Internet Artisan Interview - Beaded Tail

I've been in the Etsybloggers team with BT (Beaded Tail) for over a year now. She has an enormous heart, and when it comes to animals, watch out, you better be good! She advertises various animal rescue organizations on her blog, and you can check out where a portion of her profits go, right here . So be assured that your purchase monies are going to a good cause. Now here's a little about Sharla:

• What's the name of your business/shop?

BeadedTail

• Do you have a registered domain name and/or a blog?

I have the domain name www.beadedtail.com but it currently goes to my blog. My shop is http://beadedtail.etsy.com/

• What type of handmade products do you sell?

I sell quality beaded jewelry with the proceeds going to animal awareness causes. I like to use animal themed beads such as cat faces or dog or even animal awareness ribbon charms.

• Show us a piece you recently finished.

I've been using beads that I've had for awhile but just couldn't figure out what to do with them. I like how my recent creations turned out though! And I found these adorable cat beads in Las Vegas and they made a purrfect necklace.



[Sharla already sold the bottom two pieces - yes, that was the cat bead from Vegas, but maybe she’ll make more!]




top: Wild At Heart - Tiger Striped Polymer Clay Beaded Antiqued Brass Earrings
left: Meow - Lampwork Kitty Car Face and Black Onyx Beaded 18 inch Antiqued Brass Necklace
right: Nature's Beauty - Antiqued Brass Leaves and Orange Swarovski Crystal Earrings

• What are you working on right now? Any sketches?

I've been working at making jewelry that mixes chains with beads. It's still a work in progress and since I can't draw, all my sketches are in my brain and not on paper!

• If you have a website or blog, what do you use for advertising? What do your avatars look like?

I occasionally use Project Wonderful to advertise my shop and I also use Entrecard which has been really good for getting new readers to my blog and I have found a lot of blog friends this way!

• If you have a website or blog, tell us about your favorite widget?

Personally I love the FeedJit widget because I enjoy seeing where all my blog readers are coming from. The Petfinder widget is important to me as I hope it reminds people that there are many homeless animals out there that need forever homes.

• Which online selling vendors do you use? What do you like best about each one?

I am currently selling only on Etsy. I find it easy for me to figure out and the fees are low based on our current sales volume. I also really enjoy being a part of some of the teams such as the EtsyBloggers and Etsy Angels. I just recently joined the Altruism on Etsy team so it'll be fun to get to know everyone on that team. I do have plans of checking out Artfire though.

• Are you involved in social networking? What's your favorite and why? If you're not involved, you must have a good reason!

I'm on Twitter and recently joined Plurk too. I'm enjoying Plurk since it's possible to have a conversation with someone and you certainly get to know people better which is a lot of fun. I'm so leery of putting too much info out there and I'm also shy (seriously!) but I'm stepping out of my comfort zone little by little with these social networks and am having some fun along the way!

• All of us can use a helpful business hint once a week. What's yours?

Since I'm a CPA, I have to say it's important to keep a tab on your costs and stay up to date on your accounting. It's hard to remember at the end of the year all the income and expenses incurred throughout the year. And since the Schedule C requires reporting your Cost of Goods Sold it's best to calculate that as the sales occur rather than trying to figure it out several months later.

• Do you have a "modus operandi" for computing the price of a handmade object? Tell us your formula?

I factor in the cost of beads in a project and my time and that's about it. No formula per se. Pricing is one of the hardest things about all this for me. Since my proceeds go to animal charities I don't make any money off my beading but it gives me an outlet to be creative which I enjoy.

• We'd love to see your little corner of the world, where you create.

I have an office but it's for my day job so my beading is done on the dining room table. I keep all my beads in a box - a tackle box actually I believe - but it can close up and has handles so I can carry it around. It works fine for me since I don't like to have a lot of stuff laying around and it keeps me from leaving it laying around since there's always a cat close by and beads laying out unsupervised would be too tempting! Angel usually sleeps on one of the chairs keeping me company while I bead. If she wants to be held, I'll just pull a chair up next to me and she's satisfied to lay there and wait. I take my pictures outside on the deck and all I have to say is "time to take pictures" and Sadie is at the door waiting for me to go out so she can snoopervise my picture taking. Since animals are my inspiration, I enjoy having them around while I'm working!

• Where do you see your artwork in one year? Any plans in the works?

I want to keep learning new techniques and I would really like to learn to work with wire. I have some ideas of beadwoven items but those seed beads are just so small I'm not sure that will happen. I just want to keep learning and having fun and help animals along the way!

• OK, the storybeader's turn to pick a favorite!

Sharla's kitty earrings are adorable. My favorites are the ones with the kitty faces and other beads for the bodies. Very creative and a joy for cat lovers.