Off to a good start

I've had a handful of orders to process this week but that hasn't stopped me from starting to update the shop's listings.  I've been paying particular attention to the shoulderstrap listings but about half the listings have gotten some sort of tweaking by now.  Previously, I had four separate listings for shoulder straps (based on 1" or 1.5" width and nickel or brass hardware).  Now I have three listings: Thin, Medium, & Wide which correspond to 1", 1.5", and 1.75" widths.  Making use of Etsy's "Variant" feature I've added some dropdowns to the listings so that the client can select from the basic colors and hardware finishes.  And of course, that means the listing gets a handy photo guide to those options:

I've been making use of the variant feature all over the place and I reckon it'll make things a lot easier for clients who just want to submit a quick order.  Much as I like chatting with clients to figure out just what they want, most of the time they wind up going with the same 3 or 4 options.

I've also managed to finally open the listing for the Shoulder Pads.  It's been on my To Do list since last Fall but I didn't have all the pieces together to really get the job done until recently.  I might create a listing to order Shoulder Pads together with Shoulder Straps but there's so many options there I'm still working out how to merge the two.

I received a pretty big order of new hardware yesterday and I'm really pleased with it.  I was already happy that per unit this supplier is vastly less expensive than Tandy.  In addition that the product is noticeably higher quality.  Even if the buckles weren't labeled as "solid brass" you can tell from the nice heft.  I'll need to pay more attention to inventory management to make sure I don't run out of stock but I'm really enjoying pecking a bit higher on the supply ladder.

As I mentioned earlier, I've had a full docket of orders this week.  Four straps and a pair of pouches.  One of the straps is still WIP while I procure a special order buckle for it but the other three and the pouches are already in the mail.  One of these was a twin to the LEGENDARY strap I made last year (the client acquired another card crate and wanted a matching strap for it) so that was pretty satisfying to work on.

Still more to come but I figured I'd better post a blurb before it got too far along.