Edinburgh jeweller

As a business tutor at the London Jewellery School I was asked to write a blog post for business week this week. I wrote it on using social media to have a conversation and not just to transmit information. You can read the full post here

Sweetie shop jewellery by light boat jewellery , photo by Gary Ullah of craftywebsites  In 2012 I have noticed more and more interest in classes on how to use social media to promote fledgeling businesses. I've been teaching people at the London Jewellery School and at the Mary Ward Centre about how to set up an online business or an online presence for a 'bricks and mortar' business. I am also starting to teach these skills to individuals (for Crafty Websites ), charities etc. As a result of this interest I decided, along with the press officer from the London Jewellery School,  to write a series of blog posts for their  blog on preparing your jewellery business for christmas. I found it helped as a useful checklist for me and the feedback from readers is that it has been useful for others too which is fantastic. The links to the blog posts can be found below. Do you have any advice you would give jewellery makers on preparing for christmas sales? Please add ...

I am pleased to be one of the guest speakers for the London Jewellery School Members Networking Event on Friday 29th June, 6.30-9pm. I will be speaking about using social media to boost your business - no matter whether you are just starting up or an established jewellery business. The event is only available to members but there is still time to join. The cost is only 22 pounds and you receive a lot of benefits including - a free taster class gift voucher (worth 42 pounds) - tickets to networking events (like this one!) - members listing on the LJS website and more Hope to see you there!

Mary Ward Centre, London I'm in the middle of teaching a nine hour course called Social Networking for Artists at the Mary Ward Centre, London . This is a new course that I proposed myself at the beginning of the year. I think there is a gap in education for artists and crafters who have not grown up with computers. Often they know what they want to do but not how to get started. Thankfully the head of Art, Sharon Fuller, agreed with me! On the course I am covering setting up a blog (using blogger because I think it is user-friendly for those that are not so computer literate), a facebook fan page and twitter account and what to do with them! I started teaching it last week and I was really pleased to see that the class was full and that there are so many different areas of the arts and crafts represented in the group. I really enjoyed teaching this class and I'm looking forward to the next one. So my question is this. What advice would you give artists and crafters j...

This week I have really discovered the joys of twitter! These are my reasons for tweeting! 1. For the excellent company I have chatted with some lovely people on twitter and can see how a community of crafters can develop. Often crafters are isolated, working alone at home. Twitter is a great way of connecting with like-minded people 2. For promoting your business and making sales In fact, I made a sale of two items this week directly because of twitter. I had tweeted on a product that I admired and, in turn, the maker must have looked at my site (I won't say who right now as I think they are a gift!) 3. A great way of seeing the types of products others are selling This can be really helpful to inspire new thinking and identify a new direction 4. For finding inspirational people There are a number of people on twitter that I follow that are working on their craft full time. I'm always interested to find out more about those that are living the life they want So,...