Question of the month: jewelry goals?
July 3, 2009 by Cyndi Lavin
Filed under Metal Clay, Question of the Month, Wearable Art
What are your jewelry goals this summer? I think you already know some of mine…I’ve been working with CopprClay and am growing to love it love it love it!
My goals for the summer are to see how I can integrate this exciting new medium into the work that I’m already doing. I figure that by autumn, I’ll be looking to stretch my basic skill set with it and explore even more possibilities.
So what about you? Come on, tell us! We want to know 
You can leave a comment below if you’d like, but if you’d like to share a piece with other readers, email me at cyndi @ b5Media.com (remove the spaces) with your statement, a link to your site, and your image (72 dpi please). Please use “Jewelry Goals” as your subject line. Thanks!
I MUST make several pieces, Cyndi – a necklace, bracelet and perhaps a little purse for a friend who is marrying at the end of the month.. ordered the supplies, have them, now must sit down and do some composing. I’d love to get producing some pieces for me and for friends.. for what still seem distant for some, Christmas.
That and mow the grass, keep working in the garden, wash dishes, change cat boxes,etc., etc. LOL
It helps me so much to have goals! I know you’re like that too, and it seems you’re always making something beautiful for one or more of your friends
I’ve known this family since the mother of the woman was 12 – can you believe that? LOL It is such a shock to realize that we have been in this neighborhood this long. I have all the beads – i just need a morning to sit down and get serious.
I got my garden planted, finally, so no excuses!
Goals do help.
Even if our goals are, sometimes, unrealistic, they are very necessary. I overextend myself, at times, but that is my personality.
I would always rather have too many goals than not enough. I rarely feel guilty about dropping a goal off a list, but it seems that if I don’t *have* a list, I tend to spend too much time pondering what should be next
Oh – and how unthoughtful ! Lovely work, Cyndi, but you knew that already. You truly are a fine artist !
LOL!! Thank you…you are so funny!
I’ve been learning chain maille and I love it!! I want to learn so much more. I’ve made several bracelets, a few earrings and necklaces. I also want to learn peyote stitch and similar techniques. Fortunately, my favorite bead store – A Beadtiful Thing in Aurora, IL, is offering several classes in chain maille and some other techniques I want to learn this summer!! I also want to build up my inventory of pieces and venture into the area of selling my stuff!
Lori, those are great goals. Summer is such a good time to work on new techniques that you can then put into real practice during the fall and winter. Check out the Jewelry Business Tips category: there are lots of great links to help you towards your goal of selling your pieces!
Lori, I want to learn Chain Maille too! I love the Medieval look and it is just a challenge. Bought some copper jump rings with the hope of experimenting. Have more than enough instructions.
Good luck in your experiments and classes!
I keep saying that I am going to start selling again. Good luck !
I have a new website in the works, and it has an attached store. Neither is open yet, because I am finding myself seriously in the dark about Zen Cart. I need to get that done in time for my “anniversary sale” I’ve been talking up on Facebook.
Next weekend, I have a vendor booth at a local neighbourhood association. I need to finish preparing for that and assess my experience from it and decide whether that’s my style of selling.
Also, I’m using it as an opportunity to use up older cheap stock from when I was just starting so I can buy higher quality stock and increase better perception of my work through those materials.
I’ve been playing with copper wire, hammering and texturing it. That is going to be practiced so I can make components consistently for patterns I want.
Picture of my jewelry items for sale need to be taken and descriptions written for the website. After the show next week, I have another vending opportunity in August and I need to provide teasers of stock.
I also need to make tutorials of some of my newer wire wrap pieces to also sell them on my website. One of them, I’m going to preview here (if Cyndi lets me
)
LOL!! What makes you think I *wouldn’t* let you?
Paul, you’ve set some pretty intense goals for yourself, and I think you’re going to breathe a real sigh of relief when they’re accomplished. Have you looked into Mal’s cart as an alternative to Zen cart? I don’t know anything about Zen cart, but I do know from experience that Mal’s is quite easy to set up. http://www.mals-e.com/
Now that it’s a month later:
I loved selling to people face-to-face. I will definitely do it again.
My idea to use the old, cheap quality stock and out it into it’s own category was a good one. I also took materials I will never use and divided them into packets roughly equal to $1 – $3, and sold a lot of it that way, at the cost that I paid for it. This event pushed my jewelry business into the black for 2009. The profits were turned around and bought higher-quality materials. Now I can offer gold wire wrapped items.
I found that the cost of vendor booths at some small festivals in this area are amazingly high compared to the traffic/average spending expected. I also didn’t mind having my designs vetted for “fit” at some venues. I did find it odd that I was told by a reviewer that “No-one would buy those at our festival” In this case, “those” was one of my bestsellers, and the fair was a non-specific event mostly attended by my target audience. It wasn’t a place where anything I sold would be out of place or reach for most people. Oh well.
Pictures were taken, and my desktop photo studio performed admirably. Here is a hint for people taking pictures with old digital cameras: tape or hold a piece of tissue so it covers the flash. The light is diffused through the tissue and you don’t get the shiny metal causing contrast problems, and pearlesence is somewhat retained. Using a setting for close-ups, I managed to get most of the photos with one shot.
The website, without store is almost ready. The webstore is still sitting there, but that goal is pushed until October, giving me more time to evaluate different software. I reviewed Mal’s, and it seems OK, but I need to see more examples than their demo.
The copper wire project was a success in making coppery doodad goodness. I didn’t try for consistency yet. There was too much fun making the shapes.
The tutorials are waiting, since I’m within two weeks of my next event, and want to keep making new materials. I also need to get someone to take pictures of me holding the in-process pieces because it’s way to hard to hold wires in place AND take a picture.
In the meantime, a wire-wrapping commission inspired me to create a method for making very delicate flowers/snowflakes.
So, “Whew” for what’s happened so far, and “Oh my goodness, I thought I’d accomplish what?” by the end of the summer.
This is fabulous that you’ve had such success pushing after all your goals! So a few haven’t been completed yet…yet being the operative word here
I’m going to post your reply in a separate post. It’s so good to hear when others are successful.
Paul said:
“This event pushed my jewelry business into the black for 2009. The profits were turned around and bought higher-quality materials. Now I can offer gold wire wrapped items”
What a concept !- a handmade jewelry business in the BLACK??? darn. I never thought of that. I can’t even express my wishes, Paul, for your success in the coming months!!! Christmas is coming (I am knitting gifts already)… try using everyone’s nature consciousness some in sales, is my advice. Gold is natural – it’s an element refined in breast of dear old mother Earth!
Agree about festivals- I always wanted to try another consignment store but it COST money per month and my husband talked me out of it. His sanity and rationality were very effective in debating the issue.
I totally agree about selling own Jewelry face to face.. did it for a very short time. Loved it. Just went to the store where my things were sold on consignment and started talking to customers.. they were thrilled to met THE craftswoman.. (I can’t bear to call myself an artist!) What an emotional rush it was to box up and write the sales receipt for something I had made myself!
Good luck again!
KathyMary,
I was temporarily in the black. Then I bought the gold wire – hehe. As long as my next show and Christmas do well (and any other small festival I find, I’ll be OK. I also bought the gold wire knowing I already had people who wanted the gold wire wrapped items I’m about to make, so I’m at an advantage. Making samples and showcasing them as “I can make this. What do you think?” or “Here’s a design that can use almost any colour stone. What colours would complement you?” generates interest in items I then make for sale. Knowing in advance what people want is very helpful, but it doesn’t stop me from stretching myself on other designs.
I’ll also admit that this is not a full time job. My full time job is quite stable (thank goodness) and releases me from having to have an absolutely firm bottom line to meet in a fiscal year.
To my way of thinking, the fact that you’re not full-time with your jewelry business just makes it that much more impressive how much you’ve managed to accomplish in a few months!
I have a very supportive spouse. He’s a musician. We have no children. That allows for a lot of free time that parents often do not have.
We ignore TV for the most part and are very protective of our time and environment. Given that we both use creative activities as part of our way of living, we try to have as little distraction as possible, and that the spaces we are in are conducive to “the vibe”. Our spaces are separate and well-organized, but there’s always an extra comfortable chair where the other can sit and work on something while the other is doing his thing. This also allows frequent collaboration when trying to update our websites and other media for public relations.
Both of us are blessed with the ability to totally zone out while working. My space is a furniture defined area in the living room, but he can watch an action movie and I will almost never really notice.
That creativity-friendly enviroment is amazingly helpful!