Squidmas is Coming

Tentacle Charms

Last weekend's Holiday Tentacular sale went swimmingly. Thank you to everyone who shopped or shared the sale with their friends. It's the beginning of December which means it's the home stretch for the year and assuming the world doesn't end, 2013 is so close.

I'm not going to be holding any more sales before my holiday shipping deadlines but I do have a few special offers for you. First of all I have a whole bunch of cute little tentacle charms and I'll be including one in every order until I run out.

Second, if you want to save on your order I have a special coupon code up just for Facebook fans. So like my page and then visit the coupon tab to get a coupon for 7% off your order (or click here to go right to the coupon tab). The coupon is valid through Squidmas day, Dec 21.

Also don't forget that I offer free US and Canadian shipping on all jewelry and most other orders. Check the Events & Dates page for holiday shipping deadlines, I've tried to cover all the major ones Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, Newtonmas, etc.

Holiday Shipping Deadlines

If you are planning to shop with Noadi's Art for the holidays here are your deadlines for ordering. These are my best estimates and not guarantees, so ordering earlier is encouraged.

Hanukkah (Dec 8-16) - For orders to arrive by December 7 you need to order by standard shipping:

• US Mail - December 1
• International - November 26 for most addresses, November 19 for Central America, South America, and Africa.
• APO/FPO/DPO - November 26 for most addresses, November 19 for AE ZIP 093

Solstice/Cephalopodmas (Dec 21) For orders to arrive by December 20 by standard shipping:

• US - December 14
• International - December 5 for most addresses, November 27 for Central America, South America, and Africa.
• APO/FPO/DPO - December 5 for most addresses, November 27 for AE ZIP 093

Christmas/Newtonmas (Dec 25) - For orders to arrive by December 23 by standard shipping:

• US - December 19
• International - December 9 for most addresses, December 2 for Central America, South America, and Africa.
• APO/FPO/DPO - December 9 for most addresses, December 2 for AE ZIP 093 

I've also added these dates to the Events & Dates page.

Goodies from Etsy

I love to shop on Etsy as well as selling there. It just has so much cool stuff and I recently got a couple very geeky presents to myself.

First is this great necklace from Surlyramics that says "Be Skeptical".



The other goody is this amazingly cool plush trilobite from Weird Bug Lady.

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.

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

Goodies Arrived

My supplies arrived today and I'm all excited to start making stuff with them. Click the picture below to go to flickr and see it all labeled with what everything is.

Also in the package were a couple other cool things with the package. First this is what I saw when I opened the box which I thought was really great. Also this incredibly bright pink tote bag, cute but not my thing so I gave it to my mom.

Want a free necklace?

Running a quick promotion for my new Etsy Shop anyone who buys anything at all from my shop in the next 24 hours (ending 9pm eastern time tomorrow) gets a free Cthulhu's Gem necklace with a leather cord.

Finally made up my mind.

It took a while but I did finally make up my mind about what to sculpt for the center of that lavender necklace: a seahorse. I managed to match the colors quite closely with premo (didn't paint this one other than the eye and clear coating it) and added some pearl ex powders in micro pearl, misty lavender, and interference violet.

I also made a small pair of matching earring with two more of the briolette beads. It's up for sale on Etsy.

Announcing my Etsy Shop

Yep, I've finally worked out some issues with registering for Etsy and have now opened a shop there. I'm really excited about this, Etsy is the biggest site out there for selling handmade products.

You can check out my shop at noadi.etsy.com.

Gearing Up for the Holidays

I'm working on new stuff for the holidays, mostly jewelry, some ornaments, and small sculpture. What would you like to see more of?

I don't know if I've announced this before but if you wish your order to be gift wrapped just tell me so in the notes when you order or drop me an email right after ordering to let me know. Please don't wait long, I'm likely to have already packaged it up and shipped it. I can also include a card if you let me know what you'd like to be written on it.

Some Announcements

A few things going on to let you know about. First of all Noadi's Art has undergone a complete redesign and I'm now using wordpress to run the site which makes things much easier.

Next, my shop is being featured on the Savings-Online.com holiday shopping guide. It's pretty cool so check it out.

Also my work will be featured in an upcoming episode of Polymer Clay Podcast which will be their holiday gift guide. I'll post a link to the episode when it is up.

More changes to my store

I'm continuing to reevaluate my prices and what jewelry I'm going to continue to make. I've already stopped making the cephalopod bubble gem jewelry and marked those down to $10. Now I've dropped the prices on my Cthulhu's Gems necklaces, $12.50 for the ones with the leather cords and $15.75 for the ones with silver chains. I've wanted to have a broader range of prices for a while but I've been agonizing about exactly what the new prices should be but I think I've come up with reasonable prices for the complexity and time involved.

Shy, Novice, and Closeted Art Show Today!

It's currently just before 8am a time when I'm usually quite asleep. I'll be leaving for the art show shortly. It's running from 9am to 4pm though I probably won't be home until well after that. Remember if you're in the Bethel, Maine, area stop by to see my art.

In related news Noadi's Art Shop has been put on hold for the day since some of the items for sale are also at the show. The store is still there and all the items, but the buy now buttons are gone, it'll be back tonight when I return from the show. It will also be on hold next Saturday as I do the Norway Sidewalk Art Show.

Update: I'm home, the store is no longer on hold. I'll write a post about the show tomorrow, right now I'm in desperate need of sleep.

Get Free Stuff from Me

I'm starting a new promotion for my web shop. If you buy 4 or more items from Noadi's Art Shop from the sculpture, jewelry, or ornaments categories (sorry this doesn't apply to sculpting supplies) I will send you a gift certificate for one free jewelry item. This applies whether you purchase 4 at once or over several orders. Simply fill out the certificate and mail it back to me with your selection and I'll send you your free gift (shipping is free too).

You can choose from gargoyles, cthulhu's gems, cephalopods, cuttlefish, or trilobites, the colors are a surprise.


And now for something completely different: I just started working on the concept sketch for my fire dancer sculpture, I'll post it once I've finished.

Shop Blossom

Okay, I know I said I'd have non-web and marketing stuff soon and I will. I just finished sculpting a bunch of cuttlefish earrings and pendants (they are just awaiting paint right now). However I have to share my newest web project.

Shop Blossom is a social network I just launched last night, it's a place for any online small business including of course artists who sell their work online to join (even if you aren't an online business you can join if you are interested in the subject). You can create a profile page, network, add photos and videos, promote your business, and discuss how to make your business better in the forums and groups.

This is a new adventure for me, I've moderated forums before but never a social network. I will be moderating it too to make sure no one is spamming, flaming, or posting inappropriate or adult content. A lot of parents work from home, I want them to be comfortable viewing it while their kids are in the room.

How to Cure Polymer Clay

I just finished creating a Squidoo lens that gives an overview of different techniques for curing polymer clay. Give it a look, you might pick up a few tips.
Techniques for Curing Polymer Clay

I also wrote up a little lens on using the rss feeds eCrater generates for stores.
Using eCrater RSS Feeds

eCrater Tutorial

I just finished writing up a tutorial on how to set up a store on eCrater. It runs through all the basic steps to creating your storefront.

How to Start Selling on eCrater

I Need Your Feedback

I've had the Noadi's Art Shop up for a few weeks now and so far it's looking pretty good, I'm getting a decent amount of traffic and interest. What I need from my wonderful readers is some feedback on what they would like to see in my store. So the comments are open, let me have it.

Lots of Itty Bitty Cuttlefish

I don't know why but I haven't had the patience to work on any big sculpts lately. I blame my brother, he's home on leave from the Air Force for a month so it's been a lot busier here than usual. I love having him home, I've missed him a lot but my ability to concentrate has gone on vacation.

So I've been working instead of lots of little projects, mostly jewelry. The past couple days I've been making these adorable little cuttlefish earrings. I like them so much that today I'm making a pair for myself to wear that will look like the green ones. Of course they are up for sale here: Cephalopod Earrings

I think these guys are probably too cute for anyone to call baby Cthulhu like my Perma-Pets have been.

Trilobites and Turtles

I was playing around with some ideas this weekend and came up with these. First of couple cute little turtle pins. I'm not 100% satisfied with these but I really like the little gold glints I added to them with some Pearl Ex sparkle gold powder.

Then the ones I really love, two trilobite necklaces. I'm definitely going to make some more of these. They are black premo with some silver Pearl Ex powder brushed on the high points.

These are up for sale at my webstore.