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Stepping into 2012

8 January 2012

Print by Kate Banazi.
Print in my hallway by Kate Banazi

A (slightly belated) happy new year to you!

Since Christmas I’ve been taking a little much-needed time out after the festive season rush – which was especially busy this time around.

But now I’m gently easing myself into the new year and am starting to look at what needs to happen.

Goodbye 2011

2011 was not the year I had planned for. It had both high points and low points, but by the end of the year I was not in a situation I had remotely expected when the year began! It was a chaotic and difficult year during which plans fell by the wayside.

The main high point was purchasing a house and creating a proper studio space in the garden. This big step forward wasn’t even on the horizon at the start of the year. And I certainly wasn’t even vaguely considering moving to South Australia to make this happen!

The low points included a close family member developing a debilitating mystery illness (which motivated me to make the big move), attending a couple of funerals for people who died unexpectedly and far too young … and more besides. So they were pretty low lows.

Hello 2012!

As for my plans for 2012 (assuming I get to actually stick with them this year!), well I want to attend to the finishing touches in my new studio and I also hope to get my garden more established and perhaps redecorate my office as a starting point inside the house.

However, I also want to finally get some new projects off the ground to grow my business and hopefully make me feel a bit more secure into the future. I’m sure I’ll be keeping you informed of those as they develop.

Thank you!

Finally, I want to say a huge thanks to everyone who supported my handmade jewellery business last year – and especially over the festive season, which was one of my most successful ever. It’s very much appreciated.

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Christmas pudding tokens now available

17 November 2011

Christmas pudding tokens, charms or coins.One of the most popular handmade items in my shop at this time of year are the Christmas pudding tokens I make.

I’m happy to say that they are back in stock ready for the festive season!

The pudding tokens are all etched with a variety of vintage Christmas illustrations and are made using pure silver, so they’re safe to use with food.

The tokens come in a set of six, along with a copy of my family’s Christmas pudding recipe (which can be made on the day!) and delicious brandy sauce recipe.

The tokens come in a padded box so you can keep them safe when not being used.

You can find the tokens here:

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Currency survey results – and a winner!

17 October 2011

Thanks to everyone who participated in my recent survey about currency and online shopping. The results are very helpful and have given me a lot to consider.

I’ve just used random.org to draw the winner of the $65 voucher to spend in my handmade jewellery shop and have emailed the winner to let them know. Congratulations to June!

Below is a quick rundown of some of the key results from the survey.

The local currency of survey participants:

  • 64.5% – Australian dollars
  • 18.4% – US dollars
  • 9.2% – Canadian dollars
  • 3.9% – British pounds sterling
  • 2.6% – New Zealand dollars

The currencies participants are comfortable paying in apart from their local currency:

  • 57.9% – US dollars
  • 28.9% Any currency
  • 23.7% British pounds sterling
  • 17.1% Australian dollars
  • 17.1% only comfortable paying in own currency

When asked if survey participants would be happy to pay in the local currency of the online shop if they were shown the exchanged value in their own currency first, 64.5% said they would be happy to do this and 5.3% said they would not. The remainder answered a variation on ‘it depends’!

And finally 82.9% of survey participants stated that they would be happy to purchase Handmade Jewellery by Simone Walsh in Australian dollars.

As for where this leaves me, well I do have quite a bit to consider before making changes, particularly in the very helpful comments that participants left in relation to this issue.

I do wish there was a very elegant solution to the currency dilemma, but at this point I’m looking at an imperfect one. However, it may be less imperfect than my current set up of operating two shops: one using Australian dollars and the other using US dollars.

Thanks again to everyone who participated – it is very greatly appreciated.

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Currency and online shopping: what do you think?

23 September 2011

Macro photograph of paper money.
Photograph by kevindooley

One of the dilemmas found in running an online business which sells products all over the world is which currency to use (or how to handle multiple currencies!).

At present I have two pretty much identical primary shops – one with prices in Australian dollars and another with prices in US dollars, with the intention of covering my two biggest markets.

This creates extra work (and extra fees!) for me and I’ve started to wonder whether or not it actually makes that much difference to my lovely customers to be able to shop in these two currencies.

As a result I’m considering moving to a single shop which would show the exchange value in the currency of your choice, but would require payment to be made in Australian dollars.

But before I do this, I’d love to know what you think. How critical is currency when you’re shopping online? Would you be willing to pay in a different currency to your own?

A survey!

Have your say in my currency survey!

The survey will close on 14 October and I’ll share the results here.

Win stuff!

The survey is anonymous, but if you wish to leave your email address at the end of the survey I’ll enter you into a draw to win a $65 voucher (either US$ or AU$) to spend in my shops.

Your email address will be kept private and will only be used in relation to the draw.

I will contact the winner by 17 October 2011. Good luck!

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Want to stalk me all over the interwebz?

5 May 2011

I’m pleased to say that it’s very easy to do!

You can find me in the following places – and I’d love to find you there too:

My Pinterest pins.
I’d love to share things with you on Pinterest!

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If you’ve ever bought or sold anything on Etsy …

15 March 2011

… you should read this article on Ars Technica about serious privacy concerns:
Etsy users irked after buyers, purchases exposed to the world.

In case you’re concerned about purchases you have made from me via my Etsy shop, for some years now I’ve not been leaving any feedback on Etsy. This is partly due to privacy concerns as well as much broader concerns about how the feedback system works there.

So unless your purchase was made a long time ago, you won’t be found via feedback from me. However, your purchase history could now more easily be tracked if you’ve made other purchases and have received feedback – and through no fault of the seller you dealt with.

In addition you may – without your consent – be found by people searching for your real name or email address unless you have changed your account privacy settings.

These days I encourage my customers to shop from my self-run handmade jewellery shop instead, which most now do. You don’t need to register for an account and your purchases, name, etc. are all kept private. And I have no intention of suddenly turning my shop into a social networking site!

With any luck Etsy will finally decide to make the recent privacy changes on its site opt-out by default as most people feel they should. But for now if you have even a dormant account there I strongly recommend you login and check the new privacy settings for your account so you can opt-out if you choose.

You can find clear details on how to do this right here.

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We have a winner!

4 July 2010

Photograph of kinetic ruby ring.Thank you so much to all of my lovely customers who took the time to submit a testimonial as part of my recent competition.

Today I used www.random.org to randomly select a winner from the list of participants.

I’m very pleased to announce that Sheri is the winner of a US$75 voucher to spend in my handmade jewellery shop! I have contacted her by email.

If you’d still like to submit a testimonial even though the competition has now closed, you can still do so.

Thanks again!

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Welcome to my new blog!

14 May 2010

A screenshot of how my blog used to look.Well, actually it’s just the old blog with a facelift! But it’s something I’ve been wanting to get done for a long time now and finally it’s up and running.

To the left is a screenshot of how the blog used to look before this redesign. This was the original design for my blog, dating all the way back to 2006.

The design is based heavily on that used in my main website and my shops, but with a twist to differentiate it.

Apart from just being a change in design, I hope that this will signal a fresh start for my blog. I’d like to be making much more use of it – writing more about what I do and how I do it, telling people about indie design and indie designers I recommend … and all sorts.

In the interim, if you’re seeing anything odd in the new design do let me know, including telling me which browser you’re using.

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FINALLY!

18 March 2009

Yes, I am finally finished the big web-related job I’ve been working on since late last year, along with another small one.

And finally I can get back to jewellery making and all sorts of other things for myself – until a couple of other lurking web jobs come to fruition, anyway! There is also the possibility that I’ll be moving up to the Blue Mountains in the next little while, which is exciting.

But this weekend and early next week I plan to spend a lot of time at my bench catching up with making work and attending to a whole lot of neglected bits and pieces. And once I’m caught up I’m keen to get to work on some new handmade jewellery!

If you’re interested in what I’ve been working on, the smaller project was for an exhibition of contemporary jewellery called Luminaries, which was organised by the Jewellers & Metalsmiths Group in NSW and shown from 2006.

There are plenty of photographs of some wonderful work by some of the luminaries of Australasian contemporary jewellery.

The much larger project was for the Corporate Responsibility Index in Australia. This was a complete redesign and rebuild of a site that I first created years ago and which was badly out-dated.

Although the front end of the site isn’t particularly complex, the new site runs on a content management system, which is what made it a much larger job to set up. But the good news is that most updates to the site can now be handled by the Index staff.

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Helping those in need

12 February 2009

A lot of people in Australia and elsewhere have been wondering what they can do to help victims of the terrible bushfires in Victoria last weekend, which may have seen the loss of up to 300 people and over 1000 homes – not to mention businesses, schools, community centres and much more.

If you’re interested in making a contribution, have a look at OzBushfireAppeal.etsy.com, a shop that a number of indie designers have donated work to, including myself. All proceeds are going to the Bushfire Appeal. At the time of writing, almost $3000 has been raised.

You can also make a direct donation to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal.

Additionally, if you’re a local, there’s a long list of information about financial and practical ways you can help on Our Community.

But wait … there’s more

If you’re in a giving mood and can afford it, I’d encourage you to think about matching any donation you might make for the bushfire victims and sending it to another cause which desperately needs financial contributions.

All around the world there are people dying of extreme poverty – from malnutrition, treatable diseases, unclean water. In places like Palestine, Somalia and Afghanistan there are communities torn apart by war. In many such places there is often no welfare system, no effective government bodies sorting things out, no insurance.

So while you’re thinking about those who have suffered from the horrors of the bushfires in Australia last weekend and have lost everything, also spare a thought for those others who also have nothing, whether from poverty or war, and who are in desperate and often ongoing need of the kindness of strangers.

If you’d like to do this, of course it’s up to you to decide where your contribution goes, but if you’re not sure and you’re in Australia, I highly recommend Care Australia who will accept regular donations, but they also run a great gifts catalogue – perfect for the person who has everything!

Finally, if you’re interested in thinking about the ethics of giving, I’d suggest you have a look at what Peter Singer has to say on the matter – it’s confronting and provides a lot of food for thought.

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Why yes, I am still alive!

1 April 2008

Butterfly wing pendant by Simone Walsh. Before I take myself off to bed I wanted to let you know that I am alive and (kind of!) well.

I’ve been working hard on all sorts of things, including a web project which has eaten up vast amounts of time over the last month.

Plus I came very close in the last several weeks to packing my whole life up and moving it to another city … only to realise that right now simply isn’t a good time to be going anywhere for complicated economic reasons.

So that I can help myself to feel okay about staying put, I have also managed to do some sorely needed re-arranging at home. In particular I wanted to have far more functional working spaces, seeing as I work entirely from home. I’ve found spending so much of my life working in one little and very cramped room isn’t really doing me much good.

I’ve now successfully separated my office from my jewellery studio by moving the office into the lounge room … which probably doesn’t sound like I’m heading for a more balanced life as I’ve been intending!

However, so far it’s working really well and surprisingly the lounge room – which previously had a lot of wasted space – actually looks better for it. Plus I’m finding it great to leave my work on my desk and go and sit on the couch in the other part of the room if I want to take a break, rather than taking work with me to the couch as I have in the past! It’s making me feel more functional and now that my little workroom/studio is vastly less crowded, I can easily open the curtains and window and that makes working a lot more pleasant too.

As part of changing and reorganising things, I’ve also painted some furniture, bought new cushion covers and art for the walls and in all home is looking more homelike. Although there is a lot more of that sort of thing to do and I also have to organise for a painter to come in to repair and paint the walls, which unfortunately are worst of all in my jewellery studio. I see a messy and irritating few days in my future …

Anyway, I hope to have some photographs of my new working spaces once I have everything finished. If you’re interested in seeing my bench and workroom as it has been in the past, you can find some images on Flickr.

In other news, I will soon be taking some time out from other projects to get to work on a new range of handmade jewelry that I have had bubbling away in my mind and have been idly sketching in my notebooks for ages now. I’m really looking forward to sitting in my revamped space and getting to work on some brand new pieces. So keep your eyes peeled!

And now it’s goodnight from me … and goodnight from … me.

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Image & bandwidth theft: just say no

29 February 2008

Today I’m getting a fair bit of traffic from MySpace, Friendster and Hi5 users, amongst others, due to the fact that I have disabled hotlinking of images from my blog.

I am now referring any hotlinked image to another image which informs visitors that the user is stealing my bandwidth (quite apart from the fact that they are breaching my copyright!) … which causes layouts to look a bit like this:

MySpace layout with image theft information.

It appears that a number of visitors are here to try to find the original image in order to copy it and upload it elsewhere instead. However, even if you are able to find it (many have been removed), this would be breaking the law and leaving yourself open to being penalised by your host, your ISP or even being pursued legally.

Instead, be aware of my copyright policy. Many of the images used in this blog are all rights reserved – meaning you cannot use them at all without permission. This also goes for all of the text of the blog and the design elements it uses.

However, the images of the jewellery I sell are covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

This means you must give me clear attribution (including a link) for any such image you use and the image must not be used in derivative works (this includes background or general layout images used in web page designs). Additionally you cannot use my images for any commercial application. If you are hosting a site providing free MySpace (or other) layouts and are earning money from advertising revenue, I consider this a commercial application. If you wish to do any of these things, you need my permission.

As for bandwidth theft: it sucks. It’s also risky: the person you are stealing from can very easily replace the content you are stealing with something deeply unsavoury which will cause great offence to your visitors and may even get your site shut down. I am currently considering what this might be if the theft continues, even in spite of my current referral image, so consider yourselves warned!

If you have up until now been unaware that you have been stealing or have simply been unaware that this is even a problem, it’s time to educate yourself about it. Copying and pasting code from elsewhere without looking at it is no excuse.

For those of you who are worried about falling victim to this sort of problem, I strongly suggest you have a look into Creative Commons licensing for your images. This doesn’t prevent theft, of course, but it does give you a clear policy and – depending on the license you choose – can leave the way open for people to legitimately promote what you do without breaching your copyright or needing to spend time getting your permission.

Additionally I suggest you have a look into hotlink protection for your blog or for the hosting package you may have.

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