Etsy Interview with Ravens Craving

Etsy Interview with Ravens Craving<br /><br />First off, tell me a little bit about yourself. Hi! Im Meredith, and my jewelry studio, Ravens Craving is the spawn of a hobby turned obsession turned profession! Im in my late 20s, just around that time when all of my peers are out there getting real jobs, and having children, and all of that normal people stuff!<br /><br />After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in Art with an emphasis in Graphic Design, I had my quarter life crisis, which can be summed up as a moment in time of me laying kicking and screaming on the floor wailing I DONT WAAAANNNNNAAAAA. And, so, as mother has always taught me, you should most certainly take control of your own life, be the change you want to see, manifest your own destiny and all that good new agey stuff. I did meet Deepak Chopra once! So I remained working part time at a locally owned bead shop, got married to my high school sweetheart not just for health insurance, but also for love! and decided to take my jewelry hobby full time and try to make some money! Ive been making jewelry professionally for about 3 years, as a serious hobby for about 5, and have been in love with beads and sparkly things since I can remember. Hence, ravens. They crave shinies.<br /><br />My older sister and I used to go to a bead shop in the town we grew up in, called the Bead Lady. I think the bead addiction must have started then. After moving to Madison, Wisconsin and needing a job to get through college, I was wandering through a mall one day, and saw the Help Wanted sign up in this bead store! Five years later. here I am! I have learned so much in these past 5 years and its amazing how much I can continue to learn. Thats part of what makes beads such a great creative outlet for me. I remember she described it as indie ebay for crafters, and anybody who has been on etsy knows, once youre in, youre in for life! I dont think I had fully explored etsys capabilities and what it has to offer until about a year after finding it. Etsy is such a great, vast, wonderful place.<br /><br />What is unique about Etsy and what about the website do you like the most in regards to your shop?<br /><br />What I find so unique about etsy is the community. Not only are people so willing to share tips, tricks and knowledge, but they really do try to help each other do the best they can, be the best they can. If it werent for the community on etsy, I never would have come this far. I love the teams I belong to: etsyveg, Earth Path Artisans, and Big Damn Crafters. I have done my little part to try to give back to the etsy community by listing PIFs in my shop. PIFs stand for Pay it Forwards, and its generally free stuff or tutorials in someones shop. I have given away dozens of beads, and currently have an informational PIF in my shop about how to oxidize sterling silver using hard boiled eggs. You can find the listing for that in my shop under the PIFs section.<br /><br />What inspires you the most in regards to your creations?<br /><br />Nature, generally. I love gemstones and fresh water pearls. One of my favorite things to do is get inspired by things in jewelry catalogs, like Sundance, Stella and Dot, or Silpada, and make something of my own for literally one third of the cost, or less! I have also recently begun to be able to stop in other jewelry booths at art fairs and not get jealous, but instead get INSPIRED!<br /><br />What is your favorite piece youve created and why?<br /><br />Thats a really hard one. I am pretty variable, and my favorites when it comes to ANYTHING change on a whim! At this very current moment, my favorite piece thats listed in my shop is my Ocean Breezes necklace because I love the combination of mixed metals, the hand hammered sterling stick I made, the earthiness of the river rock offset by the exquisitely cut wire wrapped Chalcedony briolette my favorite stone of the minute!<br /><br />What do you want to accomplish with your online shop?<br /><br />First and foremost, I use it as a creative outlet for myself. If I cant get rid of jewelry, I cant make any new stuff! Of course its nice to have a little income from it, but mostly I sell at art fairs and home parties. The competition on etsy is extremely high, especially with jewelry. So unless you are a professional photographer, a wordsmith, a sales person, and have copious amounts of time on your hands to endlessly promote yourself, and re list items all day long, youre not going to make a living off of Etsy.<br /><br />I like to have a website to sell things from, so people who shop from me at fairs and parties can have a source to preview and revisit my work. Etsy addiction aside, its really just another way to reach out to customers and help promote and expand my jewelry business. Someday in the future, I hope youll be reading an article about me in People or Elle or something of that nature where Im talking about my humble beginnings on etsy. hehe!<br /><br />Do you have any new creations in the works? If so, what can shoppers expect to see from you soon?<br /><br />Ive been working on getting some new Viking Knit pieces done to sell. Its a class Ive been teaching and I really enjoy the technique and seem to get a lot of attention from the pieces I have done. Other than that I have been focusing on expanding my bead weaving skills I just have to finish something once Ive started it! Check out the viking knitted bracelets and a few bead woven pieces in my Ravens Craving Etsy shop.<br /><br />Where can readers find out about more information regarding your jewelry and other creations and possible special offers including additional websites, blogs, facebook, etc?<br /><br />Check out my de stash bead shop. For information about my studio, you can check out my squidoo lens too, as well as my blog. Thanks so much for reading, and dont forget to manifest your own destiny!!