An Interview With 'Art as Worship'

Vanessa Lowry runs a blog called Art as Worship, which interviews artists and asks them questions pertaining to their art and spirituality.  I really enjoyed answering Vanessa's questions, as I'm an athiest myself, but have an interest in religion through my studies in

A chilly photoshoot...

I took some of my bookshelf necklaces out into the back garden today for a little winter photoshoot.  Here are the results (it was a chilly day, I took the photos very quickly!!):

Featured on Buzzfeed.com

Hooray, look who got featured on buzzfeed.com!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/juliapugachevsky/book-inspired-accesories-youll-want-immediately

This is a nice collection of things as well, I would love a cute book clutch!

The Top 5 Social Media Tools for Your Etsy Business

So you've opened an Etsy shop, and you've taken some beautiful pictures of your products to show people what you make - now you need to get the word out!  Here are the best tools that I've found gets your word out and doesn't waste your time:

Dun dun dun... US state takeover!!!

In what is comparable to stamp collecting, and just as nerdy, I'm very interested geographically in where I've been lucky enough to sell my jewellery to!  In past times I've looked through all the US states, marking them off and trying to complete the set.  Last year I played this game, and found 5 states that Coryographies hasn't sold to.

Well, I can tell you that I'm closer to completing the set by 4! That's right, I'm now only missing Hawaii, and then at least one person in each of the US states will be sporting some fashionable Coryographies jewellery.  That's so cool!!

So... come on, Hawaii. I know you guys like to read too!!

I'm back, and open again! Reflections on 2013

Wow - and I mean wow, what a crazy Christmas.  What started off as a bit of a slow Autumn turned crazy at the end of November, where I dove straight in to full-time Coryographies, and put my PhD studies on the shelf for a whole month, as these little earrings suddenly became my most popular product:

Stack of books earrings by Coryographies

Eventually I had to close my shop just so I could concentrate on the orders at hand!  I reopened my shop on January 2nd, and things seem to be back to normal now.  It was a bit hectic and worrying at times, but luckily all the orders went out on the days they were planned.  It looks like 3 orders to the US got lost in the mail and never showed, and 1 was very late but showed up right on Christmas eve!

All in all it was the most orders I've even done during the Christmas season, this being Coryographies' third Christmas.  I also reached a milestone - I sold my 1000th item on Etsy! That calls for big cheers. But since it happened in the middle of the crazy December, I didn't have any time to celebrate!

So now, I've finally recovered, and as I say, things are back to normal.  I can start going to the library again for studying, do my Etsy admin in the morning and make jewellery when I come back in the evenings. My husband, a fellow archaeology PhD, will be leaving for a month of fieldwork starting next week so I'll be all on my lonesome!  Luckily, that means you'll probably see more posts from me as I become bored and start posting more...

I've been spending the morning looking back on 2013 (and trying to make sense of what just happened in December!), and looking at the places I was able to send my packages in 2013.  Here are the countries I was lucky enough to send to, in a rough order of most to least:

• United States
• United Kingdom
• Canada
• Australia
• France
• Germany
• Switzerland
• Sweden
• Ireland
• New Zealand
• Italy
• The Netherlands
• Finland
• Russia
• Czech Republic
• Romania
• South Korea
• Brazil
• Peru

Hooray! All that was pretty exciting - I thin the most exciting was Peru, which I had never sold to before and sent my first ever order.  I've always wanted to visit Peru after I read a book set there when I was a child, and when I was a child my family actually looked after a llama in our back yard for a couple of months.  A funny story for another time...  

Well I'm off to tabulate if I've finally reached my goal of selling to all 50 states in the US.  I know I haven't completely, as I've never sold to Hawaii.  So... if you are from hawaii and reading this... please have a look at my cute book jewellery and see if you'd like it!  Maybe I should make a unique discount for all Hawaiian customers?  What do you think, 50% off to Hawaiian addresses???

Another interesting jewellery destination - Isle of Man

I just sold a happy pair of earrings to another interesting place!  Last week it was Iqaluit, Canada, in the Great White North, and this week it's the Isle of Man!

I don't know much about the Isle of Man... except that I had a co-worker that was from there.  And living there involves ferries.  It's also where Manx cats are from... and the Manx language, which I believe no longer has any native speakers.

So off I go to learn a bit and share about this latest interesting place...

[as an aside, what should I call these posts about  interesting places I sell to?  I need a catchy name - any suggestions would be appreciated!]

So in case you didn't know, the Isle of Man is an island between Britain and Ireland in the Irish Sea.  It's a 'British Crown Dependency' which means it's sort of governed by the UK, but mostly does it's own thing.  It's not considered part of the UK though.  It was so confusing when I was studying for my life in the UK test about which countries made up the UK, and that this was different than Great Britain, and this was different from The British Isles, etc etc... and the crown dependencies like Jersey and Guernsey. And the Isle of Man. It's all very confusing, I don't know if British people get it either.

The Isle of Man has a very long history and a good chunk of prehistory - it seems to have been inhabited since 6500 BC, back in the good ol Bronze age, which makes it nice and interesting.  I like the Bronze age, they had some nice mounds and things :)  Apparently it was never part of the Roman empire either, which is interesting.

The Isle of Man's capital is Douglas, and is home to under 100,000 people.

The Isle of Man's capital, Douglas

My research shows I was right and the last native speaker of the Manx language died in 1974 - but luckily, it was well recorded, there even being a Bible written in Manx, and it is being revived in the media and in communities.  Hooray!  Manx is a Celtic language so it is closly related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic.

...Oh my gosh, have you seen the Manx Loaghtan Sheep??  They have four, or sometimes SIX horns!!  That's amazing!  Six horns!  It's like something out of a fantasy novel! There's some crazy things I learn when learning about these different places.  I have to go just to see these sheep!

Crazy Isle of Man sheep

I went to look if any famous people come from the Isle of Man, and whaddya know!  The BeeGees are from there!  Who knew.

Know we all know a fair bit about the Isle of Man.  I hope you enjoyed this post!

Start your own Etsy business with less than $50 (and make it all back before investing another dime!)

Or, less than £30 if you're in the UK like me (...and that's £29.18 to be exact!)

You want to set up a jewellery business, but you don't want the risk of putting lots of money into something before you start making a profit, do you!  In this 'example business', we're going to start a polymer clay jewellery business with less than 30 pounds - and you'll be making money before you invest any more money!  The money you make from the business is what you can reinvest and watch your business grow.

I've had so much fun watching my own Etsy business grow, and one of the things I'm most proud of is how I never sunk a lot of money into my business before it started making profits.

Iqaluit - another interesting place!

I've just been made very happy by getting a purchase from Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada!  I love a sale from somewhere interesting - and even though I'm from Canada, Iqaluit to me sounds exotic and wild :)  It is the capital of the Territory of Nunavut, in the north east of Canada.  It's a relatively new Territory, I sort of remember it's formation when I was a kid - when the Northwest Territories split into two.  I've always wanted to visit the Canadian north... the wild landscapes and small communities sound really attractive.

So off I go to Pinterest and Wikipedia to see what I can find out about Iqaluit and Nunavit to share with you all...

Coryographies on Great Imaginations

I love finding my jewellery on other people's blogs... it's a great feeling :)  Great Imaginations has a lovely gift guide for book lovers this Christmas!  See if you can spot you-know-who...