I knew I should've taken Photography in school...

When it comes to photography I am a certifiable amateur. I've always loved to take pictures, but only for my own enjoyment. It never ocurred to me that I would ever need it for anything other than that.

Then, I started making soaps, which has nothing to do with photography.

Then, I decided that this soap thing was good and I wanted to sell them, so I sold them locally.

Then, I thought it would be a good idea to sell them online. Suddenly, photography became VERY important, but I didn't realize just how important until I started to take pictures with my new digital camera. I'd never used a digital camera before, but I figured that wasn't a problem. A picture is a picture, right?

I was sooo wrong!

The pictures above are examples of really lousy photographs I've taken of some of my soaps and gift baskets when I first started using my digital camera. I thought the pictures were okay.....not great, but OK.

Then, I found etsy.com and thought it was a great place to put my soaps online. I opened my shop, took my pictures, wrote some descriptions and set some prices. Cool! I was ready for buyers to come flocking to my store site and start buying.

It didn't happen.

Scratching my head, I took another look at my shop, then another and another. I started comparing my shop with others on etsy and began to recognize that my photos were sadly lacking compared to most. So, I started trying to take more pictures. Slowly, I got a bit better at it, but still they didin't look near as good as many on etsy. What are these other guys doing that I'm not doing. I started to take a look at the forums after being on etsy for about 6 months and found them to be extremely helpful in learning what others are doing to improve their shops. I also started looking at some other things that etsy has posted and found that they had so much more than just a place where you can open your shop. There were tutorials on how to make your shop even better.

So, I'm not the brightest star in the sky. Despite the fact that I had been on etsy since July of 07, it took me until December of 07 to discover what etsy is all about.

Since December, I've slowly been improving the looks of my shop. I've recently ordered a new banner and avatar from an etsy seller. It is still in the making, but I'm excited about it. I've slowly improved my photos but they still have a long way to go. It all takes time, but the best part about the whole process is that I'm learning about them rather than stubbornly sticking to my guns, hoping that customers will just come flocking to my store and buying all my stuff whether I take pretty pictures or not.

I'm learning how to be a marketer, a photographer, advertiser....when all I wanted to be was a soaper and crafter. I'm finding that if I want to sell my craft, I need to learn so much more.

I had deleted most of my terrible photographs before I did this blog, so the ones above are actually ones I dug out of the corners of my computer that escaped death along with the rest.

I'm hoping to show you some of my improvements in my photography soon. My etsy site still is in need of better photographs, I know that. Please visit my shop site and give me some input on my so so photograpy. Trust me, the current photos are a vast improvement from what I had on there last summer.

Featuring..... Loopdesigns

Loopsdesigns has created things for as long as...well, a long time! Loopdesigns grew up all over the World with some fondest memories and inspiration from childhood in Rwanda, Africa and has been making jewelry for others since getting married in 1998 when she made necklaces and earrings for her bridesmaids.

She started selling jewelry in 2002 when patients she worked with (she is a Physical Therapist) started asking about the jewelry she was wearing/making.

ABOUT HER JEWELRY:She handcrafts all the jewelry in her shop and endeavors that all her jewelry have have individual distinctions as many materials are formed by nature.
She makes her wire components freehand so they do vary slightly from earring to earring.

-------OTHER INTERESTING TIDBITS-------
"Crocs for Orphan Tots" is a program Loopdesigns has started to collect used croc like shoes for orphans in the the Congo. Convo her or check out her Blog http://crocsfororphantots.com/ for more info.

-}}} PUBLICATIONS {{{-In the new "Step by Step Wire Jewelry" magazine (on sale now) you can learn how to make her VINEYARD EARRINGS.

-}}} BLOG {{{-http://www.loopsdesigns.blogspot.com/

-}} OTHER ETSY STORE {{{-For formal and Bridal jewelry:http://www.twizzledesigns.etsy.com/

-}}} BABY'S ARRIVAL {{{-She is a new mom too! DeLuca Noelle was born Sept 1st, 2007. A healthy little girl at 8lbs, 1oz. with a full head of dark hair. Due to this life transition, purchases will ship in 7-10 days from date payment is received.

A New Name

I was very happy with my old business name, Jabon Soaps, for quite awhile now. It seemed to fit well for me. I had looked across the internet prior to choosing that name to see if it was being used by anyone else and had not found anything in the search engine. So, I felt secure with the name.I looked again the other day and lo and behold, there were SEVERAL people who where using that, or a similar name...so similar that it was hard to differentiate. It also appeared that these had picked this name prior to me.

As a result, I have decided to change my name so that my products are not confused with with someone else's.The new name I've chosen is one that I have already been using regularly on myspace, on Ruebee and on my blogspot. People already know me by this name and I originally used it as sort of a nickname....Soapy Blessings. My shop site will now be known as Soapy Blessings by Trish, which is already the case on my blog site anyway.

The shop on etsy is still the same, just the name is different.Since the original name I picked on etsy was "jabon", I think it will still come up as "jabon" on the forums and convos. I don't think that can be changed. That's OK. "Jabon" means "soap" in Spanish and still applies anyway.So, come visit my same shop but with a different name.By the way, I am having a sale through March 2nd, so even better!!!