Forgotten Beauties: Some Jewelry Highlights from my Shop

In this blog entry, I want to focus your attention on a few pieces of finished jewelry from the shop that have remained behind in previous sales.  All of these feature gemstones that already are extremely rare or will be in the foreseeable future. 

To read more please visit our website at: https://www.cecileraleydesigns.com/blogs/cecile-raley-designs/forgotten-beauties-some-jewelry-highlights-from-my-shop

Holiday Shopping on Etsy

I don't know how many of you do holiday shopping via Etsy but I do my bit every year to promote some fellow shops that I like.

A big fashion item for me this year were leggins - they are just so comfortable, and I bought from two different shops both of which I was very happy with.

For the lower budget item, you can go to LazyDaisyLeggins, they ship quickly and their leggings are only $18 each.  I bought the skull leggins for Debbie and three more pair for me.  The leggings are super soft and stretchy.  Shipping was very fast.

If you like workout and yoga leggings, I recommend Narais. Sara also designs for bags and pillows, among other things, but my eye fell on the cat leggings which are just phenomenal.  Those took longer to ship but another set of leggings shipped right away.

For another snuggly winter item, I bought woolen slippers from MiasFelt 

From her I got blue woolen slippers which fit really nicely and shipped surprisingly fast from Lithuania (2 weeks I think).  My favorite are these here:

But for personal purchases and gifts, I went with the more conservative ones.

Next weekend I am going to a friend's pot luck wedding and I was tasked with making a cake.  I love baking German cakes, but I'm not so good with decor, so I went to Sugar Robot  and I got these incredible sugar butterflies, they look amazing.  Sugar robot also has leaves and other holiday decor items for cup cakes.  Shipping was next day, so there is still time.

Like most of you, I love holiday baking (though not the calories).  I think I recommended this shop last year, but I will do it again this year.  Go to Oma Gisi's bakery and get the Stollen confection

They are a taste of the real Germany, and they were a hit with all my friends. The shop does not ship quickly I'm afraid (my order took two weeks to make), but I realize the difficulty in baking to order, having it fresh, and meeting holiday deadlines.  It can't be easy.  I think Oma Gisi's stuff can be enjoyed anytime though.

Last but not least, I am going to blatantly advertise my aunt's shop - but for good reason: Silver Designs by Gitte. My aunt is a learned goldsmith.  In the late 1960s she was one of very few women in the industry, but she gave it up after experiencing the difficulty of working jewelry shops that mainly live off repairs and having to work assembly line under time pressure.  She had always hoped to make her own designs but it was far too expensive for my family to help her start her own shop, so Gitte looked for a regular ("money") job doing book keeping instead.  Now that she's retired, she's gone back to her roots. Every piece she produces takes an entire afternoon, and she charges essentially nothing for her labor (her pieces should cost $200-300 each).  She makes practically ever bezel, every accent piece, and sets all her own stones.  Here are some photos from her shop.

Silver Designs By Gitte - Shop Tools and Drawings

Before, After, and in Between

My Aunt's Work Bench and Some of her Silver Pieces

I'm really proud of Gitte for having found her way back to her girl dreams, and I only wish my grandparents could see it (Grandpa passed a few years ago and Grandma is in a home with dementia, she's still really lovely and misses us, but she can no longer retain what my aunt learned or did when she was younger).  Go Gitte.  Please help me promote her shop. www.etsy.com/shop/SilverDesignsbyGitte

My Aunt's Studio where Creation Happens

Happy holidays everyone!

Yvonne
+ Cecile Raley Designs Staff

My Favorite Etsy Shops

As you are looking for holiday gifts, I thought that instead of focusing just on my shop, I’ll tell you about some of my own favorite places to order from.

First off, I know how hard it is to shop for guys, so here's a suggestion for the man: My friend Joanne Simmons, who lives in Jersey City, has the perfect gift for him.   Her shop Silver Sculptor has a great variety of silver cufflinks, many of which can be personalized.

Joanne's Personalized Cuff Links

For the smaller gift, him or her, go to Rhea at Sweets NThings.  I have used her handmade shampoo soap for a couple of years, and I have also bought her shaving bars for my guy.

Fresh Roses Shampoo Bar

If you like to buy local, Mike from Made in Paulus Hoeck sells awesome hand made wood products.  His Etsy shop has only larger pieces, but you can contact him for cutting boards, iPhone holders and other wooden display items.

Church Pew Living Room Table

I also get baked goods on Etsy periodically, and my own favorite is Oma Gisi’s Bakery because she bakes German cookies.  Her best ones are the Stollen Confection 
They are made from an old German recipe and are covered in powdered sugar for extra sweetness.

Oma Gisi's Stollen Bites

For clothing, I go to two shops.  I have about 10 taylored dresses from HeartMy Closet.
Cynthia makes every dress to order, you can choose fabric, and you can customize each piece.  I wear only A-Line skirts for instance and so all my dresses get changed.  I also prefer longer lengths.  Cynthia’s prices are fantastic for what she offers.  Cynthia's Website, Heartmycloset.com, also features a line of Mad Men inspired clothing.

Vintage Reproduction Dress by Heart my Closet

Me in one of my Faves of Cynthia's Dresses

I also get simple cotton shirts and dresses from Giftbywish.  Nok is in Thailand, so you have to wait a bit for your shirts, but at great prices she offers a wide variety of native looking shirts and blouses, each of which is hand embroidered.  Nok is also great at customization and very accommodating.

Hand Embroidery by GiftbyWish

I even get hats on Etsy sometimes.  Or rather, I meet Holly from Artikal Handcrafted Millinery at Etsy craft shows and try out every single one of her cloches until I have the right one.  Her hats hold up extremely well.  While Holly would not want you to put them into a bag or wear them in the rain, my first hat from her has held up to both, and just yesterday I bought a second one!

Yours Truly Wearing Her New Hat

Nicknacks: Last year, I got some pottery wood animals from Studio by the Forest. Her porcelain hedgehogs and birds are now decorating my aunt’s window sill.

Porcelain Birds from Studio by the Forest

Happy shopping.

My Visit with Etsy

So Etsy has a bi-weekly event called Eatsy, where all employees of Etsy eat together.  Etsy employees, known as Etsy admin, can invite Etsy members for a visit and a tour, plus meet with various staff members that might be helpful to their shop.  I got invited to one last week by Bernadette Sweeney, Director of Community Connections.  Etsy is located in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn, which is only a subway ride away from my house. Not every Etsy member is that lucky and I felt very privileged to get picked.  What I took away from the hour I spent there is that Etsy really practices what it preaches.  I’d love to work there - if I wasn’t already doing too many things full time, lol. 

Etsy Reception Area

Etsy Office Space

The first thing that struck me when I stepped through the entrance was how relaxed and welcoming everything looked.  The foyer is lined with plants, and the reception area contains lots of handmade items that set the tone for the company, which is all about handmade after all.  The work areas are open and spacious, dress is casual, and nobody has to punch in and out.  There are no phones on the desks (they’re not really needed) but there are little “phone” booths off to the side where one can make calls or sit with someone and chat privately. Bernadette allowed me to take some photos to share with everyone on my blog.

Etsy has a sizable kitchen area.  Lunch is catered twice a week by local restaurants, it is organic and sustainable whenever possible, not served on plastic plates but recycled paper with real silverware.  Every lunch has a vegetarian option.  There is a compost and the paper is collected separately.  There are coffee machines and refrigerators, but no plastic cups, only mugs which you can take outside to get a coffee at one of the local shops.

During lunch, I got to meet Kim Alfonso who is the Director of Seller Development.  She's the force behind the seller's handbook, the success tips and some of the other blogs.  We swapped stories about possible blog entries and we talked a lot about what works well on Etsy, as well a little about where there could be improvements.  Kimm was very interested in finding out my views about the seller platform, which is why it is so important for Etsy to meet with some of its sellers in person.

I also met with Nadine Heintz, the Seller Editor Content Manager, with whom I had a long chat about the convo system and custom orders.  As those of you who ask for custom work with me know, the convo system can quickly get unruly and then it is hard to find the important part of the conversation where the details of the order were settled.  And since I often manage 10 or more custom orders at once, I can easily get mixed up (and I have!).  I also get a lot of questions more than once.  To help with this, Etsy has created snippets, where you can copy snippets of conversations, i.e. my policies, with a couple of clicks, so you don't have to write everything twice.

Another thing I took away from our discussion was that I should create a custom order sheet which can be uploaded into the convo system.  That would eliminate some of the back and forth.

One of the things that really surprised me during my Etsy tour was that dogs were allowed in the work area.  I met Beanie (photo) and two other cuties that lazed around near their respective owners.  I wish more companies did that!  Etsy also has rooms with couches and other seating areas where you can work if you don’t feel like sitting at your desk, another thing that made the atmosphere very relaxed.  Those rooms are often used for meetings, or for workshops held by employees that want to share their craft.  In fact just about every room and every desk was decorated with some handmade item or other which the staff had bought on Etsy (every new hire gets a $100 gift coupon to buy something for their desk).

Kitchen Area

Working Space with Couches

Beanie

Etsy is what's called a B-Corporation, which is short for Benefit Corporation.  This is a for profit corporation but it has a special certification, similar to Fair Trade (for foods and apparel), that holds corporations to a higher standard of accountability, purpose and transparency (you can find the full explanation at bcorportation.net online).  The non-profit company B-corp is the certifying body, and there are now over 1000 B-Corporations all over the country.

The B-Corp standard is presumably why Etsy and its staff are so open to visitors.  I personally found it very reassuring that my mission to be sustainable and promote local artisanship aligned so well with Etsy’s own standards.  It makes me be very happy to be a part of it.

Etsy Mascot - Handmade of Course

Etsy Foyer

Bike Room