Selling handmade jewelry started before we opened the shop on Etsy.com. April Picone would sell to family and friends, not just jewelry but a wide range of handcrafted items.
After looking in a copy of Wire Jewelry, April had asked for my (Greg Munker) help. She came across this chainmaille piece she liked and was having trouble getting the pattern down. I looked at the picture and it was like a magnet. I was sucked into chainmailling within the hour. A few hours later we were at the local craft store buying rings and wire and pliers and ..... Needless to say within the next few weeks i had a whole range of patterns completed and wanted more.
With April and I making a range of jewelry from crystal and chain we had caught the eye of friends and family and all their friends. That's when i started experimenting and mixing the crystals into the chain and came up with the Butterfly Bracelet. It's basically the ground work for Vitality Handmade Designs. I sold a few of these and someone told us we should list on Etsy!!
After looking up Etsy and seeing what it was about we signed up right away. I found items from other chainmaillers that were so beautiful, and everyone using "Bright Aluminum"..... I had no idea about the different metal types, so i looked up everything and found a lot of information. I ordered some :). So now i have remade almost every piece i sold and just gave the new material pieces to my customers to make sure they didn't have inferior quality pieces.
Now with new metal, New stock of crystals, Organizers, Good Quality Pliers, etc, etc, etc. April and I got to work. We were making a lot of nice pieces, listing and selling most if not all in person still to family and friends. We needed to get the word out that we were here.
We now have business cards, nifty business card holder engraved with out names and stuff, return labels... It was like Christmas day when it arrived. :)
The name is getting around, slowly were promoting more and trying to get people to enjoy our creations. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we do, and please pass along the name in your travels you never know who may enjoy it as well. :)
Thanks for stopping by and getting to know us, for your convenience just simply click this link to view our store front.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/VitalityHandmade
