Monday, September 22, 2008

Featured Etsy Shop: bethsingleton


Featured Etsy Shop: Beth Singleton Designs



1. What is your shop name and what do you sell? bethsingleton (Beth Singleton Designs). I sell handmade glass lampwork beads.

2. What is your shop URL? http://www.bethsingleton.etsy.com/ or http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5136421

3. When did you start selling on Etsy? I joined in April 2007 but didn't list anything until October 2007 when I listed a few items. I made the complete switch from eBay in December 2007 and haven't looked back.
4. What is your favorite thing about Etsy? I love the idea of having a shop instead of having auctions I have to watch. It is the perfect place for me. Etsy attracts the right customers for my product. It's also nice to be able to work from home. I'm still able to manage my household and family responsibilities and bring in an extra income. Life is Good!

5. What is your favorite thing about what you sell? I love making glass lampwork beads. My beads tend to be bright, fun and funky. I just love wearing my beads on my Pandora bracelet. It's fun to mix and match them.
6. What is your favorite item in your own shop and why? My most popular items are my large hole bracelet beads. I think people like to collect them, mix them up, change them out to go with different outfits. For me collecting Artisan Pandora and Troll style bracelet beads in like wearing little pieces of art around you wrist. I also have on customer that uses my large hole beads for braided kangaroo leather leads that she makes.

7. What teams do you belong to? None. I don't have time for all of that.

8. What is the most fun thing you do to promote your shop? I don't know if there is any one thing that works better for me. I do have a custom bumper sticker with my URL and a picture of my beads that I have on my car. I promote on Craigslist, Myspace, Indiepublic, Flickr, Nifty, and even Classmates.com.

9. What are some of your favorite finds by other sellers on Etsy? My favorites have been dog related items. I bought a stamped "King of Farts" dog tag from this seller: http://www.sudlow.etsy.com/. My yellow lab is actually featured in her picture for this item (he's the one at the bottom left corner) I also bought 3 beautiful dog prints that look just like my 3 dogs from this seller: http://www.dogartstudio.etsy.com/. The 3 prints brighten my studio!

10. What do you do in your spare time? Spare Time? What is that? I don't seem to have much of that these days. I do squeeze in some volunteer work every now and then. We love attending my son's JV Football games. We have about 65 acres of land and when I have time (not lately) I enjoy morning walks with my dogs on the trails. There's plenty of wildlife to be enjoyed on the walks...deer, geese, ducks, and an occasional snake and even a coyote once. I also help out with my mother-in-law that has cancer and dementia which can be very frustrating at times. On bad days I can retreat to my studio, light up my torch and get away from it all.

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