Beader's block

I only have one idea to offer. For the moment, stop trying to sell and just make pieces that you enjoy, things that make you smile, have fun with beading again. HTH Diana

Sign up for a class. Any class will do, but particularly one that would enhance your skills. Also, make friends at your local LBS. Then when you get stuck on a step in a pattern, you can take it in and they will help you get past your block.

Good luck!

Cheri (Bubbee to Emily and Nathan)

try this:

sit down and visualize how you feel when you create something lovely - from the beginning of the creation to the end. Keep it all positive and don't let any little hang-ups or snags throw their way into your dream. Start with the ah ha moment when you get the inspiration. The pulling together of the beads and materials - how fun it is to find just the perfect bead for this and the perfect accents for that. Visualize it just coming together like magic - every bead you put on is perfect - how each one compliments the last. How it finishes right up, and how perfect your crimps or knots are. And how good it looks when you put it on. And how good it feels when someone compliments you on it.

You could stop right there for awhile - until it starts working and you start creating... or you could keep going... to the selling part - how they ask you where you got it... and the surprised look on their face when you say you made it - and that it's for sale and how happy they are to have stumbled on this handmade beautiful wearable art piece. And picture you exchanging the piece for cash and how both of you are happily walking away from each other: her with a new piece of jewelry and your business card, you with money to go buy more beads and continue creating.

Have fun creating your new reality :)

Boy can I relate to not understanding the directions! That happens to me a lot. I do great, in a class, but not on my own.

I agree with what Cheri said about taking a class. Sometimes, just being around other artists gets me enthused and insired again.

I just had a discussion with a close friend and then with my Mom about this very thing. Friend says: "You should just make simple pieces with trendy colors, wear them, and go to coffee shops and different places like that and you will sell them." My answer was that I prefer to make the more "arty" kind of pieces, free-form kind of things. Her response was that this is the Midwest, that kind of jewelry doesn't sell here. My Mom pretty much agreed with her. So, their opinions were that I should only make simple and conservative pieces so they will sell in the Midwest. I totally disagree. That's not what I want to do, that will not satisfy my creative urges (for lack of a better word). And what does it matter anyway, if I put my pieces on the internet? Do most people want conservative and simple? Carlinda

Not you, apparantly, and if not you, then not "your" market!!

Go with your heart...make what you love, you'll "move" it with your energy!!!

The Blessed Fiddy, Patroness Saint of the Disorganized LC in Sunny So Cal Personality Development Specialist (Full-Time Mom!)

I ditto Fiddy's viewpoint too. Make what you love and it will show. I love elegantly designed pieces. I can make any number of plain jane pieces but artistic pieces I can't make. I prefer to buys those from other artists who make my heart sing with their designs.

Nope, why do something you don't enjoy or love? Make what you want and then figure out where your market is and get your work out there. Internet is good, far away galleries are good too. And I'm sure there are *some* artsy creative women in the Midwest that would appreciate your style as well. Who wants to look just like everyone else anyway???

so they want you to stop being creative and make tourist dreck????? no wonder your soul is rebelling..... the best advice I can give you is make what you love... wear it with pride and others will want what you have, otherwise they can go to walmart and get all of that other stuff anyways...... if you need to for financial reasons-you can always devote a space in your line for that kind of work, but if you want to go whole hog and do the real far out things -go for it.........

I get people coming up to me in stores and literally reaching out a hand and grabbing my necklaces to get a closer look....... try it for a week- wear your best and most awesom things and go out in public and see the reactions..... perhaps this will give you the encouragement you need to break through the block........

best of success what ever you choose to do.........

I agree with all of this. If you just make what might sell or what others ask for, your work will not be as lovely and free-flowing as if you just made what makes you happy. People gravitate towards the energy of a thing made with love. I also agree with the idea of just putting everything down for a bit. And when you do pick beading back up, come to it from a place of love (instead of trying to figure out what will sell) - see it with new eyes. Find something that inspires you and fall in love with beading again.

I do this, but I don't get any bites. However....I have had a couple of people ask me if I'll do custom pieces for them, which I'll be doing in the next week or so. I'm hoping that while they're here in the house, showing me what they have for me to work with (one customer bought black pearls in China), they'll see something that sparks their interest. It all starts with one person, who spreads the word.

some people are just shy to ask- as they see you around more they will- definately.........

it is a good idea to have the display for the clients to see......

also for you to have cards with info for people you meet as you are out and about......I use them most successfully, and hope to be doing some new things now I am feeling more well physically......

I take many craft ideas and write them in a journal and when a block comes I dig in there- as well as making some sketches ect to pass the time until a slump leaves.... financial slumps are the worst, but keep doing your thing, maybe those who try to "help" you with criticism are jealous??????? you just make your kind of jewelry and wear it well...

also I do not pass up opportunities for bartering- this is how I got my first computer.......

I've always felt the tension between what I want to create and what "sells" - or what I think will sell. I get frustrated when I make lots of production jewelry according to what people say they want, and then they don't buy. I really enjoy making free form stuff - and have given a lot away, and sold a few pieces on the internet. I quit making production pieces because hubby and I would make 25 pairs of earrings, for example, and maybe sell one or two. I have tons of those left laying around, and am sick of looking at them. However, the things I make that I truly love still bring me pleasure when I look at them, touch them and wear them. So, while I feel that to a certain extent my time and creativity was wasted on the production pieces, I enjoy the more creative things, whether they ever sell or not.

Quite frankly, I'm sick of the rag mags and what they say is "in" or "out" - or what color is the thing this season. Basically, who cares? I believe if I put my heart and soul into my work, it will draw to it the one it was meant for. And if she's rich, that's all the better! LOL

I get a lot of inspiration from nature and from beading magazines, but also from making a royal mess. My hubby gets a big kick out of me, always with piles of beads, threads, and now atc/altered book supplies all over the place, but it seems to stimulate me for some reason. I'm an avid bead sorter, which sounds silly, but as I select beads and categorize them (usually by color), it gives me ideas and a basic bead set to start something with (or to create a kit or combo to sell).

I also like to enter challenges, like the one in BeadWork, right now I've finished two pieces for the Fire Mountain Gems challenge, just have to get them photographed in the proper format. The challenges seem to "push" me to finish something, and the parameters of each challenge also stretch me creatively.

Some people set themselves a goal of doing so much art each day or each week - or even challenge each other to a certain project. Anything to give you that "nudge" you need to pitch in and start something.

If you have a local bead club, you can get a lot of hands-on training, usually for free. I have lots of problems reading patterns also. If you don't have a local bead or jewelry club, why not form one? Go to your local library, ask permission to use a room (usually it's very cheap or free) for a certain date, put up posters, especially in your LBS, and have fun!

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Karleen/Vibrant Jewels" :

]I've always felt the tension between what I want to create and what ]"sells" - or what I think will sell. I get frustrated when I make lots of ]production jewelry according to what people say they want, and then they ]don't buy. I really enjoy making free form stuff - and have given a lot ]away, and sold a few pieces on the internet.

i am SO there!