Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Meet Linda Harrell


Tell us about yourself…
I am a marketing communications consultant for small businesses by day and an independent jewelry designer every other minute. I love vintage jewelry and beads as well and have been selling online for several years. GalleriaLinda is my handmade jewelry brand sold on www.iCraft.ca/gallerialinda for three years now. I recently started offering vintage jewelry in my GalleriaLindaLoft shop located on http://www.zibbet.com/gallerialindaloft. This journey of jewelry took me to starting a bead shop because beads are just so wonderful. I love to source them and gaze at them! You can find my beads on Zibbet at http://www.zibbet.com/gallerialinda. Since I work full time, this is what I do to have fun.

Describe your “style” and how it sets you apart from your competition. My style in general is color and modern! On Zibbet, I have two shops, GalleriaLindaLoft for vintage jewelry and GalleriaLinda for beads. I spend a lot of time sourcing the vintage jewelry, then researching. I am amazed at the sleek designs from the past and love it when I come across interesting finds! For example, I found several pieces of aluminum jewelry from the 40s and 50s. After researching, I found out that during the WWII effort, other metals were not available so aluminum was used, as we ladies must have our jewelry!

The other side of me shows my bead affection in the GalleriaLinda Zibbet bead shop. Last year I discovered wonderful vintage beads made from acrylic and Lucite. After purchasing for use in my handmade jewelry designs, I decided to start a shop. A portion of the shop contains “destash” goodies and other items are sourced for my designer customers. I also like to list vintage parts from some of the vintage jewelry I obtain. These goodies have been popular. I love to find different things that creative people can use for inspiration.

All of this started with my handmade jewelry where the majority of my designs are "contemporary" or "modern" in feel. Sleek, modernist, minimalist is really where I want to end up but I am not quite there yet. You can see my designs on my GalleriaLinda blog or on iCraft. Shorty, you may even see some of them on Zibbet!

What is the “story” behind your shop name? I lived in Brazil as a young girl where Portuguese is spoken. "Galleria" means "Gallery" and, "Linda" means "Beautiful". Therefore, GalleriaLinda really means "Beautiful Gallery" with a play on my name.

What is your favorite item in your shop at the moment? At GalleriaLindaLoft, I have quite a few vintage Monet pieces from the 60s to the 80s. I love the longer necklaces, such as Vintage Monet 14k GP Long Pendant Necklace. They look so modern and Monet is one if my favorite jewelry makers.

What is your favorite Zibbet shop? I admire metal smiths, who create organic themed jewelry and am drawn to contemporary metalwork. As I was watching the new listings float by, Coral Reef Sterling Silver Cuff Bracelet from Zahour Jewelry really spoke to me.

How long have you been a Zibbeter? Since March 25 2010 and the time has gone fast!

As a seller, what do you like best about Zibbet? The first thing that hit me about Zibbet before I set up a shop was the good, clean look of the site. Even the free shops do not have ads popping all around. That is classy. The seller features online now are fabulous. Copy a listing, custom shops, widgets from other shops, sale and coupon feature, are all things important to the flow of sales. The Admin of this site are so attentive and easy to work with the GREATEST customer service I have ever experienced on a selling venue. I feel that they genuinely care for and want their sellers to be successful.

As a buyer, what do you like best about Zibbet? The artists and artisans are what draw me to Zibbet. Every day I see new and innovative products listed. I love to just sit and refresh, refresh to watch the showroom. The site is drawing very talented people.

What else would you like the world to know about you and your Zibbet shops? I am looking forward to the many new features that pop up ongoing. It is like Christmas every week on Zibbet! I notice too that Google is really starting to pick up my listings and that is exciting. I just feel at home! Have fun listing and listing – it costs nothing extra to list and to renew. This is a successful combination.

You can connect with Linda at a variety of online locations:
http://gallerialindashowcase.blogspot.com/


Buy Handmade ~ Buy Handmade ~ Buy Handmade

3 comments:

Modred Vintage said...

She's a great photographer as well, love the pictures.

LetaMarieDesigns said...

Another Great Zibbeter in the Family ;)

IndieCEO / GalleriaLinda said...

Thanks Vicki - very nice! I love that you feature Z artists!

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