New Product: Magnetic Clasp Wine Charms

I was recently trying to decide what to give as a gift for a friend of mine. I wanted to make her a special set of wine charms, but I know she has had trouble with arthritis, and I was afraid the small clasps would be frustrating. Suddenly, I thought: magnets! Last summer I made several necklaces with heavier magnetic clasps for some older people I know who have difficulty clasping necklaces. Even trying to clasp in front first and then moving it properly behind the neck was tough. Why couldn't I use the same concept with a lighter gauge magnet and flexible wire?

Here was one of my prototypes: Notice the barrel magnet at the back. I might see if I can find something a little smaller in the future.

I did a little bit of experimenting with the number of beads used and with how much "give" to leave so when closed it wouldn't be too tight. I also had to be careful not to kink the wire during the process of stringing and running the wire back, although I believe that kinking the finished product will be pretty difficult.

Overall, I think it turned out pretty well. I even used some blue beads I haven't used in forever, but I like the look of this prototype that I might just make more in these colors!

After choosing a combination of letters and charms to create the set, I was ready to begin. To the left is an example of one with a pretty rose charm. I used red beads for the whole set, in keeping with my friend's favorite color. :)

I think this is another example of my creating philosophy: beauty and utility and finding inspiration in the people around me. I've found that many of my favorite and most popular products have come from considering the needs and wants of the people around me, and trying to create something to fit those needs and wants. I hope these magnetic wine charms follow in those footsteps and ease some of the frustration many people have as they find new physical restrictions prevent them from wearing or using their favorite items.

If you're interested, here's a link to my first set using magnetic clasps for sale. And here are some pictures:

I used the barrel clasps for this set, same as my sample and the set made for my friend. However, I have found some that are a little smaller where the magnets go flat against each other as opposed the the barrel, where  the magnets are attracted to each other but must go in a small entrance. The benefit of the barrel clasp is it can just be pulled apart, whereas the other kind should be taken apart sideways.

Taking Inventory...

I have an admission that probably doesn't come as much of a surprise to most people: I don't like taking inventory. Does anyone? However, as I'm considering how I want to expand Absolutely Kismet, I know I need to better know exactly what of what I have so I'm not reordering when I'm down to one or two items. Last week, I talked about expanding my wine charms, so that's where I started.

Over the last year and a half or so, I've been selling the alphabet wine charms and keeping track of the letters on whatever paper was handy to write on, then keeping all these scraps of paper together in my money box. I didn't even bother writing down the letters from my online sales because I can just look up the old sold orders, which is what I had to do today. It was not as quick and easy as I thought it would be!

Today, I went back through almost every sale I've made and documented the letters. I say almost because there were a few sales in the beginning where I have the sale recorded but not which letters were bought. Oh, to go back in time and tell myself to keep better records! (shakes head ruefully) ;)

Because I want to move more into larger custom orders, it would obviously be helpful to know the difference between needing to reorder when something is running low or letting a low number stand because it isn't very popular and isn't being used quickly. It might interest you to know that A, B, C and K, L, M are currently my most sold letters. Who knew? I certainly didn't!

Needless to say, I now have all of my letters documents and on a handy spreadsheet which says both how many of that letter I have in stock and how many have currently sold.

How often do you go through your supplies? Do you make notes of what's been used as soon as you use it?

New Charms :)

I finally had time yesterday to create a variation on my popular alphabet wine charms: number wine charms! I also updated the colors that are available for the rings. You can order the set in 0-9, 1-10, or you can custom create any numbers you want. I really like the way the double number above (10) came out. I can do that with letters, too, if someone wanted a first and last initial.

Mostly, it just feels good to get this project done. I've had the charms for months, but just never had the chance to put them together. Part of that was that I had a lot of new bead colors, so I didn't want to just put the numbers on some of the older colors that are being discontinued, and I didn't have time to make a lot of new rings when I was still selling the older colors.

Have you ever had a project that seemed to take forever because one part couldn't be completed until something else was done, which was waiting on some third thing?

 

I used Picasa to add the words under each color. Love Picasa! I also edit in iPhoto. What program do you like to edit photos in?

Choices

Has it really been that long since my last post?? Ouch! Anyway, I wanted to make a quick note on choices. As you know, I make wine glass charms. I usually make complete sets to sell, but something I tried over the summer was the "make your own set" concept. I thought for a long time about how to make it translate from a Market situation where customers can handle and really see the charms, to Etsy, where they can only see what I show them.

Ideally, I would offer two types of make your sets. I'd like to offer one page of all the different charms offered, and one page of the types of rings (different colors/beads on the rings). While I'd still like to try this eventually, it's a bit more organization than want, plus I don't keep every charm I have in stock; I often just buy what looks neat at that time, which usually means one or two of lots of different charms.

What I've come up with looks amateurish, and I dislike that part of it, but it ultimately gets my point across. I've created lots of singular charms, and numbered them. When a set sells, I replace those numbers with something the same or different, depending what I have available. Here's an example of it looks like:

I don't like the way it looks with the handwritten numbers, but I'm willing to use the format until I know whether people are even interested in this concept.

Has anyone else offered this type of choice for products? The downfall is that buyers may not remember to list the numbers they want to buy, but the upside is there might be more buyers because they can choose. I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens! Let me know what's worked for you.