Blog

I am kind of sick of jewelry at the moment.  Time to talk about painting or knitting for awhile.

I was looking through my photos and I came across some pictures of some of my older work–some of which are long since sold and I’d forgotten all about them.  Let’s take a walk down memory lane, shall we?

The painting above is of my friend Theresa’s dog, Ling.  It was, I think, the third portrait I’d ever painted and it remains probably my best work to date.

This painting, called Stuart Dreams of Peace is another favorite.  It was donated to PAWS/LA for their annual Pet Art auction a few years ago.  The unfortunate part of the story is that about a year ago I got an email from the woman who purchased it, saying she loved it and was so happy she bought it.  But she referred to it as Kramer Dreams of Peace.  I wrote back and thanked her, then said it was actually called Stuart Dreams of Peace, and that PAWS/LA must’ve made a mistake when they labled the art at the auction.  She replied that the title was actually written on the canvas in back of the painting (which is something I routinely do), which means I’m the one who made the mistake.  Oops.  Well, they look a lot alike–I guess sometimes I can’t even tell them apart.

Can you tell these dogs apart?

The painting below is called The Walk and it hangs in my living room. 

Finally, the photo below was taken the first year we got Stuart, around 2001.  He was a cuddle bug then, and he’s a cuddle bug now.

As promised, here are the things I learned from the event I went to on Saturday.

I should note, however, that even though the event was not a success for me, I don’t regret doing it.  The fee I paid for the booth was a donation to PAWS/LA, an organization I’ve supported both financially and through volunteer work for many years now.  Furthermore, I did indeed learn some practical lessons from  which I definitely needed to learn.  Yeah, I wish I could’ve sold more jewelry, but overall I’m cool with what transpired.

So here are those lessons:

1)  Know your event – As it happens, I did know my event and that it was a definite possibility I wouldn’t sell much.  But what I didn’t figure into it was just how dog-oriented the event really was and how that would figure into not selling jewelry.

More than one person seemed surprised I was there at all, and some even asked what I was doing selling jewelry at this particular event.  I told them that I was a long-time supporter of PAWS/LA and this was a part of that support.  They also asked if I was selling jewelry for dogs, to which I said no (I generally don’t "believe" in dogs wearing things like jewelry or clothes, unless it’s for practical reasons like keeping them warm or safe in some way).

The picture above shows me holding the type of wares sold by most of the other vendors.  This is a doggie umbrella.  You can’t see it in the photo but there is a chain that hooks onto the dogs collar in the center of the umbrella.

Everyone had dogs with them.  Dogs don’t generally like shopping for jewelry.  A couple of dogs tried to jump up onto my table to see if I was giving out treats (like many of the other vendors were).  One dog knocked some necklaces down on the grass with his paw.  It’s no secret that I adore dogs, and none of this really bothered me, but it was painfully clear that this was not the event for me to sell loads of jewelry, dog-themed or not.  I did, however, get to engage in one of my favorite hobbies–petting dogs.

2)  Run through everything in advance.  Mick and I briefly practiced transactions, made sure the authorization process worked, etc.  I also set up my display in advance and I’m so glad I did.

3)  Think about the practicality of the price tags you use.  I made a big mistake here.  The tags I used were really big.  Sure, they were easy to read but they got hopelessly tangled together and with all the chains on the jewelry.  BIG PAIN IN BOOTY.  This also really hampered people in looking at the jewelry and made the whole process much more awkward than it had to be.

So what tags to use?  I’d use small plastic tags that can be easily cut off either by the purchaser or at the point of sale.  I’d probably stay away from adhesive tags since they can have a gummy residue which is annoying to remove.

4)  Pricing.  this is something I’m still very unsure about.  It’s so freakin’ hard to strike a balance between adaquately compensating yourself for your work and pricing your work so that customers will buy.  One of the problems is that as an independant craftsperson, it is impossible to compete with jewelry made overseas in factories for a fraction of what it costs to make my own jewelry.  That said, my feeling is that many of our pieces could’ve been overpriced, though I’m not sure.  In the future this is one of the areas that I will be looking at most closely.

5)  Understand that people have potential customers have a variety of tastes.  Not everyone is going to love your work, and not everyone is going to want to buy it.  But if you stay true to your own style and feel strongly about your work and talent, there will be other people who feel strongly about it as well.  Now if I could only find them!  😉

Okay, I’ll admit it.  Despite my "optimistic–don’t take things personally–it was a learning experience–this is not a confirmation that you have no talent" attitude at the disappointment of Saturday’s event, I’m feeling a little beat up.  Just a little, but that’s just enough to un-motivate me.  So I am forcing myself to get back into the blog of things.

Back Story:
Saturday, June 2, I participated in an event called PAWSAPALOOZA, which was a doggie film festival organized to benefit PAWS/LA.  As part of the festivities, there was going to be what they called a "canine midway" of dog related products and services.  It occurred to me that while this might not be the perfect venue to sell my jewelry, it could be a good opportunity to at least get my feet wet.  I have sold a lot of jewelry since I started my business in 2001, but almost all of it has been through my website.  I’ve never done any type of artist fair or even gone to any stores to try to sell my work, but lately I’ve been thinking it might be time to do that.  I decided I’d go ahead and get a booth.

Since I had almost no inventory when I decided to get the booth, I invited my sister-in-law and a friend to join me.  Both of them gave me a nice selection of jewelry to display with my own and I felt like we had a good mix of pieces.

Prior to the day of the event, I’d spent some time trying to plan how I was going to display all the jewelry.  This turned out to be a lot harder than I’d expected!  My original display was very elaborate, and included my wooden buddha to hang necklaces and bracelets on, as well as some vases and a glass shadow box.  It all looked great, but upon trying to find places to put the actual jewelry, I knew some things would have to go.  I ended up buying about 8 yards (way too much) of a black velvet type material and some styrofoam shapes to use as levels under the cloth.  That, along with some displays that Susan and Antoinette had contributed, was all I decided to use.

Upon arriving at the venue, I had about two hours to set up.  It seemed like more than enough time, but I was stressed out all the same.  Mick brought his lap top and planned to use his cell phone as a modem so we could authorize credit card purchases online.  This didn’t work out as well as we thought it would as we kept getting error messages.  Scott from PAWS/LA told us he planned to just gather all the credit card info and then authorize it off site.  While it’s riskier to do it this way, it was really the only practical thing to do.

Even after doing a couple of display run-throughs at home, it was still difficult to display the jewelry to its greatest effect.  I did the best I could and frankly, thought the display looked pretty good.

Above:  Mick West, my trusty assistant

This was more or less the final set up.  I put Antoinette and Susan’s jewelry on either side of mine, which was in the center, then merged some of their pieces with mine where there were similarities.  For example, Susan has some peace-themed jewelry which I placed with my peace-themed jewelry.

 
Above:  Antoinette’s display.

Above:  Holly’s display.

Above:  Susan’s display.

This is me, feigning enthusiasm as it became painfully clear that no one who came to this event was there to buy jewelry.

Above: the event is almost over and look at all the jewelry still on the table.  Can we go home yet?

Tommorow:  Lessons Learned

On June 2, I will be exhibiting my jewelry at an event called Pawsapalooza, sponsored by PAWS/LA.  I have been involved with PAWS/LA (stands for Pets are Wonderful Support) in one way or another since 2001.  Their mission is to help clients (which include people with life-threatening illnesses and the elderly) keep their pets when it may no longer be feasible for health or financial reasons.

Though my jewelry isn’t generally dog related, I have created some pieces for this event which celebrate “Dog Love.”  The necklace pictured below is an example–it features a sterling plate at the clasp that reads “Dog is Good.” 

This necklace features peach rutilated quartz, peridot, and appatite stones and sterling silver components.

The back: 

I am suddenly very excited about this part of my line as I have long wanted to create jewelry that was not overtly dog related but gave a subtle nod to the dog lover in all of us.  I think this does it beautifully.

One of the phrases I’m stamping on my jewelry is “She walks in beauty,” which is the title and first line of a poem by Lord Byron.

The necklace below incorporates this stamping (though I know it’s difficult to read):

Here is a close up of the pendant used in this piece.  It is a slightly larger version of the technique I used in this necklace, and I added a peridot briolette to the center, which rests nicely inside the domed portion of the pendant.

The entire text of the poem is below:

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that ‘s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow’d to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair’d the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

The peace theme I like to use in my jewelry has been hard to incorporate into earrings.  The other day I made a pair that does it nicely, however:

I started with fine silver disks and stamped the word "Peace" in each, then domed them.  I then added a briolette of aquamarine in the center of the disk and wirewrapped natural citrine to finish the earrings.

A couple of days ago I had an idea for making some “pendants” so I spent most of my time in the studio on Tuesday actually making them.  They turned out exactly as I’d expected and I am very pleased with the outcome.   

Here is the necklace in it’s entirety:

The technique is molton silver flattened with hammer, then domed and polished.  The beauty of it is that if you don’t like the shape you get you can always melt it and try again.

In this necklace, I used rhodolite garnet and natural citrine beads.

Some more fruits of my weekeend labor:

These earrings are of extremely similar styles but differ in a few ways.  The top pair is made of 26g sterling silver wire with very small sterling silver beads surrounding a single ruby bead.

The second pair is made with 22g sterling silver wire, much larger sterling beads, and natural carnelian rondelles.  They are much heavier than the ruby version, but still comfortable to wear.  I call them Gypsy earrings.