This Blog is Inactive

Just to let you know - I haven't used this blog since a while, because of my new one:

http://www.river-grace.com/

Ich benutze dieses Blog nicht mehr und habe einen neuen.
http://www.river-grace.com/

... and a tiny present

A few days ago I had a rather big DaWanda order - 7 keychains. Four of them were actually sold as pendants, but the customer asked me to change them into keychains. I made them completely anew, and used my last 4 key rings!
The payment came today, and the package is already shipped - seven keychains and a tiny little surprise present:)
It is white, because 3 out of 7 items in the order were made of white/transparent crystals: snow quartz, white agate and frosted rock crystal. That's why I assumed that the customer likes white angels. Hopefully it is really so!

New Gift Bags!

My new gift bags came a few days ago and I really wanted to show them off here:) They are lovely - even nicer than on the picture! I love sending my gemstone angels gift-wrapped, and used to handmake the wrapping myself. The clients loved it, but it was taking too much time and energy, so at the end I decided to look for beautiful gift bags instead. I'm so happy I found those silver and gold ones!

Meine neue Geschenksäckchen sind da!!! Ich bin verliebt - und die sehen viel schöner als auf dem Bild aus! Ich verschicke sehr gerne meine Heilsteinengelchen geschenkverpackt:)

White Agate Angel

This white agate angel is one of the items I recently listed on DaWanda. I love white crystals and the twisted shape of the bead used for the body of the angel looks so elegant. I actually bought the beads back in November 2009 but had a long struggle with the pictures. Taking photos of smooth white stones turned out to be pretty hard!

White agate is also known as Peace Agate, because it brings calm, inner peace and a feeling of security. It encourages kindness, sincerity and light-heartedness, and also promotes tolerance and understanding. It's good for the eyes, brain, skin, lymph and tissues. It's also known as protective stone in pregnancy.

Ich habe dieser Engel aus weißer Achat letztens auf DaWanda eingestellt. Ich liebe weiße Steine und habe diese noch im November 2009 gekauft. Die weiße Engeln fotografieren ist mir aber schwehr gefallen - und jetzt ist endlich gelungen!

Weißer Achat schafft Ruhe, Frieden, Sicherheit. Er stärkt die innere Sammlung und fördert Toleranz und Nachsicht. Körperlich, is er gut für Augen, Gehirn, Haut, Lymphe und Gewebe. Schwangerschaftsschutzstein.

Something New!

I enjoyed featuring wonderful talanted people so much, that I decided to do more of it. However, it felt that this blog won't be the right place for it, so I created a new one: www.craftdom.com It is in English only. I will continue using "Rainbow River" as a personal crafter's blog.

I already transferred the 5 relevant posts from this blog to "Craftdom". My initial idea was to eraze them from here, but then I kept them because of the German text.

Mir hat's so gefallen über talantierte nette Leute zu erzählen, dass ich mich entschieden habe in einen neuen Blog nur das zu machen: www.craftdom.com "Craftdom" ist nur auf Englisch. Auf diese Blog werde ich weiterhin über meine eigene Schmuckstücke berichten.

Romantic Pur

I found Diana's gorgeous one-of-a-kind bracelets on DaWanda. Lovingly handmade with high-quality materials (gemstones, lampwork, sterling silver), they are an instant eye-catcher. Just an example: "Indian Princess", the beautiful item you see above, features a hand-crafted flower glass bead, carnelian, faceted briolettes and gold-plated 925 sterling silver clasp and beads.

Dianas einzigartige Armbänder habe ich auf DaWanda gefunden. Liebevoll aus hochqualitative Materialen handgefertigt (wie Edelsteine, Künstlerperlen und 925 Sterling Silber), die sind ein echter Hingucker. Einen Beispiel: "Indian Princess", den Armband auf dem oberen Bild, ist mit ( unter anderem) eine Blumenkünstlerperle, Karneol Perlen, facettierte Brioletten und vergoldete 925 silber Verschluss und Ringe handgemacht.
I feel attracted to Diana's creations, because they are romantic (we all love romance, don't we), joyful and sometimes even funny in a really sweet way - look at the fish below and you will understand exactly what I mean :-)

Ich mag Dianas Kreationen, weil die romantisch, freulich und manchmals sogar lüstig sind:-)
What is more - they are full of flowers!

Und außerdem, die sind voller Blumen!
Interested to see more? Click here to visit Diana's DaWanda store.

Wollen Sie mehr sehen? Hier ist Dianas DaWanda Shop.

All About Etsy

Nowadays there are many online selling venues for handmade goodies, but back in 2005, when Rob Kalin, Chris Maguire, Haim Schoppik and Jared Tarbell founded Etsy, it was a completely new idea. Until then Ebay was the only Internet possibility for crafters, who could not afford (or did not have the knowledge) to build web sites of their own.

Es gibt mittlerweile mehrere Webseiten, wo Kunsthandwerker deren eigene Kreationen verkaufen können. In 2005 gab es aber noch keine - zumindest bis zum dem Tag, auf wem Rob Kalin, Chris Maguire, Haim Schoppik und Jared Tarbell Etsy eingeführt haben. Vorher gab es nur Ebay, der nicht umbedingt für handgemachtes gedacht ist. Etsy ist eine Amerikanische Webseite nur auf Englisch. In weitere blogpostings werde ich mehr über Deutsche Kunsthandwerker Seiten erzählen.

Etsy is great both for buyers and sellers. Buyers could choose from a variety of products in many categories, or have a look at the handpicked items in the Treasury or the Gift Guides. Multiple options for paying are allowed: credit card, money order, and PayPal. The purchased items tend to come nicely gift-wrapped. And most of all, Etsy is easy to use and navigate.

Sellers benefit from the popularity of the selling venue. Many people go directly to Etsy, whenever they need a gift for a loved one (or themselves). What is more, the site has great resources to help you establish your store and make it a success. The Storque (Etsy's blog) and the Forums are full of useful entries. Joining a session in the Virtual Labs is always good, as you can learn from the experience of others and ask questions in real time.

However, do not expect that money will automatically start rolling into your account the moment you register. You need good items, great pictures and perseverance. You need to be prepared to list and/or re-list a lot (which costs you 0.20 US Dollars each time). There are many sellers on Etsy, so you need to be active and list in order to show more often on the top of your category. Promoting outside Etsy is a must, as it brings people directly to your site.

I love Etsy, although having a store there did not work well for me. The reason? Being based in Europe, I could not offer any reasonable shipping fees. My products are relatively inexpensive and partly cheaper than the shipping itself! It costs 6 Euro (+ additional 2.05 Euro if you want to register it) to send some of my 5.95 /6.95 /7.95 Euro crystal angel (or fairy) pendants to the US, Australia and everywhere else outside the European Union. Being on DaWanda (another favourite selling venue of mine) proved to be better, especially as it is German/Europe-based.

I don't mean, that if you are in Europe, you should stay away from Etsy. On the contrary, there are many successful European sellers. I guess it depends on the type of your products, their prices and the realistic shipping fee. My Etsy store sold a few items too - even though I listed less then 40 times in total.

In order to buy or sell on Etsy, you need to register. You can do it by clicking on this link - it is free of charge. Setting up and maintaining a shop does not cost anything either. You pay 0.20 US Dollars per listing, as well as 3.5 percent of every sale (sellers only!).

Oh well, surely this is not all about Etsy. Etsy is about participating, experiencing and sharing the love to handmade products.