Cool T-Shirt

This actually arrived in the mail a little while ago but this is the first time I've had a chance to take a photo of me wearing my new Noadi's Art t-shirt. I used Zazzle to create and print the shirt. The quality is quite nice and it cost me about $20 because I waited until Zazzle was having a sale.

You can see the design I used to the right, it's my cup of cuttlefish photo. I think it'll be especially nice to wear for art and craft shows this summer.

So here's the photo of me wearing the shirt, along with my new telescope. Click through to go to a larger version on Flickr.

If you read my last post you know that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy
and sicne I'm such an astronomy fan I created a cuttlefish necklace in honor of the IYA. Check out the Galactic Cuttlefish Necklace.

Been Distracted Lately

Lots of non-Noadi's Art stuff going on right now. For the most part good though I did have a minor crises with my contact lenses that left me with only one for about a week (my eyesight is terrible so it really messed up my vision). My brother is home on leave from the Air Force for the month, this is the first time he's been home in a year. I also got a big new toy:


It's a 4.5 inch reflecting telescope and a dream come true. I've wanted a telescope since I was a little kid and with my parents chipping in half the cost as an Xmas present I could finally afford one. Unfortunately I do live in Maine so it's incredibly cold this time of year but I've been risking the frostbite anyway.

I do have some great Noadi's Art news coming up soon, I promise.

Happy New Year

Things have been pretty crazy here lately, between the holidays, running Noadi's Art (I had a very busy holiday season), and the horrible cold I'm suffering from. I hope you all had a great year and that 2009 will be even better! Once I'm over this cold I plan to do some retrospective blog posts talking about how 2008 went for Noadi's Art however right now cold meds are messing with my concentration.

I bought Noadi's Art a Xmas present: a postal scale. Should really save time and my dad's patience since I often ask him to do post office runs for me.

Running out of time to order

If you want to order anything from Noadi's Art for Christmas I must receive all orders by tonight. I plan to be up until at least 2am EST Friday morning packing up orders. After my mail run Friday morning I really can't guarantee anything I mail out will arrive by Christmas.

If you want to order after today please either email me directly at NoadiArt@gmail.com, convo me on Etsy, or use the "Ask the seller a question" link on eCrater and we can discuss expedited shipping which I'll need to invoice you for. Expedited shipping is generally quite pricey so please if you want to save some money, order today.

Stocking Stuffers

Looking for some lower priced gifts this year? I have some fun jewelry and ornaments for under $15. The lower price also means you don't need to feel guilty if a kid in your life breaks them, however I don't recommend my jewelry for very young children because there is a potential choking risk from the small pieces.

Cthulhu's Gems are inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and are gray tentacles wrapped around a glass gem. The standard necklace with a leather cord is $12.50, or with a sterling silver chain for $15.75.

Bubble Gem Cephalopods are fun polymer clay squid and octopus sculpted around a glass gem, I have both necklaces and pins priced at $10.

Dragon Ornaments are tiny dragons wrapped around glass gems and are priced at only $5.50. I only have a very small number of these left.

Clay Experiment and New Biz Cards

I had fun last night working with a new clay mix. I really love how it turned out. The mix is 1/4 block promo frost translucent clay, pinch of purple premo, healthy scoop of sparkle copper pearl ex (the larger sparkley pieces), and small amounts of misty lavender and true blue pearl ex.

I also just got some great brand new business cards that I ordered from Zazzle. I'm so happy with how they turned out. the quality of the printing is very nice.


I'm writing a review of Zazzle for the Handmade Business Blog tomorrow so keep an eye out for it.

Holiday Kick Off and Announcement

To kick off the big holiday shopping weekend I'm offering free shipping on all jewelry and ornament orders, reduced shipping on sculpture, and free tentacle charms with all cuttlefish jewelry between Friday November 28th and Monday December 1st. You can check out the deal on both my Etsy Shop and my eCrater Store.

My other announcement is of a new blog. I just launched the Handmade Business Blog. It'll be all about the business side of creating, marketing, using different websites, goign to craft fairs, etc. I really hope it becomes a good resource

Etsy Tips

I put together a little article about promoting an Etsy shop yesterday. Most of this information also applies to promoting any handmade shop online but I focused it on Etsy to highlight a few sites that only allow Etsy submissions.

Tips for Promoting an Etsy Shop

Another Post on Packaging

I know I've talked about packaging before but I'm going to do it again because I think it's an important way to make your customer see how much you care about the products you make. I have a whole Squidoo lens dedicated to the idea, you really should go check it out: Make your Handmade Products Stand Out.

The reason I thought about this subject again was that I attended an Etsy Virtual Lab Wednesday night on packaging and it was full of good ideas. One thing that was really stressed was that just sending out your products in it's pretty packaging isn't enough when you're sellign online. You should show your customers exactly the type of packaging that your product will be coming in. The best way is of course to include a photo of your packaging in the product listing.

Here are some examples of my packaging that I photographed last night:

And here is a new video I put together to replace the older one:

Branching off into hair jewelry

I don't know how obvious it is from my profile photo here on the blog but I have very long hair, down past my waist, and I love getting new barrettes and hair sticks to hold it up. So why not make some? Well that's what I've done.

First up here's some cuttlefish hair sticks, click the link under the pics to go to the shop page they're on.

Night Sky Cuttlefish Hairsticks with Moonstone

Green Cuttlefish Hairsticks with Aventurine and Snowflake Obsidian

Next up is an experiment, I'm not sure if I'm going to continue with this series yet. It's a nudibranch (sea slug) barrette.

Blue and Yellow Nudibranch Barrette