A book Review on Making Money through Etsy

 A Book Review on How to make money in  Etsy by Timothy  Adam

I bumped on to a book today while I was in the library.  It was the book I just mentioned above.   I checked it out and as  I was going through it I found I wished I could renew it, but this book is in demand.

Therefore,  I decided to quickly jot down what I have learned and  start my  home work for the immediate future- the “ to do list”, you know

This book is  valuable for  novice and  veteran Etsians, both.  In the beginning the author will take you by the hand to show all the different features of Etsy.  I knew those but there were so many things I did not know!

The things I was not seriously aware are:

* Importance of Key words search before putting them on  for title and tags.  From now on I’ll research the google key word search  tool, the Etsy competition, and all those before I list an item. I had read it in storque before, but the author showed me the exact meaning  of these terms. I understood the importance of a niche now.

*Importance of the consistency in blogging.  I knew it but now I really understand how vital it is  (even though I also know how hard this commitment is).

* The fact that blogging is not talking about YOU but about writing what PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW and HOW to give it to them.

Here the author also helped to find out the most important things people look for in blogs.  I’ll try to remember those ten things and give them in my blog.

*My next home work is understanding the Face book Fan page thing and work on it.

*And then for making some money for my blog , I’ll have to  look in to Project Wonderful.   I have not done it yet, but going to.

I have become a fan and follower of his blog handmadeolgy.com.

I highly recommend this book.  Please be informed  that I have no monetary  affiliation with Tim’s book or his site.  I just think he did a good job and that’s all.

Wire artist Ruth Asawa

Wire knitting artist Ruth Asawa:

As I work with wire knit and crochet techniques I wanted to see some master pieces in this field and I came across the name Ruth Asawa.


This was around October last year.  I was fascinated seeing her art just in two dimensional pictures.  I became more interested reading about her in Wkikpedia, about her early life in the Japanese interment, how she bloomed despite all the struggles and how art played a significant role in her life, in her survival.


Ruth Asawa said - " Art is for everyone"  and she carried that message in her art activism.

Ruth Asawa,  a Bay Area living artist inspires me and one of my dream is to meet her in person someday.

Atleast, I wanted to see her work.  The first one I saw around Christmas time in the Ghiradelli Square- Andrea's Fountain.  I came to know that Ruth Asawa is also called as the Fountain lady!

Yesterday Nina ( my daughter) and I went to the De Young Museum in San Francisco to see her work.  It is mesmerizing.

Look at this picture

A wire knitted piece of about 3 or 4  feet diameter is joined with several spherical and hat like structures is hanging from the wall.  The whole piece is about 10 to 12 ft long. This huge piece is probably created with 15g or even thicker, may be 10 g wire, otherwise it would not have supported the structure.  But what  a delicate and lacy look  it has!

I compare it with my lame puny one that I had made . The same viking knitting method is used here too, it seems.  Correct me if you think differently,  please.   I did it with 26 g wire with the Lazee Daisee tool sitting on my lap.

                                                        alankarshilpa.etsy.com

How on earth did Ruth Asawa  manage to create this humongous piece with such ease?  What did she use to start with?  I am totally blown away.  I bow down to this artist for what she had given to us.

Do you make wire art?  Wire knit or crochet?  Then, I'd like to feature you.  Just let me know in your comment.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year my friends.

May the new year 2012 bring much happiness to us.  But hey, what is happiness really?  They say happiness is more important than any thing- fame, power  money, even  health...

Really! Yes.  Statistics show that an old person with much pain and ailment may show a bigger smile than a pretty young person who is always running to check off items from her TO DO list.

But I am a To Do check list person too and in order to achieve happiness I need that tool, my dear friend.  If I can't measure it I can't prove it.

Recently I came across an interesting book named the Happiness Project.

The writer Gretchen Rubin brought all kinds of great minds starting from Aristotle to Dalai Lama to define what this term HAPPINESS means.  She divided the whole year into 12 broad category and decided to tackle each item every month.

For example, January is for energy, February for love - relationship...etc etc.

Here I got a bit confused taking her footsteps and using her template for achieving happiness.

I thing yes, taking first thing first is an idea, but if I am all absorbed in LOVE for one month the other aspects of my life are going to feel like orphans.  Am I going to stop exercising for the month of Feb, or drop my resolutions about my infant business until August ?  How does it work?

Well, this best seller book must have gone deeper than that and I must have missed something.

For the time being I will go back to my old ways of being happy.  Just go back to my mirror to bring  a big smile that I may give a bit to each person I meet today, to  the whole world, no matter what.

Did you have a chance to go to this website of Happiness Project or read this book?  I'd like to hear your feed back. Please leave a comment.

P.S. Here is an interesting blog on this topic Take a look 

October Jewelry

What are you doing for Halloween?

This Halloween I miss going to the pumpkin farm trips that I used to do with my little preschooler friends in the Montessori school. What astonishes me most is the wonder in their eyes. Seeing such a vast mass of orange color, the weird sizes and shapes of the pumpkins and a trip where they could show off their family to their teacher and their  teacher to their  family was such a special treat for them.

It is that sense of wonder that I want to hold on to and take into my life and never lose it. This is what my little students taught me.

As I was thinking about these things I did manage to knit a necklace with carnelian chips and antique gold swarovski crystal beads with very thin  gold filled wire. The various shades of orange in the carnelian chips made me happy, a feeling of October that I could pass on to my jewelry creation!

A friend came over last weekend and he is so nice, he took some pictures of my just finished piece.  He is quite a photographer and many of his landscapes are published in magazines!  At the bottom of this picture you see his web address, not my store:)

Wasn’t that thoughtful of him to give me this precious gift, appreciating my creation and taking pictures?

October ornament

Walking further down the memory lane, I remember the smell, sound and images of my home in India, where I was born and brought up. This is the time of Diwali.

It is  that time of the year when we clean, paint, fix our homes and renew it with beautiful things. New clothes are bought for each member of the family, including the helpers. Sweet meats cook in the kitchen. Friends and relatives visit with greetings. Children light fire crackers.

Cities dress with garlands of light. Each house is lit with lamps and candles. We pray to banish all darkness from our mind and fill it up with goodwill.

This is the time to give.

In my store too you’ll find a coupon for Diwali Special.

Just put the coupon code DIWALI10

It is valid until Nov 10, 2011. Diwali will be on the new moon night, October 26th , this year.

Wish you Happy Diwali and Happy Halloween too.

EtsyBloggers Team: Productivity -- Blog Carnival

EtsyBloggers Team: Productivity -- Blog Carnival

http://alankarshilpa.blogspot.com/2011/10/time-management.html

Time Management

How do I manage time?

How do I  get more hours out of the twenty four hour day?

And am I a multitasker? or, do I rather prefer to finish one project before starting another?  These were the questions my Etsy  blogger friends asked.

It reminds me of a workshop I had taken a couple of years ago.  We were to fit a jar with some big stone pebbles and a bag of seed beads.  I found to my surprise that when I poured the seed beads first I could not fit the big stones any more.  When I started with the big stones and then the seed beads, they somehow all managed to fit in the same amount of space.

My 24 hour day is like the jar.  When I started with the big jobs first, I could manage to squeeze in the  small jobs (seed bead like ones ) too.  The analogy is great.  But the challenge is to understand which ones are the important pebbles and which ones are seed beads.

To me I prioritize in the following order: health, immediate family, career and job, home and hobby, extended family, neighbors and friends.  Some times I do get side tracked and waste the whole day browsing in the internet. 


I do use a to do list, a google calender, an organizer binder and a kitchen timer to keep me in track.  Believe me, with out these tools I would be lost.

But today, this Sunday afternoon, I stop to ponder how important is it to accomplish those to do list?  It is equally important to slow down, take a break to smell the rose, enjoy a cup of hot coco and just do nothing.  That makes me more aware about life and living and what I value in this journey.

That helps me to prioritize the to do  list for the following days.

Well you asked - am I a multi tasker?

Heck yeh!  Some times I am like a whirled wind maniac, tangled with many projects at the same time.  Especially,when I am beading other ideas come and I can't stop.  And all the beads and findings make a huge big mess like this -

I hate this but I am so caught up playing with the muse, I just can't help it.

But I really do not like that.  I like to take one job at a time and like to be nice and organized, having a place for each thing and every thing in its place.

Life is not quite like that with  me.  So while the washing machine tumbles I wind up coils to creat earring.  I use the 30 minute timer to see how much time each jewelry project takes.  This helps me to price them too.  Then I must get up to give my eyes and back a break and load the dish washer.

While the stew simmers I catch up writing my blog or upload in Etsy shop.

But the best thing I like is to sit down with a bowl of yummy munchies and  check on the comments my friends leave in my blog , which is  multi tasking.  Isn't it? :)