How long have you been crafting and what made you decide to sell?
I've been a crafter my entire life, I didn't always make jewelry, but I was always looking for a creative outlet. I started with the jewelry four and a half years ago and it's been a very nice journey. I decided to start selling because it seemed to me that I could try to make some money off my jewelry making hobby and it turns out that people liked my creations a lot!
What inspires you to create?
Everything, I can see a beautiful color combination in a fabric, the shape of a leaf in my backyard or a gorgeous chandelier in a restaurant. I am a very visual person, so everything I see inspires me in what I do.
How do you organize your time?
It's hard sometimes, because I want to spend all my time in my studio creating. But I try to balance it out with working on my thesis project, which thankfully it's jewelry related, and with the marketing side of the business: taking pics, uploading them to my site, answering emails, etc. The tutorial making is really fun for me, I take my own pics so it can be challenging at times, but the end result makes it totally worth it. Teaching someone how to create and then receiving an email from them about how they can make nice pieces of jewelry because of your tutorial is priceless!
How do you promote your work and where can we find it?
I try to be an active member of the jewelry forums and by active I don't mean a spammer! I offer my sincere critique and help where I can give it. I also learn a lot from the other members as well. You can find my tutorials in my etsy shop cabisuteria and my jewelry in my site cristinaamador.com .
What are your business plans for the remainder of 2008 and into 2009?
I am planning on doing a two day Open House for the Christmas Holiday Season, hopefully I can create enough inventory for that. I also want to write at least two more tutorials. For 2009 I want to keep writing tutorials, try to get my jewelry into some shops and galleries and maybe get to teach live workshops.
