July, No Lie, True Chat

[cgwhitfield]

As you were...

Part two of the year.

[PPennee]

Hot and muggy month for us! Staying inside at the bench!

[Untwistedsister]

I'm going to take a ride with a friend to visit my tennis buddies for lunch and run a couple errands.

[heartsabustin]

Humidity was back up to 90% this morning. The boys are cleaning out the van and running little sister around the back yard before it gets too yucky out. 30 - 40% chance of rain every day for the next several days. It's definitely July now. :D

[prox]

Morning, any tips on sanding/finishing the dry clay stuff would be appreciated. I really just need to sand the bottoms flat. (The parts I squished with my fingers into the molds).

One thing I like about the clay is I can do it on my dinning table so I can watch the kids. It's something I can do during the day.

[MostlyStoneware]

Jen if you have any really fine sandpaper you can gently lie it flat and place the dry clay on it and move it in a circle 8 motion to get the backs flat, then burnish with a baby wipe .

If you are going to solder them to sheet I'd take some extra time to do this . The stuff is so porous that the fit has to be very precise because the solder won't fill gaps and when I first started I had add ons tumble off. I also use medium paste solder to help with that problem.

CG the house is looking good.

Congrats on your new car Pennee. Sounds posh.

[MostlyStoneware]

Pennee I would love to have a set of those Wannaree dies but choke every time I go to check out. They are really pricey. I'd have to go out and get a bunch of new accounts and go back to production to justify them.

I think stainless stamps work pretty well on metal clay and I can always carve porcelain stamps to get a similar look.

[heartsabustin]

One of our neighbors' 7 year old daughter set up a lemonade stand - you know where we went. She's also selling her very own, homemade blueberry salsa.

Smart kid. And the salsa is EXCELLENT.

[spindlecatstudio]

Needing blinders to keep me focused on today's benchwork.

Distractability(?) is higher than usual. So yeah, I shouldn't even be here posting...

[ArtistiKat]

Morning! Happy July.

[heartsabustin]

I don't know if you guys can see this or not, but I found it VERY interesting:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Etsy/comments/6ketik/i_did_an_experiment_to_see_the_effect_of_quotas/

It's on reddit, and I don't know if you need an account to see that or not.

[GayleDowell]

Howdy all. Happy July!

I have three orders to get out soon. I may need to put my shop on vacation so I can go on vacation.

[PPennee]

Jen- if you have the sanding sponges, they are my favorite thing to use for the back of clay. I lay them on a flat surface- I just cut small pieces out of the big squares and line them up going from fine through microfine grit. Figure 8 as Kathy said. After firing I do tumble but find that using my burnisher on the backs cuts down on PMC porosity- and I mean burnish- don't be whimpy. If it's too tiny, just plan on using more solder than you think you will need. I'd try a few test pieces that you don't think turned out as well as you like first. Any flange I just use needle files and then clean them with your file card after because the dust really sticks in those. PMC is wonderful but it does have it's idiosyncrasies

[SilverBlueberry]

Happy July!

Jen, I use sandpaper and sanding foam pads to sand metal clay. I have designated ones for each clay type. I do it above a piece of paper, and collect the dust and put it in a glass jar with water.

[SilverBlueberry]

I just throw everything in the tumbler when it's fired.

[SToNZ]

Thanks, CG.
In my classes we tumbled and used a brass brush after firing.
I was going to suggest burnishing too, to lessen the porosity.

[ArtistiKat]

Interesting Erin.

[LauraStasa]

Drat- missed the first page:)

The house looks great CG! I love all the light and air. I bet you can't wait to finally move in.

[heartsabustin]

I need to read through it again, Kat, to make sure I'm understanding, but the way Etsy does things is completely freaked up. No wonder search is a hot mess.

[DistinctivelyDharlee]

Wow Erin that was wild. And yes, I might need to read through it a couple times. Makes me think a lot.

CG that house looks it's going to be beautiful. :)

[PPennee]

I would venture to say that yes, Etsy has some suppression in their algorithm. They've been accused so many times of an algorithm that works against new sellers, maybe they were trying to level the playing field? We've all joked about the ridiculous way it becomes our turn to sell then we die. But having too many listings? I think thats just unfounded conjecture. And making your SEO bad or poor on a similar item? That makes no sense to me at all.

[heartsabustin]

One of the ladies in our church is in intensive care.

[prox]

This may be the Fix" they implemented to prevent a bazillion different items from one shop showing up on the first few pages. Why should they get to fill up the all the first pages with variations of the same thing? Potentially knocking out other things that are similar or the same with the same SEO.
It actually makes sense that the more popular items that are similar in a shop would be pushed ahead of the less popular items, and those less popular items would be surpressed to make room for other sellers.

The solution? Self Promote your less popular items that are similar to your popular items in your own promotion campagnes and stop depending on etsy to get it in front of people's eyes. There's to many sellers here for all your stuff to be on the first page in search.

[prox]

Of course search wouldn't be overpopulated if it was truly a handmade market....but I suppose that's not really profitable, or sustainable?

[DistinctivelyDharlee]

Sorry to hear that Erin. Hope she's ok.