Do You Spring Clean?

Construction Zone Wall Decal by WilsonGraphics

Yesterday and today I've been working on Spring cleaning in my Etsy shop, MadScientistsDesigns. Whew! It's a lot of work, but totally worth it! I'm pretty happy with the results so far.

 Yesterday I went through all of my listings and re-cropped the thumbnail photos to highlight a close-up of each item being careful to make similar items a similar size in the preview thumbnail photo.

Today was the biggie: re-vamping the listing descriptions. Ugh! If you've ever done this, you know that over time you can lose the symmetry/consistency in your descriptions and (horrors!!) even leave out vital information! Yikes!

 

Before:

One hand-formed dragonfly ring in brass with a special dark pink wings. Adjustable and comfortable. The dragonfly's wings and tail hug your finger.. The perfect accent for your Steampunk, Goth, or Vampire fashion!

Jewelry comes wrapped and ready for gifting. See the last picture for examples of packaging.

More dragonflies: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MadScientistsDesigns/search?search_query=dragonfly&order=date_desc&view_type=gallery&ref=shop_search  

Payments accepted: PayPal (preferred), Direct Checkout, Etsy Gift Cards

Shipping: USPS

Thank you for stopping by. Come back soon. :-)

...and After:

One hand-formed dragonfly ring in brass with a special dark pink wings. Adjustable and comfortable. The dragonfly's wings and tail hug your finger like a little friend.

The perfect accent for your Steampunk, Goth, Nature Inspired, or Victorian fashion!

More Dragonflies: http://etsy.me/1iSa86Q

Payments Accepted: Pay Pal (preferred), Direct Checkout, Etsy Gift Card

Ships USPS 1st Class

Jewelry comes wrapped and ready for gifting. See the last picture for examples of packaging.

*********************************
"Dragonfly Meaning

The dragonfly is generally associated with the symbolic meaning of transformation. Here are common meanings for this animal totem:

*Change and transformation
*Adaptability
*Joy, lightness of being
*Symbol of the realm of emotions, invitation to dive deeper into your feeling
*Being on the lookout for illusions and deceits, whether are external or personal
*Connection with nature’s spirits, fairies realms"

From: http://www.spiritanimal.info/dragonfly-spirit-animal/
*********************************

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon! :)

See the difference?

 

What are YOU doing to spruce-up your shop? Which description do you like better? Leave me a comment and let me know. Thanks!

 

xoxo  ~Mad/Elizabeth

Make It Mondays - Etsy School Week 1

Today I'm starting a new program to help me whip my Etsy shop into shape: Etsy School - February.

 

The Etsy UK Blog has a nice explanation in their post,

Introducing the Etsy School Program.

 

Basically, I'll be doing an intensive 4 week shop overhaul. Think of it as Spring Cleaning...

 

 

Week #1 Focus: Introductions and Shop Critiques

 

Hi, my name is Elizabeth & I'm in Florida

I prefer to go by: Mad

My Etsy Shop(s): MadScientistsDesigns & MadScientistsDestash

I make: Jewelry and sell supplies

I love: beauty and nature

When I am creating, I love to listen to: the TV

I could live on this food for the rest of my life: cheese

A funny fact that you light not know about me: I'm shy

Waffles or pancakes? pancakes with bananas

 

I will be critiquing other shops and doing a self-critique of my shop. There are already some things that I plan to do to get started:

1. I am deactivating listings for all of my older jewelry and going over the pieces. I may make changes to them, take them apart and make a new piece, or simply re-take pictures with my newer camera.
2. I am re-vamping my banner (again). Yes, I know that the one I have is relatively new, but I think that I need to change it...
3. I am re-writing my About Page on MadScientistsDesigns

 

Whew! That's a lot for Week #1! Want to join me?

 

If you want to critique your own shop:

Shop Critique Worksheet

 

Wish me luck and, as always, suggestions

and encouragement are welcome.

 

xoxo ~Mad/Elizabeth

 

 

Freeform Fridays

EARTHTONES

 

 

 

Enjoy! xoxo ~Elizabeth

Ingrid's Adornments

He'd brought her back a trophy from his last raid. It was a beautiful thing, some blown-glass machine part wrapped carefully by his hands in copper wire. She loved it because he'd made it, and more because he'd won it. For her.

Ingrid cradled the precious thing in her hands. She had no idea what it had once done, nor what it could do again, simply that it had been raided from the Machines of the so-called Civilization that decried her people, and forced them to live as raiders. The Civilization whose cities were gradually encroaching on their lands.

She had no love for the Raiders, having seen the destruction of the Airborn Longships that the crews brought to bear on their enemies. But such enemies. She had never seen their Cities, only heard stories from those who had travelled their. But such stories! Buildings stretching into the sky, smog that swept around the streets in smothering clouds, machines that could do anything and everything. The People were civilized, they embraced the ways of Elektricity, the ways of smoke and lightning. But they kept it in its place, serving the people, not being served like an infernal master.

There was a sound at the door. Ingrid's hand went to her galvanic rifle. Another relic of the raids.

Then the door flew open and all she could see was him, showering her in a flood of metal chains, clinking glass, and beautiful things.

It was a long time before they spoke. Then he began to tell his tale, low at first, voice rising and falling in hypnotic rhythm.

“We took a city this time,” he said, pride suffusing his voice. “a proper one. No more cut and run. The Captain brought us straight down on top of them. They never saw it coming. They sent their machines after us, the ones that walk like men, and are so hard to topple. But Alrik found their weakness, the spot where a single elektrik blast would take them out. They came at us with sonics and tesla weaponry, but the Captain stood firm, and we did not shrink from their onslaught. We fought them down in their own streets, and capture what we wanted, leaving them shivering from the loss. Look!” he raised a fist filled with glittering metal and glass. “Look what I brought to you, my wife, as trophy of our victory!”

 
She smiled, then, and hung around her neck the hard-fought, hard-one things, each more precious than a jewel, because he had won them, and won them for her.

 *******

Story by S.M Smith. Read more by S.M. Smith here.

xo ~ Mad

More Flash Fiction:

The Captain's Trophy Part I

The Captain's Trophy Part II

More Steampunk Viking Knit Jewelry

 

The Captain's Trophy - Part II

Part I

...But no, he'd handpicked these men, chosen them for their abilities, and for the trophies they wore around their necks, relics of so many battles. Chosen the ones that displayed them proudly, hard-won as they were from the people who called themselves civilized.

“Tonight we strike.” He said, his voice low enough that the men were forced to crane in to hear. “Tonight we rain hell and damnation down on them. Tonight the Gods come to earth.”

“But...” the man who spoke was slight, almost as thin as the captain was massive. The captain glowered, but the man continued. “We're a strike and run vessel.”

“We're a raiding vessel.” The captain stressed the word. “We run for no man.” he paused, making sure this had sunk in. “And we will commit a raid vaster than any in the know world. We will take this city for all it's got. We will turn their machines to trophies, all the trappings of their steampowered empire to war prizes for our men, and jewelry for our women. We will wear their fall around our necks.”

He paused again, looking at each man and woman in turn. “We are each the sons and daughters of Thor, and he has blessed us.” He clasped a fist around the wire-wrapped trinket at his throat. “I won this, by right of arms. Have any of you done less? Would any of you do less?”

The men and women muttered their assent.

“I said, would any of you do less?” the captain roared.

“No!” The shout echoed back from the clouds.

“Then arm yourselves, and be ready to throw off the lines. We'll fight them in their very streets, till we're sated and have taken what we came to take.”

Baring his teeth in a grin, the Captain stood back and watched his crew scatter, ready for the battle that was to come. 

 *******

Story by S.M Smith. Read more by S.M. Smith here.

xo ~ Mad

The Captain's Trophy - Part I

The captain stood at the fore of his longboat and looked down at the city, spread below him like a map. They'd been in the air for six days, not long, but long enough for the ground beneath the airship to turn from the fields of home to this smoke-choked wasteland they called a city. Perhaps it was the black clouds that filled the air with suffocating vapour, but no one seemed to know they were coming. The city had yet to send their own airships after the longboat, to battle the raiders back with every power available to them.

Perhaps they just didn't look up often enough.

The captain turned back too his crew, assembled on the deck before him, their war trophies clinking like so many bones. They looked like animals about to bolt, eyes darting down over the sides to the city.

“The men think it's an ambush.” His first mate muttered in his ear, unnecessarially. “They think we have a traitor on board.”

The captain grimaced. Of course the men did. He groped reflexively for his Elektrik pistol, feeling its comfortable weight at his side. If there were a traitor on board...

******

Part II 

Story by  S.M. Smith. Read more by S.M. Smith here.

xo ~ Mad

Coming Soon...

The Steampunk Viking Collection

 

I'm very excited to announce 

the Steampunk Viking Collection 

with three exclusive flash fiction stories 

by S.M. Smith.

The Captain's Trophy Necklace

  

Ingrid's Adornments Earrings

 ...and more...

The collection will be available 

at MadScientistsDesigns 

on Friday, November 22nd.

Which ones are your favorites?

xo ~ Mad

Don't Cry Over Broken Glass...

Well, as anyone who works with that deceptively delicate substance, glass, knows, sometimes it breaks...

Note the cracks near the bent metal...

That happened to me tonight when I was preparing a vintage vacuum tube for its new life as an earring. (sigh)

Butt shot...

Now I have to search for another close match to the poor tube that didn't break.

Black and White Drama Shot

Overly traumatic... um... I mean dramatic, I know, but I hate to break them when I'm trying to give them a stunning new life as earrings or necklaces...

Did you break anything today?

xo ~ Mad

A Challenge for the New Year!

She Sells Sea Shells by the Seashore...

This year I've decided to really push the limits of my creativity and do monthly challenges all year!

Challenge #1: 30 days of wire wrapping

My daughter and I have been having fun finding sea shells at the beach. The only thing is, we aren't looking for the biggest, prettiest, most perfect shells we can find... No, we are looking for the most interesting shells that have a story. 

 The 1st shells I'm working on....

These shells include pieces of shell that have been tumbled smooth by the ocean, broken conch shells, pieces of shells in interesting swirled shapes, and fossil looking shells filled with holes...

I'll be experimenting with sealants for the shells to bring out their natural beauty. The 1st sealant I am trying is Glossy Accents. 

 Shells coated with Glossy Accents

I am using a small paint brush to coat the shells 

and I like the way they shine!

Finally, on to the challenge!! 

Here are the 1st 2 shells I've wire wrapped:

  First attempts at wire wrapping shells

At the end of the month, I'll be giving away 2 of my 

wire wrapping challenge projects so stay tuned!

What do you think? Can I make it?

xo ~ Mad 

Censored!

By theangryrobot on Etsy

Yesterday I discovered that Etsy has chosen to limit the number of times that you can comment on treasuries to 100 comments per day! Now I don't mean 100 comments on a single treasury... Unfortunately the 100 comments count for ALL treasuries within a day, not just for a single treasury. If you make 1 comment on 100 treasuries or 100 comments on 1 treasury... same effect. You are cut off for the day!?



The effect of this censorship was to complain in a forum on Etsy. Read all the forum comments here. 

By TheBusyBadger on Etsy.

Please understand that Etsy DID NOT announce this change before implementing it thereby causing the Buy and Replace "street markets" to be effectively stopped since these are used to chat and engage in conversations with other BNR participants which leads to networking and exposure that you might not otherwise get and also to friendships that you make with other Etsians all over the world. 

By prettygirlpostcards on Etsy.

What do YOU think about the new rule?

xo ~Mad

Meet Alura of MoonspellCrafts

Alura runs a shop filled with eclectic items ranging from antique books to handmade tags and soaps.

 Enter MoonspellCrafts

 Please tell us a bit about yourself and your shop.
I am an antiques dealer and paper artist. I love making hang tags and cards using antique images, lace and other antique things. I also combine modern day items to create Old world looking shabby things.
My shop is very eclectic, with antiques, paper items, primitive items that I make as well as bath products that I make. It's like one of the odd shops you'd find in a place like Diagon Alley....

Luxurious Jasmine Green Tea Glycerin Body Bar Soap

When did you first realize how much you love antiques and vintage items?
I've loved antiques since I was little. My grandmother had tons of Victorian furniture and antiques in her apartment...I had to inspect everything. To me antiques carry the energy of their previous owners. Not to mention that when these items were made, they were made to last. Not like stuff from China that falls apart after a year or 2...

Leather Histoire Damour in French Set of 3 Books

What inspired you to open your shop?
I joined Etsy in 2010 and my shop just sat with 4 or 5 things for sale and then one day I said "I need to work this Etsy thing"...so I did. 5 teams, 880 sales and one year later, here I am! 

You are in the process of opening a brick-and-morter shop, how is that going?
Slowly, mostly because my landlord needs to take some old stuff from the previous tenant out and he's been slow!!! As soon as the stuff is out, I paint the place and open...it will only take a day to ready everything. So I just waiting...
The shop will be called "La Papeterie" and I'll be selling my paper arts, tissue paper, scrapbook paper, feather pens (by whiperingworld), antique books, lovely cuffs (by scarletrabbit) and some other gift type items. Mostly books though...oh and coffee, which is a new hobby I picked up this week! I have been wanting to roast coffee for ages and now I will!

Spooky Goth Hang Tags

Where, who, or what does your influence come from?
My influence comes from many sources...my hubby, my friends, antiques!!

What inspires you to be creative?
My hubby is the main source of my inspiration in many things! He's alittle intense and it drives me to keep his world alive with passion. That passion allows me the ability to make many things from cooking gourmet meals to writing poetry. Life is too short to sit idly by!

What is your favorite color to work with? What is it about that color that draws you?
I work alot with black, red and purple-mostly on my primitives. I used alot of the "French shabby chic" styles, pinks and blues. I make it for that effect...like a French apartment from the late 1800's...
However my fave colors are red, black and purple....To me most other colors are impractical. LOL

Gothic Cross Shabby Greeting Card

You are the captain of several Etsy teams, what inspired you to start your own teams?
Well, a few things. Not finding active and fun teams was a problem. There are like 6,000 teams on etsy and most have no participation...nothing going on and nothing fun. Although 2 of my teams are small and quiet, the other 3 are large and full of fun stuff to do. We have contests, discussions, book clubs, bnr's, and otehr events....it's a team and therefore, it should be something fun to do with a group of people!

Gaia Witch's Ladder

Who are your favorite shops to browse on Etsy?
I am always looking at team member shops, daily and faving their stuff. I also check the French antique sellers regularly-they get some neat stuff!!!

I must admit that CalliopesAttic is probably the shop I buy most from. The supplies are great! AlteredEras I also visit often as I'm addicted to her bracelets...there are so many amazing people though that make unique things. For instance MadScientistDesigns makes jewelry from vacuum tubes, and Scarletrabbit crochets the most delicate cuffs and chokers...

I could really go on and on...there are too many to name!!

Eiffel Tower Necklace

What other shop owner would you like to learn more about?
I'd love to know more about lapomme...she seems very mysterious

Where else, other than Etsy, can you be found on the net?
On eBay under carfax-antiques.

www.facebook.com/pages/Moonspell-Crafts/311729448867051
moonspellcrafts.blogspot.com/
pinterest.com/moonspellcrafts/

Do you have any coupon codes that you would like to share with our readers? 

Sure!! Use the word INTERVIEW for 20% off!

xo ~ Mad