Just a quick note that the new prizes for SeekIndie just went up on site. This one is called “April Showers Bring May Flowers”. You may remember us writing about this contest held by crafters earlier. The basic idea is a sort of scavenger hunt where you look at the pages of participating sites for special banners… you need to find five of them before you can submit your entry to win on of 13 gift boxes.
More info at: Seek Indie website
I got a note from Jeaneen Benson regarding an interesting online contest being held by independent crafters. The site is called “Seek Indie” and was created by bunch of the Switchboards community members as a way to promote the sites of independent craft peeps.
The idea is sorta neat… this is similar to a scavenger hunt online where you search the pages of participating sites in order to find special “heart banners”. Next to each of the banners is a specific number that you need to write down. Once you find five of these numbers, you can submit your entry for a chance to win prizes that are submitted by the indie crafters. (They select a set number out of all the correct entries who will receive the gifts.)
It’s a pretty simple concept, and we dig it because it helps these indie sites out. Seek Indie’s first contest was held earlier in the year and though it is now finished, they are going to keep having them periodically. Although, there weren’t too many jewelry designers featured in this earlier crop of indie businesses (14 in total participated), I’ve heard they are getting a ton more for the next one.
So if you’re a jewelry designer and are interested in getting some much needed PR, you might want to contact them to volunteer a prize for the next contest.
For more information, check out the Seek Indie website.
A quick note for jewelry makers who live up in the Bay Area in California. The well-known multi-city indie craft show Bazaar Bizarre has expanded to include San Francisco as a venue.
Originally started up in the Boston area back in 2001 by Greg Der Ananian, the Bazaar Bizarre was an attempt to share personal artsy creations with other like-minded folks who were into making crafts that weren’t typically sold at “your granny’s craft fair.”
The fair has had successful shows in Boston, Cleveland, and Los Angeles. We actually participated as Bellaceti at last year’s Bazaar Bizarre Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium, and although the sales didn’t exactly provide the windfall we had expected the show was a nice first experience as a vendor. There were quite a few jewelry makers as well, so there was some expected competition. But a ton of people attended the all day show.
The newest Bazaar location will actually be at the Maker Faire which takes place at the San Mateo Fairgrounds near SF. The event is taking place this Spring on April 22-23, 2006. Unlike the previous Bazaar Bizarres, this one is not going to be a standalone event; but the Maker Faire will definitely attract a similar clientele since it’s put on by Make Magazine. The fair will feature The Mythbusters and “all kinds of people who make amazing things in garages, basements, and backyards.”
I’m not sure how this Bazaar will differ from previous ones… one other thing to note is that it’s held over two days, whereas the normal Bazaars are usually just one day. If you should be interested in being a jewelry vendor, you should probably contact them to find out more.
The Bazaare Bizarre website is located at: http://bazaarbizarre.org/
Hey jewelry makers: I was tipped off to the upcoming “Your Design Here” 2006 contest over at Rings ‘n Things the other day. This might be worth a look if you make jewelry and are looking to get some possible exposure for your designs.
So what is the “Your Design Here” contest? They basically created this contest as a way to encourage their customers to come up with unique and beautiful jewelry designs. You can enter your work in one of seven categories: Glass, Gemstones, Nature, Mostly Metal, Polymer Clay, Metal Clay and Alternative Materials.. The judges select the best entries (the deciding factors are: Originality, Craftsmanship and Aesthetics) and the winning designs will potentially be featured in their enormous print catalog as well as other promotions worldwide.
If you haven’t heard of the Rings ‘n Things company yet, they are one of the best places to find jewelry making supplies on the web. Sorry, this may sound like a commercial but we’ve ordered from them many times and have always been impressed with the speed of service and professionalism. Not to mention the selection of findings, precious stones, crystals and just about everything else related to jewelry.
Continue reading “Rings and Things Contest” …
We’re starting up a new section of the site that will focus on interviews with jewelry professionals and other people connected to the business of making jewelry. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile, since Jewelry at Bloglander focuses on the beginning jewelry maker who will definitely benefit from the opinions and knowledge of the more experienced members of the craft.
For our inaugural feature, I got a chance to interview Dr. David Weiman, who is the Marketing Director for the well known magazine Lapidary Journal. Being a licensed psychologist, he knows a thing or two about the psychology of selling jewelry! He also contributes articles and commentary for Colored Stone, Step by Step Beads, and Step by Step Wire Jewelry. Check out the interview for an in depth look at how to market and sell your jewelry:
I found another cool looking potential DIY jewelry craft show/fair to consider when selling your items.
This one has the interesting name No Coast Craft-O-Rama which is of course because the craft fair is located in Minneapolis, MN. So many times for craft shows and fairs, you hear about “West Coast this” and “East Coast that” - and so I think these people got a little tired of being ignored so they’ve tagged their show with catchy name “No Coast”!
The Craft-O-Rama is put together by Crafters Local 612, who are 6 crafty gals (Tracy, Willa, Ellen, Kristen S, Eireann and Kristen Mary) from the area. What is the No Coast Craft-O-Rama? Here is their description:
A hip craft sale catering to unique handmade items of all sorts put on by people who wanted to have a venue for buying and selling crafts typically outside the “craft sale” or “art sale” norm.
I hadn’t taken the time to look online to check for Jewelry Shows and Fairs lately. But yesterday I found out about the Urban Craft Uprising show on the IBuyDIY site (which in itself is a pretty cool place to visit)
Like we’ve said before, it can be really difficult to get your jewelry designs in front of a targeted audience. This is especially true if you’re just starting out. So it might be helpful to spring for a table at a smaller independent craft fair where the traffic is already interested in handmade things. This can also be a great way to network and compare notes with other jewelry designers.
Urban Craft Uprising looks like a fairly good sized independent craft show featuring the work of vendors in the Pacific Northwest. Specifically, the show is taking place at the Artists Gallery of Seattle on Sunday November 6, 2005 from 12-6pm.
Here is the mission statement from their website:
We are funky, independent designers with craftitude. We will bring to Seattle, Washington an annual juried show of over 50 vendors whose work is handmade and reflects the current DIY revolution. Our goal is to provide the optimal environment for vendors to showcase their creations and for the public to have the opportunity to buy unique, handmade, one-of-a-kind items.
One of the most difficult things for the beginning jewelry designer is figuring out how to sell items online. Sure, you could just open up an Ebay account and sell items on there and many jewelry makers have been successful at that.
However, there is a huge amount of undercutting competition on Ebay… people want bargains and unless you’ve already made a name for yourself it can be tough to attract buyers unless your prices are perilously cheap.
So maybe you are interested in doing some sort of consignment. This can be tough for pricing too, because many consigners take 30-40% of the sale price. Plus, many want to see some sort of track record already and of course there are the dreaded “returns” if your items don’t sell.
Enter Etsy.com which was launched just month or so ago but already has a pretty large following. You can think of Etsy as a sort of “mini-Ebay” that lets you have your own “shop” site. Everyone gets their own shop that is customizable, along with a subdomain url (yourname.etsy.com). Here’s a screenshot of a sample shop:
They charge a $0.20 commission in order to list an item no matter the quantity or price. This is nice to be able to have the same item listed without getting hit with the listing fee again. For every sale they take a 3.5% commission fee which is pretty reasonable, in the range of a fee that is charged by credit card companies. Like Ebay they are merely a “connection” site between buyers and sellers. So it’s a buyer’s responsibility to pay and a seller’s responsibility to handle shipping, etc.
I put up some ideas on getting wholesale prices on jewelry making supplies. It’s pretty easy nowadays for the average person to get some great prices on jewelry supplies what with the internet and Ebay. Some of the things talked about are: buying jewelry online, buying in bulk, buying at jewelry shows and wholesale shops, and getting a resale tax ID.
Whee! This past Sunday we got to attend the annual Rings & Things Bead Show 2005. The one we went to was located at the Holiday Inn in Costa Mesa, CA. Each show is only 4 hours long. Ours started at 1pm and lasted until 5pm. We got their at around 2:30 but stayed until past closing!
So, you might be wondering, “What’s the big deal about going to a show when I can just order easily online or off their catalog?” Well, there are 2 things. The first is, that the prices of the items at the show have tags that show the RETAIL price. However, the sale for the show is 50% off the retail price and then an additional 15% off of that! So, even though I believe that their catalog prices are less than retail (by how much, I’m not sure). They are certainly not an additional 15% off of half price!
Secondly, it can make a huge difference to look at a stone in real life than in a catalog or on a website. The catalog picture on the website may cover up flaws, may be different in color, or it just might be something different than you pictured. There’s no way that can happen when you’re holding the stone in your hand. What you get is what you get!
Unfortunately, I forgot to bring our camera to take some pics of the actual show tables, so you will have to do with a picture of the stuff we ended up buying. Last year, we ended up with mostly “fall” colored stones and crystals in red, brown and yellow. This year we got a veritable rainbow of colors! Among the items we picked out were Amazonite, Amethyst, Cherry Quartz, Pearls, Crackle Glass, and various crystals.
In case you’ve never been to one of these things, the shows are held in a medium sized meeting room. They lay out the strands of stones, gems and crystals on many tables. I think there were about 30-40 large tables just filled with stuff. In back they also have a few tables with findings, jewelry tools, and large size pendants. They give you a large tray and then set you loose. It was pretty crazy at the beginning with tons of people all grabbing at stuff.
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