Tag: etsy

Jewelry by Johan

~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ 1 Comment

Johan’s wood-inlay rings first caught my eye on the etsy frontpage months ago, and every couple of weeks one of his new pieces pops up on my news feed. I’m eternally impressed with the beautiful consistency and high quality of his pieces. Enjoy as he answers a few questions about his art and his business.


Tell us about your work—why do you create what you do?
I love to create things others admire, it is a wonderful feeling, a high.

It helps that I have an inquisitive mind and I am never afraid of starting/making something that others are not willing to try.

I made my 1st ever ring when I was about 12 years old. I took a nut (as in the counterpart to a bolt) that was big enough for my finger to fit through, shaped it with a metal file into a signet ring. I never did wear it. I just had the inquisitive mind to do it.

How did you learn your craft?
I have a “can do” attitude. I believe those that talk about it never succeed, only those that actually do it will succeed.

I did a lot of reading and watching videos on the Internet. I made some rings and found it was easy enough if you know the material you are working with and how it will react when you work it.I have also received some formal jewelry manufacturing training, stone setting and casting rings, mainly for engagement rings with intricate settings.

How has your work evolved?
When I started selling on Etsy I started with a natural wood ring as no one else was doing it at the time. I made the hole with a little hand drill, filed the rest with a hand file, sanded and waxed it. I was pleasantly surprised that it sold in about 3 days. I thought that this was too easy to make money with so I made a lot of wood rings. A few months later I purchased a wood lathe to make the rings faster. A few months later I bought a very small bench metal lathe to make Titanium inlayed with Wood rings. This helped make the rings stronger as wood rings do break easily.
Things happened fairly quickly from there. To date I have purchased 3 big metal lathes and a big metal milling machine, not to mention all the Jewelry tools and equipment.

Now I can custom make any ring the client requests: Platinum, Gold, Palladium, Silver, Titanium, Meteorite, Damascus, Mokume Gane, setting of Diamonds and Gemstones.

What is your greatest challenge?
I have a Patent Pending ring I designed and manufacture out of Titanium. It is called the “Interchangeable Inlay Ring System”, some call it a “Hybrid Ring” [above].

You buy one ring and many inlays. You open up the ring and replace the inlay with another inlay. With this system you will have a new ring every time you exchange/replace the inlay. Some buy up to 10 different inlays, that is 10 new rings.

With a normal inlay ring you are stuck with what you have and it usually costs hundreds of dollars. If something would break with a normal ring you have to throw it away, if it is a wood inlay, the wood inlay can break or if it gets wet it will eventually break as well.

With my system you need only make a new inlay, replace the old inlay with the new inlay. Your ring is back to normal within days, at a fraction of the cost of a totally new inlay ring.

My new patented inlay system solves many problems. I have many clients return and order new inlays from me.

My current challenge is doing the same with Platinum, Gold, Palladium and Silver rings. It is very difficult but I will get it to work.

What inspires you?
A great challenge. If I cannot do it at first I will try and try again until solved. I love to design and develop new rings. To date I have designed 3 rings, 1 of them is Patent Pending. It is a great feeling to know that a ring exists because of you.

It is such a great feeling when people congratulate you on your new ring design.

What advice do you have for people looking to take up a new art form?
Read up about it. If it interests you and you want to give it a try, DO IT. Don’t keep on thinking about it. Get some training if it is affordable and you have the time.

With practice you will get better and conquer it. Everyone starts as a novice!

How does one care for a wood and metal jewelry piece?
Because it is updated with new info I suggest read the FAQ on my website www.jewelrybyjohan.com

Tell us about your etsy business.
I started making and selling rings on Etsy in June 2008. My beginner mistakes include not taking good photos. When I started taking good photos my sales picked up drastically.

Etsy is my full time job. The amount of orders forced me to make it my full time job. My turnaround time has been between 4 and 6 weeks the last 2 years. It is currently 6 weeks because of the wedding season.

Where can readers find your work?
My rings can be found on my website www.jewelrybyjohan.com. I wish I have the time to show my rings in galleries, I have been asked many times. If I get my backlog worked down to 3 days—it is currently 6 weeks because of the wedding season—I will consider sending my rings to galleries.

What advice do you have for new etsians?
My clients are King. I only provide the best service to my clients. Help them whenever you can, even if they are wrong. A disgruntled client has a negative impact on your business. Returning clients and word of mouth advertising are about 30% of all my sales.

Invest in a good camera and only use good photos in your listings. My sales picked up a lot when I started listing with good photos. At first I used a camera with bad close-up, it made the items look small and distant. My new camera shows good close-ups and you can see all the detail.
Make use of all the tags/keys available to you when you list a new item. Think like a client and enter tags that will get your items listed on the first page of search results. Search Etsy forums, they share lots of info on tags and search results.

Search for listings similar to yours, how does yours compare to theirs, look at the keywords, price, tags, description, how far up on the search did they appear, etc. Later on you will be the person others search for and want to copy. You have to keep one step ahead of your competitors, be a leader not a follower.

The Bent Tree Gallery

~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ 2 Comments

Recently one of my cards was featured in a treasury alongside a pair of beautiful bent wood chairs. I initially thought they must be miniature furniture, made from the most slender twigs. Once I discovered they were indeed human-sized, I had to know more! Enjoy a little Q & A with Marcia of The Bent Tree Gallery.

Tell us about your work—why do you create what you do?
I’m a rural midwesterner, raised by farmer parents who experienced the Great Depression. I was taught not to waste, so became creative with what we had. We were not poor, just thrifty. I found it was fun, as well as challenging, to create something from available inexpensive raw materials, like wood, recycled fabrics, etc.

How did you learn your craft?
I took a basketmaking class in 1981, and my husband (a farmer) taught himself to make rustic furniture in 1982. The ‘farm crisis’ was in full swing; lots of farmers were going bankrupt. We used our newfound basketry and furniture-making skills to supplement our farm income. We have both since taken a few classes, but the main learning takes place as we create. Any new idea or evolution of an old one helps to make us better craftsmen.

Tell us about your sustainable harvesting practices.
We use wild willow trees almost exclusively for our furniture, candle holders, and wall hooks. This tree species is unappreciated by farmers–it spreads into their fields, grows fast, and makes farming around the edges of the property difficult. Similarly, the highway maintenance crews cut it periodically, as it interferes with their roadside mowing practices. So we have no problem getting permission to harvest…it’s a tree nobody wants (except us!). When we cut, we do it in a way that does not kill the tree. We can go back the following year (if it hasn’t been mowed off, sprayed, etc.) and harvest again. And again.

How has your work evolved?
Our work has evolved over the past 30 years by becoming more refined and more sophisticated. At first we didn’t sand anything, and didn’t use a finish. We didn’t kiln-dry, we didn’t use jigs (contraptions that help insure that every piece is the same size and shape). We made just the basics…chairs, loveseats, end tables. Today we still make the practical items, but they are much more esthetically pleasing. And we do lots of custom orders for people, and also make nonfunctional pieces, like our orbs and our wallscapes.

What is your greatest challenge?
Our greatest challenge is probably time. There are so many pieces we want to make; so many items yet to become reality. So many ideas; so little time.

What inspires you?
We are inspired by nature and we never fail to be amazed and impressed by others’ art. We might see something made from steel, and we think, “how can we do something similar with willow?”

What advice do you have for people looking to take up a new artform?
 I would say, “Jump in and try it. Maybe take a class first if you are insecure. Otherwise, find instructions online or use your own common sense to try something new. It may not turn out exactly how you’d envisioned, but you will learn a lot from that
first attempt. Then you can move on from there.”

How does one care for your furniture?
Our furniture is kiln dried and finished with several coats of a hard satin sealer. We do recommend it be placed in a sheltered location. A covered porch is fine, and lots of people keep it inside. Clean as you would any other fine wood furniture. However, you may take it outside once or twice a year and just hose it off, if it’s on the porch and gets dirty or dusty.

How did you discover etsy.com?
Our daughter got us started on Etsy. She had been having success selling her leather handbags (www.stacyleigh.etsy.com) and thought we would benefit from an Etsy shop, too. She was right! Etsy is not our main business; we have a brick-and-mortar gallery (The Bent Tree Gallery) in Clarksville, Missouri, on the banks of the Mississippi River, which is open six days a week. We also have another website, www.thebenttree.com, which generates much of our furniture orders. We also do 2-3 art shows a year.

What advice do you have for new etsians?
It takes a while to build up your sales. Don’t get discouraged if you aren’t selling much for awhile. But do keep your shop active by listing, relisting, answering convos promptly, keeping up with any treasuries you are in, etc. And be sure to provide excellent customer service for those people who do buy your work. This will result in repeat customers, and repeat customers are the best…they are saying, ‘your work is so good I have to have more!’ That is the best kind of encouragement!