Marketing

 I started the year off with an online Entrepreneurship course organized by the Wadhwani Foundation in India. The course gave me insight into how to start a business and how to move a business online. Which intrigued me as with the Covid -19 virus a website seemed to be the best option because the I heart market closed and is not allowing new jewellers to join. 

ArtBusiness.com  has articles for artists on a range of topics one being the Do's and Don'ts, How to Build a Website that Works I used this article to generate a checklist of what to add to my website. I tested how simple it is to make my own website with both WordPress and Wix. I had more success working on Wix and continued with Wix to develop the website. I settled on a layout of the website and added all of my jewellery pieces. It was very rewarding to see all my hard work come together to produce my website.

As I continually make more jewellery I will add and edit my website. I hope to have a small variety of pieces that will appeal to a large audience of people.

Bowes, K.,(2021). Website Home Page.

Website Overview

 One thing I didn't consider about my website until I allowed a few people to go through the preview is that everything on a website is clickable. I want my website to be easily navigated so that the viewer doesn't get lost. I took a video of the final layout of my website, some images may change or be added but the general layout is done.

The one aspect about my website that I was so glad I figured out was how to add my blog onto my site. On Wix using a blog plug-in means paying for the service but I found a way around this by adding a link to the blog instead of adding the blog itself.

Bowes, K.,(2021). Website layout.

Website progress

 I have continued to work with Wix and here are some screenshots of the outcome so far.

Bowes, K.,(2021).Home page.

Bowes, K.,(2021).Collections page.

Bowes, K.,(2021).Portfolio page.

Wix Portfolio

I ended up changing my website from WordPress to Wix as I can plugin my Instagram for my portfolio without any charges. The difference from working on Wix the first time to now is that my first attempt I started with a blank website and had no idea where to start whereas now I started with a template. A template on Wix is so much easier to navigate as I am just editing what already exists instead of starting from scratch. My first experience with Wix though it was difficult it has made this set-up easy. 

Video of my Wix Instagram plug-in: https://youtu.be/ss2TcLGCkI8

Bowes, K.,(2021). Wix Portfolio.

WordPress Portfolio

I thought I would start by setting up my portfolio on my website first as I thought I would be able to use my Instagram as a plug-in. I am usually selective in what I post on my Instagram. I normally use images of my finished pieces and selective process images that are usually edited and/or staged. 

Unfortunately using WordPress plugins have to be paid for. Therefore, to work around the payment issue I added photos using a PhotoGrid which takes time and needs constant updating which I was trying to avoid.

Video of adding photos to my WordPress Portfolio page: https://youtu.be/fzoqZqu9uHk

    Bowes, K.,(2021). WordPress-Portfolio page.

Website building

 I started building my website on WordPress by adding my business name and other menus/ page names, keeping the website fundamentals in mind. 

For my Portfolio and Blog pages I am hoping to plug-in my Instagram and this blog therefore as I update these sites my website will update automatically. Therefore I will only have to manually update my store on the website.

Bowes, K.,(2021). WordPress- Screenshot.

Website Fundamentals

 According to ArtBusiness.com there are many Dos and Don't for an artist's websites that will come in handy for setting up my own website. I selected a few of their Dos and Don't that I can use as a checklist that I feel would apply to my jewellery e-commerce website. I made my own personal notes that I have underlined.

Do's

• Get your own domain name -in the future 
• Link your website to your social media pages
• Make your site easy to navigate
• Keep your main menu options to a minimum. 
• Your Bio 
• Your Portfolio/Store -broken down into collections.
• Gallery/Designs
• Blog
• Your Contact Information.

• Organize your art into groups or a series of related works -collections
• Accompany each series or body of your work with its own introductory explanation
• Buy link -put out of stock, until ready to start selling

Don'ts

• Don't use third-party advertising on your sites
• Don't show every work of art you've ever created- add other work into the gallery

Louise Partain

 Louise Partain (Partain, n.d.)is a UK based jeweller that uses casting to create her organic pieces. Some of her pieces are cast directly from organic objects and other pieces are moulded in wax. This is basically exactly what I have been experimenting with between last year and this year.

I struggled to find out more information about Partain's work as her website is under construction so I have been finding bits and pieces out from her Instagram. This is one of the reasons why I think a website is important.

Partain, L.,(2020). Wax tree.

Partain, L.,(2018). Plant 'tree'.

Entrepreneurship Reflection

 The Wadhwani Foundation program got me thinking about setting up a website to sell my jewellery especially since Covid has suspended all physical markets. The only thing is I will probably need to set aside about a week to just focus solely on the website. Even if I set up the structure of the website and add my jewellery later. 

Some other important concepts of website building I need to consider are:

• a logo
• mission statement
• photography of my jewellery
• artist statement
• an active social media account

Entrepreneurship Summary

At the beginning of the semester, I took part in a ten-week entrepreneurship program where we made a prototype website for a hypothetical business. Compared to the prototype website done in Wix I decided to rather do my website in WordPress as it is more user friendly. Even though WordPress is user friendly I have found that it takes a lot of time to set up a website. I also looked at Halstead's Jewellery Business Toolkit and the ten-week program.

Anon. (n.d.). Wadhwani Ignite.

Market vs Website

 I have been running the DUT table at the market for two years and from my experience at the market simple designs sell. Pieces that are simple sell better but it is not always about price design-wise it needs to be relatable to a large audience as there aren't the same people attending every market. The I heart market has become flooded with jewellers meaning if I want to continue with markets once I am done at DUT I have to start looking at other markets that will be available to me.

That is why I am looking at setting up a website as working with one theme, organic, means my work won't appeal to everyone. Websites can reach more people when promoted well. Also during times like this pandemic, a website won't need to close as there is no physical contact. The downside to a website is that it is taking time for me to learn how to set it up but from experience, WordPress has been easier to work in compared to Wix which I used for the Wadhwani Foundation program.

Bowes, K.,(2021). Market Table.