Facebook Page: Timeline
31 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in beads, canes, classes / tutorials, Fimo, memorials, nail art Tags: Facebook Timeline
I gotta think out loud.
What I mean to say is, that I tend to think better when I can get it down on virtual paper, or talk it over with a friend. Okay, hundreds of friends, in the case of this post. But you get the idea. And right now I’m thinking about the fact that I’ve procrastinated — drug my feet — on dealing with the new Timeline format for my Facebook business page. I personally don’t like the Timeline. So happily in denial, I ignored the coming change-over until the fait accompli had happened.
Dun-dun-dun…..
Today is the first day of the rest of your……facebook business life. Right.
So what I’m up against here is the fact that I’m one gal who has three distinct businesses under a single label. How do you make one facebook page that “covers” the spectrum?
The answer… I think…. is that you don’t.
This morning I started doing some reading on the new Timeline layout, to find out what the marketing guru-ru-rus advise. They said things like making a clear, emotionally appealing statement with your cover photo and the first 140 characters of your “about” section.
Hmmm….. how to sum up C. A. Therien Polymer Clay Arts in an 851-x-351 photo and 140 characters. Yeah, not gonna happen. If I tried to put all 3 divisions under one Facebook cover, it’s gonna dilute them all to the point of confusion. I know this for sure because I have one main website that tries to funnel customers to all 3 divisions, and I occasionally get the eyebrow-raised question from customers. If you follow the “100 rule” — for each person who takes the time to mention their confusion, there are 100 who thought the same thing but never made a comment — then you know you’ve got a slight problem. People coming to my facebook page for Fimo Nail Art aren’t going to be interested in Memorial Beads. And the Memorial Beads customers aren’t going to be interested in cane layering tutorials. Etcetera, etcetera, ad infinitum.
So that means I’ve got to have 3 facebook pages in order to have them be effective for reaching the customers they serve. I’m not happy about adding extra work on my plate, but reality is what it is, and I should have made this decision a long time ago. I gotta put my big girl panties on and deal with it.
*Deep breath* Alright then. To work.
I’ve already got the one main facebook page — somewhat sorely neglected, but not abandoned — which has the C. A. Therien label to it. I’ll probably use that one for my tutorials, videos, etsy cane shop and ebay store.
Then I’ll open a facebook page for Memorial Beads’ website and etsy shop, and Brides & Bracelets’ website-in-progress (two sides of the same coin, floral remembrance keepsakes).
And finally open a facebook page for Fimo Nail Art.
I’ve got galleries for all three, enough to fill a decent album or two. And I’ll link the three pages together somehow… That’s going to be a bit of a challenge, but it’s not the main one. The main one is that the new pages will have no Facebook histories attached to them, and I’ll want to explain that a bit. Or not. But probably will.
…..Later that day…..
Heather’s Light Box
29 Sep 2011 2 Comments
in clothes recycling, exercise, Family, fashion, Fimo, health, memorials, needlework / sewing, thrifty-ness, weight loss Tags: acai berry, adaptive sewing, light box, memorial candles
My oldest daughter-in-law is a genius.
She’d heard that I’d attempted to make a poor man’s light box, using items I had on hand, with very little in the way of success. Last week she asked me if she could see what I did have, and maybe help me to fix it. I gathered an assortment of items:
- clamp-on gooseneck lamps
- clamp-on spot light
- an old pressed-board end table with screw-in legs
- leftover white muslin fabric from sewing Allen’s renfair shirt
- a clear plastic box
- scotch tape
- scissors
- an extension cord
- white poster board
With these items, she guided me in setting up the light box correctly. Now I already owned all the items to create the light box, but if I had to purchase them it still would have cost me less than $50. I did purchase two new gooseneck lamps so that the light box had it’s own dedicated ones, rather than me stealing one from Mark’s desk and the other from my sewing area.
The main thing I had been doing wrong before was to put the fabric on the outside of the box. The purpose of the white fabric is to diffuse the light so that harsh shadows soften and shine spots disappear or are greatly reduced. But by putting the fabric on the outside of the box, the plastic was still picking up and reflecting too much direct light.
She helped me to cut and tape pieces of the white fabric to the inside of the box, thus creating a correct diffuser for the lamps, and it works like a charm. It’s so great for photographing white-on-white, like these candle holders I just finished for a Memorial Beads customer.
We put the light box in the closet with the fuse box, so that the ambient light would be greatly reduced and allow for dark photography, like showing the candle holder with a lit tea light inside. Keeping the light box in the closet also allows me to use it at a moment’s notice; and yet it’s portable enough that I could disassemble everything in less than 5 minutes and put it into a rolling case.
Heather had created a new Memorial Beads design – the Leigh Bracelet – filled with memorial heart charms and crystal cubes. She’d spent a little time with the new light box and her camera, taking some shots of her bracelet for our catalog. It’s so nice now having a dedicated and ready place for us to take photos. Thank you, Heather, for bugging me about this. 
In other news…
I’ve finished my first week taking the Acai Berry capsules. If you’re curious about how I’m feeling about it, take a look at my post “The Acai Berry Craze” and scroll down to see the update.
I’m almost finished with my friend Peggy’s anniversary dress. She’s the one who’s wheelchair-bound and wanted something really special to wear to her 40th wedding anniversary party. I’ll have pics of both the finished outfit, the shawl, and her husband’s tie next week. It’s an adventure in adaptive sewing for the disabled, where we took a shirt pattern and turned it into a fitted dress with mock princess seams. If you’d like to see a sneak peek at the dress in progress, head on over to my post on “Sewing Adaptive Patterns“.
Memorial Rings
31 Aug 2011 2 Comments
in fashion, Fimo, Interests, memorials, needlework / sewing Tags: adapting patterns for the disabled, keepsake rings, memorial beads, Shapewear
Time to post some recent work!
These are sterling silver rings with a Memorial Bead in the center. I’m really excited about adding these to my keepsake line, because they provide a really subtle way to wear a reminder of a lost loved one. The speckled stones in the ring are created with dried flowers and clay.
SHAPEWEAR POLL: A reminder that the poll closes tomorrow. If you haven’t voted yet, please do. The votes are anonymous, and you can see the results of the poll any time. I’ll be posting on Friday about Shapewear: what it is, how to make best use of it, and what I personally have experience with. (Before and after candid shots will be forthcoming. Wow, talk about being transparent….)
ADAPTIVE PATTERN SEWING: I met with my friend last night and we talked about the custom pattern she had. What she liked, what she didn’t. When she told me the pattern was ten years old, that made me think we maybe needed to go with something different. We talked about camouflage – how it’s difficult to find wheelchair-friendly garments that are intended to hide some areas and highlight others. When it was all said and done, we decided it would be better to find a dress pattern with slimming princess seams, that was made for a woven fabric. I took her measurements and then came home to look through my patterns. I found a few things that I think she might like, and she’s coming over on Friday to make a decision. I’m going to make a test garment out of some flannel (or some tightly woven plaid I have… the plaid would give me alignment benefits because of the pattern, similar to using a gingham). If the test garment works, then we’ll do the real thing. Plus, she’d have a sloper pattern to use for other garments! Double the benefit, double the fun.
Three Sisters
09 Feb 2011 4 Comments
I need another internet shop like I need another hole in my head.
But, as some of you lready know, it’s about exposure. The more places your work can be seen, the more places people have opportunity to find you. Okay, I can dig that.
Yesterday I saw a post in one of my LinkedIn groups about a fairly new online site for artists to sell their work, called Three Sisters Marketplace. Two things caught my attention about this place:
A, there is only a commission on sold items, and if an artist sells nothing, then they pay nothing. The commission rate is pretty decent: 15%. I could do a lot worse with a local gift shop, where not only would I pay a higher commission, but I’d also be subject to theft.
B, the shops are juried. That means the artist must pass a certain set of standards before they can have their shop accepted. (Their site doesn’t say what the standards are, but as I looked through the other shops, I could tell that halfway decent photography was one of the standards). I spent about an hour or so last night getting my jury examples together, and was pleased this morning to see that I’d been accepted.
Some irony here:
Last night, as I’m setting up these listings and thinking to myself, “why are you doing this, when you’ve been paying for an empty Artfire shop for three months?” Good way to guilt myself, but maybe it’s the kick in the butt I need to take the time and get Artfire set up.
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