This week on Zibbet we introduce you to Emma Dobbs from Te Awamutu, New Zealand and her shop Silverlight Jewellery. Emma says her work is best described as ‘soft gothic’.Her Bohemian and Gothic-inspired designs range from the simple and charismatic, to the lavishly fantastical. She designs her jewelry for dreamers with day jobs who moonlight as rockstars!! You’ll be delighted with the unique finds in her shop.Please enjoy the interview, leave Emma a comment, and then use the Share Tools so others can read it, too. Please spread the Zibbet Love!
I’m introverted, intense, passionate, driven, highly artistic, thoughtful, intelligent in an academic way rather than a clever way, and I have unusual tastes in just about everything. I’m terrible at mathematics because I don’t find it stimulating enough. It’s too linear and dry. As you can probably tell from what follows in this interview, I’m an ideas person. I’d rather play with concepts than facts.I love animals, and am a vegetarian because, as George Bernard Shaw and Leonardo da Vinci, respectively, are reputed to have said, “Animals are my friends, and I don’t eat my friends”, and “My body will not be a tomb for other creatures.”I’m a perfectionist, a lover of books and reading, and a chronic multi-tasker.
Almost everything I do is creative. I have an artistic temperament, so I am pretty much incapable of doing anything in a ‘normal’, unimaginative way. My mind never stops; I think about everything, analyse everything, and ignore anything that I find uninteresting. So, I can’t think of anything I do that doesn’t involve some form of creativity on some level. Even when I’m doing something mindless like cleaning, I’m still thinking and imagining.I take care of my pets, and I eat. Those are probably the only things I do that aren’t creative in some way. And I’m not so sure about the eating.I need to make a living, and I don’t want to work for someone else. That was actually my motivation behind learning to make and sell jewellery: I turned my picky little nose up at all the employment opportunities that were available to me. I wanted to work from home, and I wanted the freedom of self-employment. I have always been a creative, artistic type, and I decided to try selling my work. I actually started with handmade cards, decided to branch out into jewellery, and then decided to focus solely on jewellery as it was far more lucrative.
I am very grateful that when I started trying to make a living from selling my work I had no idea how hard it was going to be, for if I had known, I might not have attempted it.As for what inspires my jewellery designs, I make what I like. Originally, driven by the need to make a living from my jewellery, I tried to make what I thought the market wanted; but, in my experience, that’s a dead end, because one cannot know what people want until one offers it to them. So now I make whatever I think is gorgeous and desirable and easy to wear, and I am so much happier for it. And it does sell.For a while I felt that making jewellery didn’t really contribute anything of benefit to the world; there are so many, many jewellery makers, and it’s not like jewellery feeds anyone or gives shelter to the needy. Jewellery is really just meaningless frippery, right? How could I justify doing something so meaningless for a living? However, after a year or three of struggling with this, I came to the conclusion that jewellery helps people to express themselves and feel good about themselves. That really is the highest function of jewellery: beautifying the human body and expressing the personality contained therein. And making someone feel great about theirself is actually a very noble purpose. The better we feel about ourselves, the better our lives become, and the more likely we are to help others to feel good also. I also came to the conclusion that beautiful things, like jewellery, do not need a reason to exist: any object that is beautiful justifies its own existence, simply by enhancing the experience of all who see it.
I look up to anyone who refuses to be normal! Most of us are taught to conform, and we are taught that you can’t have a fun, happy life pursuing your dreams and do good to others at the same time. This simply isn’t true. I look up to people who know who they are and what they want, who are true to themselves, who change the world, who help others and follow their passions at the same time. I admire and applaud people who live life their way, thoughtfully, intentionally and with conviction, and do good in the process. Life is too short to do anything less.Aside from making and selling jewellery? Too many to count! I am interested in so many things; I envy the ancients in the Bible who lived for hundreds of years – think how many skills they could attain, how much they could achieve, how much they must have known! I hope I don’t run out of years before I run out of ideas.However, all my interests could probably fit under the heading of ‘things that are beautiful and good’.
I love that which is beautiful on the inside as well as on the outside. I believe that everything can and should be beautiful, and that there are many different types of beauty. I like being able to appreciate beauty in all its forms. I describe Silverlight Jewellery as ‘soft gothic’ (a tagline which I invariably have to explain!), and the best explanation of modern gothicism I’ve ever heard comes from The Lady Of The Manners, A.K.A. Jillian Venters, according to whom gothicism is “finding beauty and whimsy in dark and unexpected places.” Not everything has to be shiny and new to be beautiful; things that are weird and offbeat and bizarre can be stunningly beautiful if you look past your preconceptions of what ‘beauty’ should look like. Beauty’s not just about looks, either: the story behind an object can make it beautiful.The people. The people are so nice! I cannot get over the fact that Jonathan Peacock, the C.E.O. of Zibbet, once answered my bug report. I’ve asked a question the answer to which I knew must be obvious but which was eluding me, and it was still responded to promptly and courteously. The Zibbet staff are so open and clear about what’s going on with Zibbet and what their expectations of us sellers are, and so polite and gracious all the time. I get the feeling that Zibbet really, truly, cares about its sellers and buyers. That is a precious, and refreshing, attitude to come across in any field of life.
I also like the look of Zibbet’s Premium shops; they can be very handsome, and allow for a lot of customisation: you can keep it clean and streamlined or load up with widgets and other features, as you will. I also like the way Zibbet is honest about allowing its sellers to publicise their other webshops through Zibbet. I think Zibbet has a very gracious and realistic view of how online selling works. I think it is those attitudes, more than anything else, that will make Zibbet great.Improved photo quality. I take pains with my photographs – as Jonathan has said, photographs are THE most important element of selling online – and I notice that they don’t always look as good on Zibbet as they do on my computer and on the other websites where I sell.I’d also love to see some kind of quality control with regard to photography; it makes me wince to see beautiful, professional-grade photography alongside a blurry, dimly-lit, overcrowded photograph. I see so many sellers complain that they make no sales: I take one look at their photographs and I can see why. It doesn’t take much to upgrade your photography from ‘terrible’ to ‘average’; it really doesn’t! The knowledge is freely available online; just a couple of hours of learning and then experimenting and trying different things can work wonders for one’s photographs. It would be nice to see sellers obliged to take that step and thus start doing justice to their work, and it would elevate the overall look and feel of Zibbet by miles, making it an even more attractive venue for buyers. Buying online is an almost purely visual experience; web venues and item photography must therefore be as visually attractive as they possibly can.
I have a Facebook page and an E-mail newsletter. I’m currently re-evaluating the effectiveness of the newsletter, though! And, to be frank, Facebook often annoys me. I was on Twitter for a while and had a blog which I scarcely use nowadays. I found that social media was a distraction that simply kept me away from my workbench far too much. I have found that the absolute best form of promotion for me is simply to make more items and keep listing. Nothing beats that. In my experience, it’s easy to get distracted with social media and other forms of promotion; but if you keep making good stuff and presenting it well, people will find it eventually, and it’s that that makes sales more than anything else.I do have my shop U.R.L.s in my E-mail signature, and I know that people click on them because they tell me that they do! I pay little attention to S.E.O., but I do describe my items as well as I can, and somehow I must be doing it right because many of my buyers tell me that they found my items through Internet searches.
The same way to make the most of anything: keep the main thing the main thing; do the basics really, really well (great products, great photography, great descriptions, great customer service), believe in what you’re doing, take care with it and pride in it, give it your time and attention and passion, and it’s remarkable how everything else will take care of itself.I don’t consider myself fully ‘successful’ yet – it’s taken me three mistake-filled years to make a profit from selling my jewellery – but after those three years that’s what I’ve learned. Make good stuff and present it well; fame and profit come later. Adore what you do. Get the basics right. Like, REALLY right. It matters less what your avatar shows and more that your product works well; no one cares whether you have a Facebook page if your photography is always too dark; etc. Worry about whether your clasps work and how neatly your seams are finished; that’s far more important than how often you blog. Sweat the details of the main thing, not the details that aren’t the main thing. Everything else will fall into place after that.Even more creative and happy than I am now, making stuff that I love and selling it like crazy, using more upcycled materials, giving more money to charity and giving lost animals a home on my self-sufficient farmlet.Tags: Featured Zibbeters, Silverlight Jewellery
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This week I perused the April New Listings thread on Zibbet’s Community Hub to find five fantastic items.
Judy writes the ‘Fantastic Five‘ column where she features 5 Zibbet items every week. She is the owner of four Zibbet shops: Portable Graffiti Graphics, Portable Graffiti buttons, Proofreader, and Wild Goose Chase vintage, crafts and supplies. You can follow Judy on Facebook.
This week Zibbet is pleased to introduce you to Duane and Susan Reynolds who reside in Patrick Springs, Virginia. Duane’s Workshop is a family affair. This homeschool family works together at home to make fine wood products for you.Here in the Zibbet family, we love to hear about husbands and wives, parents with children or siblings working together while sharing and passing on the creative genes. The Reynolds are a great example!Please enjoy the interview, leave Duane and Susan a comment, and then use the Share Tools so others can read it, too. Please spread the Zibbet Love!
Duane and I are high school sweethearts and have been married for 19 years this Summer. We have 3 boys and have always enjoyed crafting together as a family. There are constant craft projects going on at our house. We have attended crafts shows and sold goods at different venues early on in our marriage. We dreamed one day of being able to craft and make handmade goods full time. Zibbet is one such site that can make that happen. With zibbet we are able to reach the world. We are a homeschool family and so we are highly involved in our childrens’ activities and education. But to be honest crafting and art is our family’s activities, so really basically we are always creating either for our shops or for ourselves.
Even on my girls night out I spend my time scrapbooking and creating paper projects with friends.Our love for working with our hands and creating one of a kind items. We began creating with wood around 15 years ago and love creating and dreaming up new projects. There is just something special about seeing your handmade pieces in use. Duane and I have worked together along with our older son to create many pieces of furniture in our home. We prefer handmade over store bought so anytime we have a need we try to figure out how to make the item versus going to a retail store and purchasing.
We look up to other entrepreneurs and crafters that have followed their dreams and created themselves a lifestyle and career through their craft. We recently visited a local business that was created just from one person following their dreams and ambitions. They were able to grow a business while still maintaining a tight close knit family. Their business is over 35 years old and is still run by the family. The children and spouses all work together to make the business successful. We dream of one day being as they are, creating a successful business and working alongside our children.We also enjoy many other crafts. It may be silly to say, but we are always crafting something with the kids or for our own personal use. Currently we spend lots of time creating personalized hand stamped jewelry which may soon be available on Zibbet.
With zibbet we are able to become visible to millions of web viewers around the world. The craft shows of the past while still a great craft tool cannot compare to the audience online. Zibbet still puts the emphasis on the craft and handmade versus other mega sites which seem to be more about retail. Zibbet also is more personable and are easy to reach those in charge. With Zibbet you feel as though you are part of a family rather than just being a number in the masses.I would like to be able to print shipping labels directly from the zibbet site versus paypal. I would also like for the customer to be able to select the options offered from a menu. This would make sure that the options desired would delivered.
We use several social media sites to promote our goods, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest being the most common. All of these sites allow a direct link back to our shop.Keep fresh items for sale never stop coming up with new ideas. Keep your ear on the voice of the customer, they will let you how you are doing and where you need to improve. Always send the best quality items. People are buying handcrafted goods and expect a high quality product.In the future I want to be supported by our craft. I would love nothing more than to be able to work every day with our products, materials, and customers. I want to be filling orders, creating new goods, and developing relationships. I want to be teaching our craft to our children, developing their inner crafter to express the artist in them.
This week Zibbet “traveled” to Las Vegas, Nevada to interview Daisy Collins. Daisy’s shop on Zibbet is Tsunami Rose where you will find a great assortment of digital designs for all your scrapbooking needs.You will find whole journaling kits, printable paper in many sizes, printable card sketches and stamp sets, embellishments, sentiments and more.
My name is Daisy Collins, I will be 25 soon. I was born and raised in Oxnard, California. My parents immigrated from Mexico. I now live in Las Vegas with my husband and a lot of close and extended family nearby.I started getting into graphic design when I was 14 after being given a computer and internet access from my parents. I learned how to use Photoshop mostly from online tutorials. I studied web design in college but, I’ve since decided to focus more graphic design and print. But that schooling doesn’t go entirely to waste, it really helps me run my blog efficiently.I was laid off from my cashiering job and found myself with a lot of time and I knew I wanted to keep occupied being creative and started posting on a blog I had deserted. At first it was just my handmade scrapbook layouts, cards and creations, then it started snowballing into me blending my graphic design skills and scrapbooking. I soon found myself enjoying creating designs to print and use in my cards and other projects. After I’d design it, I’d put it up as an email-download on my Zibbet shop which I opened in Feb of 2012.The funny thing is I am always doing something design related. I’m lucky enough to be able to dedicate myself full time to graphic design. On my off time of designing for scrapbookers…. I scrapbook. I love scrapbooking at home or going to different local scrapbook meet ups with friends in Las Vegas. I also volunteer at First Friday which is a monthly art festival. That is also where I sell my card designs and network with other crafty artsy people. I’m also going to be teaching card classes at a local art loft soon.
Other than all that…. I love hanging out at home with my husband, watching documentaries, and playing Fallout 3 & New Vegas. I also enjoy family get-togethers and lately I’ve love crafting with my mom and helping her get her online shop started.There’s a couple of things that could inspire me, a color palette I see online or in my natural environment, an oldies song, suggestions from customers, or browsing through scrapbook.com. I am lucky enough to live in Las Vegas, and love visiting the LV Design Center and the World Market Center, they have furniture designs from all over the world. When I see designs similar to mine there- I know am on the right track.I look up to my parents a lot, they taught me that to be successful in life you have to work hard and respect yourself and others.
In the art world I look up to Van Gogh, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Betsy Johnson. I‘ve looked up to Van Gogh ever since I was introduced to him in elementary school. I admired his sense of color and just his overall style. I had a chance to see one of his works of art recently and it almost drove me to tears, it was like meeting him. I learned about Jean-Michel Basquiat in like the last two years, he died a couple years before I was born, but I saw his documentary on Netflix. I was just so inspired by how young he was, how he lived his life, the colors he used and the politically-driven subjects he chose to paint. I was mostly inspired by the fact that he stayed true to himself and his roots. I admire Betsy Johnson because of her pattern/flower mixes. She is a HUGE influence on me, I just love her funky rock girly style. And she seems like someone who would make a great friend and there wouldn’t be a dull moment with her.I am passionate about 4 things: the internet, design, family, and my husband. My life revolves around these four passions and they often intertwine. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I like how affordable it is to set up shop! I also love the customizations we can do to our shop. The shop stat info is very helpful as well and helps me set goals. You have a great thing going here and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.I would just adore an instant download feature. And since it is 100% of my business, it would just make it so much easier for me to have the products available for download right after they are purchased. As it is right now, I have to email them over to the customer. It’s not a lengthy process, but it could be easier. I would also love if we could use .gif files as our shop banner!I promote by posting new items, tutorials, challenges, and features on my blog then sharing blog post on my Facebook Fan page and on my own personal Facebook account. I am also a part of many, many Facebook crafting groups and share the new products & blog posts with them. I also use Pinterest and my favorite, Stumbleupon.I also run an international design team with the help of two good friends, Kimberly Pate and Rhonda Bewley-Ratliff, to help get the word out about my shop and my designs. My design team create wonders with my designs and tell their bloggers or Youtube viewers about my shop. It is a full time job to design the products and showcase them to my bloggers, so they take half the weight off my shoulders, I am very grateful to each and every one of them for their help.
I suggest that they hop on the social media bandwagon. Nothing is better than free advertisement. Also networking is very important! You will meet some great friends that will be more than happy to help you cross-promote your products. Also, remember branding!Designing a scrapbook line that is mass produced and available to everyone! I’m currently working on getting a stamp line up and going. I am definitely planning on using my Zibbet shop to help me get it done.
Last week I discussed the importance of including links in posts that feature items from your shop so that buyers can easily find those items. I also included a tutorial on how to embed a link in both photos and text for these posts in discussions on Zibbet’s Community Hub. Today I want to follow up with a quick explanation of how to edit a ZCH reply. Replies can be edited within 15 minutes of posting as long as you remain logged in to your ZCH account. If you see a typo or need to edit a post after that time, your only option is to delete the reply entirely and create a new one. To delete your reply, click the green x on the right hand side of the post. Confirm that you want to delete the post or cancel if you change your mind. Please note that you can delete your posts at any time.
Vicki is committed to assisting her fellow Zibbeters improve their shops for successful online selling. She is the owner of five Zibbet shops: LOC Design Studio, Papa Spivey’s Trunk, A Stitch and a Prayer and Think Like a Fish. You can follow Vicki on Twitter and through her LOC Design Studio blog.
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