based artisans are are always looking for more : )

Look for us on Facebook, twitter and the web!

~Nan

Maddie James Foundation

2011-04-15T13:08:00.000-04:00

I watched a video on youtube about this little girl's life and death and was moved to tears. Pleae visit their site and donate what you can.

Nancy

Contest - Win a $25 Gift Certificate

2011-03-22T10:32:00.000-04:00

I'm running a contest from my Facebook page at: http://www.Facebook.com/GlassOrchids and all you have to do is share a link to my FB page, my twitter account @GlassOrchids and/or my Website: http://www.GlassOrchids.com . You can post a link, tweet about me and/or use the FB Share feature. Once you've shared the love just go to my FB page and tell me what you did on my special Share the Love page; there is a link to it on the left of my FB wall page.

Thanks for your continued support! Without friends like you I would not be able to continue creating!!

~Nan

Snowy Day

2011-03-22T10:03:00.001-04:00

Well it's March 22nd and we're buried in snow again. I sure hope this is the last fling of winter!! I was loving seeing the tiny leaves at the base of some of my plants and dreaming of the first blossoms. I am ready for the warm sun to shine on my head as I pull weeds and plant seeds. I'm tired of being cold too.... patience... patience.. patience..

Nan

What kind of scam is this anyway?

2011-03-18T09:56:00.002-04:00

Ok so I've mentioned this before but am doing so again. I get this anonymous comment on every single post I make on my blog:

"Thanks for sharing this link - but unfortunately it seems to be down? Does anybody here at [insert source] have a mirror or another source? "

So I'm wondering WTH? Why do this as Anon when no one can reply to you anyway AND the link DOES work. So I googled the phrase "Thanks for sharing this link - but unfortunately it seems to be down" and found this same comment posted on many many places. There is no link back to some scam website, the emails of the posters are either anon or not real email addresses. What's the point? I don't get it........

hmmmm.. upon further research on some of the other posts I see that they include a link .. the one that they say doesn't work but it's not the same one posted by the original author. Many of these posts are by the same 3 or 4 names too. Must be some scam to get you to go to a website where they will steal your info. It's been going on for several years apparently... which is why I NEVER click links w/o looking at the URL it points to first.....

~Nancy

Life as an American Artisan

2011-03-18T09:11:00.003-04:00

People buy handmade artisan jewelry not only for the beauty of the piece but because of the mystique of the artisan lifestyle. They like the 'story' behind the work and, often, it's an interesting one. I've worked in many establishments over the years from washing dishes in a Kosher kitchen to scooping ice cream to being a registered stockbroker to being VP of systems at a major international bank. Now I support my family making jewelry, dishes and other pretty shiny things.

The life of an artisan is not an easy one by any means, most of the artisans I know struggle to pay their bills and buy their next stash of supplies. It's not all beads and insense I can tell you that. The hours are lousy, the boss is a slave driver and the pay isn't great but it sure beats working at the bank!

Seriously though, as an artisan I spend as much time working as I did when I was a vice president at the bank but for a lot less return monetarily. It’s a business and involves all those things that are necessary to run a small business – paperwork, taxes, marketing, bill collecting, ordering and managing inventory etc… I probably spend more time each week at my computer than I do at my glass desk creating. Some of this might be due to my love of computers and I do spend a lot of time marketing online and maintaining my website, facebook page etc… and researching how do market more creatively and effectively.

Then there are shows which have to be applied, and paid for, well in advance. Sometimes it’s a crap shoot because you never know if a show is going to be worth your time and efforts, which are considerable, or if they will be a waste of time. You also don’t know if you’ll get in so scheduling your year can be difficult. Your potential income is often in the hands of strangers on a jury committee. For instance, one show up here that is great is the Common Ground Fair, I apply for this show every year with the same work, I get into this show about ½ the time. Same artisan, same work, different jury committee.

I’ve found that the older I get the harder, physically, shows are to do. The beauty of doing shows though is that you get to meet your customers face to face and share a bit of what you do and who you are with them. This is the real payoff. Living the artisan lifestyle isn’t all Woodstock mud slides and camp songs but it has its beauty. You see, what we sell is joy. We get to spend some of our time making beautiful things, expressing our creativity, being entrepreneurs and bringing joy to the lives of others. Not only that being an artisan often frees us up to live in unique places; it allowed my family to move to rural Maine from New York. Being a professional artisan gives one a kind of freedom and deep satisfaction but is not for the fainthearted.

~Nancy

Hey Can I use some of the information in your blog post.......

2011-03-04T12:50:00.000-05:00

Another message I've gotten twice from different people on the blog.. asking to use my info if they give me a back link... and yet there is no contact information and both posts used the exact same wording. Is this some new type of spam? To what end?

I don't get it...

2011-03-03T09:36:00.000-05:00

I have comments on the blog set so they don't show unless I approve them. I keep getting comments that say the exact same thing every time "Thanks for sharing this link - but unfortunately it seems to be down?... " and something about a mirrored source for the blog. I don't know why someone would keep saying this when the links are not down. They post as anon so I can't reply personally to them. If YOU are the one posting this please email me so I can figure out what your issue is. Everytime I check the links they are fine by me.....

Anywho... have a great day!
Nan

Auto replies when someone follows you on Twitter

2011-02-03T21:11:00.001-05:00

So I noticed when I follow people sometimes I get an auto reply almost immediately and I thought.. WOW those people are fast.. what are they sitting at their keyboards 24/7? But no.. they are not super twitterers.. they are using a service at SocialOomph.com to sent replies and to auto follow others. This is a tip worth sharing so there you go!!

You're welcome,
Nan

Social Media

2011-01-14T14:03:00.003-05:00

I've been swimming in the Social Media ocean for a few months now, tweeting, facebooking,blogging,networking on various sites... and I can see a glimmer of things starting to happen. I've been published on The Enterpreneur Gazzette Read about it here on the topic of dealing with loneliness as a solopreneur (someone who works alone)and I'm hoping to be profiled in an online travel, social magazine soon too. I'm up to 84 followers on Twitter and 114 on my Glass Orchids Facebook, which might not seem like much but starting at 0 it's impressive to me .

The link in the title line is a site I found that offers a lot of very interesting and useful information about using social media to increase your business and I wanted to share it with you all. It's the wave of the future people.... get out the surf boards and dive in!!

~Nan

7 Ways to Improve Sales of your Handmade Items

2011-01-06T14:15:00.002-05:00

1] Get business cards made and hand them out to everyone you meet. Cards can be made very cheaply (or FREE) at Vista Print. One side of the card should have a color picture of one of your products and the other side should be in black and white and include your Name, Business Name, Address, Phone, Fax, Email, URL, Twitter and Facebook info.

2] Build a mailing list. Really 2 lists: one for snail mail and another for email marketing. How do you build a list? Well, if you do shows you can put up a fishbowl and ask people to give you the info in return for an entry in a contest or a discount on an item at the show. Wherever you sell your work ask for customers or visitors info, use a guest book, online use a service such as MailChimp to collect information.

3] Now building a mailing list is useless if you don’t USE it. For snail mail you’ll need to have some postcards printed, again Vista Print is great for this. Your Post Card campaign isn’t a one shot deal so you’ll need to have several different post cards printed. You will send these out once a month for 4 months as a trial. Post cards should have one of your products highlighted in color on one side and your message and contact info on the other. Don’t be too wordy, list your offer and ask for a particular response. Example: Picture of a hand painted mailbox on one side, on the other side in black and white: Introducing our new line of Hand Painted Mailboxes available in 3 designs: Violets, Sunset and Morning Glory. Purchase now for our special introductory price of only $29.99 (retail price $39.99). To order call us at: 222-222-2222 or visit us online at: OURCO.COM. Offer good until May 2, 2011.

4] Join a few guilds that have a shop, host shows and help you build a network of both fellow artists and potential customers. Guilds can save you money with co-op buying of supplies, advertising and more. Also join local business organizations for even more opportunities and a larger network of potential customers.

5] If you are comfortable and capable, offer classes in your craft at local shops, your guild or in your studio. Check with small local museums to see if you can teach there. Students can become the best of customers.

6] Host Open-Studio/Demo Days in your studio where you allow the public to come by and see how you do what you do. Let local home school, church, civic organizations etc... know you are open to receive groups for demos and discussions. Send announcements of open studio days to the local paper too.

7] When local organizations ask for donations for fun raisers, GIVE. Make sure you include contact information and business cards with your donation. It’s also a tax write off. Donating is a great way to get your name and work out there and it’s also good for your Karma!

This article was written by Nancy Tang of Glass Orchids. Nancy has been creating Dichroic Glass Jewelry and teaching for over 16 years. She lives in Maine with her husband and daughter on an old dairy farm. You can reach Nancy at: glassorchids@gmail.com, on Twitter at @GlassOrchids or on the web at GlassOrchids.com

Happy New Year

2011-01-02T20:35:00.000-05:00

Wishing you all a Happy New Year. May this year be better than the last. Wishing you all good health, a better economy and gratitude for what we do have. I'm looking forward to 2011 with renewed vigor, enthusiasm and new ideas!!

~Nan

The Magic Makers

2010-12-21T16:37:00.001-05:00

This is a video made by my sister; it is so beautiful that I wanted to share it with all of you ... Merry Christmas.

~Nan

Want to share this video with your friends? Click this:

It's been a whirlwind of a month and it's not over

2010-12-21T14:00:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you but this month has been a whirlwind so far... and I've still got to get my personal shopping and shipping done! The next few days will be the craziest as both my customers and myself do our last minute shopping. I'm trying not to sweat the small stuff though.. if I'm late with my own stuff people will understand : )

Have a happy week,
Nan

Balance

2010-12-13T11:31:00.000-05:00

Well the weather has gone from 1.8 degrees to 51 degrees in just a few days; not that I'm complaining as I like the trend towards warm. Like most of you I'm trying to balance my personal time with the demands of the busy holiday season. Getting orders out to customers for holiday giving is a real priority but so is decorating the tree with my daughter.... so it's a challenge this time of year. Trying to keep the stress level down so the joy level can go up for us all! Time to pull out the stops.. who needs sleep anyway!!

TTYS,
Nan

Technology can be such a black hole!!

2010-12-06T22:55:00.001-05:00

I've been trying to follow some of the gurus of internet marketing: Ed Dale, Dan Raine and others. I read the SEO newletters, have set up Twitter, Facebook, Squiddo, Mailchimp, Ebay, Etsy, my own website and tried dozens of other things. It seems to me that many of these are like big black holes.. you can get sucked into them like the vortex in the wizard of oz...you can drill down and down and down in an ever increasing circle of confusion. What works? What doesn't work? Who the heck knows? I could spend all day long building social networks, connections, ads etc.... but what time does that leave to actually make and sell a product? Something meaningful not just some internet marketing emperors new clothes? Some of these things seem like they just feed off each other in a symbiotic relationship with no real benefit added to the world.. just one marketing thing feeding another and another and another .. no real 'product' .... it's all smoke and mirrors with a grain of truth at the center. Peddling snake oil to those of us who have something to sell and are looking for advice on how to do that better in this technological age....In my travels into the web of deceit and shams I have found a few things that I do think work.... I think I'll start to share them with you here so maybe YOU don't have to waste hours upon hours reading all this crap from people who want to sell you nothing but pipe dreams and smoke in a bottle....

NOTE to Charlie: The link appears to be working fine... not sure why it's not for you.... ~Nan

Coupons, special offers and more

2010-12-06T13:03:00.001-05:00

We're in the home stretch now baby!! 19 more days of xmas shopping, less if you have to ship your items to family and friends. Now there's one more reason to get that shopping done now: I'm offering a discount based on the number of days till Xmas.. so today you'd get 19% off, tomorrow 18% and so on. Use code: XMAS when checking out to get this discount.

I'm also trying to rebuild my mailing list; so many email addresses change that I'm starting from scratch and building anew. Join my mailing list and receive a coupon my email the next day for 30% off your next order. Join here: Join the Glass Orchids Mailing List

And lastly (for today) I'm offering Gift Certificates for those who just can't think about it!! There's a twist though!! Buy your Gift Certificate and get an additional 10% face value... more bang for your buck!

Did I say lastly? Well I lied.... one more offer.... in the comments section of your order put "I saw it on your blog" or something to that effect and you'll receive a FREE surprise gift (retail value of at least $15) with your order; you can keep it for yourself or give it as a gift!! The FREE gift offer CAN be combined with other discounts!! WOW!

That's all for today (really),
Nan

Feels like March

2010-12-02T08:12:00.001-05:00

It's 46 degrees, grey and rainy and feels like mud season; not that I'm complaining... I love a good foggy morning! It doesn't feel like December at all and I'm wondering if we'll have a white xmas; but of course you know what they say .... if you don't like the weather in Maine... wait a minute.

Yesterday Greg and I tore the barn and house apart looking for the Advent Box to fill... we did finally find it. I've got to put this thing in a special place every year so I can find it at will. It was easy filling this when the kid was small but it's a bit harder with a teen.

What's big this year? Those rubber bands shaped like animals that the kids use for bracelets.....who knew? I also print out coupons for things like: get out of one chore, go to bed 1/2 hour late, get driven to school..... and put them in the little drawers... they are always a big hit. Only so many things fit in those tiny drawers so this year I'm also going to put in pieces of paper with numbers on them and then wrap some small gifts and put numbers on them... then when my kid gets a number from a drawer she will get the coordinated numbered prize. These are small items like packs of gum, pencil sharpener, mechanical pencils, lip balm etc...useful and fun things vs. crappy toys from Oriental Trader which just get thrown in the trash. Been there, done that!

We'll be cutting a xmas tree from our own forest this weekend and putting up decorations so I hope the weather holds!! I have a show in Waterville on Saturday so Sunday is decorating day.

That's about it for today,
Nan

December 1st Already!!

2010-12-01T11:08:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it's December already? I cannot. November flew by. Are you all ready for the xmas holiday? Shopping done? All I've done is make a list. I use Excel to keep my lists from year to year so I don't forget anyone. Then I keep track of who is getting what, if I've shipped it etc.... Hey it's the one thing I do that I try to actually organize.. my family is just too large to keep it all in my head.. well that and I'm getting more senile by the day. Just the other day I could not remember my own address.... scarey!!

Maybe I need some ginko biloba LOL... wonder if it really works? Any of you out there try it? I did once try an herbal memory product called 'clear mind' but I didn't think it worked.

I'm already worrying next year's garden in my mind like a squirrel with a nut. This year my attempt at combining veggies with my herb/flower garden wasn't all that successful because I put a lot of the veggies by the fence and there just wasn't enough sun for them. Ah me, if only I was in reality the gardener I am in my mind. Well, there is always next spring.....

TTFN,
Nan

Spam

2010-11-30T07:13:00.000-05:00

Now if you have known me for any length of time then you know I rage about spam every once in awhile and today is the day. I looked at my spam folder (15000+ spams) today because I thought something I expected might be in there... it wasn't... and as I waited for gmail to delete these 15k mails NOW I could not help but notice that 90% of em on that first page were for increasing the lenght, girth or longlastingness of a member I don't have, 1% were for making my (excuse me here) boobs as big as balloons, 1% were in letter sets that I can't read or could not be displayed and the rest were various gimics and scams.

GUYS, DUDES, AMIGOS - if you were not so paranoid about your 'member' then I would not be receiving all this stuff in the email. YOU, yes YOU, must be clicking those links and buying that crap. So I ask you nicely: STOP. STOP falling for the scams, STOP worrying about this.. Find a nice girl who loves you and all your problems will be solved. I promise. Well all 'these' problems. If they aren't then go see your doctor not some flim flam add on the computer. Got it? Good. I will now expect the number of emails in my spam folder to diminish exponentially.

Have a lovely and longlasting day,
Nan

Cyber Monday Sale

2010-11-29T17:33:00.001-05:00

We're holding a sale for Cyber Monday Only - spend $50 or more on the website and use code "CYBER" to get 30% off! Follow this blog, our facebook page and our tweets to get unique codes for amazing discounts. Join our mailing list on our home page for other discounts. We'll be posting amazing deals on each of these communication platforms throughout the holiday season so keep in touch....

Follow this blog using the link below to the right on this page
Follow Nancy on Twitter
Join our Mailing List on our Home page at: Glass Orchids
And find us on Facebook; you can like us on GlassOrchids home page as well.

We'll be offering some amazing ONE HOUR sales to those who keep in touch using some of these methods so get techie and get the goods!!

~Nan

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!

2010-11-26T11:02:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. I spent the day yesterday cooking, eating and sleeping !! It was wonderful. Watched a few movies on TV with a toasty fire in the fireplace.

We're having a sale in the gallery this weekend, our first BOGO sale. I wanted to run a BOGO sale on the website but it wasn't possible technically so we're having a 25% off sale for the weekend on the site.

We had some snow flurries today with a light dusting covering everything in pristine white.

Well that's about it, take care!
Nan

Website Updated

2010-11-09T10:07:00.001-05:00

I've finally gotten the website updated for the holidays with lots of new items on the One of a kinds page, the Y'Art Sale page and even some new dishes on a few new pages. I still have more work to do on the Altered art page and the new Rings page and I'll be getting to that soon. The scans of the rings weren't very nice so I have to coral Greg into taking some 'real' pictures for me.

I also put some of my new barrettes up on eBay today. These are from my new Botanica(tm) line; lovely colors inspired by the garden and nature.

Have a good one!
Nan

Here's one in Lilac

Glass Boxes, shows and more...

2010-11-05T13:11:00.000-04:00

This week I made my first 2 glass boxes using a new mold system I purchased. These are amazing and I just love the potential. I'll get some pics up as soon as I 'decorate' them and fire polish.

I've got 2 upcoming shows: Nov 13/14 at the University of Maine at Gorham and Dec 4th, Location TBD with the Etsy Maine Team.

I'm still working on the website and will have a major update hopefully this evening!!

Hope you are all having a great day!!
~Nan