The Smart Bird

Etsy Front Pages

If you're a seller on Etsy, you probably want to know when one of your items is featured on the main page.  It's one of the big thrills of being a shop owner because 1) It's generally pretty rare, as there are just so many talented artists selling so many beautiful things; 2) It means something of yours was handpicked either by another Etsian (seller or buyer), or an admin, because it fits their idea of what makes a great presentation: photography, composition, craftsmanship; and 3) It means you were famous for approximately 30 minutes that day!



Well, since you can't be at your computer 24/7 (can you?), you might like to know about a few ways you can search past Etsy front pages.  The first is a Flickr group called Etsy Frontpagers.  Group members volunteer to take screenshots throughout the day, and each image is tagged with the usernames of the featured sellers, so you can search the group for instances of your Etsy id (tip: Make sure to join the group before trying to search, otherwise you won't get complete results).


The second is called Featsy!.  I don't know much about it, except that if you enter your user id and your email address, you will get an email every time one of your items is featured on Etsy.  You can also sign up for the RSS feed.  Pretty nifty!



The third is the Vault at Craft Cult.  Craft Cult also offers a breakdown of all kinds of information with their Heart-O-Matic tool: how many people "heart" your shop, how many hearts each of your items currently has, item views and more!  I ran the search on my recent heart status, and got this:

As of today, 1,010 people heart me.  Wow!



And for those of you who also want to know when you're featured in a Treasury, you can search via the Craftopolis Treasure Hunt tool.  It searches the main Treasury, plus Treasury West.  You can also search the Gift Guides.  The only limitation with that one is that it only searches current Treasuries and Gift Guides.  So unless you remember to check often, you might miss yourself. 

Thanks to the Flickr group, I just found these recent front pages in which I was featured.  Yay!

4/6/2009


3/28/09


2/26/09


Happy Saturday!

I'll Tumble For Ya

Well, not really.  You're so far away!  But, I will show you a little something.  I was trained in the traditional metal smithing style, in which finishing is a long, involved process.  A running joke in my class was, when a jeweler is asked "How do you make a ring?", she answers, "Well, first you take a piece of metal.  Then you file it, file it more, and file some more.  Then you sand.  Sand some more.  Sand a bit more, and then keep sanding.  Then you polish, polish, polish.  And you're almost done!"  In Japan, there was the added step of hand burnishing your piece.  Yes, you read that right.  Hand burnishing.  We had a little burnisher, and were instructed to rub the piece - with pressure - until the appropriate shine appeared.  We all looked like little Aladdins, rubbing the lamp hoping for the genie to pop out.  It was truly ridiculous (and of course I loved it).

And when I say sanding, I'm talking about multiple steps.  Same with polishing.  Sanding involved stepping through a variety of grits: starting at, say, 400, then working up to 600 then 1,000.  Polishing involved stepping through three types of polish - Tripoli, White Diamond, and Rouge - on a polishing machine.  Yes, the finish is gorgeous.  No, you can't touch it (*smack*). 

Now, for those of us working in a humble home studio, there has to be a better way.  For one thing, space is at a premium and I just don't have the room (right now) for a polishing machine.  For another thing, many of us just don't have the budget (right now) for a polishing machine, which can run anywhere from around $200 on up to $700.  Gulp.  Luckily, there is a great alternative that is both economical and effective.  It's called a tumbler.  Also known as rock tumblers, these are little machines that can be used with various media (more on that later) to give you whichever finish you desire.

They come in two styles: rotary and vibratory.  The vibratory tumbler has a little "pod" that sits on top of a base that vibrates.  Raytech makes a popular model, which sells for around $105.

I have a rotary style made by Lortone, which sells for about $75.  It has a single rubber drum that...um...rotates.  Here she is in action:

 

With a tumbler, you simply do a little sanding (say 600 and 1,000 grit), then let the tumbler do the rest.  Depending on which media you choose, you can get a high polish finish or a brushed matte finish.  I use two: stainless steel and plastic.  Stainless steel shot gives you a high polish; I use a blend called "mixed shapes", which helps to get in the nooks and crannies of your piece (tip: if you have a very detailed piece, you'll want to get some of the "pin" shot, which you need in order to get into the corners of fine filigree, etc.):

The other media I use is plastic pyramids, which I have in a fine cut (green).  It produces a smooth, brushed (or satin) finish:

I have two drums, so I can keep the media separate.  It keeps things simple, and the drums are a perfect way to store your media. 

There are different compounds you can use with your media, but I just stick with Dawn dish soap.  I pick my drum, with appropriate media, drop in my pieces and a few drops of Dawn, and then I add water to about an inch over the media.  Seal the top, and you're ready to tumble.  For the steel shot, you can go anywhere from 2 hours to overnight, depending on the level of polish you want.  I run the plastic shot for a much shorter period of time, because I don't want to wear the pieces down too much.  I'll go anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes, depending on the piece.

When you're done tumbling, place a strainer in your sink and empty the drum into it.  Rinse off the soap bubbles, and voilà - tumbled goodness:

Next comes the fun part: the metal smith's version of "Where's Waldo?"  Where are my pieces?  You get to sort through the shot and find everything you tumbled.  Small pieces can be hard to find - can you see the little silver disc charm (a.k.a. Twinklette) in this picture?  Well, there are 8 more in there that I have to find:

I also rinse the individual pieces as I find them, then lay them on a paper towel to dry, and that's it!  I have to confess I have a "tumbler crush" on my little Lortone.  Once you use one, you'll understand.  Happy tumbling!