Spring Pins (and learning from failures)

I added these two new pin designs to our shop. I put this pretty Aluminum Bow Shawl Pin or Brooch into the shop yesterday and sold 3 already! I love that! Such a simple idea that I’ve seen lots of people do as jewelry but then it dawned on me that it would make a perfect pin design. I chose a simpler stick design instead of the spiral one I usually do on the end of the pins because I didn’t want to distract from the simplicity of the bow tie and it kind of reminds me of a needle sewing through it.

This is the new revamped Butterfly Aluminum Shawl Pin or Brooch.

The old design looked like this":

It was OK but I have to admit, the wings weren’t really all that convincing. And over time , making it over and over again I kind of lost the idea of what a butterfly actually looks like (if that makes any sense?)Then a few days ago I got an email from an unhappy customer who had ordered the butterfly pin. I had made the bottom wings larger than the top ones.  Part of our business philosophy is to give over the top great customer service.  The kind of service we would like to get when we buy something. So I apologized and sent her a refund. Then I made her a new one that looked more like the photos and then decided to take some time and figure out a new improved design with bigger top wings. I like this design a lot better. I sent her this design too. I haven’t heard back from her yet. This was the first time in a very long time that we had an unhappy customer. It’s a terrible feeling. But it spurred me on to make a better product and hopefully gain a happy returning customer.