Teri at Pass the Parcel was very brave and has become my first victim, erm I mean subject. So for starters I like the store design. Both avatar and banner are simple and pretty. The shop announcement is no nonsense which I also like because honestly I’m not a big fan of having to scroll past paragraphs of gumph before I even get to the products. A bit of advice I would give is with regard to tagging. Searches include title and tags, therefore, if it says earrings in the title it is a waste of tag to use it again. For these products specifically I would include the words indy, indie (UK and US spell this differently), girly and possibly boho and hippy. Now on to photos. These are bright and make the products look lovely. The only doubt I had was with the product itself. I genuinely couldn’t decide whether I liked them or not. It isn’t the sort of thing that I would purchase for myself and initially I just could not get past the idea that these earrings reminded me of a blanket my grandma once had. Woolly earrings I thought. No, it just doesn’t work. But then I looked again and again and there is something appealing about them that I can’t quite put my finger on. I particularly like these gold and twist earrings, probably more than the others because they steer away from that blanket squares look. I love that the beading used has been upcycled from other jewellery and that Teri makes gift boxes by hand to send your earrings in for free. The more and more I looked at these earrings the more and more I liked them.
Personally I’d like to see Teri add more of the twist designs and expand away from just earrings. I’d also like to encourage her to try different media for her jewellery and have even presumptuously added a link to a book on crocheting wire jewellery at the bottom of this entry. On the whole though I would have to give this store a thumbs up and encourage you to have a look yourselves. I personally love crochet and this gal is proving that it isn’t just about dodgy granny blankets and boring babies hats. Price wise I’m inclined to say that they are a little on the high side based on how long I imagine they take and cost to make and this is really the only down side for me. Although a nice and original product I could also say that about many other pairs of earrings on Etsy that are half the price. I know that this is always a bone of contention with Etsy sellers and people selling craft on the whole but I think there is a tendency sometimes to over price. In the Uk these would be roughly £12 and that would just be more than I, personally, would be willing to pay. As a seller I would rather sell regularly at a slightly lower price than rarely at an inflated price but that’s just me.
I’d like to thank Teri soooo much for letting me critique her store. If you fancy having your store put under the microscope by moi then drop me a line at cherry_pie_punk@yahoo.co.uk. Now go check out http://www.passtheparcel.etsy.com/ for yourself.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crocheted-Wire-Jewelry-Innovative-Projects/dp/1600594816/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c
