Maneuvering An Online Market!

This week we took the first step in  building a bigger online presence; creating a shop at Etsy. It can be quite overwhelming. All kinds of information, resources and help is made available to the first timer, but it's still easy to feel that everything has to be perfect straight out of the gate! There's quite a bit of information that a seller can, and should, pass on to a potential customer. After all, shopping online comes with a different set of challenges than in person. An interested person cannot simply pick up an item to judge for themselves how heavy or light it will be. Everyone's monitors display colour differently. What looks fire engine red to me, might look plum to you, and so on. So in my opinion, it's the seller's job to relay as much information as accurately as they can. And in turn, what we're trying to do. Weight, length, width can all be relayed to an interested person. Photographs with rulers or even scale displays tells a buyer a lot. The golden rule of describing a product is to think like a customer.
Great advice!
I've tried to do that with our listings. So far, I've included what makes each piece special for us; inspiration perhaps, or why those beaded buffalos have that red line, for example. Your shop is both your online store and you. It only makes sense to convey as much information as possible and be as accesible as you can. It would drive me crazy to be a customer only to find no info on what I want to buy AND have a seller  not check their shop messages. That just seems to project a I-don't-care-attitude!
So, I promise to think like a customer from this day forward. I promise that customer service and quality will be the cornerstone of our business.
After all, in today's cyber-market, it's a tougher place to sell what we love!

You can find us on Etsy at
CeeCee Native Crafts

New From The Studio!

Since I've not shared a glimpse of what we've been working on, a good friend has been encouraging me ... okay, prodding me, to do so.
So today's post is all about what's new from our little creative space. Here in our neck of the woods, literally, we're gearing up for a craft show sometime in early December. Many of our little gems then have a very Christmasy feel. Or at least winter. Betty made these delightful earrings, inspired by a decorated Christmas tree. The photo just doesn't get their sparkle across, but trust me, they sparkle and dance as if they really were lit from within.

Chevy made these little guys from hex beads, and I think they're just about the cutest beaded owls ever! They're just about an inch long and light as a feather. Get it? Feather...owl....
Guess you had to be there.

This key fob was inspired by another piece I designed recently. This is the wolf paw print from "Spirit Howls". I remember being a kid and wishing I could afford some little thing. So with this in mind, we try and make beadwork everyone can afford and enjoy. So this piece was designed with kids in mind, of all ages and genders. You didn't think beadwork was just for women, did you?

This is the aforementioned "Spirit Howls", a bookmark I designed. It has a First Nations feel to it because it was inspired by a Native painter, Norman Knott. There are some things I've changed, so the next piece like this will be slightly different. I wanted to blend elements of old and new, so I used a modern finish (aurora borealis) for the background and the tradition of the spirit line. I also wanted to honor the Four Directions by using one color from each quadrant of the Medicine Wheel. Some might say they can see his breath, some may say it's his prayer to the Creator. I hope this piece brings someone else joy as well.

Of course, that's not all we've created, these are only a teaser. If you'd like to see more, you can find it all at Cee Cee Native Crafts website. Just click the link!
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