Selling on online craft stores

Since the start of my blog Rustic Modern Woman, I have been posting projects I've made for myself. Of course, the rock jewelry I sold at the Huntington Beach art walk last year. I loved making my cutting boards so much I made more that I know someone would want to buy for their own home.

Since one of my childhood friends has had success with Etsy, I thought I'd look into creating an online store. A quick search of "reclaimed wood cutting board" and there are a lot of results, of various prices and the first page is even personalized cutting boards. How am I supposed to compete with that? I made an online store, but I am not enthusiastic about getting any hits.

I found another site, Artyah and set up an online store there. It is $5 to start a store, and that's it. Etsy is 20 cents per listing which can add up since they encourage more listings to get higher on their search.  One of the important things about online selling is beautiful photographs. Pictures of your product in action but uncluttered and clean with nice lighting, is the key to getting people to look at it.

Now, another important thing I've learned is shipping. I didn't know then, but if I keep my cutting boards on the smaller side they can fit in a slightly cheaper shipping box. A postal scale is very handy too for exact costs. I know free shipping is in, but I have to raise prices if I have to eat the shipping cost. I might try it to see how it works, but right now I am charging for shipping, but making returns easy. The bad thing about Artyah though is it doesn't change shipping cost based on the buyer's location so I had to set the price at a USPS flat rate box cost which might be higher than it actually is to ship it.

I am under the name Peterson Studios because a last name and what the business does, does not require a DBA so I don't have to go through all that again for San Bernardino County.

Rock magnets

I got a super cute birthday card from my sister and immediately wanted it on my refrigerator. However, most of my magnets are thin or weak. Well, I had to use the magnet hanging up my other card for it so.....To the craft store!

The local craft store here is the Oak Trunk. I found magnets, a set of 8 for 1.99. Now if you have been reading my blog, you know I love collecting rocks.

I found some of my small ones that I kept but I don't think are jewelry quality. I put some semi-gloss sealer on them a long time ago. All I had to do was super glue the magnets onto the rocks and that's it. It took about a minute for the Gorilla super glue to dry.

I just made eight rock magnets for $1.99 and a few minutes and they are unique local rocks so I think that's awesome.

Used saw blade clock

With all the cutting boards and construction I've been doing,  I had to replace my saw blades. I didn't realize how expensive they are now and there's no way I'm throwing my old blades into the recycling can.

A long time ago as an impulse buy I got a quartz clock kit while buying some supplies at the hobby store. I figures eventually I would find a nice wood round to use as a clock. I haven't yet but my used table saw blade is just right.

First I clean my used saw blade with some Prep-All to get the gunk off and give it a light sanding. I spray painted both sides with some gloss black Rustoleum. I did my smaller blade from my circular saw in tan and did a faux wood airbrush job on it because I was originally thinking of combining them to do a double saw blade two-tone clock. I liked just the simple design of the black though, the saw blades give it enough flavor.

Once the paint dried, I added the numbers included in the kit. They had a sticky paper backing but it really wasn't sticky enough so I put a drop of super glue on each number to place it. Now the 12, 3, 6, and 9 were easy because the table saw blade had 4 air holes exactly where they need to be. I eyeballed the rest from there.

I put the main clock mechanism through the hole in the middle of the saw. The only thing extra I need is a washer from my hardware bin before putting the nut on. I screw the nut on tight by using some needle nose pliers, and make sure the hanger is aligned with the 12 on the clock.

This particular kit, the hour goes on first, then the minute, then a nut, and then the second hand pushes in.

One double A battery and my clock is ticking. I set to the time and it's been 6 hours and it is still right.