Valentine's Day Gifts from Eclectic Design Choices

Click to enlarge the image.

I have a large selection of heart themed gifts for your Valentine. A sampling is shown in the image above. If you don't see what you want in either my EDCCollective Etsy shop or my EclecticSkeptic Etsy shop, contact me asap to see if I can create what you are looking for. If one of my ready to ship items catches your eye, you should still have a little over a week from the date of this post to purchase and have it shipped to you in time.

Design This - Earrings for Sensitive Ears

Some percentage of people who wear pierced earrings have sensitive ears that cause them problems if they wear earrings with base metal ear wires or other ear attachments. That has to be frustrating for them when they find the perfect pair of earrings, but can't buy them because they have the wrong type of ear wire to keep their ears happy.

I was very pleased when a recent visitor to my EclecticSkeptic Etsy shop wrote to me asking if a certain pair of my earrings were okay for someone who prefers hypoallergenic jewelry. I told her that I did have a solution for someone in her situation and sent her a link to a previous blog post of mine describing the benefits of niobium ear wires. Later I took a photo of the niobium ear wires I had on hand that would complement the earrings she was interested in. After reviewing the photo, she picked out a pair and I made a private listing for her to purchase.

I do also keep a small supply of sterling silver findings on hand, but in this case they would not have been a good color match for the earrings my customer was interested in. I am always happy to receive inquiries about making changes to an existing piece of jewelry or making a new item that meets a person's needs. In addition to options for people with sensitive ears, I also have options for what is probably a small percentage of people these days who do not have pierced ears but still want to wear earrings, like me.

Design This - Bulk Keychain Order

I have an easy open, music note keychain listing in my EclecticSkeptic Etsy shop from which you can order one of four available keychains or up to all four. I received an inquiry late last year from someone wondering if I had a supply of keychains such that they could order them in bulk. I generally only make the number of items I have shown in a listing but often do have additional supplies on hand to be able to make more. In this case, my prospective customer wanted a lot, 35 to be exact!

I knew I had enough gemstone beads in the appropriate size, however I had to check my stock of charms, keychains and headpins to see if I had enough of those too. It turned

out that as long as a mix of gold tone and silver tone keychains would satisfy, I would be able to fill the request. I relayed this information and was pleased to find out that would be ok. We discussed the time I would need to be able to create 35 new keychains, a ship by date and what discount I could offer on a bulk request like this.

After getting the details nailed down, I set up a custom listing and got to start on the order after I heard the cha-ching from my Etsy seller's app. I selected all of the materials I would need and began to assemble the keychains. I took two work in progress pictures that I have included here as well as a photo of the finished product before I packaged them up to send off.

You will never know if an artisan can create exactly what you are looking for if you don't ask. So, send me a note if you are interested in a specific creation or multiples of something you see in one of my shops.

Design This - Specific Accent Color Flying Pig Earrings

Sometimes a custom request is as simple as a change of color. That was the case about a month ago in my EclecticSkeptic Etsy shop. I had an inquiry that referred to my golden flying pig and colored crystal earrings. I have several color choices available to be purchased and shipped right away in the listing. However, none of the color choices were quite what my customer was looking for. They asked if I could make the earrings with a clear or pink crystal bead.

I pulled clear and pink crystal beads of the same size as the accent beads in the listing from my stock of possibilities and took a picture to see if any of them would fit the bill. During our ensuing discussions my customer also expressed a preference for gold filled instead of my standard gold plated findings. Luckily I have a small selection of gold filled findings on hand. Once the choices were made I was able to mock up the earrings and quote a price. My customer replied to move forward so I made a custom listing and created the earrings after the purchase was complete.

I usually end my "Design This" posts encouraging you to contact me if something I have is close to but not quite what you are looking for so that I can see if I can create what you want. This is a perfect example of someone who took a chance and reached out to a seller (me) to see if a little tweek could be done to an existing item to create what they wanted. Contact me with your questions, big or small, to see if I can make your vision a reality.

New Listing for EclecticSkeptic - Celestial Stud Earrings

My EclecticSkeptic Etsy shop has a new science jewelry listing. Space buffs will appreciate the new planet and star earrings. I discovered some cute, plated brass, ringed planet earrings. I made dangles for them to expand on the celestial theme. The first joint of the dangle is a dark blue teardrop shaped Czech glass bead with a pop of AB coating that represents the fabric of space. Below this bead I attached two separate small white star dangles.

Check out these and other science themed jewelry and gifts in my EclecticSkeptic science geekery shop section.

Design This - 26 Music Note Keychains

Sometimes everything falls in place for an unusual request to be able to be fulfilled. Earlier this year, I just happened to look at my emails much earlier than normal on a Friday morning and found a rush request. Someone had seen my music note keychains in my EclecticSkeptic Etsy shop and wanted to know if I by chance had 26 of them ready to ship so she could receive them the next day. I did have two keychains shown in the listing to choose from, however those were the only completed ones I had. I do generally have extra stock to make up more of many of my items so I checked to see what I had

on hand. Luckily, I had just enough of the easy open flexible keychains but I did not have quite enough of the eighth note charms. I did however have some sixteenth note charms that my potential customer was happy to have me use. I looked at my schedule and figured that if I could start on the keychains after my morning meeting, I would be able to complete them in order to get them packed up and to the post office in time to get next day delivery to my customer's location. Luckily my customer was watching for my response and after a couple of convos to tie down details I was able to put together a custom listing for her and send her the link. I told her if it was paid by the time I made it home from my meeting I was about to head out to, that I would be able to fulfill her request in time. (Click to enlarge the photo.)

Just before my meeting ended, my Etsy app made that lovely cha-ching sound to let me know my listing had been purchased. I got home and got to work in an assembly line fashion to create 26 new keychains to fulfill the order. As I got started, I remembered the 16th note charms were actually connectors so I had to find gemstones with a larger and smaller size to make those work. It was a bit

of a free upgrade but since I did not have 26 eighth note charms, I was happy to do this. Even with a couple of small things I had to attend to during the day, I was able to complete, pack and ship this order in time, not with lots of time to spare but I got it done. Now, I held my breath in hopes that USPS would fulfill its next day shipping. Happily the package was delivered prior to noon on Saturday.

If you ever need multiples of any of the items I have created, please contact me to see if I can help out. It would be a good idea to give me more lead time than I had on this request however. There really seemed to be an aligning of the stars so that I could turn around this order in such a short time frame.

As I looked for replacement eighth note charms, I found a supplier who carried golden ones in addition to the silver tone ones I originally stocked so now I can offer my music note keychains in two colors, silver or gold. I made my first golden music note keychains using picture jasper and a tan and black dalmatian jasper.

Design This - Variation on a Sold Item

Sometimes a custom request comes in that is for a variation on something seen in my sold items in my EclecticSkeptic shop on Etsy. If I have what is needed to recreate a sold item or a variation on it, I am happy to help.

Someone contacted me because they had been searching for a bead much like I had used in my previously sold flying pig moon and stars pin but with a silver cast instead of a gold one. Luckily I had a few moon and star beads that I had not used yet, specifically because they lacked much of the golden hue of the ones I had paired with my golden flying pig charm. This person wanted to attach their own charm to such a bead, as I had attached my flying pig charm, and use the combination as a lapel pin. They wanted the loop under the bead to be sterling silver and the tie tack back to be silver tone instead golden.

I had the materials on hand to be able to achieve what this person wanted so I was happy to be able to create a custom listing for her. If you see something in a current or sold listing that you want to know if I can recreate but make it a different size, color, style or other variation, please contact me. I enjoy tailoring my creations to exactly what someone is looking for when I am able.

Design This - Short Flying Pig Earrings

Last spring I received two convos from a nurse, each with a request for an alteration to one of my flying pig listings to make a short pair of earrings. The earrings needed to be short for wearing at work. One request was to have just the flying pig charms dangling from French ear wires without the heart in between the two and the other was to ask if I could use the image on my flying pig cufflinks to make a short pair of earrings. And she had sensitive ears so she initially asked for sterling silver ear wires.

The first request was easy to fill by making a new pair of earrings with just the flying pig charms. I did want to ask her about ear wire choices for sensitive ears though. Niobium ear wires are a great alternative to expensive pure metals and they come in a variety of colors. Luckily the second request was also fairly easy to fill since I was already doing something similar with my music note bezel earrings. This customer was a joy to discuss her options with. She was very upbeat and excited about having a variety of choices for new earrings with a flying pig theme based on her needs.

After nailing down the details I was able to get started on this custom order after finishing up another project I had in the works. The bezel earrings take a couple of days to complete. Once they were finished I took a picture for review by my customer. She was very pleased so I got them boxed up and shipped out so they could wing their way to their new home.

Valentine's Day Gift Suggestions 2017

Have you given thought to what you will get your Valentine this year? Will your gift be practical, funny or romantic? That could depend on how long you have known your Valentine, whether he or she is a romantic or a practical type and your relationship status. (Don't forget family members, they appreciate a shout out on Valentine's Day too. Remember when you were in grade school and everyone in your class got a card from you?)

There are fun flying pig Valentine's Day cards in my EclectcSkeptic Etsy shop along with a variety of creations sporting hearts. While there are not as many items sporting hearts in my EDCCollective Etsy shop, there are many practical and pretty creations to choose from.

Order ready to ship items from either of my Etsy shops no later than the end of the first week in February (U.S. addresses) so that your gift should arrive in time for Valentine's Day. If you are interested in a custom order for your Valentine, contact me by the end of January to discuss details so I can complete your request and ship your gift to you in a timely manner. You may find inspiration for your custom item, with or without a heart, in my sold items sections in my shops.

Thanks for the Treasuries - One Last Time - September 2016

"One last time," you ask? Treasuries have been an integral part of my Etsy experience since I joined Etsy and started my first shop in 2009. I really enjoyed the rotating treasuries on the landing page of Etsy for the first couple of years. I was even featured in two or three front page treasuries. One time when a vintage cloisonne butterfly belt of mine was featured on the front page it sold within the hour that it was featured. Other than that, I have to admit I only know of a handful or fewer treasuries that were the direct catalyst of a sale of the featured item. Nonetheless, I have always appreciated being featured because you never know when a bit of exposure will result in a sale or networking opportunity. In addition, I found most treasuries to be very pretty to look at and/or clever. Unfortunately, Etsy came to the conclusion that treasuries were no longer making sense from a business perspective.

As I bid a fond farewell to Etsy treasuries, I want to express my gratitude to the three Etsy shop owners who let me know they had featured one or more of my items in a treasury during September. Four Etsy treasuries, that treasury makers let me know about, included one of my creations. You can see a collage below of my items from EDCCollective and EclecticSkeptic that were featured during September. (Click on the collage to see a larger view.)

I really appreciate being featured by the treasury makers. To thank them, I have listed below a link to the Etsy sellers that let me know they had featured one or more of my items, as well as an item from their shop that I like.

Enjoy window shopping and please click on the links to the shops whose item catches your eye.

CorkyCrafts
Wine cork wreathes, birdhouses, ornaments, gifts and more. If you have a wine connoisseur who happens to appreciate hand made items look no further than this shop.

HotDogCrafts
This shop owner turns graphics into button dangle earrings, hair clips, keychains and more.

RosemarysHomestead
This shop features beautifully handcrafted macrame jewelry, micro macrame bracelets, earrings, and accessories made with beads, shells, and fine cord.

Thanks for the Treasuries - August 2016

Two Etsy shop owners and one Etsy team let me know they had featured one or more of my items in a treasury during August. Six August Etsy treasuries, that treasury makers let me know about, included one of my creations. You can see a collage below of my items from EDCCollective and EclecticSkeptic that were featured during August. (Click on the collage to see a larger view.)

I really appreciate being featured by the treasury makers. To thank them, I have listed below a link to the Etsy sellers that let me know they had featured one or more of my items, as well as an item from their shop that I like. In addition you will see information about the TexasFriendsTeam that also featured a couple of items of mine.

Enjoy window shopping and please click on the links to the shops whose item catches your eye.

HotDogCrafts
This shop owner turns graphics into button dangle earrings, hair clips, keychains and more.

IsabellasWhimsy
Handcrafted quilted items make cheerful gifts full of homemade goodness and care.

TXFriendsTeam
Past, present and future Texans are welcome and encouraged to join this team. The only real rules of the group are to promote friendly, The TX Way, and be respectful to all who participate.

Thanks for the Treasuries - July 2016

Two Etsy shop owners let me know they had featured one or more of my items in a treasury during July. Nine July Etsy treasuries, that treasury makers let me know about, included one of my creations. Another one included one item from each of my shops. You can see a collage below of my items from EDCCollective and EclecticSkeptic that were featured during July. (Click on the collage to see a larger view.)

I really appreciate being featured by the treasury makers. To thank them, I have listed below a link to the Etsy sellers that let me know they had featured one or more of my items, as well as an item from their shop that I like.

Enjoy window shopping and please click on the links to the shops whose item catches your eye.

HotDogCrafts
This shop owner turns graphics into button dangle earrings, hair clips, keychains and more.

IsabellasWhimsy
Handcrafted quilted items make cheerful gifts full of homemade goodness and care.

EclecticSkeptic's Seventh Etsyversary

EclecticSkeptic has come a long way from an Etsy shop devoted to flying pigs that started out with photographic art images on bookmarks and note cards. I soon expanded into flying pig jewelry. Later I decided to incorporate my love of math and science into new items for the shop. When I created a custom order for a musician friend it made sense for me to add music geekery items as well. And then I thought the flying pigs might enjoy some other fanciful flying friends so I added mythology creations in the form of flying horses and dragons.

Monday, August 1, 2017 will mark my seventh anniversary of opening EclecticSkeptic on Etsy. To celebrate my Etsyversary I am offering a sale during the first week of August. If you are already subscribed to my newsletter you saw the details on how to participate in this the sale in the July newsletter. If you sign up for the newsletter before the sale is over, I will forward a copy to you of the July newsletter containing the pertinent information.

The image at the top of this post shows my original banner for my shop. The image below shows my new shop cover giving you a visual impression of how far my creations have come since those first few, fun flying pig goodies.

Thanks for the Treasuries - June 2016

Two Etsy shop owners let me know they had featured one or more of my items in a treasury during June. Five June Etsy treasuries, that treasury makers let me know about, included one of my creations. You can see a collage below of my items from EDCCollective and EclecticSkeptic that were featured during June. (Click on the collage to see a larger view.)

I really appreciate being featured by the treasury makers. To thank them, I have listed below a link to the Etsy sellers that let me know they had featured one or more of my items, as well as an item from their shop that I like.

Enjoy window shopping and please click on the links to the shops whose item catches your eye.

HotDogCrafts
This shop owner turns graphics into button dangle earrings, hair clips, keychains and more.

IsabellasWhimsy
Handcrafted quilted items make cheerful gifts full of homemade goodness and care.

Thanks for the Treasuries - May 2016

Three Etsy shop owners and one Etsy team let me know they had featured one or more of my items in a treasury during May. Eight May Etsy treasuries, that treasury makers let me know about, included one of my creations. You can see a collage below of my items from EDCCollective and EclecticSkeptic that were featured during May. (Click on the collage to see a larger view.)

I really appreciate being featured by the treasury makers. To thank them, I have listed below a link to the Etsy sellers that let me know they had featured one or more of my items, as well as an item from their shop that I like. In addition you will see information about the TexasFriendsTeam that also featured a couple of items of mine.

Enjoy window shopping and please click on the links of anything that catches your eye.

HotDogCrafts
This shop owner turns graphics into button dangle earrings, hair clips, keychains and more.

IsabellasWhimsy
Handcrafted quilted items make cheerful gifts full of homemade goodness & care.

PamsFabPhotos
Choose from original handmade photo greeting cards, note card sets, home & living items and more.

TXFriendsTeam
Past, present and future Texans are welcome and encouraged to join this team. The only real rules of the group are to promote friendly, The TX Way, and be respectful to all who participate.

Thanks for the Treasuries - April 2016

Three Etsy shop owners and one Etsy team let me know they had featured one or more of my items in a treasury during April. Nine April Etsy treasuries, that treasury makers let me know about, included one of my creations. You can see a collage below of my items from EDCCollective and EclecticSkeptic that were featured during April. (Click on the collage to see a larger view.)

I really appreciate being featured by the treasury makers. To thank them, I have listed below a link to the Etsy sellers that let me know they had featured one or more of my items, as well as an item from their shop that I like. In addition you will see information about the TexasFriendsTeam that also featured an item of mine.

Enjoy window shopping and please click on the links of anything that catches your eye.

GirlieGals
Girlie Gals offers you sparkle and shine at affordable prices. "It's a Bling Thing!"

HotDogCrafts
This shop owner turns graphics into button dangle earrings, hair clips, keychains and more.

IsabellasWhimsy
Handcrafted quilted items make cheerful gifts full of homemade goodness & care.

TXFriendsTeam
Past, present and future Texans are welcome and encouraged to join this team. The only real rules of the group are to promote friendly, The TX Way, and be respectful to all who participate.

Etsy Shops Get a Makeover

This past week Etsy completed its rollout of its new shop design. The new design relies more on scrolling than links to related pages to surface pertinent information about a shop.

As a shop owner I had the option of using my old banner, making a larger cover photo or going without a visual at the top of my shop landing page. I chose to go with the new cover photo option. My cover photo for my EDCCollective shop is likely temporary. I used the photo that I created my old banner from and cropped it for the new cover photo aspect ratio. (See old banner above.) At some point when I have the time I expect I will set up a photo shoot using my current inventory to make a new one. Until then I am happy with the new cover photo (seen below). What do you think? For my EclecticSkeptic shop I made a collage of representative items from that shop for my new cover photo.

Other changes include larger product images at three across instead of four on our shop home page. Some of the information was brought out of the side bar on the left and added higher up on the page. We also got five more shop sections that we can add to the sidebar, hooray! This will help customers focus in on specific items they are looking for when they are not just browsing an entire shop. I have already added a few more sections to my EclecticSkeptic shop.

There is definitely a learning curve for shop owners as they manage the new layout and some things are not as easy to do in one's shop as in the old view. Etsy has promised they are working on enhancements based on feedback. Overall, I am getting used to it and am hopeful that Etsy's testing that showed the redesign was good for shoppers proves to be accurate. I have not shopped the new view yet. If you have, I'd love to hear what you find to be good or needs improvement from a shopper's point of view.

Thanks for the Treasuries - March 2016

One Etsy shop owner and one Etsy team let me know they had featured one or more of my items in a treasury during March. Three March Etsy treasuries, that treasury makers let me know about, included one of my creations. You can see a collage below of my items from EDCCollective and EclecticSkeptic that were featured during March. (Click on the collage to see a larger view.)

I really appreciate being featured by the treasury makers. To thank them, I have listed below a link to the Etsy seller that let me know they had featured one or more of my items, as well as an item from their shop that I like. In addition you will see information about the TexasFriendsTeam that also featured an item of mine.

Enjoy window shopping and please click on the links of anything that catches your eye.

HotDogCrafts
This shop owner turns graphics into button dangle earrings, hair clips, keychains and more.


TXFriendsTeam
Past, present and future Texans are welcome and encouraged to join this team. The only real rules of the group are to promote friendly, The TX Way, and be respectful to all who participate.

Design This – Can You Make Multiples?

Sometimes a custom request is as simple as someone wanting more of an item than I have available in a listing. Since many of my bead supplies are purchased as a strand of beads, often I am able to oblige. Two custom requests came in last year that I managed to have just enough matching supplies on hand to fill my customer's request.

I had a flying pig keychain made from a couple of beads that reminded me of an evergreen conifer in my EclecticSkeptic Etsy shop. I received an inquiry for seven or eight total of the tree keychains (The tree was a must). Luckily I had just enough of those stones left to be able to make the total of eight that she preferred. She asked about making some of them silver instead of gold as seen in the listing. Since these would be made from scratch for my customer, that was easy for me to do. She also decided she wanted two keychains like the agate and silver flying pig keychain listing I had available. I had three agate beads left that I thought were pretty similar to the one in the listing so I included them in a photo with the green tree parts and numbered them so my customer could choose the stone she liked for the second keychain. After she chose it was time to assemble the eight new keychains to our agreed upon specs and ship them with the two she had seen listed originally.
Another request came later in the year for a larger multiple of a listed item than the tree keychain request. It was for a total of eleven square brown shell lapel pins like the one I had listed. That request proved to be pretty easy but when that customer came back requesting another twelve I held my breath as I counted the square brown shell beads I still had on hand. Luckily I had just enough and was able to fulfill the second request as well.






When I run out of a supply that has been popular I keep my eye out for more of them when I get a chance to shop at a trade show. So far the carved green stones and square brown shells have eluded me. While I will purchase more if I find them, running out of a supply helps push me to come up with new designs and keep my offerings fresh.

If you are interested in seeing if I can make more of a particular item than the number I have listed as available, please contact me to see if I can accommodate your request.