You know when you wait for the kettle to boil and it just doesn’t… I’m on 299 sales on easy and, whereas there were 4 sales yesterday, just one today and that next one just hasn’t come through!! My bet is on that it’ll be a pea pod charm.
what makes them unique? they are the only pea pods that come in such a range and such a consistent style. You know that if you have become the owner of one, you can buy a matching pea pod in another item.
I have one buyer who bought a pendant last year and has since been back a few times to buy different styles of earrings, I have never had any contact with him, I presume he bought them for his lady and she liked them so now he knows he has a winner for a while 
I hear so many lovely stories that go with them, and this is part of the reason for this blog is to recount some of the reasons the different items have come about and some of the stories that go with them.
bracelet
pendant
charm
pea pod keyring
Pea pod cufflinks
I was having a day off from the jewellery one day, over the Isle of Wight, when my phone went. A lady was getting married in a few weeks and wanted to give her fiance a pair of pea pod cufflinks, as everyone said they were like two peas in a pod, could I make some? At that time I was using toggle style cufflink backs and couldn’t really see how it could work. But I said I would think about it and get back to her. I went home and played around, did some drawings and made up some mocks and they seemed like they would work. She also wanted the date of the wedding engraved on the back. So I went ahead and made them and sent them off. She got back to me delighted. And that was where the cufflinks came from. Since them they have become a firm favourite for wedding day gifts and for valentines days gifts. There was however one fly in the ointment. I was doing a search online to see where they stood in google search and saw my photos but on a site I didn’t know. I went to the site and lo and behold there they were, My cufflinks photos, my descriptions, but apparently being mass produced for pennies in China!! Minimum buying quantities 250! I contacted them, I contacted many people but nothing has happened, they are still there and obviously a con. As were many many other poor etsy sellers cufflinks. This company had stolen totally the photos and descriptions of hundreds of etsy sellers cufflink items. I wrote a long blog piece about it, but to be honest I realised in the end I was just giving them free publicity so I stopped fretting. The problem in selling online is that there are always copies and unscrupulouses, so I slightly changed the design and just moved on, but that’s the story of the pea pod cufflinks.
I think I get some of the loveliest feedback from the cufflinks – I suppose the time they are bought for is one of the most romantic – so maybe that’s why, but I always without fail have the biggest grin across my face when I hear how happy they are.
“Utterly beautiful, have given them to my fiancé to wear on our wedding day as he calls me and baby bump “sweet pea”. They are beautifully made!”
So what you can see on the bottom is what made me spit my tea out all over my desk this afternoon!
I was doing a search (as you do) to see if my items had been syndicated by etsy, and to see where they came on a search. The peapod cufflinks are always a good one to check as there are almost no others around. You can imagine how shocked I was to see this site in China selling silver pea pod cufflinks, made in China, minimum order 30 pairs! MINE!!! If you look closely you can see that there is nothing that hasn’t been copied, not a single thing left out, even… (this is the funny bit) my copywrite statement
On further checking, I could see many many many, (maybe all of them) other etsy seller cufflinks. I posted a post in the etsy forums and I have to say was blown away by the support and suggestions from the other sellers.
(etsy forum link)
I have linked the pictures to the relevant sites so you can check it out for yourself (and if you are a cufflink seller I suggest you do, you may well find your items there.)
So what is it? I have no idea, it seems that if you follow the links to twitter or facebook you start getting led a right song and dance and keep finding yourself on yet another site (same colours and logos, slightly different version of the name) always selling rip off items that they don’t make. Is it a scam site just waiting for the money to come in? will they get on and make them up quickly if they get an order? Who knows. I wrote to the Huffington Post to see if they wanted to do the story and am waiting to hear back. I also (;-) wrote to the site and asked for a quote for 50 pairs, and am waiting to hear.
So, looks like I have been ‘syndicated’ after all, just not in the way I was hoping. I’m sure I will be adding to this story in due course, but this is as much info as I have at the moment. Would love to hear your comments.
Addendum:
This lovely person fineheart has written a much better worded post on her blog – do have a look
Since Saturday: They took down my description and just had the photos. Then a very badly written description went back up. Then when I checked today (Wednesday 1/6/11)the original description was back up minus my details. I’m so mad I could spit, it’s like they are just sticking the finger up. I wrote on Saturday to htem, again on Sunday, then again on Monday and then my lovely Chinese friend gave me some further information, and I wrote giving them 3 days to take it down before I reported them to the Chinese Government department dealing with this sort of thing. And since that letter they have put back the original description, so they are obviously not going to do anything.
The worst thing in all of this is that I wrote to etsy administration asking for help, as did many of the other sellers affected. Did we hear anything? did we bollocks, not until tonight when they shut the thread down, because some daft tart mentionned another shop on etsy – suddenly we are ‘calling out’ and that’s that. Not one single word of help, comment or advice from admin, I am so shocked. Etsy has been good to me in the past, I have sold many many items on there, but I have made the mistake of seeing it as a community, whereas it’s obviously not, the other lovely lovely sellers are great, but when you need help?
Pea pod cufflinks
So I thought these would be cute, some little two and three pea pods on silver hearts. I did the hearts in two ways, smooth and granulated, the granulated were quite lovely and sparkly. I made them for Valentines day a couple of years ago.
So who buys these curious little beasts? I have had various different groups of people buy them. The newly pregnant mother – who sees the new arrival coming as the complete family group – or as a gift for someone who is thought of as a matching pea!
well I suppose it depends which type we are talking about.
The one pea in a pod, this has been bought for a symbol of a nickname,
“I’ve always called her pea” or “she always calls me poddy”.
Quite a few have been given as presents for travellers, they are complete on their own and don’t need anyone else, really independent people.
The twos;
Twins are the obvious wearers of these, though very often it might just be best friends. It is a very popular choice for couples, for one to buy the other – “everyone says we are like two peas in a pod”.The majority of my cufflinks are as grooms gifts from the future bride.
Threes;
Again the obvious is triplets and groups of three friends but of course for the mother of a family with a new baby on the way, and baby makes three.
The charms
I wanted to offer them but on a very small scale so they were affordable to everyone and also to add to bracelets. However the style of bracelets now is quite large so in the end I plumped for three different types of fastening. I have to say they are little buggers to make! I have dropped them all over the place. When it comes to polishing them, I polish mainly by hand and being so small nearly always one will pop out from my fingers and go flying somewhere. I have found them in my tea, in a glass of wine, in the fur in my slippers!
the pendant
lobster clasp/split ring/ large ring
