GalleriaLinda and IndieCEO Featured on HandmadeNews.org

LAKELAND, FL: How exciting! I was interviewed by Wendy T. Gibson who is a columnist that writes for HandmadeNews.org.

The feature called "IndieCEO Helping Handmade" is part 1 of the interview that is published and part 2 will be published later. We talked about the GalleriaLinda Contemporary Handmade Beaded and Silver Wire Jewelry business, as well as things about marketing and why I put them together to create the IndieCEO business blog for artists and crafters. What fun!

See more about Wendy T. Gibson and the HandmadeNews.org article on the IndieCEO blog.

Countdown to Lakeland's McDonald Street Artisan Market - Saturday Nov. 7

The countdown has begun for the holiday season kickoff at Lakeland's McDonald Street Artisan Market! You will find handmade pottery, artwork, fiber arts, jewelry, and many unique and special items for your holiday shopping and browsing pleasure. Be sure to mingle with the artists - that is half the fun!

Organized by Kristine Robertson, owner of Yia Yia's Beads and Gifts, the market provides a way for local artisans to easily share their work with the public. Kristine makes it very affordable for artists and artisans to participate and fees go to advertising. Any local artisans who wish to participate can email info@yiayiasbeads.com - and tell Kris that GalleriaLinda sent you!

This month's McDonald Street Artisan Market in Lakeland, FL will be a winner as artisans are preparing for special holiday inventory.

NOW is the time to get a handle on your holiday shopping and what better way to say "you are special" than to give handmade designer items? Your gifts are always appreciated when you give handmade.

GalleriaLinda
will be exhibiting for the first time!

Mention the name of this blog and you
will receive a 10% discount on your
GalleriaLinda
handmade jewelry purchases
- only at the Artisan Market NOV 7!
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
(Corner of McDonald and Tennessee)

The McDonald Street Artisan Market is hosted once a month by Lakeland's Yia Yia's Beads & Gifts to support local artisans and to have fun! Indeed we will. Look for December's market the first Saturday of December. See you there!!!

GalleriaLindaLoft Vintage in Etsy Treasury

After a year's long hiatus, I have been loading in vintage items to my GalleriaLindaLoft Etsy shop. A lot of what I offer is vintage jewelry of all kinds, but I have started listing some interesting miscellaneous items. One item caught the eye of InColdStorage, who put my item in her "Black Magic Women" treasury on Etsy. InColdStorage has a fabulous vintage Etsy shop so please visit!

For some reason, I was fooling around online, went to Craftopolis,  and arbitrarily put in GalleriaLindaLoft's shop name and I was shocked I was in a treasury! That is how it is! You just never know.

The vintage item featured fit beautifully within the treasury and was my Souvenir Rio Cigarette Pack Holder and Match Book Cover - in a gorgeous black lacquer finish trimmed in gold. Very pretty even if you don't smoke! It is from the very early 1960s.

Some of you may remember me mentioning that I lived in Brazil as a very young girl and I have several Brazilian items from that era to list like this. I sold a couple of Vintage Brazilian Street Jewelry items last year as was almost sorry to see them go, but I knew I would never wear them and enjoy them. That is what is so exciting about vintage. People who purchase vintage items really love the item and that makes me happy!

Now with the Olympics being held in Rio De Janeiro, you can have have a piece of Brazil by shopping GalleriaLindaLoft!

My thanks goes to InColdStorage for including this item in the Etsy Treasury!

GalleriaLinda Necklace Featured on Vintaj Blog

What a great surprise this morning to find GalleriaLinda's Handmade Vintaj Brass Filigree & Green Crystal Pearl Necklace design featured on the Vintaj Blog. Rose from Vintaj sent an email to let me know and I have been posting this excitement everywhere!

Vintaj makes the most fabulous natural brass filigree and stampings. I love them for their warmth and detail and they make a design interesting. Check out Vintaj for you next design project. If you are a customer who has the opportunity to purchase a design with Vintaj, just know that you have the very best natural brass components around!

McDonald Street Artisan Market is Back! GalleriaLinda Exhibiting!

This month's McDonald Street Artisan Market in Lakeland, FL will be a winner! If you are local, please join us for Lakeland's finest artisans, where you will find handmade pottery, artwork, fiber arts, jewelry, and many unique and special items.

NOW is the time to get a handle on your holiday shopping and what better way to say "you are special" than to give handmade designer items? Your gifts are always appreciated when you give handmade.

GalleriaLinda
will be exhibiting for the first time!

Mention the name of this blog and you
will receive a 10% discount on your
GalleriaLinda
handmade jewelry purchases
- only at the Artisan Market NOV 7!

The McDonald Street Artisan Market is hosted once a month by Lakeland's Yia Yia's Beads & Gifts to support local artisans and to have fun! Indeed we will. See you there!!!

Meet Lucy - My New Assistant!

Having a dress form has been my fondest dream. Although I don't sew, I wanted one for the ability to display necklaces on a full sized scale. Meet Lucy, my new assistant!

I was at the right place at the right time - you know - one of those deals you cannot believe...

It happens that I was on our local CraigsList looking for a local art event - and I am never on CraigsList - ever!

An ad for dress form torsos appeared and I could not believe my eyes. It seems that a T-shirt shop was downsizing and they had 50 of three different styles of torsos for about 1/8 of the price of a new one.

When I called, I was only the second inquiry and when I explained how I would use it, the seller searched through all 50 to find the one with the best fabric and wood topper. My husband and I skeedaddled over to pick it up and Lucy and I have been inseparable ever since!


Not only does the torso give a great presentation of necklaces but I have been trying out using it for earring scale too.

Tell me whether the earrings hanging on the neckline is useful for presenting the size of the earring - I am so challenged with sizing up earrings for customers. What do you think? Honest opinions! Leave a comment!

Announcing the McDonald Street Artisan Market - Lakeland, FL

If you are local, you must put on your calendar the monthly McDonald Street Artisan Market! Artisans in the area will display original art, pottery, handmade jewelry, glass art, and other handcrafted goods!

Every first Saturday of the month is the date. For October, it is next weekend:

October 3, 2009
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Located in the courtyard of Yia Yia's Beads & Gifts, this monthly show has been a winner for quite a while, drawing repeat customers. If you are an artist or artisan and want to participate, please call the number on the postcard above.

As the holidays approach, you will indeed want to attend to find unique gifts!

Vintage Rockhounding AKA GalleriaLinda Rocks!

OK, maybe I was a little dramatic with the title but I had to share this! If you follow me on Twitter or on Facebook, you know that I am cleaning out for a garage sale in October. I am finding all kinds of treasures. Many go to the garage sale pile, then, tiptoe back to the Linda Keeps pile. I don't know how that happens!

In our garage, I found a real treasure long forgotten. A large shoebox of rocks that my mother had stored away years ago for tumbling. She has since passed away but this box of rocks brought back fond memories.

These rocks are from a rockhounding experience in Brazil's state called Minas Gerais ("general mines") about 40 years ago. Minas Gerais is where a good portion of Brazil's semi precious stones are mined. What a fabulous place. I was very young (lol!) and had a great time with a little hammer whacking away at hard red clay to come up with crystals of amethyst and tourmaline. In this photo you see amethyst, tourmaline, fool's gold, and white agate. Many of the rocks we brought back to the states have since floated away through the years so I was ecstatic to find these.

I will be cleaning them up and staging them in my GalleriaLinda product photos!

Preparing for the Holiday Selling Season

I hate to bring this up, but we are two weeks away from October and six weeks away from the start of the holiday selling season November 1. Are you ready?

I have to say that I was not even thinking about until I read TheTinyFig's blog post. Then I got into gear and have done much to be prepared.

Read TheTinyFig's blog for exceptional and useful tips for the following:

• Build your inventory and shop appearance
• Order craft supplies for the rest of the year - prioritize them
• Establish a shipping deadline and communicate that
• Ship internationally
• Bump up your marketing
• Bump up your advertising and brand opportunities
• Use tagging the best way
• Photography of items - retake those that are questionable
• Offer a sale or discount

Just wanted to share this as the information is fabulous.

Be sure to read IndieCEO's latest post on advertising your blog for free with Entrecard. See the pros and cons of Entrecard and consider using it for your holiday advertising.

Happy creating!

Product Video Captures Attention!

There are all kinds of video sharing and photo slide show utilities online for small businesses to use for their marketing.

One interesting online video utility I recently found is Animoto.

With photos, you can produce a 30-second video for free! When you become proficient at your video productions, you may want to make a full, unlimited video for only $3 each or get an annual pass for $30 per year.

I uploaded basic jewelry product photos just to see what the free plan would do. After doing this test video, I am now ready to figure out how to make it engaging. Some thoughts are to make it a "story," starting maybe with a photo or two of your location and photos of you working on your craft that are intermixed with the product photos. Title pages are good too.

There are easy ways to share your free video with MySpace, Facebook, and twitter, as well as upload to YouTube.

You can check out the GalleriaLinda.com Handcrafted Jewelery 30-second test video here. Remember, it has music that will start up and it is just a quick try. I see good potential and a great start to making this a useful marketing tool! Online video utilities make expanding your marketing toolbox to video easy.

If you have had success with other video production online utilities, please post here to share your experiences!