Well, it is official.  Fluente Designs is open and I have listed my first piece of jewelry on Etsy.com. 


You can view my store at http://www.fluentedesigns.etsy.com/.  I'm nervous, excited, and anxious to see what happens :). 

I am going to start up a new blog http://fluentedesigns.blogspot.com/ (its not up yet, but I will let you know when it is) that will feature those items which I am selling.  It will be a place for everyone (all of you and potential buyers from the site) to see more pictures (Etsy only allows 5 for each item) and possibly additional descriptions for those items/collections that might benefit from it. 

I really like the piece that I have listed, but am very unsure about my pricing.  I didn't want to over price it... after all I am just beginning to make jewelry and I'm not sure how my quality compares to others.  I also don't want to deter potential buyers by giving the impression that I am charging outrageous prices for junk!  I looked up several pricing guidelines for hand made jewelry online and settled on my price based on what I found.  I didn't charge as much as they suggested, but I also didn't charge as little as I would probably be willing to pay myself, haha.  Of course, I am one of the cheapest people I know so I might not be a good gauge :). 
The one thing I keep reading in these pricing articles is not to underestimate yourself and your work.  Alot of people sell things on the market for just enough to cover the basic material costs.  However, this is apparently not good for a couple of reasons.  One is that it decreases the value of the entire market.  People start to expect certain cheap prices for hand made items (kind of like me, haha) and that devalues the work of all the other artists out there trying to sell their pieces for what they should truly be worth.  Another is that if I really want to make a business out of this, there are alot more costs to consider other than just the materials.  There is my labor (and I don't work for free... haha!), overhead costs, and, of course, profit. 

I also compared my piece to similar items on Etsy and found a wide range of pricing.  One that I found used all of the same materials as me and also looked pretty cool (at least I think mine looks cool) and they were charging about $30 more than mine is listed for.  Others, of course, are listed for about $30 less than mine too... these are more the "price based on materials" items I think.  It's just so hard to tell without doing some trial and error first I guess.  Which is kind of my intention with this piece.  I've listed it kind of high (in my own opinion) and will see what happens.  If it doesn't sell then I'll try relisting it at a lower price and see if that makes a difference.  But if anybody has any suggestions, I'm more than willing to take some advice here!!!

Anyway, check out the new blog soon (I'm working on it today so hopefully at least something will be up and running) and also check out my store when you get a chance!  As the days go on, I will be adding more items.  I just need to get some good write ups on them, take some good pictures, and settle on prices, haha.

UPDATE:  www.fluentedesigns.blogspot.com is officially started up so check it out!!