Dear Abbie (The Copper Flower Pendant)

I just had a great buying experience on Etsy. Okay, I confess, all of my buying experiences have been pretty good, once I got used to how slow international shipping is!

In any case, mad props to AbbieRoad, the lovely mama who did my new banner and avatar (seen here in my blog, but also at my Etsy store). I went to her with my specs, and she delivered exactly what I wanted.

I must go into more detail about this, because I actually tried working with 5 different Etsians regarding my banner. I gave them these specs: I like pink and blue polkadots and brown writing. I want a theme consistent with my clothing labels, but a less scripty font for the web and more muted colors. I didn't initially think this was a hard request. But only 2 of the 5 (Abbie being one of them) asked to see my labels. The other three went and looked through my product lines and came up with some excellent, cool banners... but they weren't what I asked for. Exactly the opposite. You see, I sell a hodge-podge of stuff. No one theme in my store. One day, it looks like I'm a batik/watercolorist, and the next day, my store is full of baby blankets on page 1. So I wanted my banner to pull all that together.

Enter Abbie. Not only did I get exactly what I wanted, she went above and beyond. She designed an extra banner and avatar for when the baby gets here - so I'll have a professional, consistent look on my "closed for baby" sign. The avatar is even generic enough that I can use it for *any* store closing. I also asked her permission to use my avatar on other materials, and she was gracious enough to say yes.

Abbie is amazing. I love how the colors pull together my entire store - there are shades of blue, pink, or brown in every item in my store, so now there is a common underlying thread in my storefront. I love the clean, simple look. I love my baby banner (you will see it soon, I'm sure). But besides saying thank you, how do you express deep thanks?

I decided to snoop. I pulled her feedback and looked for things she's bought. I was lucky enough to find copper jewelry. Which is perfect, because I just purchased copper wire a week ago to make Marsha's bracelet! I've been wanting to try making copper motifs, and decided I could kill two birds with one stone. I set about making a copper flower pendant for Abbie.

The project went surprisingly smoothly, up until I had to make a jump ring. Turns out dead-soft wire makes horrible jump rings, so I had to settle for a loop and a twist and some filed ends. But all in all, I was really happy with the result.

Lessons learned:
1) Sometimes, the simplest requests are the hardest to fill
2) There are still people out there willing to go the extra mile to make a customer happy
3) I love ArtisticWire
4) I will never use plated base-metal wire again.
5) I cannot wait 'til Scott opens his store so I can use the findings he's going to be making

All that's left now is to get this little gem into Abbie's hands. I hope it brings her even half the smile that all her hard work brought me.