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Funny Kandice, I am getting ready to do the very same thing. I just finished my last catalog order last night and that is it for my catalog. I am doing it pretty much for the same reasons you are. It is hard to create new things when you are constantly making the old. I also find it really hard to make myself do catalog orders, there is so much more I want to do.

I think this is also one difference between a craftsman and an artist. A craftsman will reproduce things over and over again on demand, that is what they do. An artist makes whatever they are moved to create at the time and sells it. If they remake something it is because they wanted to remake it, or were moved to revisit a particular piece. Having to make something on demand really stifles my creativity I've noticed.

I've been wanting to do this for awhile now but I was concerned that it would drive some customers away. But I finally reached the conclusion that while I would be sad to loose anyone, this is what I have to do in order to let my own creativity flow, not to mention to preserve my sanity.

Teresa,

Yep, those are the reasons I am changing things up as well. I have found myself sort of stuck in the tedium of making things over and over. I really love my customers, though, and hopefully this won't alienate too many of them. And I always like suggestions and will often take requests. I just don't want to officially dedicate my time to remaking things anymore.

It's been almost 4 years since I started, and I feel the need to stretch my wings a bit. :)

I am glad to hear you're going in that direction, too - your latest stuff has just been breathtaking!! Stretch those wings!!!

Thank you two for that!

It doesn't only go for beads it goes for jewelry as well. I can easily make 5 or so single memory wire bracelets in an evening, or several pairs of single pin earrings, but it was getting kinda boring - and I have a bit of a supply as I rarely sell any at the market, so I should be OK for those for the craft fair later this month (never know, lots of tourists around for the Merrie Monarch Festival

- which is why I wanted to do this one).

Sooo, I made 2 more pairs with beads from the Sienna Boro I bought from Kalera, neither one of which is like the earrings I usually make, one of them doesn't even have Job's Tears in it, and one more pair that just popped into my head while making the second one of those, partly from that second pair and partly from other people's (around me here) earrings.

It is so much more fun to do something different, even after only a year, I found myself limited, and rather playing with wire wrapping seaglass than making more of the same, even if it never really is the same. Yes, I will make more memory wire bracelets and things, at some point, and I will do more wire wrapping (practice) so that at some point when it comes out more evenly I can actually make wire wrap earrings. I haven't seen any wire wrapped kukui nut earrings yet. That's one thing I want to do. (It's just too bad that all the tumbled and drilled kukui nuts I can get here are from elsewhere. There are so many kukui nuts here, and they are part of the Hawaiian culture.)

- And I want to get a black bamboo so that I can use that for beads too. I love making jewelry out of things come from nature. Other things on my list of things to do are drilling Royal Poinciana seeds, seabeans and tulipwood seeds, lots of things I can think of doing with those.

I love this group, you are so inspiring.

Maren Palms, Etc.: Tropical Plant Seeds - Hand-made Jewelry - Plants & Lilikoi

Kandice Seeber wrote: > Yep, those are the reasons I am changing things up as well. I have found > myself sort of stuck in the tedium of making things over and over. I really > love my customers, though, and hopefully this won't alienate too many of > them. And I always like suggestions and will often take requests. I just > don't want to officially dedicate my time to remaking things anymore. > > It's been almost 4 years since I started, and I feel the need to stretch my > wings a bit. :)

Wow Kandice, I really couldn't imagine making the same stuff over and over for 4 years, no wonder you wanted to stretch your wings. It's only been a year for me and it was enough.

I took my catalog down yesterday and just doing that gave me such a feeling of freedom, I can't get over it. I'm so glad I did it and I really think it will be not only good for those of us doing this, but also for all the buyers in the long run. I am sure they get bored with the same old things also.

Teresa

Black bamboo sounds really interesting!

:) Totally! I will still be in my own "voice". Just moving on to new colors and designs I think. I of course will probably come back to my favorites quite often so customers can expect that.

I am really excited about finally trying the Bullseye glass I have had in my cabinet for so long!

I am doing it pretty much for the same reasons you are. It is hard to create new things when you are constantly making the old. I also find it really hard to make myself do catalog orders, there is so much more I want to do.>

Boy - I can second that - I am getting really, really, really sorry about taking that huge order -- I'll be making the same damn beads for the next 10 months - and don't have any time for creative stuff. I did make two new seafans and some pretty aqua beads with frit this past week - just because I was going crazy making those chocolates!

Cheryl

I can totally imagine!

Thanks, Doll!!

Hey Kandice (and everyone else).

I can understand being burnt out on doing the same thing over and over and also not having time to experiment.

I wanted to throw something out there though (for people who just can't keep up with the demand, not those that just want to move on)...while I haven't ever taken a business class I did learn somewhere that when demand gets to be too high, rather than removing product, raise the price a bit. That way, you should get less orders but the same, or similar, amount of income. You spend less time but continue to earn.

Of course, I know that customers don't want to hear this but the benefit is being able to offer new designs at the old prices while the catalog is still available, just a bit more of a cost. Customers probably don't want to hear that there is no catalog either.

Just some thoughts.

Thanks Kandice, I had missed your reply until now.

My weekends have been so busy trying to catch up with everything that I'm starting to miss weekend posts. Looking forward to being able to do my laundry at home again some time, when the electricity is back (yes, we're still living "on the end of an extension cord"

- at least the weather has improved some so that we have solar warm (sometimes even hot) water most days now.) (Still, nothing like what Polly is going through)

Maren Palms, Etc.: Tropical Plant Seeds - Hand-made Jewelry - Plants & Lilikoi

Kandice Seeber wrote: > Black bamboo sounds really interesting! >

Hi Lori. :) Actually, my prices are pretty much at the highest I want them to be right now. It is a good point, though, and one that I have told other people about from time to time.

For me, this change is more about moving on to new designs and being free to make something new everyday instead of making something I have already made before. It really feels good to be free of orders and to be able to try new things. I really thought this through before deciding to do this - I really want to make sure my customers are happy. But I also started to not like my job, and that's a place I really don't want to be. I want to continue to love beadmaking. This is the way, for me. :)

When I do carvings, making things from scratch, I only ever do original items, usually letting the unique nature of the stone, wood or ivory determine what emerges. I do some freestyle peyote occasionally too.

Working with seed beads, I often like to do many variations on a pattern. Maybe in the same way that within a set a bead maker will make many variation while keeping the same pattern, or the same colors. I love doing that. And there are patterns I have gone back to again and again through the years. Maybe in the way that Ann Divelbiss, Brendan Blake, and Iris Buchholtz repeat some general patterns and have some favorite colors.

I don't ever take orders because my energy and production are too unreliable.

In stringing beads/lampwork, again I find that each piece is unique because of the difference in the nature of the material. Actually, I wish I would do more things in lampwork that are variations on a theme, just because the designing and pulling out the materials are often half of the time I spend on making something, and even repeating a pattern will not give me the same product.

Maren, I would think that for you the one change that would make the biggest difference would be developing a line of jewelry that is gallery quality -- and price. Maybe keep it in an enclosed case, under glass, at your regular markets, and then when you get a nice collection of it, place it in a store on consignment.

My dad advised me to keep doing my bead work, but change from using simple/cheap materials to using the best stuff. It's the same amount of work, but with a better profit margin.

When I was in Mexico a year and a half ago, I got a piece of black coral, and also found a piece of fan coral attached to a rock rolling in the surf. Working with natural products keep one grounded.

Tina

Thanks Tina.

I have been thinking along those lines myself, being that I'm really still a newbie, and with limited time in top of it, that a lot of what I did so far is still just practice work. I want to get some sterling silver findings and liquid silver, but I haven't yet decided that I'm really ready for that.

I bought some softflex, crimping pliers and crimp beads, and I want to make different things, but I haven't started using it yet. My next project is to make the second incarnation of our daughter's high school graduation lei (I'm not all that happy with the first one, and she'll only graduate from high school once) though.

In other news: we finally have electricity again, but for the next few days are still away from home (yet on island), and stuck with a relatively slow and not very reliable dialup line. (Those of you who ought to get replies to emails: I may or may not get around to that) Norman and I both need(ed) this short vacation, though he spends a lot of time working and I spend a lot of time trying to keep up with work email in spite of everything, and to get some supply of seeds (my other side of the business). I hope to get back to some previous customers here and stores I have talked to last year but never got very far for lack of time and get some stuff sold to the tourist market. Neat thing if you go on vacation in your own car: you can just toss everything in.

Oh, and I'm going to take the earrings I made with the Sienna Boro from Kalera back apart and combine those with the Burnt Sienna Boro (that I got for my birthday), and make something completely different out of them, combined in some pattern that I'm not completely clear about yet.

Aloha,

Maren Palms, Etc.: Tropical Plant Seeds - Hand-made Jewelry - Plants & Lilikoi

Christina Peterson wrote: >

ALL of us are still practicing. When we stop feeling that way, are work is dead.

I'm odd about Softflex, etc, and crimping. I just don't use it. I just can't seem to manage good crimps, and I don't really like how the stuff acts, so I just don't choose to use it. There are other good lines like Power Pro, etc.

Tina