I met Wendy Edsall-Kerwin of “Hammerstroke & Fire” at a 2008 Christmas party. It was hard to miss the beautiful necklace she was wearing — an earthy metal creation that would look right at home on a middle-earth priestess.

Since then, Wendy has kept in touch via her quarterly newsletter, which showcases her new creations, lists her latest blog posts and highlights other artists and local small businesses. I love getting her newsletter in my mailbox every few months, decorated with seasonal stickers so I know it comes from an actual human being. That’s a nice touch.

I also love how Wendy gives so much attention to other artisans. Each month she features a new artist on her blog, in addition to the numerous links to craft groups and organizations, local galleries, and like-minded folks.

In December, Wendy ran a promotion called “12 Days of Cuffmas” where she featured a new cuff each day. She then donated $10 of each sale to Heifer International, so she could provide one needy family with a goat for the holiday.

I asked Wendy a few questions about marketing her business. Here’s what she had to say:

How did you learn to market your business  – was it by trial and error, or past experience?

At first I just threw together a website and applied to craft shows and exhibitions.  I would also occasionally approach galleries.  Slowly, through extensive online research, I started coming across websites to help artists with the business end of their art.

In the beginning of 2008 I happened across Alyson B. Stanfield’s Art Biz Blog and ordered her book, I’d Rather Be in the Studio!.  It’s full of sound marketing advice, and is designed to counteract excuses that artists use not to market their work.  Second, I started blogging, which led to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and various other social networking sites.

Now I look for marketing help and ideas from a variety of sources (mostly online), not just those aimed at artists.  It helps to have outside perspective as well as field specific advice.

You do a lot of different forms of marketing, both online and offline. How much time does it take?

Marketing takes up the majority of my time!  Every day I check email, blog stats, update Twitter, and look at and comment on other blogs.  I blog three to four times a week and update my other social media sites a little less often.  This ends up taking two to four hours a day.

I also have offline work.  I have a quarterly newsletter,  I work on some blog posts offline, and I participate in face-to-face networking groups, like the CHL, craft guilds, and go out to art events to stay involved in the community.  I would say that about 75% of the time I spend on jewelry/metalsmithing career is spent doing all this non-studio work.

What’s the most challenging part of marketing?

The most challenging parts would be finding my audience, putting myself out there, and waiting for results.  It’s difficult figuring out who to market to, and then knowing where to find them.

Second, I’m shy until I get to know people, and it’s been difficult forcing myself to overcome this.  You have to be out there meeting new people and keeping up connections.

Third, we all would like to see immediate results when working so hard at something.  But it takes time to get yourself out there enough for people to recognize and trust you.  You have to be patient.

Check out Wendy’s blog Hammermarks, or follow her on Twitter.