Julie has done it again!!!

Hey, are you guys in Portland? Do you attend the local (emerging but not yet official) ISGB chapter? I have yet to make it to one, though I want to BADLY. I hear the next one will be at a gallery, and there'll be live demos.

-Kalera

alex wrote:

Oh, and then in an actual attempt to answer your question rather than simply interjecting my usual totally unrelated comment, I think Gallery

33 does. :)

-Kalera

alex wrote:

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Kalera Stratton :

]Sweet, I hear it all the time! I've heard "People really pay for these?" ]and "so, do you think you can actually sell them for that much?"

]People just don't think. They figure that since it's small, it must be ]worthless. (Think of all those guys out there telling beadmakers that to ]be "real" glass artists, they need to "work bigger"!) It's up to us to ]educate them, and furthermore, to make them WANT, NEED, and LUST after ]tiny glass art!

AMEN - and that goes for the jewelry they're made into, too! somewhere in those prices has to be the gas money for my buying trips, the shipping charges i pay, the website time, the marketing time, the class time/costs, and on and on. in ADDITION to the costs of the beads.

so far, every dime i've made has gone back into buying more beads. and it's gonna be a long time before i make it even - let alone ahead. so far, with the notable exceptions of david and my two youngest, my family members are the biggest scoffers. but every customer i educate [and give them the cards for the lampwork artist as well as my own] is one more who will appreciate what they are getting and value it. and hopefully, they too will spread the information.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

(Jewelry) newest creations: ----------- The measure of the menace of a man is not what hardware he carries, but what ideas he believes.-- Jeff Jordan

This is a beautiful vision! :wiping sentimental tear from eye:

Margie wrote:

Tink, I'm glad you brought it to the group because I would never have known otherwise, and I got really excited about it. I shrieked to DH "OH MY GOD HONEY, LOOK SOMOENE GOT $225 for ONE BEAD!" and he said "Cool".

-Kalera

T> I am so sorry I ever brought that auction to the attention of the

It's gonna happen. Keep the faith!

-Kalera

starlia wrote:

But, if she has really good feedback, maybe she does something a little differently that you could only know about if you were a buyer? Insanely good service? Really low overnight shipping? Freebies in every purchase?

Just a thought, not trying to be Pollyanna here!

Kalera

Kandice Seeber wrote:

You mention paying for your site, marketing time, etc. It is because I don't want those expenses and am not good at that work, that I am not retailing.

At my mother's birthday party I showed my sisters my work. It was the snootiest one who said I should sell them in Gumps! That felt SO good.

But you're absolutely right about the lack of appreciation the beaders gets. A sort of suggestion that we "just string them" or "just use inexpensive seed beads".

I mentioned earlier today about selling just my good, but not best, stuff here in town. Stuff with a single, probably smaller focal, and maybe a couple accents. But you know, I really love sets, and they are my best work. I can usually get for $25 to $50, especially from less known beaders, thank goodness.

I think I'm begnning to blither.

Tina

"vj" wrote ...

We are in Keizer, about 45 mins. from Portland, we didn't know, humm, we definitely want to go

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Christina Peterson" :

]I think I'm begnning to blither.

no, you're not. or we're both caught in the same place. i'm often my own worst enemy. i DO the website - doesn't mean i like it! i went so far as to pay to have it redesigned, because i just wasn't up to it and it needed more than i had time to devote - luckily, Johanna was perfectly happy to be paid in jewelry, or it wouldn't have gotten done!

i have to work to earn part of a living, trying to afford the other part and keep it going. i don't have a husband or children that need time, so that helps [i think?] but i'm also partially isolated. there isn't a market here and i need to find a better one - i'm working on that part with some friends determined to be sales reps for me.

and it's still frustrating! because too many other things take away from the time i want to be beading. like entering all the inventory into this program!!!!!!! man, it's gonna steal HOURS. in the long run, it will pay off. but there are some things i'd change about it - like required fields, when i'm in a hurry!

i really do hear you, Tina!

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

(Jewelry) newest creations: ----------- The measure of the menace of a man is not what hardware he carries, but what ideas he believes.-- Jeff Jordan

Yeah, selling jewelry these days is a whole other ballgame, I think. It's so hard because there is just so much competition the market is all but flooded. Even people with really good marketing skills have a hard time making enough profit to continue the work.

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Kandice Seeber" :

]Yeah, selling jewelry these days is a whole other ballgame, I think. It's ]so hard because there is just so much competition the market is all but ]flooded. Even people with really good marketing skills have a hard time ]making enough profit to continue the work.

i could handle most of it a lot better with a partner. i thought i had one. **shrug**

for instance - that Jewelry Designer Pro software? it's done in Access. it's almost exactly what i asked david to put together for me. would have taken him about two days, if he concentrated. it wouldn't have had the fancy interface, but it also wouldn't have had the "required fields" and the ones i don't need. never happened.

what i always seem to need MOST is someone to handle the flippin' paperwork that sends me over the edge. right. i'm on my own and going to stay that way from now on. so, i'm in the same relative boat that Tina is . . . the things i am not up to doing mean my sales are going to suffer -- and i hate that -- but there also isn't much i can do about it.

[kicking the soapbox back where it belongs and going back to entering inventory - NOT how i want to spend the day, but it has got to get done!]

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

(Jewelry) newest creations: ----------- The measure of the menace of a man is not what hardware he carries, but what ideas he believes.-- Jeff Jordan

"his own emerging glassblowing talent cut short"? You might want to check your facts before condescending to Chihuly. Before he lost the eye, he'd won a Fullbright to blow glass at Venini, founded and taught at RISD's glass program, co-founded Pilchuck, and been awarded an NEA artist grant for his glass work. That's pretty emerged, as emerged goes. Yes, he's a brilliant marketer, but he was also a very fine glassblower.

-Furnace chick, relurking

I'll ask someone to put you on the email list!

-Kalera

alex wrote:

I didn't hear any condescension. I heard admiration for different aspects of his work, regret that he lost an eye, and a statement that she prefers different artists.

Tina

OK -- I hear you all...... on your comments about my beads...

and the comments about better pics. I know even THESE are not perfect -- but I realized my video camera will take still pics.... so I tried three different backgrounds. One "off white", one pale purple, and one teal.... with a set of six beads. None of these have ever been listed before - so I put them on my webpage. And Sooz - three of these were in my "pile" -ok -- y'all can stop laughing at me now.... maybe you are right... take a gander at the first SIX photos on this page - and tell me if these are BETTER presentation - and if they are duds.. or winners....

Cheryl last semester of lawschool! yipee! DRAGON BEADS Flameworked beads and glass

Oh, hey - that's much better! I wouldn't use the dark green background, because it washes out the color in the bead. The two with the pale purple background look the best to me. I would also not use the black and white checkered background - that messes with the eyes too much. Definitely stay with crisp, clean, light backgrounds. But soooooo much better than the scanned images!