Anna Torv wearing Lorraine Schwartz earrings with more than 80 carats of carved rubies at 2011 Emmy Awards

Sofia Vergara wearing Lorraine Schwartz emerald-and-diamond earrings at 2011 Emmy Awards

Aubrey Plaza wearing Lorraine Schwartz diamond cuffs and 20-carat diamond drop earrings at 2011 Emmy Awards

Elisabeth Moss in Lorraine Schwartz bronze champagne diamond earrings (and bronzed platinum diamond ring) at 2011 Emmy Awards

For the grand finale, when was the last time you saw fire opal mixed with amethyst on the red carpet – in an over-sized matching floral set? It took Heidi Klum to pull that one off:

Heidi Klum wearing Lorraine Schwartz floral earrings of fire opal, amethyst and diamonds at 2011 Emmy Awards and...

...her matching floral ring

It’s not the first time Heidi has strolled the red carpet wearing over-sized carved gems in nature-theme jewels. Here’s what she wore in 2008:

                          

You’d be amazed how much thought goes into the jewelry on this show, even for the background players. The only ones who get short-changed are the guys. Lawson discusses his approach to the fashion of each male character but not one watch or cufflink enters the discussion, not even for Cary, known as the clotheshorse of the men.

Photo: Eike Schroter/©2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc.

The women, on the other hand… If you’re a fan you’ve probably noticed that the females on this show have very distinct styles. They all work in a law firm – not known as the most creative halls of fashion – and yet all manage to look stylish and individualistic, as well as professional.

The first season opened with Alicia Florrick, a politician’s wife played by Julianna Margulies, re-entering the work force after a long hiatus. With her husband in prison, she’s rediscovering her individual identity, thrust into the limelight by her husband’s much-publicized affair with a prostitute. At the firm, she dresses elegantly but conservatively, doesn’t wear much jewelry but isn’t afraid to wear some serious stiletto pumps – four inches high at least. They lend her authority while showing off Margulies’ impressive gams.

“Julianna and I had a big discussion about her jewelry and we felt like the last thing she’s going to think about is jewelry,” Lawson says. In the first few episodes she wears nothing but diamond studs in her ears. But by the end of that season, she’s wearing necklaces, usually multi-strand silver or gold chains, sometimes a bracelet, varying her pieces from outfit to outfit. “She’s starting to think about it a little bit,” Lawson says.

Kalinda, my favorite character on the show, gets to wear the most outrageous ensembles, but the boldness is in her clothes, not her jewels. She favors a pair of boots you don’t find too often in a law firm: roll-down, knee-high black boots with stiletto heels – sort of streetwalker-meets-Pirates-of-the-Caribbean. She also wears mini-skirts, sometimes ruffled, fitted waists with wide belts, lots of black leather. Black works with the glossy hair piled on her head and her dramatic, black-rimmed eyes – definite hints of sixties-Mod with Kalinda – and is often paired with fitted tops in rich colors like violet and saffron.

With a look this bold, Lawson was probably right to go easy on the jewelry. Kalinda wears the same diminutive silver pieces in every scene, a small circle pendant on a delicate chain, small earrings, one bold ring on the middle finger – a finger I’ve never seen her lift but you know she would if this show was on HBO instead of CBS. The jewelry emphasizes Kalinda’s femininity – she’s tough but in an all-girl way. “She knows she looks fabulous. She doesn’t have to add anything to it,” Lawson says.

Kalinda defies so many clichés. She’s a loner, tiny but capable of destroying a car with a baseball bat in five strokes, or deducing the evil scheme of a foe and formulating a counter-scheme on the spot. She does whatever the situation calls for, is always right, and always gets her way – which is very satisfying. I love her relationship with Alicia and hope they make up in the next season or I’ll be very sad. (New season begins September 25.)

Archie Panjabi, the actress who plays Kalinda, says in the special feature that her character “is already so larger-than-life,” that she wanted to avoid clichés. Kalinda is a woman of mystery. “I felt the costume, to some extent, heightened her a little bit,” Panjabi says. “Just from seeing her, you can tell a story about who she is and where she’s from.”

Christine Baranski who plays Diane Lockhart, a partner at the firm, gets to have the most fun with her jewelry. “She’s more fashion-forward, her finger is more on the pulse of contemporary fashion,” Lawson says, adding that he had covered several tables with jewelry when she came in for her first fitting. “Oh! I see we have a lot of jewelry,” she remarked.

“We didn’t want to make her foolishly accessorized,” Lawson says. “We wanted to tell the story of who she was and she does pay attention to accessories.” She often wears the same ring, a three-band platinum and diamond number, but  sometimes trades it for big chunky opaque stones in dark neutral colors.

She never wears the same necklace twice and they vary from long Chanel-like chains to dramatic pendants, chunky colored stones, and multi-strand pearls of every variety. She’s not afraid to throw in costume pieces by Kenneth Jay Lane or Trifari if they works with her outfit.

Diane is the only character who rocks the lapel brooch, often forgoing a necklace for a buttoned up jacket with a big vintage pin, forties and fifties styles – mid-century modern attracts, bird motifs, a dragonfly. Lawson says the vintage pins were Baranski’s  idea. Diane is supposedly Old Money, so the idea is that the brooches were passed down through her family.

“You’d think that a pin would read very old school but somehow it reads very modern and chic on her. That’s my goal for her: business and chic and elegant,” Lawson says. “All three women really do have very different sensibilities when it comes to their jewelry.”

Related posts:

Sex & the City: the jewelry

Van Cleef & Arpels: celebrity style

Jewelry heist movies

Related products (buying through links on my site costs you nothing extra but puts a few pennies in my blog fund):

                          

Packers won the first Super Bowl in 1967 and got this modest ring (Jostens)

[See my update on the ring unveiled on June 17.]

Now that they’ve won the Super Bowl, the Green Bay Packers have another challenge on their hands, literally – designing their championship rings. First step in the process was accomplished before the game even began.

Packers coach Mike McCarthy had the team measured for their rings on Saturday night. “I wish I’d have made a bigger deal out of it,” McCarthy said at a press conference on Monday. “I thought it would give us a boost of confidence to do it the night before the game.”

Measuring for a championship ring before the game may seem like an act of confidence but the team had to be measured anyway. Even the losers of a Super Bowl get rings.

Pittsburgh Steelers ring from Super Bowl XLIII (Jostens)

If the Steelers had won, their ring might have looked something like this (left), the one designed for them by Jostens after their 2009 Super Bowl win. The Steelers will get championship rings again this year but the Packers will get the serious bling.

Championship rings have come a long way on the bling scale since the Packers, coached by Vince Lombardi, won the first Super Bowl in 1966. Their ring (top right) cost about $750 with a one-karat diamond and looked more like a high school class ring than the blinding door knockers that typify today’s championship rings.

Last year, the New Orleans Saints had their Super Bowl championship rings designed by Tiffany & Co. with 44 diamonds designating the 44^th Super Bowl, 16 more on the face to represent 16 wins of the 2009 season, and a .06-carat sparkler at the center of a fleur de lis – which they opted for instead of the usual Lombardi Trophy.

On one side of the Saints ring: NFL shield, Super Bowl logo, game score, date and location. On the  other: the player’s name, number and position, a skyline with Superdome, Carnival float, and musical notes from “When the Saints Go Marching In.” But wait, there’s more! Underneath are inscriptions of the team’s mottos: Be Special, Finish, Smell Greatness.

New Orleans Saints championship ring from Super Bowl XLIV designed by Tiffany & Co.

Even with all that, Tiffany managed to produce a tasteful design, as championship rings go.

You can bet the Packers’ rings will have at least that many references and even more diamonds. Like all Super Bowl rings, theirs will be worth a lot more than they cost to make.

Each year, the NFL shells out $1,125,000 for Super Bowl championship rings – $750,000 to the winning team and $375,000 to the losers. That covers the cost of 150 rings for each team – one for each player and one for the main woman in their lives – wife, girlfriend or mom. The Green Bay Packers will have up to $5,000 to spend per ring. The Steelers will get about half that.

As we all know, five grand does not go as far as it once did – especially with gold at almost $1400/ounce. Tiffany absorbed the additional expense for the Saints’ rings, but recouped at least some of that by selling fan jewelry and commemorative items priced from $100 to $4,000.

The rings themselves are worth far more than they cost to make. Last fall, the Saints raffled off one of those Tiffany-designed rings and raised nearly $1.4 million to benefit people affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Green Bay Packers' last Super Bowl ring from Super Bowl XXI (Jostens)

Last year’s Super Bowl rings were produced in 14kt gold and weighed about two ounces on average. But Bob Bourbeau, who’s been producing championship rings for nearly 40 years with Masters of Design, says it’s not unheard of for a pro ball player to wear a size 20 – twice the size of the average man’s ring.

“Those size 20 rings are not necessarily going to get bigger diamonds but there is a lot more gold,” Bourbeau says with a laugh. “That’s probably 65 penny weight, which is more than three full ounces.”

In the past, both Packers and Steelers have gone with Jostens, a company that specializes in class rings, like Masters of Design. But big-league teams have been known to switch to designers with more cachet. After designing the Phillies’ World Series championship rings in 2009, Masters of Design was expecting to start on the Lakers’, whose rings they’d been designing for years, but the team went with Jason of Beverly Hills instead.

Championship rings are a fickle but lucrative business, which is why so many firms are trying to land them. They garner publicity you can’t buy, even with a Super Bowl commercial. Of course, you’re being asked to make a potentially hideous piece of jewelry. “They all go for big and glitzy,” Bourbeau says. “We never go into an opportunity like this without understanding that this is going to be a challenge. You’ve got to fit so many elements into the ring and still make it manufacturable and somewhat appealing.”

He admits many of the designs end up over the top, but he works hard to land them. “We look at this as a great adventure but it’s also a great responsibility,” says Bourbeau. “On the teletron, they showed each ring in 3000x size, so if there are any flaws and mistakes, you’re in trouble.”

Related products:

                          

Keith Richards wearing his trademark skull ring on the cover of his autobiography

No self-respecting rock star – or would-be rock star – can be seen in public without at least one skull on his person, preferably in white metal.

Who started the skull trend? In the rock world, many attribute it to Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones who has sported a skull ring since way back.

“Keith has worn that skull ring since the early seventies,” says Gerard Marti, co-owner of Célébrités Galleries in Maui and former EMI record producer, referring to the ring custom-made for Richards by London goldsmiths Courts and Hackett. ”The skull ring is Keith’s trademark. Every single musician in rock and roll wears a skull in one way or another.”

Steven Tyler wearing Loree Rodkin skull pendant (Célébrities Gallery)

The craze for skull jewelry has died down a bit in the last couple years ago but skulls are still a reliable seller, according the designers of Borgioni jewelry, a favorite of rock stars from Steven Tyler to Axel Rose. “We have a bracelet with a little skull and we sell a lot of those,” says Rhonda Bartolacci. “Men love that. So I don’t think the skulls are going anywhere.”

Of course, as Marti pointed out in my last post on how to wear jewelry like a rock star, the skull symbol predates current fashion and the Stones: “The skull is a rock staple, it comes from the image of the pirate, the black flag, and that’s been around for centuries. It’s an image of being a rebel, an outlaw, someone who lives life by different rules.”

In Keith Richards’ case, it’s hard not to see that skull as more of a flirtation with death. Rumors of his debauchery are often exaggerated but there’s no doubt he’s cheated death many times.

Stephen Webster's double-headed skull ring

In the decadent seventies he was arrested five times on drug-related charges. If you love stories of rock’s hedonistic heyday, read Richards’ autobiography. You’ll be as surprised as he is that he’s still alive.

In their prime, Aerosmith was another notorious example of rock-and-roll excess. Steven Tyler underwent rehab for alcohol and heroin addiction in 1986 and other members of the band followed suit.

Bracelet of iron and ruby by Borgioni

Tyler stayed clean for a couple decades but didn’t exactly abandon his wild ways. In 2009, he fell off stage and seriously injured himself, split with Aerosmith and eventually went back into rehab to kick an addiction to pain killers.

Last year he went back on tour with the band. Now he’s a judge on American Idol. Is this a man with a death wish?

Steven Tyler wearing Loree Rodkin ring, Borgioni bracelets, Royal Order cross (Célébrities Gallery)

Nikki Six of Motley Crue in King Baby skull necklace (Célébrities Gallery)

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, or at least wealthier, and that includes stints on American Idol and – in the case of Ozzy Osbourne and, apparently, Axel Rose - reality TV.

After a few decades of rock and punk, wearing a skull has become not only a symbol of rebellion but a symbol of survival.

Guitarist Dave Navarro has earned the skulls he’s covered in below, having pulled himself out of heroin addiction at least once. It’s probably not easy staying clean given the company he keeps on tour. He’s about to hit the circuit again with the band he helped make famous. Jane’s Addiction has an album  due out this year, their first since 2003.

The symbol rockers chose as their brand is traceable back to tombs of the 4th century. The skull appears throughout Christianity, closely connected with crucifix and saints, as well as the devil.

Dave Navarro wearing Borgioni jewelry (courtesy Borgioni)

Assuming most rockers see themselves as modern-day pirates – as do Harley riders – the skulls they wear are also a kind of danger signal. Scull flags were a pretty effective deterrent back in seafaring days. Pirates had such a bad reputation, many ships surrendered without a battle when they spotted that flag.

To some extend, we’re all flirting with death – even in this health-conscious era. Maybe skulls and snakes appeal to our dark sides? Or maybe we just find that image of the hard-partying rocker too sexy to resist. Just bear in mind as you indulge this fantasy: The skull flag was also used as a warning to avoid a plague-infested ship.

Related posts:

Skulls in jewelry and watches

How to wear jewelry like a rock star

How to wear jewelry like a rock star, part II

How to get this look:

                          

Keith Richards napping between sets. Try wearing this belt to the office.

Lesson 1: Everybody wants to be a rock star, or at least look like one. Proven by the fact that my first post on how to wear jewelry like a rock star is the most visited page on The Jewelry Loupe this year, even though I posted it last year. It featured this shot of Keith Richards, who perfected the bohemian rock star look more three decades ago in a haze of drug-induced creative abandon.

The rocker look really hasn’t changed much, as you can see by my equally-popular second post on how to wear jewelry like a rock star. Here we see how Steven Tyler of Aerosmith has taken Keith’s look and made it his own, apparently with the occasional use of girls’ clothing, and how Tommy Lee has done the same with copious amounts of tattoos.

Steven Tyler wearing Loree Rodkin ring, Borgioni bracelets and Royal Order cross

Let’s face it, if you have the attitude and the torso, multiple pendants piled on bare chests and skulls stacked on fingers all go well with a screaming guitar riff. It’s a look that says: “I am an artist and a rocker who will put so much into this performance, I’ll probably pass out in my dressing room afterwards.”

Or sometimes it just says: I am a smart, hardworking guy who likes to dress like a rock star on the weekend.

Emma Bracfield Juicy Rings (photography Eydis Einarsdottir)

Lesson 2: Lots of you are trying to master jewelry photography. Photographing jewelry is tricky. That’s why some pros do nothing else – and they do it really well. A few have generously shared their images and secrets on lighting, focus and setup in one post, Photoshop retouching in another, and finally, tricks for shooting a variety of different gemstones. Thousands of people check out these photography posts. Stay tuned for more on this subject in 2011.

Lesson 3: You’re baffled by hallmarks and want to know more. I don’t blame you. Those tiny codes stamped into jewelry and watches are a complicated puzzle and learning to decipher it can be the key to scoring a rare treasure instead of making a costly mistake. I tracked down the ultimate experts on jewelry hallmarks and got them to lay down the basics. Consider it a primer. There is plenty more to be said on this topic and we’ll get to it in 2011. What’s more, we’ll do it without  making your eyes glaze over.

JAR ring that inspired Samantha's ring in Sex & the City: the Movie (photo Cathleen McCarthy)

Lesson 4: We aren’t completely sick of Sex & the City yet – well, the jewelry anyway. Especially that auction scene in the first movie where Samantha fails to nab that fabulously ostentatious diamond-encrusted flower ring. I know this because my post on the JAR ring that inspired Samantha’s still gets lots of hits. And while we’re on the subject of JAR….

Lesson 5: There was never a more mysterious and intriguing jewelry designer than Joel Arthur Rosenthal. That would explain why my profile of JAR is a top draw. Okay, some of you just pull it up to ogle the pretty pictures. It’s not easy to find JAR jewels! I promise I’ll keep digging for intriguing jewels and the stories behind them.

Many thanks to all of you who visited this site in 2010, followed me on Twitter and Facebook, and shared my passion for beautiful jewels. Have a wonderful, prosperous, creatively stimulating new year. Hope to see you back here soon!

                          

Geoscape ring of gold and silver by Marne Ryan (artfulhome.com)

Marne Ryan enjoys working with couples and admits to being a “mushball” where weddings are concerned. Long before she became known for her distinctive fused-metal art jewelry, wedding rings were her bread and butter. Thirty years later, they still make up about 60 percent of her work.

Ryan is finding more customers asking for raw diamonds. “The biggest change in recent years is in social awareness,” she says. “People want to know where the material comes from.” That means metal as well as stones. Like most jewelers, Ryan recycles whatever she can, including 95 percent of the metal she uses.

A good portion of that metal comes from the customers themselves. Providing unwanted jewelry for her to melt down cuts their costs substantially without costing Ryan much profit. With gold up to $1,000 an ounce, many couples can no longer afford the rings they want unless they do this.

“We’re dealing with a commodity that used to be very stable in value and is not now,” Ryan says. “I think all artisans – and jewelry stores as well—face the question: How do I keep it in balance and also have my customer be able afford it? There’s always that dance, but especially for wedding rings because they are done on a very personal level.

Sapphire and diamond ring in 18kt fused gold by Marne Ryan (artfulhome.com)

“A wedding ring is magical to make,” she says. “I feel honored that somebody would come to me for that and I want them to have a really good experience and end up with something they can treasure and that will take whatever comes, like the partnership itself.”

Ryan recently set an opal into a wedding ring for a man from Australia. It was important to him to have that connection to his origins, she said, “but he also loves the fact that it’s fragile but set in a way that it’s protected, because that’s what he feels marriage is.”

His fiancée was with him when Ryan presented the finished ring. “It was so sweet to look at their faces,” she says. “I can’t get over that look on someone’s face and that energy exchange when you hand them something so meaningful to them. I may not have a partner in my life but I get to experience that!”

You can find more of Marne’s jewelry and objets d’art on her website and Artful Home.

Related posts:

Wedding rings reinvented: hands-on collaborations (Jim Dailing)

Wedding rings reinvented: customizing for couples (Jacob Albee)

Wedding rings reinvented: customized by Todd Reed

Pat Flynn: diamonds and nails

Todd Reed: reinventing diamond jewelry

                          

Jim Dailing's Polka Dot ring (top) of 18kt palladium white gold with diamonds and 24kt inlay and his 18kt white gold Architects ring

For jewelry designers like Todd Reed and Alex Sepkus who have a signature look, making wedding rings is a matter of tweaking a prototype. Others, like Jim Dailing of Portland, Oregon, see it as an opportunity to create something from scratch in collaboration with the bride and groom.

Dailing meets with couples a few times in his Portland, Oregon, studio, showing them rings he’s made and discussing techniques. His primary goal in initial conversations is to open their minds to the possibilities.

He gets them talking about things other than jewelry: what kind of art they like, textures they’re drawn to, nature, their favorite places to travel. These discussions often lead to rings completely different from the couple’s original vision.

A lesbian couple, for example, brought in photos of Art Nouveau jewelry and rings by Todd Reed “which I adore,” Dailing says. “But as we began to talk, one of them showed me her tattoo of an Inuit raven design, a powerful symbol in her life.”

He ended up carving the symbol into both rings using lost-wax casting, incorporating the textural quality of historic totem poles.

Another couple in their fifties mentioned that they collect Japanese woodblock prints and brought a book of them on their next visit. They ended up choosing a beautiful still life of maple leaves floating on water, and Dailing created a stylized version in 24kt gold inlay.

“Typically, my customers are less interested in brand recognition or status symbols than who they are as individuals,” he says. Because customers have a hard time visualizing the rings from sketches, Dailing often makes a prototype in sterling so they can see it in three dimensions.

Designing this way can be very gratifying. “One thing I love is that I get a lot of hugs from my clients,” Dailing says. “Many times people come to me because they simply can’t find what they want anywhere else – because it doesn’t exist yet.”

You can find more of Jim’s work and information about his workshops on his website.

Related posts:

Wedding rings reinvented: customizing for couples (Jacob Albee)

Wedding rings reinvented: customized by Todd Reed

Pat Flynn: diamonds and nails

Todd Reed: reinventing diamond jewelry

                          

Samantha (Kim Cattrall) in the cocktail ring she bid on at a Christie's auction in the first Sex and the City movie

Sex and the City movie 2 hits theaters this month and I’ll be watching. Yes, I’m a fan. Sex and the City is always good for eye candy and a few laughs with girlfriends.

I’m curious what the big jewelry statement will be. So far I haven’t seen signs of a piece as influential – and central to the plot – as this ring Samantha bids on at a Christie’s auction during movie #1, released in 2008. She’s outbid it turns out, by her boyfriend, who buys the ring for her via phone.

Ellen Barkin's JAR-designed Gardenia ring on my hand before the 2006 Christie's sale (photo Cathleen McCarthy)

Unaware and increasingly flustered, Samantha bids furiously, as her girlfriends watch – everyone beautifully dressed, of course. As soon as I saw that scene, I had deja vu. It was filmed in the showroom at Christie’s Rockefeller Center, an obvious reference to the sale held there in October 2006 to auction off the jewelry of a newly-divorced Ellen Barkin – including the JAR-designed diamond Gardenia ring I’m wearing above. Looks familiar, right? (Another guilty pleasure: trying on jewelry before an auction. I also tried on Ellen’s spiky wedding ring, but that’s another story.)

Samantha (Kim Cattrall) bids for her ring inside Christie's showroom (photo Craig Blankenhorn, New Line Cinema)

While Samantha’s ring ends up selling for $50,000, Barkin’s went for $486,400, four times the estimate. I know because I was in the packed showroom that night. I was the one in the back row with a notepad instead of a paddle, reporting for a magazine on the mother lode of jewelry by Paris-based designer Joel Arthur Rosenthal (JAR). Those 17 JAR pieces brought nearly $8 million of the $20 million worth of jewels sold that night, twice what Christie’s was expecting. “Crazy prices for everything,” a Christie’s spokesperson noted when she sent the final, giddy results.

Christie's sale of Ellen Barkin's jewelry in October 2006 (photo Cathleen McCarthy)

Two-finger CZ ring by Emitations ($139, amazon.com)

Ah, yes, the crazy spending of 2006. Ellen Barkin must be patting herself on the back for her timing. As for Samantha, Carrie and the girls – just how conspicuous will the consumption be in the second movie, two years later?

Patricia Field, stylist behind the original series as well as the 80 costume changes of the first movie, has reported that she didn’t let the recession rein her in. Maybe that’s the right move. After all, we go to the movies to escape reality, right?

Meanwhile, you can still buy knockoffs of Samantha’s two-finger cocktail ring from the 2008 movie from several online merchants, including Amazon. What kind of jewelry will we be coveting after movie 2?

                          

I spend very little time on Twitter compared to them but I’ve gotten a lot out of it. I’ve been alerted more than once to news and juicy bits of information I would never have found on my own. I’ve “met” some cool people and gotten to know others better, sometimes people I’ve known peripherally for years. It’s also proven to be an effective marketing tool.

Where social media is concerned, I’m about maximizing returns and minimizing effort. If that’s your goal, let me offer some shortcuts – and feel free to weigh in with your own in the comments.

Post regularly …at least until you get the hang of it. It takes a bit of practice to get in on the conversation here; don’t abandon the effort too soon. If you only have 100 followers, don’t expect a dozen responses to every pronouncement. (That’ll come later, after you’ve acquired Twitter fame.) If you feel like you’re tweeting into the wind, try responding directly to others. Yes, it’s kind of like a cocktail party that way.

Some people check in and post all day long, via Hoot Suite or TweetDeck Personally, I find ongoing Twitter and Facebook conversations fun but distracting – perfect for procrastinating, not so good for productivity. But for you, tweeting may prove to be a virtual water cooler, a way of staying in touch with customers, clients and friends while you work.

Be responsive. If I post in the morning, I try to check back a couple hours later. If someone has retweeted or sent a direct message (DM), it’s best to respond the same day. I know if I direct a comment at someone using their Twitter tag, I look for a response. (It took me a while to get the hang of that.)

Don’t retreat, retweet. See something interesting? Share it with your followers. Retweeting is the easiest way to update your tweets and help others at the same time. Do this by clicking “retweet” to the right of a tweet, or cut and paste (adding RT @ upfront) then add your own comment.

You can even retweet a retweet. (Should I be alarmed that I can say that with a straight face?) Let’s say you post a new piece of jewelry on your site, then link to it on Twitter. A follower sees it, likes it and retweets to his 5,000 followers – some of mine have 15,000 or more – that’s how many potential eyes just picked up your post. If you retweet his retweet (with a quick thanks), anyone searching for his tag will pick that up as well.

Avoid auto DMs. Twitter allows you to set up an automatic response to anyone who follows you. This looks like a brilliant, easy way to encourage people to visit your site but it’s become a royal pain. Every time I do a mass follow-back I get flooded with spam DM/emails that say things like: “Thanks for following! I tweet about blah-blah. Please check out my site.”

Guess what? If I followed you first, I already checked out your tweets and the link posted on your Twitter profile. And if you follow me first, you can bet I’ll look that up before I follow back. For folks who don’t do this bit of due diligence, is a DM really going to make a difference? I doubt it. Now, if you want to DM me to say hello and introduce yourself, please do. But use my name or say something to indicate you visited my blog first. That scores points.

Hashtag it. Another way to increase the chance that people will find your Twitter post is to hashtag it. If you put a numeral symbol (#) in front of a word, it creates a live link. Click on #diamonds, #handmade or #lampwork, for example, and you’ll see the most recent posts with those hashtags. These links don’t lead to anything if there is no hashtag set up for them so, unless you want to create your own, do a quick search for the most-used hashtags on that topic.

If you have an online shop, you’ll increase you’re chances of being found and retweeted by adding #etsy, #ebay, #1000markets (or #1KM), #artfire or whatever applies. Any major event or craft show will likely have its own hashtag. When I tweeted from the Tucson gem shows, for example, I used #TucsonGemShow. Sometimes @Tucson_Gem_Show or the Tucson CVB retweeted.

Use Twitter names. If I’m referring to someone in a tweet, I always search to see if they have a Twitter profile first. If they do, I use their Twitter tag as a live link so they will find it (and hopefully retweet). I always try to do this with jewelry designers and artists I profile here. If I profile you and you’re on Twitter, all you have to do is click “retweet” to send that link to your followers. Hopefully, some of them will retweet it to theirs. Instant free publicity for both of us. See how easy this is?

                          

1000 Markets kind of snuck up on us. When did you officially launch?

We never had an official launch. The CEO [Matthew Trifiro] felt with such an ongoing process and because the site was changing so quickly, we’d create confusion by doing that, so we changed the message without any fanfare. He had been in business since September 2008.

Has the site changed since then?

Radically. Our mission changed in that first year from just allowing merchants to sell products on 1000 Markets to enabling merchants to connect with their customers, giving them the tools they need to run their business and sell their products online.

How is that different from what Etsy does?

Unlike Etsy, we’re not so much about social forums, not so chatty and community-based. We’re more about helping small businesses. Another thing that sets us apart is that we are curated, in the sense that you have to understand the basics of shop management and the importance of good photography. You have to write good descriptions and understanding basic tenets like search engine optimization before you can open a shop. You have to demonstrate more than what I call the church-basement-sale mentality. You have to be a serious shop owner, not just a dilettante. Well, you can do that and get in, but we think our method of approving shops ensures that you understand you’re not just renting the barn and putting on a show.

I’ve heard 1000 Markets is juried. Is that true?

We’re not juried in the sense of we like your product or we don’t. You can make something kitschy. It’s not about subjective taste. You’re prevented from getting in if you don’t have a proper shop.

What is required to get a shop approved on 1000 Markets?

You have to have six products photographed and described, your policies in place, an avatar and banner of a certain size. Product descriptions can’t contain references to other selling venues. If you’re denied, it might be because you have references to [Etsy] “convos” or your photos may be blurry and not appealing.

Tell me more about the tools you mentioned. Why are they important?

Putting up a successful shop is about running a small business. When I started at Etsy, it was the only thing I’d heard of. I just made some pin cushions and dove in. I figured I’ve done my job, where are the sales? That was a really naive approach. We constantly reinforce education. We have a merchant library, market forums. Sellers are constantly given guidance about what’s required. As they’ve evolved, we’ve given more information about Twitter, how to use it for business, what is marketing and promotion, how do you do it, what about advertising. We provide RSS feeds and good analytics. So they’re not at a disadvantage.

I’ve heard good things about all that from your sellers, but Etsy posts a lot of helpful information now too. I’m still trying to get a handle on what sets 1000 Markets apart.

When you look at the statistics, people spend more time on our site per visit than Etsy. But we don’t have the sales Etsy has – or anywhere near.

That would be hard. Etsy grossed almost $200 million in sales last year with about 200,000 sellers. How many sellers are on 1000 Markets at this point?

We have over 17,000 sellers and 2,000 shops. But the statistics show that the kind of person who shops at 1000 Markets spends more time than the person who shops at Etsy. We think this is because they’re being presented with a group of more qualified sellers and they like the look of the site. It’s not cluttered, it’s not overrun by supplies. They tend to see it as a more upscale site, more attractive to a more upscale buyer, but on a much smaller level.

But Etsy has also just announced a major upheaval of how they’re going to do business. I have a feeling that’s going to shove more people our way. Huge changes are going on there. The original CEO [Rob Kalin] returned last month and announced that they’re going to a more social model rather than less social. A social model is expensive for the company. They’re pushing the forums back to the teams but it’s still a huge support function. I can’t see any of the changes benefiting the buyer.

When you go to Etsy now, the only curation you have as the buyer is what the editors pick [to highlight on] the front page gallery and they’re getting rid of the gift guides so it’s just going to be more chaotic. Rob Kalin really believes the social model is the way to go but that is not a profitable route.

As an Etsy merchant, I wrote to their support staff five or six times and never got a response. I hear that over and over from our merchants. We have a different goal. Our goal is to put ourselves out to businesses. It’s not just about 1000 Markets but about spreading the word about small businesses and how they can succeed. We don’t have the same goals. From the beginning, Matt [Trifiro] has said we are not in competition with Etsy.

But sellers must see it that way, that they’re choosing between sites.

We’re constantly telling people not to do that. Artfire is also huge. But you’re paying a lot of money on Etsy and Artfire. [Similar to Artfire], you get a free shop here and we take a higher percentage of sales. But on Artfire, you pay a $15 fee every month to get the full Monty and Etsy is a nightmare of listing and relisting fees. I’ve heard from so many vendors that if you want to be seen on Etsy, it’s not enough to list your product, you have relist constantly. So they make a killing on the fact that they’re huge. People that need to get seen have to pay.

Also, Artfire and Etsy are all about [selling] everything. We’re not. We’re all about segmented things. We don’t take supplies. We don’t take pornographic stuff. It’s more discerning in that sense. Nothing wrong with supplies, of course, I’m sure we’ll get into that eventually.

It sounds like 1000 Markets is still figuring out its niche.

You have to think of 1000 Markets as taking the first step in the game we’re playing in. Small-production, single-proprietor and family-run businesses are booming. It’s not really mom-and-pop any more. We haven’t got a term for this yet: micro- or mini-preneur? That is exploding and expected to grow by 2020 into 32 million merchants. It’s one of the fastest growing segments of ecommerce.

We don’t want to become the eBay of this. We’re not trying to be Etsy Gone Wild. We want to be the help-your-small-business model. These aggregating sites like Etsy and Artfire, for now they’re the way things are done but that’s not to say that will always be the way. Eventually you’ll be able to have individual product pages, real-time marketing, landing pages where you can go on Twitter and announce a deal for the next 20 minutes on your glass coasters – who knows? The potential for innovative, agile promotion and marketing is so exciting. Nobody knows where it’s going.

For more about Etsy: Making it on Etsy.