Match the photo with the Website!

As I observed recently, the same photo can have different effect on the various Websites over Internet.

Selling on-line leaves us with no choice but to have great photos and promote!
.........promote!
................PROMOTE!

There are a lot of social media and galleries, that can be helpful, but the trouble is that the photo working miracles on Facebook won't work so good on ETSY or Deviantart.

How to match your item photos with your social media pages and galleries? 

Here's a few tips!

ETSY

There are 5 photos that can be used, and I am sure buyers look at all 5 :) But obviously, the first photo, that becomes your thumbnail, is the most important.
YES: The photos should be square or horizontal, with a neutral background (white, gray or delicate wood). The photo should be natural, without a watermark or your signature / icon.
NO: Compilation, photo manipulation, frames etc simply won't work.

My most popular ETSY item and photo, the 'Trees in Blue' silk scarf

DeviantArt

As I observed, my most popular pictures are the ones with a lot of details. Photo-manipulation works great! YES: DeviantArt is all about composition, colors and complicity.
NO: None of my close - ups or single item shots are as popular as my combined (GIMP edited) images.

 One of my most popular DeviantArt... but not on ETSY - the Pareo version of Trees in Blue.

Facebook

Facebook loves close - ups and details and add - ons like your avatar or signature on the picture... or even a quote from your positive ETSY feedback.
Oh, and a peek behind the curtains :) Show your workshop, your creative process, your sketches!
YES: Details or close - up, strong shading to be visible on your friends walls. Pictures while working.
NO: The picture itself should not be to big, because FB does not show the original size of the picture and small fonts may be unreadable.

Night Queen silk scarf while painting... worked well on FB but won't work on ETSY nor DeviantArt.

Let me know what are your experience! What do you think?

What about the Pinterest? 

What about a Blogpost? 

Peacock scarf and... how to pimp up your close up?

Peacock silk scarves with lighting effect - thank you Photogramio! 

Recently, I have found a fantastic webpage called Photogramio  for editing photos. It's user panel is very cool, try it! :) it looks like a old - fasioned photo studio and it add effect similar to Instagram.

I had a great time playing with it and now I wanted to share with you one of the photos of my ready-to-go Peacock scarf.

 Edited close-up of  Peacock scarves and the un-edited photo.

The picture was first re-sized in GIMP (from 350dpi to 72dpi which is a standard monitor resolution). Then the picture was brightened - up a little with contrast and brightness options.

The Photogramio was used to create the lighting lens effect. I like it as it makes the picture more umm... magical -I suppose - is the word I am looking for ;)

Please let me know what do you think! 

I am testing this edited picture now as a front photo for this ready to go silk scarves. I am very curious will it affect Peacock scarves popularity? 

Big scarf FLOWERS

Here's the very special silk scarf I've painted as a custom order for a wonderful couple from USA.

 Handpainted silk scarf FLOWERS on ETSY

The scarf became their bridal canopy! Oh, I feel so honored. The couple stated that the scarf will eventually become their heirloom :)

This silk scarf is big: approx. 203 x 61 cm (80x24 inch) and I had some fun placing it on my small desk (160 x 60cm) ;) This scarf has a stained - glass feel to it and it was achieved by double painting.

Firstly, I painted flowers and backgroud using silk paints and water based gutta outline. Then I fixed the paints, washed it and ... yes, painted again, this time with black just to make the contour. I really like the finished piece, but it was twice the work... hence the price.

I am going to use this double - painting technique more often, hopefully this spring when there will be more time for creating new designs... and a lot of inspiration from nature.
 For next few months there is an idea of bordered scarfs... but that's something for the next blog post ;)

Ohh, if you wish there are more pictures of this scarf on my Pinterest Board!

Good Photography for Etsy #2

Good pictures sell your products on Etsy

Yes, that is easy to say, but let's face it, we have limited resources while taking pictures. 

The camera (oh, why are they so expensive) the lighting (if I use the artificial light, colors won't be good) the location (oh such a small apartment)... and so on!

Silk scarf Hortensia the edited photo and the unedited version. 

On the right you can see a part of my bookshelf and how dark my apartment really is :O

What can we do to make the photos better? 

 Here's some good tips I've collected from Etsy Teams and various forums:

Use delicate, light background. 

Period. Your white wall is probably the safest option. 

Do not use your floor, it scares the customers off to see the item on the floor or in other unhygienic place! 

Do not use red or yellow or other strong colors as a background, they will change the perception of the item's colors.

A & D colors are the same. B & C are the same. Would you believe it? 

Use natural light 

So maybe a terrace or the balcony? Sometimes the window light is sufficient. If the camera is good, you can probably get more colors and make the picture brighter during computer editing... but beware, if the photo is dark, there could be some quality loss.

The Freesia silk scarf picture was too dark.

There is no way for me to make it more light without loosing quality and orange - coral colors. Meh, it was a dark, cloudy day :(

Take as many photos as you can

 

102 photos just to get 5 good for this Hortensia scarf on ETSY

It's easier to find a good photo in 200 than in 20 ;) 

I must confess there are times when I just don't feel like taking pictures and I am doing it without thinking. That's not so good neither. There can be 200 bad pictures, so put your work into it! Take a good aim! Take close-ups and shots for the entire item. Try something new!

***

The basic for Etsy photography are quite straightforward, I think. Well, the picture editing part is something REALLY interesting :) please stay tunned for my next blog post!

Kimono inspired silk scarf FREESIA

New silk scarf - Freesia - this time inspired by Japanese art of Kimono painting.

Handpainted silk scarf Freesia on Etsy

This scarf is something new for me as I am under an influence of... 'Shogun' by James Clavell. I looked into Kimono desings and was swept off my feet! Again, Japanese art, style and perfection made me speechless.

This orange & white scarf is decorated with Freesia flowers and bordered with coral - orange outline. I was pleasantly surprised how beautifully the silk works with a dark border - the draping of the silk is much more visible.
I am going to explore this Kimono inspired idea for a scarf design some more this winter. I'd love to make a series of different colors and flowers... and I think the next one will be hollyhocks!

ROWAN silk scarf - Ready to go!

Today I wanted to share with you my newly painted silk scarf... this time in vibrant red - white color set :) Usually, I enjoy colorful paintings, but lately I felt like creating something minimalist in design.

Silk scarf Rowan - ready to go on ETSY!

This silk scarf was inspired by a Japanese art of kimono painting. I am listening to 'Shogun' by James Clavell audiobook nowadays, and once again I fell in love with the Japanese sense of style, aesthetic... everything! I dug for kimono art on google and... oh! There's so much beauty!

Silk scarf Rowan - ready to go on ETSY!

This is a natural silk, Habotai Light, which is semi - transparent, delicate and a bit glossy. It is my absolute favorite :3

 Silk scarf Rowan - ready to go on ETSY!

I am very pleased with the design, the red border makes the silk 'drapping' effect so much more visible!

I hope you will like this Mountain Ash scarf :) For now it's ready and waiting!

Etsy search clumping issue - solved? What now?

Please note: this post probably will only be interesting for Etsy Sellers :)

In the begging of October a glitch on Etsy search appeared - the 'uber dominancy' or 'clumping' called in forums by sellers.

The 'uber dominancy' of search results by just a few shops made lots and lots of other sellers lacking of views, and in consequence, sells. I've seen it myself, using 'silk scarf' term for search. It was madness. Pages after pages of similar scarfs from one shop... for the customers? that was really bad. Imagine you want to buy but there seems to be only one type of scarfs available on Etsy from only one shop. I guess many potential buyers just gave up and moved to another on-line shops.

The issue of 'uber dominancy' was resolved in the end of October (at least on 10 first search pages for every search term) by using good old 'relevancy'. There is an engine that decides which item is relevant - accurate for the specific term that can be searched. 

People around Etsy Forums reports that now re-listed or recently listed items don't get theirs '5 minutes' in the searches. I confirmed it, only my oldest items, the ones with most 'hearts' and 'treasuries' get into first 10 pages of Etsy search.

So what can we, sellers, should do?

• There is no first page Treasury anymore, instead there is the Activity Feed. That means we need more hearts :) and treasuries, but with a place in the fist row (the first row is visible in the Activity Feed).
• We need links and backlinks (links to our items from blogs, pinterest, facebook and our internal links from our shop from one item to another)
• We need good SEO and good tags, as always.

But do we still need re-listing?

To get into the Activity Feed of our friends (ppl who favorited our shop or are following us) yes, But for now it seems re-listing won't get us into search result.

***

This info I gathered around Etsy Teams and Forum. I hope it will help! If you wish to discuss or have some other news for us, please feel free to contact me or to leave a comment!

To learn more:

• CLUMPING - Etsy Forum topic
• SEO & RELEVANCY -  great Etsy Team
• PROMOTING - Etsy Team for promoting your items

Good Photography for Etsy #1

Good pictures sell your products on Etsy

It is so simple, really. Good photography is the most important thing for your e-shop, it is literally the only thing that can persuade your potential customer to buy.

Photographing for Etsy is something that many sellers struggles with. I myself still have A LOT to learn... but there are some tips I can share with you! I hope you will find it helpful :)

Ready picture of silk scarf FLOWERS and it's unedited version.

So, here are the main things that need to be taken under consideration:
 
PHOTOGRAPHING

• staging (good presentation of the item, good background)
• lighting (can be fixed in GIMP)
• cropping

EDITING with GIMP or Photoshop

• cropping
• color balance and contrast
• editing small imperfections of the background

There will be more blog posts to come in few next weeks so stay tuned!

You can check my ETSY shop to see the pictures, some better, some not so much ;) but I hope there is visible progress :D  Please feel free to share you knowledge in the comment section!

My Wedding silk scarf :)

Yay, finally I am able to share with you my wedding scarf designed and painted specially for the occasion.

Hand painted silk scarf Wedding on Etsy.

I really hope you will like this white scarf ! It is my good luck charm now, as I am wearing it this fall with every - day clothes.

This wedding scarf was painted with two types of paints: silk paints as a base and then details with textile paint. The textile paint is more thick so it can be used as a contour. I am very glad how it turned out :) 

I am offering this silk scarves on Etsy as a made to order - I'd love to paint it once more!

There is a hand painted silk skirt and blouse too, of course :) I will share the photos with you with another post so stay tuned!

500 + sales on Etsy THANK YOU!!

It was a few days ago, but due to some health issues I can share this great news with you today!

500 sales on MinkuLUL.etsy.com

It was crazy two years, filled with hard work and lots and lots of fun! I simply love painting so this job is a dream - come - true for me :) 

I am so thankful to all my customers for their trust and support. THANK YOU!
I am so grateful to Etsy for giving me and so many many other artists and craters a wonderful opportunity for growing. 

Hydrangea scarf... or Hortensia scarf?

Hydrangea or Hortensia? How is this flower called in your country?

Silk scarf Hydrangea - or - silk scarf Hortensia on ETSY

This silk scarf was designed for my closest friend on her birthday... and it took me a YEAR! Oh yes, full year, from last July... but I am satisfied and she really likes it so I figure it was worth the wait :) The scarf is in turquoise - blue - grayish colors with white details and white border (oh yes, inspired by Japanese Kimono Art).
This Hortensia scarf is painted on Habotai Light (5mm natural silk) very delicate and a bit glossy. Hope you will like it!

PS in Poland we call it simply Hortensia. You would not believe it how popular is this Japanese flower in our country gardens :)

Fire and ice... on a silk scarfs!

Here's two twin silk scarfs from my collection. Fire and ice, ombre red and ombre blue, both with white swirls representing dancing of flames or dancing of frost. I really hope you will like it!

Hand painted silk scarf - FIRE SCARF 

 

Hand painted silk scarf - FROST SCARF

 

As you can see both designs have the same general idea, it's a quite simple idea but lots and lots of painting. 

 

I am really proud of the ombre effect, it lets you to choose the exact tone of color that will be complementing your outfit. You can wear it as a dark or very bright scarf - whichever suits you more at the moment.

 

The Frost scarf (or Snow scarf) was created first, this late winter. The Fire scarf (Flame scarf) was created as a custom request for a very nice person from RPA.

Peek at my workshop - packing the scarfs

Here's a question: how to wrap the scarfs to make it beautiful for the customers, to give all the nessesery care instructions, yet not to make the package to heavy or to fragile?

For my Etsy customers I am packing silk scarfs in a plastic bag (so light! and you can instantly see the scarf after opening the envelope!) and I am adding a bow with two business cards.

 You can see the Peacock scarf in the wrapping process :)

The first business card has my name and my signature, the name of the scarf and the date of creation.
The second business card carries the instructions for washing and ironing.

I find it sufficient :)

Do you like it? How would you do it?

Ready to go scarfs - 21th of July

I love creating new designs and new scarfs, but sometimes I need to slow a bit in creating process and just practice my manual skills.



I took this week of designing and focused on painting! This gives me such a joy :)

Here are some of this week READY TO GO silk scarfs on Etsy:

Hand painted silk scarf 'Peacock'

Hand painted silk scarf 'Trees in Blue'

Hand painted silk scarf 'Rohan Horses'

Hand painted silk scarf 'Violet Sky White Tree'

Hand painted silk scarf 'Celtic Wolfs''

If you find something that you especially like, rest assured that the scarf will be sent to you in 24 hours :) 

Most of my scarfs are still made to order, which takes me from 3 to 5 days, depending on the complicity of the design. 

If you wish me to design something special for you, let me know!

Pale blue inspirations for silk painting!

Here's a selection of lovely Etsy handmade items in white - pale blue shades - a treasury called 'Early Morning'. Hope you will find it inspiring!

Early morning treasury on ETSY

And here we have some gorgeous items from the list! Let's have a look:

Sexy White crocheted barefoot sandals from  dosiak

 

 Such a lovely idea! This barefoot sandals are crocheted, hand made, from organic cotton. They are white, and what is really important - if you wish to give them as gift - they are "one size fits all". White, beautiful and there's a world - wide shipping :)

Pale blue and white flower post earrings from sweetsimple

 

Delicate earrings, ideal shabby chic studs. Vintage style, as you can see. The earrings are 1/2 inch, with a pale blue and white flower. Stainless steel post are lead and nickel free, which is very important with earrings!

Lovely, lovely! Now off to make some sketches for a pale blue - white scarf! :) 

 

How to paint with invisible gutta lines? The Autumn Scarf explained!

Check out Leanne Holt - Lost Gutta tutorial on Silk Artist blog.

I just stumbled across a great blogpost with fantastic tips on silk painting. Step by step it tells you how to create a painting on a scarf without the white gutta lines. 

I used this technique last year, to create hand painted 'Autumn' silk scarf.

It was really time - consuming. You have to use delicate, light silk to ensure that the gutta will work when you apply it on the first layer of paint. If you use to heavy silk, the gutta will not work and there will be 'bleeding'.

Free world - wide shippign everyone!

I am back after very intense six months... there were weddings, there was A LOT of work and painting... oh very good time indeed!

I will add some of my new works here now, just to make you wanna visit my shop on ETSY with 75 silk scarfs!! Yesssss 75... when did it happened?

Free world wide shipping till 20th of July. yeah, it's called Christmas in July on ETSY

And here's the newest scarf 'Poppies' - hand painted silk scarf with red and pink poppies.

This 'Poppies' scarf was painted as a gift for my friend... she was going to a great music festival (classical music in Wieliczka city in Poland) so I am very honored that she had chosen this scarf as a part of her outfit. She did inspire me to paint poppies one more time. I am sooo grateful for her inspiration (and for the yummiest raspberries she brought from her garden).