Thousand Up!!

   After many years selling the majority of my beads from my Ebay shop, it was only last year that I decided to concentrate on building my shop on Etsy into my main source of income, it was going to mean hard work and many long hours at my torch but was surely going to be worth all the effort.
   At this time I had been seriously thinking of giving up my Ebay shop, their selling charges had gradually risen and the shop rent was not cheap, ok on a good month it was fine but if you had a bad month of sales then it really could hit your profits. So after a few evenings research and checking numbers and pricing I felt it was time for a change. The first job was to clear out my Etsy shop of old stock and start to list nice fresh new sets and focal beads, which was quite enjoyable, to be honest. Next move was to jump in at the deep end and close my bead shop on Ebay, this was a big decision and one I thought long and hard about, but money wise I knew I had to do. I could and will still sell odd sets on Ebay but I wasn't making enough money to warrant having a shop, there was the worry of maybe losing customers who would think I had given up making beads but with nice new business cards I was sure that problem was solved and they would find the Etsy shop.
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/pebbledreams
   So within a few days, the Ebay shop was no more and the Etsy shop was going to get most of my attention, it was a fresh start yet a move with big risks.
   I often set myself targets in life and this was another such time, but this time the targets were set rather high and there was no expectation of seeing them reached in the new future. Firstly my aim was to reach a target of 500 items listed in the shop, these would include bead sets, focal beads and spacer bead sets. From past experience, I know that the bigger the selection of beads on sale the better, customers love a wide choice giving them more chance of finding the beads they need to work with. Secondly, I wanted to reach a thousand sale orders, not a thousand items sold but orders received, this was really a bit silly as I had up until then only had a couple of hundred orders and I was guessing this target would be a long time coming.
   Well now after a hell of a lot of hard work there are well over 600 items listed in the shop and yesterday saw my one-thousandth order, to say I'm over the moon is an understatement, I'm really proud of myself, as we Ashwell lads would say, "it took balls" but the boy did it. This just goes to show how hard work, dedication and belief can produce the goods and this now means I have a good solid base on which to build on, with the use of social media and working to a good solid standard I hope I can move forward. Now I see my beads used by some very special and talented jewellery designers, designers from all around the world and that really does make this old bead maker happy, it's all I've ever wanted and if I can continue to form beautiful interesting beads from molten glass then I'll be happy spending the rest of my days in my little bead world.

   On the bead side of things again I've been mixing glass to produce some unique one-off spacer sets, the "Toffee Cream" spacers as seen above being my favourite. I think most bead makers should spend a few hours each week mixing glass it's relaxing, interesting and throws up some great results.

Perfect British Bank Holiday Weather

   Spring Bank Holiday and still the rain is falling here in the fens with some parts of the country even getting snow, only our British weather some would say.
   So for this old bead maker, it is a day in the dry sorting through beads, making up more sets and packing orders ready to post in the morning, the hopes of spending hours in the veg garden are now on hold and will hopefully transpire next weekend.
   A few customers have asked if I'll start a video blog with clips posted here, well I will look into it but like a lot of people I'm really not that comfortable in front of a camera, but I promise to think about it and looking into how easy it is. I guess I could start with a short video of one of my cycle rides but we'll see how it goes. But for now, I hope everybody enjoys their day off and stays dry.

And Still We Wait

   I think I can safely say it's been a very long winter this year and after the storms of December and January followed by the "beast from the east" how much longer do we need to wait for the warmer brighter days of spring and summer? I like a lot of people find even the hint of sunshine makes me feel better, more inspired and lifts my enthusiasm and eagerness in both work and life in general, so let's hope the warmer weather soon makes an appearance.
   I guess there is one silver lining in having so much crap weather, it means I've been putting in far longer hours at my flame which in turn equals more beads being listed in my Etsy shop. https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/pebbledreams  The spacer selection is really becoming large now with well over 250 sets now listed and even more being added each day, I was really pleased to receive a number of comments on how good the selection of spacers is and one new customer mentioned how nice it was to find such a vast number of colours to pick from and at sensible prices too. It's comments like these from new and existing customers that make the long hours worth it, most who know me and how I work, now very well that charging realistic prices and giving the best range of beads I can is all I really care about, it will never make me rich I know but I sure makes me happy.

   On the cycling side of things it's great now the clocks have changed and the evenings are lighter longer because it will now mean I can cycle morning and evening, just need the rain to ease off. I have a long list of fen villages that I'm hoping to visit and of course, I'll be posting what I discover here on my blog. It's funny but apart from enjoying exploring some of these small gems of the fenland countryside, it makes exercising a lot easier, I never really think of my rides as being an effort these days, to me they are more of an adventure, a learning curve where you never know whats around the next corner and that can only be a good thing in my eyes.
  Finally, I would just like to wish everybody a very happy Easter and I hope you enjoy a little time off from this busy world we live in.
 
   

A Trip Through Welney

   This morning was a warmer, brighter and calmer one, so this old bead maker enjoyed his normal morning cycle without the hand warmers stuffed into his gloves or extra socks. The trip included a few more fen villages one of which was the village of Welney, a village I often cycle through on my longer journeys. Welney is an interesting village situated immediately west of The Old Bedford river with the well-known Wildfowl and Wetland Trust reserve just a mile or two from the centre of the village.

The parish has the perfect stop for cyclists with the village pub (The Lamb and Flag), serving hot and cold food. St Marys church stands proudly on the main street leading through the village and the bridge spanning the river is an ideal spot to stop for lunch on a summer day.
   Welney was once famous for it's Ice-Skating bosting a world champion and many British champions and still have a skating club to this day.

   All in all this wonderful little fen village is well worth adding to your cycle route and the locals, of course, have that great fen humour which is always matched with a smile.

The Village of Christchurch

   I promised to tell of the villages I cycle to or through while putting the miles in for exercise and I thought I would start with one of the closer villages to my home, the lovely quiet parish of Christchurch. The village is not the biggest you'll find here in the fens but it seems to have a great community spirit and I find the parishioners are really friendly. The village boasts a wonderful brick built Victorian church (The Church of Christ) which was my stopping point on the first months of my cycling.

   The village has a nice modern village hall/community centre at which a coffee shop is held every Monday morning, run by some of the residents and selling home baked cakes as well as coffee and tea.

   There is one public house in the village called the Dun Cow which sells beer from the famous Elgood's Brewery. It also has I'm told a very friendly atmosphere and is the landmark for a locally run Fish and Chip service on Friday evenings. The village has its own primary school and preschool, but sadly the one village store as now closed.
   All in all a very nice fen village and one I enjoy cycling through on my way back home from my many trips.

Back At My Flame

   It was so nice to be back working my flame today, after two days off it felt good to be there beside my kiln while a wonderful winter world lay outside, at times I could stop looking out the window. There is something very special about snow as kids it always excited us and still when adults there is a tiny piece of that excitement inside us all, even on a grey cold looking day like today.

   It was a spacer day for me, I need lots more sets to place in the shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/pebbledreams after spacer beads sales were so high last month, I've always said I want one of the best selections of spacer beads on Etsy and boy that's what I'm going to have. At the moment I sell sets of both twenty beads and ten beads but now I'm really thinking of selling smaller sets of say six beads, some customers don't always need ten or more spacers so this would give them the option of buying more different colours without breaking the bank.

   While on the subject of spacer beads I still hear customers moan about the ridiculous prices some bead makers charge for spacers, some even charging around £1 per bead. Now I don't care who you are, how famous you think you are or how stunning your main beads may be, to charge customers £1 for a plain colour spacer bead is not right, it's unreasonable and just unacceptable. I guess some bead makers are just out to make money or are what some of us call bead snobs but hey, come on, spacers can take literally seconds to make so behave and sell them for a reasonable price.

Snow and Snow Dragons

   The last few days have been rather cold, freezing cold winds and snow have kept temperatures well below freezing here in the flatlands. I decided to take two days off work, it was mighty cold in the workshop, nice to look out upon the snow but bloody cold and I had been working long hours for the last few weeks so well earned if I do say so myself.
   With the white cold world around me, the thoughts of snow dragon beads came to mind and I think it took all of two minutes to select the glass and start experimenting, the results seen below and now listed in my Etsy shop, https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/pebbledreams I'm pleased with the way they look and will I'm sure be making more in the future.

   The shop is now once again at the 500 item mark and as I've stated in the past the target for 2018 is to reach 700, it will mean a lot of work but I'll give it my best.
   On the cycling side of things, I have decided to start placing a post here telling of the different villages I visit this year, starting with the more local ones while the colder weather is still hanging around. This week I have missed four days cycling because of the snow, wind and ice but I hope to get out again this weekend, fingers crossed. 

Playing With Dragons

   Like most bead makers I guess I often have periods of time when I become a little addicted to a certain style or type of bead, usually when I'm either working with a new idea or as with the case now when I'm trying new colours with a favourite design. A lot of my customers will by now realise how much I enjoy producing my "Dragon Scale" beads and other the last week or two it's these that I've been playing with, no design changes but I have experimented with different colours. I've always made the green and blue dragons but until now have never really given other colours a chance and now I'm just trying nearly every colour I have, so far only a few living up to expectations but those which have I'll introduce into the Etsy shop every few days, so keep an eye out if you enjoy using beads with a difference.

   I'm having great feedback from customers who are enjoying the frit and wave sets I'm listing, to be honest, I never really listed these beads much in past years but after having several requests for them I thought it was a good idea to place them in the shop and boy was that the right decision. So many sets have sold and I must admit they really add a great amount of colour at a time when a lot of designers are making jewellery for spring and summer.
   Some of the sets are made up of different sized beads allowing the customers to use them in many more different situations. Other sets are made up of a number of beads all measuring the same, which is the common way of selling sets and most are sold in sets of odd numbers.

   So the Etsy shop is fast growing into a very nice selection of beads with a wide range of beads being added most weeks, More trio sets and earring pairs will be listed this coming week and of course yet more spacer sets in many different colours.

Storms, Gales and Damp Days.

   It's been a while since I posted here on the blog, the main reason being my lack of inspiration, for here in the fens of East Anglia we seem to have travelled the last three months taking cover from high winds, persistent rain and some rather severe storms. In such weather I really find it difficult to raise my levels of enthusiasm, in fact, many days were spent in the safety of my home and workshop, trying my best to ignore any worries of either being damaged.

   Now, although the temperatures have fallen and talk of snow is rife I'm starting to once more enjoy my little bead world and to be very honest the thought of looking out at the snow-covered fens while working my warm glass is one I'm looking forward to.

   On the bead side of things I've been receiving some great feedback on the new photographs I'm taking and the more colourful glass selection, I guess while witnessing such a grey damp winter I was longing for spring and summer and this showed in the choice of colours I've been using.

   A good mixture of bead types are now sitting upon the shelves of my Etsy shop, both stone effects and many new brighter beads are pleasing the customers and sales continue to do well. I've been working hard on the Snakeskin and Dragon Scale beads with new colours being produced most weeks and of course the "Turquoise Mine" beads seen above are fast becoming a great favourite with customers, I just hope I get to see how they are being used. So now I'm back up and running I'm sure you'll soon be getting fed up with all the bead pictures I'll be posting.

   Enjoy the snow everyone and keep safe an warm this coming week.