Making an Art Website

 Coast Chimes' Website Banner

A website for me is a constant work in progress

I'm proud to not only make all my works completely by hand using techniques mastered over many years of study, trial and error, but also to have learned how to manage all other aspects of running a (very) small business.

This includes taking photographs, managing supplies and stock, finances and taxes, Etsy, and building my very own website— the focus of this post.

Somewhere around 30 years ago, a very savvy fellow artist on eBay warned me that things were changing, that eBay could not be depended on in the long term, and that I should make my own website. I knew literally zero about that, other than that my internet provider at the time included a small amount of space for people who wanted to make a website. I found a little more information about that space, opened it up, and stared at a completely blank screen! Welcome to HTML.

I fortunately do have determination. Thinking back, I have no idea how I managed, but somehow I cobbled together an very basic website (back then, tons of sites were like that.. well, maybe not quite a bad as mine, but bad). Most remarkably, some orders filtered through!

As time went by, and I would nibble away at improving my site. I learned a bit more, and a bit more, and it got better (but still really bad!). Eventually, I moved on to using commercial software (Rapidweaver), which produced a huge bump in the quality of the site. I went through a number of versions using that software, always somewhat happy at the conclusion of the latest revamp, increasingly unhappy as time went by (time for another revision!). And always learning.

Finally, cloud based solutions clearly seem to reach a point to be a viable option. So I moved over to Shopify. Another steep learning hill. I am still with Shopify, and still learning. The one thing that I know for certain is that the more I learn, the more I realized there is a lot more to learn!

I'm never going to be a pro. Not a chance. I rely on the extensive available documentation, and even more so on forums, where usually the latest mess I make already has someone who has encountered the same mess, and skillful people have offered solutions.

Most recently, as I get a bit braver about digging into the actual code, I have found ChatGPT to be a lifesaver. For example, I did not like that the theme I use had an automatic 'hover to zoom' effect. I looked far and wide, and could not find a way to disable this feature. I did find through a forum the likely section of code responsible for this zooming, but I did not feel comfortable simply erasing it, because doing something like that can have unintended sad consequences. I provided ChatGPT with the code, and it confirmed it was responsible for the hover to zoom, and provided a clear simple way to disable it. Best of all, it worked.

So now, after spending several weeks putting the latest version of my theme in place, fixing all the pictures (over a 1000!), adding Alt Text to every picture, fixing the banner (see above), re-writing the descriptions, and many other changes small and big, I plan to take a break and start making new things to get restocked. In the mean time, please visit my new and improved site: Coast Chimes 

Natural Driftwood Copper Wind Chime, Coast Chimes

 Natural Driftwood Copper Wind Chime

by Coast Chimes

Natural materials such as driftwood and beach stones mesh with copper chimes so nicely. They are made for each other! All that better, with wind chimes most often being out in the yard or garden, where everything in a Coast Chimes wind chime integrates, never clashes.

Visit the Driftwood and the Beach Stone collections of Coast Chimes to explore the many options.

Natural Simple Materials: Driftwood, Beach Stone, Shell Wind Chimes

 Coast Chimes Beach Stone Zen Chime

$85 incl. shipping at Coast Chimes

I am a fan of simplicity. There is a beauty to simple. It's easy on the eyes. I believe it simply reduces stress. It's that simple.

A lot of my wind chimes incorporate materials from nature, and you can't get any more simple than that. Basic found materials, with minimal changes, make for a very appealing effect. For yard and garden decoration, why not consider adding elements that come from nature? That's going to fit in so nicely! 

Visit my large selection of driftwood, beach stone, and shell wind chimes, and pick something that will bring a feeling of contentment for years to come.

Coast Chimes Website Update

 Coast Chimes Handcrafted Wind Chime

glass, copper, driftwood, beach stone, brass

There is typically a small lull in activity after the Christmas rush, and I almost always take that as an opportunity to catch up on various tasks, long neglected. This involves restocking (making new stock), and having a look at my website.

This year, I have almost completed a major overhaul of my website, Coast Chimes. I thought it was pretty good, but reading up on 'best practices', I understood that a lot of things needed to be done.

I shrank and standardized all the pictures— a huge job, with nearly a 1000 images. Everything loads faster, and everything looks nicer. So worth it.

I tried, once again (for the hundredth time!), to improve the text / descriptions. I know this will never be a completed job, as nothing is ever perfect. But I improved the writing, and will let it be, until next time.

I deleted my 'sold' collection. Why risk people wandering over there, where there is nothing to buy? And maybe not figuring out how to get back to the available works? And by eliminating that section, I didn't have to work on all those extra pictures and all that extra text, to make it conform to the rest of the revised site. Win, win.

It always feels like a major slog to wade into a website, when you are far from an expert, to fix things. It's rewarding though to manage to make improvements, to clean things up. A great way to start the new year. Hop on over and check it out: Coast Chimes.