Ocean Fire Pottery Holiday Extravaganza Weekend

I participated in two amazing craft fairs this past weekend, and I have two more coming up! Thank you to everyone who came out to shop at the brand new Etsy Maine Team Artisan Fair at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, Maine! Thank you also to the HUGE CROWDS shopping Craft Fix at Buoy in Kittery this year -- that fair, now in its 8th year, never fails to astound me with the most talented, kind artists and supportive customers around. I am so grateful to have participated in both of these shows!

Coming right up, Ocean Fire Pottery's Holiday Extravaganza is this weekend, also celebrating its 8th year! I love participating in this event and am honored to have a spot in Amy Clark's pottery studio on Saturday, December 3rd from 10am to 5pm. 

Amy will host different artists in her studio each day, Friday through Sunday, featuring her own stunning pottery plus jewelry, candles, body scrubs, cards, calendars, driftwood gifts, coasters and other home decor. Other activities include mini-lessons on the pottery wheel (for adults and kids!), raffles, wood-fired kiln opening (check out Amy's incredible backyard pottery kiln), chair massages and refreshments each day. Don't miss this one! 

Artists throughout the weekend include:
Amy Clark of Ocean Fire Pottery - (our fearless host) handcrafted, wheel-thrown gifts
GLOW - A Holistic Wellness Studio - Chair massages all weekend. Treat yourself!
Becky Louison of Hoppy + Hippy 
Cherie Herne & Cheryl Patten of Salty Girl and Long Dog
Sam Goodall
Ellen Braley of El's Cards
Erin Donovan of Vessel and Co 
Ellen Lamoureaux

Here's a sneak peek:

Some of my latest Lofted Designs creations

Ocean Fire Pottery

Salty Girl & Long Dog

Ocean Fire Pottery

Vessel and Co

Vessel and Co

El's Cards

Salty Girl & Long Dog

Ocean Fire Pottery

The event runs in conjunction with the Festival of Lights in York Village, and is a quick walk around the corner from festivities including the Festival of "Fostering" Trees, Festival of Lights Parade (Saturday), 12th Annual Gingerbread House Festival & Santa Claus at the library and Center for Wildlife's Holiday Bazaar (Saturday: I've donated some jewelry to this event and all proceeds go to wildlife care!). 

Thanks, Buzzfeed!

I didn't see it coming. Everything was nice and quiet, January-style. I was out of town attending work meetings for my day job when I got the Etsy notification: 

"Kudos, one of your listings is getting a lot of views!"

Huh? But it's the middle of January. And it's a Monday afternoon. What is going on here? A quick view of my Etsy stats showed Buzzfeed as the primary referring site. Well, that's interesting. 

It didn't take me long to figure out the source of all those clicks:

I absolutely love the title of the post: 
19 Completely Fucking Exquisite Pieces Of Jewelry For Your Best Friend Who Curses A Lot

And the brilliant subtitle:
Goddamn, these shits are fucking elegant as hell.

My Lofted Designs secret swear ring was featured as #9 on the list of 19, with the caption "Because there are just some things you can't say quite so obviously to your in-laws." So true.

People have asked me what I did to be featured in this brilliant post, and I tell them the truth: "Your guess is as good as mine." Honestly, I think I got lucky with one of those right-place-at-the-right-time scenarios. I haven't been doing any paid advertising (not even sponsored Facebook posts or promoted Etsy listings). I semi-regularly post Instagram pics and Facebook and Twitter updates, but I think the real key is having a unique and clever product with an optimized shop and listing, and decent photos. 

And really, if my diverse shop featuring seaglass necklaces, pet tags, button earrings and other random items is lucky enough to be recognized for one single product, I'm pretty fucking glad it's this one. I'm very proud of this ring design and its therapeutic properties that will hopefully help people all around the world deal with shitty bosses, rude customers and the like.

I'd like to send a shout out to Nora Whelan for recognizing greatness when she sees it and for coming up with such an incredibly inspired list.

Now it's back to the jewelry bench to make more of these fuckers. Thanks to everyone who has placed an order! I'm filling them as quickly as possible.