Today and Tomorrow!

An artsy extravaganza! That's me on the lower right of the poster!

Upcoming Black Friday - Cyber Monday Sale!

Free worldwide shipping on all orders over $20.

Urban Street Bazaar

Make sure to come check out the Urban Street Bazaar in Dallas on Oct. 10th & 11th! I'll be showing my jewelry, and in addition to the usual things I have in my Etsy shop, I'll have a whole bunch of new designs that haven't been seen anywhere else!
See ya there!

Found Handmade

I'd like to give a shout out to foundhandmade.com for featuring my Bond Brooch in their blog. Search or scroll down til you see the post titled Bubbles I, and I'm the first one in the jewelry section! Thanks for including me with all those other lovely crafters! One of my favorite pieces featured were these beautiful earrings by MyFriendRoze.

VenusZine Feature!

I'm terribly excited to announce that my Nuclear Oxidized earrings have been featured in VenusZine's September issue! You can see more of their style picks online at http://venuszine.com/

A Swan for Sure

I received a message today letting me know that my Funnel Cloud Necklace was featured on A Swan For Sure.
I must say some of her other fashion picks have me drooling as well, like the lovely grey cardigan with the large pockets featured in the same post. =D

Etsy Dallas Birthday Giveaway!

The folks over at Etsy Dallas are celebrating the team's 2nd birthday this week, and this time the gifts are being given away!
One lucky person could win a prize pack full of goodies by Etsy Dallas members just by commenting on their blog post! There are other ways to get extra entries as well, just go see for yourself!
And don't forget, you can always keep track of the Etsy Dallas happeneings by following them on Twitter @etsydallas.
Good luck!

Artfire Shop is Open!

I decided to open an Artfire shop to test the waters and see how things are looking there. So far, I've already had one sale, which is awesome since I currently only have a limited selection of my my jewelry available. Most of what is available is from my Molecular series, with a couple of other things as well.

Social Networking

I just wanted to remind everyone about the Freeforged Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter pages. I update those a bit more often than I update this blog, so if you're looking for more frequent updates that's the place to be. I'm also always looking for new friends =)
Check them out here:
Facebook
Myspace
Twitter

Another feature!

Big thanks to ABespokeTouch for featuring my Cloud Jumper earrings in her blog the other day. She made these beautiful scatter flowers which can be used to decorate a table for a wedding or party, but I'd love to try incorporating them into some jewelry or hair accessories too! They're also available in pink or white. You can see them and more here.

By the Numbers

If you're like me, you're probably not very good at keeping track of the math end of a business.
For a little help, and some tips and tricks, check out this series of Storque articles by jjmfinance on Etsy.

Blog Features!

It's been a wonderful week for blog features!

First, DirtygirlSoaps of the Indie Style blog featured my Oxidized Attraction necklace in her Indie Style Picks section of her blog. You can see her Rock Candy handmade soap below, and I must say, it looks delicious!



Next, Studio618 of Etsy, whom I met on Twitter, featured my Bond Brooch in her Friday Finds section on her blog. Studio618 makes jewelry like these bold rainbow wrapped hoops that are made with sterling silver and crystals.


Thanks to the both of you!

Newsletter!

I've recently signed up for a mailing service with Mailchimp so that I can send out newsletters. I've begun sending out newsletters roughly once a month, sometimes a little less frequently. If you'd like to sign up, you'll find out about upcoming shows that I'll be at, and sales that I will occasionally have. And don't worry, if you ever decide you don't want any more e-mails from me, there's an unsubscribe link on every e-mail, which is honest and legit, unlike those unsubscribe links you'll see in e-mails offering you money from Nigerian royalty.

So, apparently I was on the front page of Etsy last week.

Etsy Front Page 6/19/09 Admin
Originally uploaded by Etsy Front Pagers

I was looking through my shop's Google Analytics, and I noticed I had a huge spike of 358 views on one day. 319 of those views were on a particular item.

Trying to figure out why, I checked the Etsy Front Pager's group on Flickr and searched for my etsy name and found a screenshot for the 19th. Awesome! I actually found 4 screenshots for me, only one of which I'd previously known about.

The treasury was admin-selected, for the search term 'science'

Checking the Heartomatic I found that I received 24 shop hearts and 27 hearts on that particular item.

I'd relisted that particular item 2 days before, and relisted 2 different items that day. I also had one sale from that day, but for a different item.

So there's the breakdown for ya, hope it is both interesting and helpful to everyone.

Giveaways!

more new photos
Originally uploaded by muttsywonder
Ashley Akers Jewelry and Harrilu have teamed up to bring us two awesome giveaways! You can win the above top (which is totally adorable) by Harrilu by following and commenting on Ashley Akers blog.


Ashley Akers Givaway On My Blog
Originally uploaded by muttsywonder
And you can win the above necklace by Ashley Akers Jewelry on Harrilus blog by commenting. Isn't that awesome!

Animal Cracker Soaps

animal cracker soap close up picture
Originally uploaded by abreathoffrenchair

Now, I have to say these are adorable soaps. They're shaped like animal crackers, with a snickerdoodle scent. How awesome is that?
See more here.

YART SALE!

Yard sale + art = Yart!

June 10th through the 14th will be the second annual Yart Sale on Etsy. This will be my first year participating, but I hope it will be lots of fun for everyone!

I'll be making post earrings 1/2 off for the second pair purchased, and any order over $50 will get free shipping! I'll also be extending this sale to my shop on FunkyFinds as well. You can either go ahead and pay for your items, at which point I''ll refund the discounts back to you, or you can send me a message and I'll send you a revised invoice.

I hope to be releasing a few new items during this time too, in particular some reticulated rings and some new hoop earrings! Keep track of the updates in real-time on Twitter.

Silky smooth necklaces...

Structure and Attraction are now available online in the sleek gun-metal finish.





See these necklaces plus much more on Etsy.

I Can't Say No (to you)

I Can't Say No (to you)
Originally uploaded by freeforged
I managed to snag a treasury slot the other night, make sure to check it out! I own items from several of these sellers and highly recommend them; the rest are items I covet or from shops I enjoy.

It will expire in about a day, so if you miss it you can always see it on my flickr page, or visit each artist listed below:

Greenbelts

Malodora

SquidInkKollective

Bayanhippo

MissBrache

Rosetutu

Naiad

Tizzalicious

HMBStudios

LittlePigPottery

DoubleRice

MyBugs

Eajit

Kankalinhats

Sweetmeats

Robotgood

Attention Treehuggers of DFW!

Come see Freeforged Jewelry at the Oak Cliff Earth Day Extravaganza!



Oak Cliff Earth Day show on April 19th.
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Lake Cliff Park
1200 N Zang Blvd
Dallas, TX 75203,
http://oakcliffearthday.com/

It was a dark and stormy night

New oxidized jewelry:

Handmade Holidays (continued)

Next up, the Custom Dice Bag:




























One of my female friends happens to play a little bit of Dungeons and Dragons. Since she didn't have a dice bag, and her boyfriend (who also plays) did, we thought she needed something fancy.

My boyfriend managed to find these lovely drawstring bags on Etsy, however the purple one (same color as her dice) seemed a little too small. After a couple of convos on Etsy, I selected one of her larger bags and asked if she could make one that size in the purple fabric, which she said she could.

A week and a half later I had in my hands a custom dice bag for my friend, in possibly one of the most unique designs possible. If I could have gone back and done it over, the only thing I would have changed is that I would have chosen an even larger bag size, to make room for extra dice should my friend decide to buy a second set. The size small bag which I settled on was just the right size for one standard dice set.

So gentlemen, if you happen to know some ladies that are fans of tabletop gaming and in need of a dice bag that's a little more elegant than the usual Crown Royal bag, then look no further, because SecretKeepers can hook you up.