Question for everyone

I love sculptural beads and I buy quite a few by themselves. Amy Caswell is one of my favorites, but I didn't win Nacho yesterday. :-(

I think when making a sculptural it's better to include complimentary beads. I sold a wonderful bead the other day and had the buyer contact me to make a set of beads to match the sculpture. She asked for another 20+ beads and I was glad to do that. I get better results on auctions when I have matching beads with the sculptures as well.

Either way, have fun and do what you want. There are no limits in hot glass.

Starlia

alex wrote: > My question, is there a big market for sculptures? (not looking for > big money) if you like the sculpture bead would rather buy it > separately or in a set with nice complementary beads and would you > enjoy the story behind the character ( catchy name, silly clothes, > how he came to be)

I wouldn't know about a general market, but *I* like 'em. I have a handful already. At some point I'm going to construct a beaded "tree" to hang them on; most of them are too delicate (in my mind) to wear as jewelry. That being so, I'd rather have them alone, rather than in a set. Other people's mileage may vary, of course.

I'm also a big fan of stories. I'm frequently inspired by an incident from the past or a memory (like berry-picking schnauzers), and I like to pass it along to my (would-be) customers. That's what makes handcrafted beads and jewelry special: you don't get storys with stuff being cranked out of a factory. :o)

Arondelle

I love sculptural beads. Most of mine are of flowers, but I also have people and animals.

I don't know what your own idea of "animal beads" is, so it's hard to answer simply. So I'll make it complicated as usual.

I do NOT do cute. At all. Though stylized works well for me. Eg, I love Jerri's stylized bunnies (BeadBimbo) and Chad's (Art Attacks and Strokes) spirit animals, but not ones that look like toys or the cartoonish ones by Amy Caswell. And of course Poppovitch's realistic ones are fabulous. This is strictly a matter of personal preference, rather than good or bad.

Ever seen the animal paintings of Franz Marc (1930s and 40s?).

This is probably not the norm, since what I hear people oooh and aaah about are "cute" ones. It would seem to me that the cute ones would do well in a set, but a stylized or realistic one would function best as a focal. I might be interested on a pair of coordinating accents, but not more than that.

So show us your animals.

Tina

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

]So show us your animals.

seconded!

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

I like the sculpture beads. I'm watching them and kind of thinking about collecting them myself. If it talked or sang to me I wouldn't mind having the complementary beads. But the sculptured bead would go in my shadow box. So the other beads included would be used in something else.

Would the complementary beads make the price more? Or would it not make it a difference in your pricing?

I personally always am interested in very realistic botanical beads (flowers, leaves) and realistic (not "cute") animals.

Although sets are nice I usually can't afford them so it would be nice if you offered singles at least part of the time.

marisa2

alex wrote:

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Ok, here is the first one I will put different whimsy animals up weekly and I have decided that I will make the animals available for purchase separately on our website

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

] I will ]make the animals available for purchase separately on our website ] ]

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

Great job! Mr Jay Dodds is a work of art. Can't wait to see future sculptures.

LOL! He's cute! I love him.

-Kalera

alex wrote: