One of our customers has a new product you might find interesting. Here's the note he sent this weekend:
Dear Aislyn,
Just wanted to let you know that the updated version of iChainMaille application has finally been released to the iTunes App Store. This is the version that has a link to your website included in the Suppliers tab.
Also, this version includes a Weaves area where people can enter their favorite weaves and aspect ring ratios that they like to work with, and the application can find all the different wire sizes that fit the ratios they entered.
Before you even ask, the wire ring ratios are "ideal" ratios and not true (taking into account spring-back) To do that would require individual measurements for each wire and would change with each purchase or thereabouts, correct? :)
You can see the application in the iTunes App Store at: View in App Store or at my website at http://www.touchquick.com.
Thanks for your help, Lyle Steinhardt TouchQuick Software, LLC
The more information you have at hand, the trickier it can be to quickly find just what you need. To help with that, I've written an informative little piece on how to find ring size recommendations for a weave you'd like to make. I hope you like it. *s*
As you know if you've spent much time on this site, Gary and I are huge fans of the win/win situation. Who isn't, right? We seek out ways to benefit our customers and ourselves at the same time because we consider such things to be flashing neon signs from the universe that say, "Do This... Now!" So we do. I had one of those ideas today and we're hopping up and down with excitement about it so, of course, I can't wait to tell you.
This is a Facebook thing but I'm hoping that those of you who don't yet have a Facebook page will read it anyway because if you're selling your jewelry now this idea could really boost your sales and if you're just considering selling it in the future, this would be a really painless way to launch your business. If you're not familiar with Facebook (FB from now on) some of this won't make sense at first so skip down to the last section and I'll explain the basics.
The Problem
We advertise and our ads feature pretty jewelry photos so we attract people to our FB page who are interested in learning to make jewelry but we also attract people interested in buying finished jewelry. Since my focus is testing and developing kits and instructions, I don't really have time to make and list jewelry for sale anymore, so people interested in buying finished jewelry leave unsatisfied, no one benefits from their interest and that portion of our advertising budget goes to waste.
The Solution
If photos of pretty jewelry made by our customers were regularly posted on our page, they would serve as inspiration for our customers but they are also quite likely to be purchased by people who visit our page because they want to buy jewelry of the sort shown in our ads.
Why This is a Win/Win
Our jewelry making customers get to see a lot of inspiring photos which give them new project ideas, which of course leads to buying more rings. The finished jewelry customers attracted by our ads get to see a lot of different kinds of chainmaille jewelry and can click to visit the designer's page where the piece is available for sale. Designers using our rings then sell more jewelry which leads to buying more rings and that's how everybody wins. We all get more traffic, more likes and more sales, which will allow us to increase our advertising budget and the whole healthy cycle keeps getting healthier. Good idea, huh? Woo!
The Deal
It'll work like this. If you use our rings and you have a FB page (that's a page, not a personal profile), first you send me the URL and I'll add you to UM's favorite pages. Once your page is listed among our favorites, you have a standing invitation to post up to one photo per day, each one being of a piece of jewelry you have available for sale, always including stats (metals, stones, weaves and ring sizes used) and with a link to your FB page at the bottom. You can never post the same piece twice because the photos will remain in our 'Fan Photos' album. And you may post only pieces that are made with our rings (because if you post something made with niobium rings and we don't make niobium rings, that's just confusing to our new people) but you will be directing people to your FB page and, of course, pieces listed there do not have to be made with our rings, only the one you're posting on our page does. Make sense?
And if you post a particularly gorgeous photo, I might choose to feature it in our ad and I would imagine that would sell it fairly quickly. ;)
Why You Should Have a Facebook Page
If you'd told me a year ago I'd be writing a paragraph with the title above, I'd have laughed... but I"m not laughing anymore. The truth is that FB is such a fun, easy, no pressure way to show interested people what you're up to that if you have work to sell and you aren't showing it there, you're missing great opportunities every day. It's as simple as that. You get to stay in closer, better touch with people interested in what you do with minimum effort and maximum enjoyment. If you already have a website you sell from, think of it as your flagship store and FB as your little kiosk on the world's busiest mall. Decorate your little patch of virtual real estate, make it a nice place to visit and enjoy your interactions with friends and passersby, all the while directing people to your main site when they're ready to purchase. If you don't yet have a website, consider equipping your FB page with an application that gives it basic sales functionality and there's your starter store. It looks to me like a person could do a good bit of business without needing anything more than a FB page... which is free, by the way.
That's the why. The how is pretty simple, too; FB is designed to be understood by and workable for non-technical people so it's not very involved to use it and it's quite well documented. (There's a help link in the bottom right of the footer on every page and that page has topic headings for everything.) To get started, it will help to know that you first have to have a profile... but that is for you, not your business. It's like having an account. Your business page will be tied to it in the backend but that connection isn't public information unless you make it so. You can create a personal profile (with your real name on it) and make it completely private so only you can see it, if you prefer, and then fill in no information at all, if you don't want a personal FB page for fun. But you have to have one in order to create a business page with full functionality. So create your profile first, set your privacy controls as you see fit, then create your business page. Add photos and get it all set up and ready to show off your jewelry, then let me know and I'll add your page to our favorites and you're off!
What do you think of the plan? I'd love for you to comment and share your thoughts. Happy weekend. ;)
Once in awhile I answer a question that makes me wonder how many other people have that same question. Today's was on how to read our Shop by Weave recommendations. It's from someone completely new to maille and, let's face it... everybody's a bit confused at first. So I thought I'd share the note in the hope that it might answer the same question for someone else.
Jo has learned the basics with our Set of 3 Beginning Weaves and now she wants to make another Flower Chain but smaller this time, 20g. She's confused about the phrase "in combination with" in the recommendation, as well as the different quantity options available for purchasing the rings. Here's my answer:
Jo, Flower Chain requires two ring sizes, which is why it says, "in combination with...". For 20g, those sizes are 3.0mm and 4.0mm. So let's look at 20g/3.0mm first:
See where it says 1 ozt makes 60.8 inches? If you don't need that much chain, you won't need a whole troy ounce (ozt) of rings. So you have these options:
The first one is a whole troy ounce which will make the aforementioned 60.8 inches of chain in combination with the other ring size required. The half ozt option will make half that, so 30 inches. The quarter option will make a quarter of that, so 15 inches.
So let's say you're making a bracelet and 15 inches is more than enough so you order a quarter ozt of that size.
Then you go to the "in combination with" size, 20g/4.0mm, here:
You see that one troy ounce will make 31.5 inches of chain, in combination with the other ring size. So a half ozt will make 15.5 inches and a quarter ozt will make almost 8 inches. If almost 8 inches is enough, you add a quarter ozt of that size to your order. Or you might decide to order a half ozt of the second size because the length it will make (15.5 inches) is almost the same as you'll be able to make with a quarter ozt of the first size (15 inches) and that way you can use all your rings and make two bracelets or a bracelet and something else, rather than having half of the first ring size left over.
The US and Gary are both a year older but still lookin' good. ;) We spent most of our time off screening in one of our decks so we're a little sore and somewhat toasted looking but very happy with our breezy new outdoor room. I'll post a photo when it's all finished. Meanwhile, we're catching up the orders and the emails that came in over the long holiday weekend so, if you have something in the queue, you'll be hearing from us soon. Have a good week. *s*
It's less than one hour until the deadline for placing orders that will be shipped before we close for an extra long holiday weekend. If you're going to need something before the end of next week, hurry hurry. :)
In the menu bar to the left, you'll notice a Polls box containing an entry called Priorities. Click that and tell us which of 3 areas you're most interested in right now and we'll tailor our focus accordingly.
Also, remember the cut off time for orders guaranteed to ship before we close for the 4th of July is 8am tomorrow, Wednesday, June 30th. We won't be back from the long holiday weekend until the following Wednesday, July 7th, so order now and enjoy a glorious holiday frolic with your muse.
Update on Tuesday, June 29, 2010 at 01:08PM by
Aislyn
I've added a clock to the left menu so it's easier to tell how long it is to any holiday deadline, etc. :)
I've better organized our discussion forums (and added quite a few more) in the left menu bar. Just like the News, you can subscribe to email updates for any of these discussions by choosing the forum then clicking your name where it appears at the top of the page once you've logged into your News account. (You can unsubscribe the same way if you find that you're getting too many emails or you lose interest in a particular topic.) If you don't yet have a News account, you can read about it by clicking News Membership at the top of that same left menu bar. Have a nice weekend. :)
Update on Friday, June 25, 2010 at 03:57PM by
Aislyn
P.S. If there isn't a discussion for the topic you want to talk about, just post it in The Lounge.
We're taking a couple of vacation days along with the 4th of July weekend (because Gary's birthday is the 6th) so I'm posting our schedule now to make sure you have plenty of time to get your orders in before we go. The deadline for guaranteed pre-holiday shipping is 8am (mountain time) Wednesday, June 30th. We'll be back at work Wednesday of the following week.
Remember, a holiday with no rings to weave is no holiday at all so plan ahead for maximum happiness. :)
Here's something new, intended for people brand new not only to us, but to the whole idea of post- medieval chainmaille and/or chainmaille-as-jewelry. Hopefully it's the answer to "And you do... what?" without being too much. What do you think?
Facebook is so much more fun and interesting than I thought it would be. The truth is, I was kinda snooty about it (because it was originally meant for college students and I just always thought of it that way, like nobody older than 23 should have a page) but I was wrong, I was oh so very wrong. So far I've talked to my best friend from junior high (hey Beth!) and my little friend, Stacey, who told me where babies come from when I was 8. *snort* And a couple who were dear friends of my parents, one of whom taught me to swim. I never expected it to be so much fun... but it is! If you're thinking about it but feeling nervous, just take the plunge, friend me and I'll help you. *s*
If you're already on Facebook, come like our page and you'll get all the breaking chainmaille news (like test results as I have them, as opposed to when a weave page is all completed and ready for primetime) and post photos of the gorgeous pieces you've made with our rings. If you also enjoy the photos of dogs, snow, mountain scenery, etc. that I post here on occasion, friend me and you'll see more of that sort of thing, too.
Eventually, I'll post on the benefits of using FB for your business... but I don't know what they are yet. I'll let you know when I do. :)
Gary and I lost a member of our family this weekend. Minky was a kitten the summer Gary and I met and she's been with us the whole 18 years we've known each other. We don't know what we're going to do without her. Yesterday we were just a mess and couldn't think at all; today we're trying to catch up. If your order is going to be delayed more than 1 day beyond our normal 1-2 business days, we'll contact you.
I've added a lot of new information to the Square Jens Pind's Shop by Weave page including counts for most of the recommendations and photos of 22g and 24g square JPL (unspeakably gorgeous plus you won't believe how many inches of chain you can weave from a single troy ounce of rings).
I'd love for you to have a look at the new design for ring size recommendations. (When you see the little key picture, you'll know that's the new design.) Notice that the width of the chain has been added but also something called Flex. I finally thought of a way to express the flexibility of a chain with a figure so you can tell how flexible a chain will be even before we have a photo posted. Click the key for an explanation of how to read that number. And if you have time, please let me know what you think of the new style. Is there anything else I should add to the key's pop up? Do you have any questions when ring shopping that the pop up doesn't answer? Thanks for any guidance you can offer, it all makes the site better. :)
For years now, I've dreamed of the time when we would, at last, have listed on the site every single ring we can make so that you can order anything you like, without having to get a quote first. With a few exceptions (like fine silver and 18K gold, which I'll be adding soon), we're there... and I'm thrilled to bits about it. Now you can click Rings (from the right side menu on any page of the site), choose your metal and shape, then see every ring size we're currently able to make, along with the count and price, all ready to order.
You'll notice a few rings that aren't yet available. There are no twisted rings heavier than 16g, for example. We aren't yet getting consistent twists with very heavy gauge wire and won't be listing them until we do. If the size isn't listed (in sterling, copper, Argentium, palladium sterling or platinum sterling) it means we can't yet make that ring size for some reason but rest assured that we're working on it.
We've added 8g and 10g rings, in case you need something very big. 8g/16mm is now our largest ring. And we've added 24g rings, as well. 24g/1.5mm is currently our smallest ring, but we've designed a new piece of equipment that will allow us to go to 1.0mm very soon.
Although a quarter millimeter is a very small increment in general, it isn't so small when you're weaving micromaille. The size difference between 24g/1.5mm and 24g/1.75mm rings is more significant than you might expect... so we've added in between sizes. Our small rings (under 3.0mm) are now available in 1/8 millimeter increments. Whoohoo! No more feeling like Goldilocks with one ring too small and the next too large, oh no... now there's always one that's juuuust right. ;)
Poke around, see what you think and order whatever you've been waiting and wishing for. I'm going to have a nice bubble bath to recover from that marathon but I'll be back soon to answer any questions you might have. Happy June. :)
I have a bunch of notes from people needing to know how many inches of chain can be made per ozt from various weaves. I hate to keep y'all waiting but I'm adding several thousand new rings to the site (we make almost a thousand different ring sizes per metal now, did you know?) and once that's done, I can add all the recommendations and counts. It'll be just a couple more days until the new rings are all added and then I'll post here as I add the counts for each weave. Thanks for being patient with me while I get this done. :)
Square 16g Argentium is back in stock (along with everything else) and a lot of new ring sizes have been added with more still to come. This is the new simplified format for the rings pages, if you want to have a look and see what you think. None of the other rings pages are formatted that way yet, so you might notice some oddities over the next few days as I switch them all over to the new look. :)
I emailed the new newsletter last night but there was some sort of glitch and they weren't all delivered, so if you didn't get yours, no worries, here it is. :)
As you know, we've just started carrying Tronex pliers. We have the manufacturer's catalog posted and it's very informative but doesn't really substitute for the personal experiences of people who do what you do. To help with that, I've created a forum for sharing that sort of information and I've posted a rough draft (meaning no photos yet) of my initial experiences and what I've learned so far. If you have tools on your mind, you might want to have a look.
I've temporarily pulled all the 16g square and diamond Argentium rings and wire from the site because our wire stock (from before the new manufacturer) has some bad spots and our mill isn't able to replace it as speedily as normal because of the lag caused by the switch to the new Argentium manufacturer. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, scroll down a few posts to the one about the Argentium shortage.)
If you have an order in the queue now for 16g Argentium square or diamond rings, we'll be contacting you today if it's going to be delayed by this glitch. If we don't contact you, it means your order was cut before we hit the problem wire and it will ship on the usual schedule. (Twisted rings are unaffected because we use soft wire for those and that's a different batch of wire altogether.)
I'll post again as soon as I know when the new wire will be here. :)
We've tested everything and not only does it perfectly match our specifications, Gary said it's just really, reeeally nice. Whoohoo! So everything Argentium is back on line and available for ordering except 12g (rings, wire and kits that use 12g rings, the Bold Byzantine Necklace and the Jens Pind's weave kit) and we're expecting that next week.
We're filling the last of our backorders now so new orders shouldn't be delayed from here at all, though delays from the mill are still possible. I'll post asap if anything like that happens, of course, but the best way to delay-proof yourself is to order sooner rather than later, because we fill them in the order they're placed and we have stock now. :) Happy weekend.
Monday, August 30, 2010 at 01:27PM 
Aislyn
