500 sales!!

My first blog entry on here was when I reached 200 sales on March 12, way back at the start of the plague, and I just hit 500 sales today. You guys are the best. I started testing out a new kind of holographic vinyl last month and I figured I might as well as sell it for 75% off to see what actual people thought about it. They're super gorgeous colors- a reddish bronze, a deep blue green, and a shimmering metallic green that's obviously perfect for dragonflies. It doesn't photograph well. I tried in every kind of lighting and from every angle, but no matter what I did it just looked monochromatic. Then I thought, it was kind of stupid to expect people to pay a dollar or two for what looked like regular vinyl when I was clearly stating (multiple times in the listing) that I didn't even know for sure this vinyl would stick to anything for longer than a couple of minutes... but I sold them all in two days- and 80% of the sales were to repeat customers. I thought it was super cool that you guys know the quality of my materials and work enough to trust me and take a gamble on buying something new.

Holographic red, blue, and green are now available on all of my Coheed decals for the same price. You might notice other Etsy sellers have the same colors of vinyl in stock at their shops and I'm about 99% sure it's the same brand that I use, but they're selling it for $2+ more. Don't tell anyone I told you this but it's the same price per square inch as the regular Oracal 651 vinyl I use for literally everything else. (I can also now, thanks to your help, say that it's as permanent and durable as the Oracal 651.) I don't really make a profit off of anything but the things in my shop that I've personally designed. It takes the same amount of time to make so I'm not going to upcharge you for shinier vinyl. The sales are cool. Getting to try out new materials like the holographic vinyl or glass is fun. Repeat customers are amazing. But like I said in March, the thing I really appreciate the most is the reviews you take the time to leave. I have a 30% review rate, which is really high on Etsy, and they're all positive. This one is probably my all-time favorite. I was sooooo psyched that someone brought their sweet bundle of joy home from the hospital in it.

I'll be going out of town for my day job in a couple of days and spending my birthday on the 16th in Sedona, but I have some new items I'll be adding in when I get back. One of the first things I'm going to start working on is Christmas ornaments. I'll probably have the same rustic vinyl ones I had last year, but I'll have some pyrography ones too. Instead of only selling the decals, I'm working on complete "Video Gaming in Progress" signs and a "Queen of the Dark Roast" coffee mugs, or maybe a thermos. I'll also be adding in the final two glass etching items I have planned: a set of four shot glasses and a pair of "Here to Mars" wine glasses. I don't know how so much of my stuff ended up with that lyric on it, but it seems like you guys love it as much as I do so I'll keep it going. But if you have another lyric or logo you'd like to see on something, send me a message and I can create a design for you or customize an existing one. I changed up the "Call My Mother" youth T-shirt for one of our aunties of the fence a few weeks ago:

Unless I have to create your design completely from scratch, I won't charge for customizations. My hourly rate is $65 but I prorate it in 15 minute increments of about $16. If you have something in mind, send me an email at contact@deannatelles.com, call/text me at 720-449-1203, or message me here or through my Etsy shop.

Glassware!

At the start of quarantine, my little brother and fellow CotF bought a ton of shot glasses, wine glasses, and beer glasses for me to play with. He just asked me to make him a full set of each. I had just finished my porcelain jewelry trays so I think he was expecting something similar, but I'd already been thinking about learning how to do glass etchings- mostly to make shot glasses in honor of the fourth anniversary of our dad's death coming up in May- so I set all of the boxes on my project table and waited to have a few days free to work on them.

Those days finally came this week. Glass etching wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, mostly because I didn't have the right supplies for it. My stencil vinyl is great for painting but it didn't stick long enough for the glass etching cream to dry, which led to blurry, uneven lines and edges. It wouldn't curve with the glass either. The sponge applicators I bought were too wide to do evenly coat the design without going off of the stencil. I didn't have enough masking tape for more than a couple of glasses. But I did have safety googles, long gloves, a glass-etching-only hoodie, and a game plan to run into the shower without touching anything after I was finished. I really, really didn't want to have another repeat of the Great Monthlong Resin Allergy Incident. The etching wasn't quite visible enough so I actually used my grossly expensive art school degree to remember that I could use acrylic paint and bake it into the glass... and it'd still be dishwasher safe. I think these turned out pretty well but I'll be creating another version of each with color; the shot glass below was colored with this really subtle, metallic blue that I love for etched glass. It makes the design look like it's made from ice. I've got red, purple, blue, and gold too but I have a feeling that I won't like any of them as much as I like that metallic blue. Like always, I can do almost any custom design you have in mind- although size and colors are obviously limited.

Personalized Shot Glass, $10 Individual Pub Glass, $12 Set of Four Pub Glasses, $40

September Updates

I'm trying to clear out some of my inventory to make room for new items, so I'll be putting things on sale throughout the month. All of my Coheed and Cambria Dragonfly Logo Faux Leather Leaf Dangle Earrings are 50% off and only $4 a pair, and all of my Coheed and Cambria Keywork Faux Leather Leaf Dangle Earrings are 20% and $6 a pair. They go super fast so I'm really surprised that I've had these sitting around for this long. I'm not sure what else I'll mark down this month but you can see all of the items that are currently on sale here.

I'm also testing out a new brand of holographic vinyl. It comes in two types: a red and yellow that's almost bronze, and a super gorgeous blue and green. There's no way of taking a picture that does the colors any justice. I'll be sending out bonus decals with the new vinyl all month with orders or you can order your own larger decal here. If you get one, I'd really like to hear what you think about it- all of the good and the bad. I don't want to sell awful vinyl to anyone.