Hello! Returning to the bench after 25yrs

[Hurtwood]

Hi there,

I’m having the time of my life back at the bench after a 25 year break! Strangely, my skills seem to be so much better than when I was younger... my eyesight and aching hands sadly much worse ��

I will be looking for some advice/recommendations on creating a web/selling page soon. Would love to know what what other makers use? My work is mainly one off pieces in silver with some other materials occasionally, a few gems and a little gold starting to appear. This will be part time for me for a few more months so ideally cost effective but nice looking and easy to use.

Many thanks!

[CJ57]

Welcome back! I think with age comes confidence and not so much the niggling comments of tutors which inhibited you when you were younger or is that just me! It’s taken me a long time to feel happy in my work
You sound as if you make or intend to make pretty much what I do. Can’t help with the website I’m afraid, I don’t make enough in a year to merit one so just have my fb and instagram pages for a presence for the OS event I do once a year
Caroline

[enigma]

Welcome :)
I have my website with squarespace which I am very happy with.
I recommend getting a young person to help you set it up unless you are particularly computer savvy , my son did mine for me.:)

[Hurtwood]

Welcome back! I think with age comes confidence and not so much the niggling comments of tutors which inhibited you when you were younger or is that just me! It’s taken me a long time to feel happy in my work
You sound as if you make or intend to make pretty much what I do. Can’t help with the website I’m afraid, I don’t make enough in a year to merit one so just have my fb and instagram pages for a presence for the OS event I do once a year
Caroline

Thank you! Yes it’s nice being my own worst critic, I’ve also stopped trying to cut corners or cover up mistakes as I’ll obviously know they are there anyway! I think possibly having kids has made me a lot more patient and efficient too. Plus lack of distraction from a large workshop and the canteen calling etc 😂 Can I ask do you get sales through your FB and Insta pages or are they just for promotion?

[Hurtwood]

Welcome :)
I have my website with squarespace which I am very happy with.
I recommend getting a young person to help you set it up unless you are particularly computer savvy , my son did mine for me.:)

Wow! Thanks for sharing your page, great website and amazing work.
Are you pleased with the site, found any niggles? Is it expensive to run?

[CJ57]

Thank you! Yes it’s nice being my own worst critic, I’ve also stopped trying to cut corners or cover up mistakes as I’ll obviously know they are there anyway! I think possibly having kids has made me a lot more patient and efficient too. Plus lack of distraction from a large workshop and the canteen calling etc �� Can I ask do you get sales through your FB and Insta pages or are they just for promotion?

Nothing on instagram But I don’t give it much time and I’m not sure I see the point. Maybe it’s an age thing. It took many years on FB to get enquiries but it suits my needs and is used mainly as promotion for the Open Studio in May each year. I only have a few hundred followers but all of this is quite time wasting if your energy is limited but the photos get visitors in for the OS

[enigma]

Thanks for the compliment :)
Yes I am really happy with squarespace, I can't say whether there were any niggles as my son did all the tech stuff for me but running it is pretty straightforward and it is easy to add listings/photos etc.
There are many pricing options including free although I am not sure you can have a site that takes payments for free.
Mine is fairly inexpensive at around £20 per month.

[Hurtwood]

Thanks for the compliment :)
Yes I am really happy with squarespace, I can't say whether there were any niggles as my son did all the tech stuff for me but running it is pretty straightforward and it is easy to add listings/photos etc.
There are many pricing options including free although I am not sure you can have a site that takes payments for free.
Mine is fairly inexpensive at around £20 per month.

Thanks very much for the info, much appreciated 😊

[Lucie]

I've had a few websites with Shopify and I've always been happy. The basic cost is $29 a month (just over £22), but you can spend extra if you decide you need to add on apps.
They have a huge app store, so it would be worth taking a look so you can work out what you might end up spending.

It's pretty easy to set it up. I've paid for a lot of modifications, but you really don't need to. It works out of the box and the shopping cart is ready to go.
The customer service is amazing. They have an instant live chat facility that's available 24/7 where you can talk to someone immediately with any technical queries or if you need help setting things up.

It's also well worth checking out Instagram as it's a lot easier to get in front of customers than with Facebook (or maybe that's just me).