Wholesale and Retail and Dares - Oh My!

In my seemingly endless quest to find ways to make an income through jewelry, I have decided to do something that feels inherently daring to me, and investigate wholesale venues!

I have been thinking about wholesale for a very long time. I had a great catch-up call with an old friend recently, and conversation turned to her store, a wonderful herb shop in southern California called In Harmony Herbs and Spices. It’s in Ocean Beach, San Diego, for any of you who have the opportunity to visit. Jodi is amazing, so completely knowledgeable, and she works so hard to make her shop a place her customers love to visit. She has been carrying jewelry for some time, and we soon began to plan what kind of jewelry I might make for her shop. Whew! This feels a lot less daring to me. What a great way for me to keep in touch with a good friend, and ease into wholesale jewelry at the same time!

This brings up so many different questions. Are my retail prices in line with my making a profit at wholesale prices? What kinds of pieces do I begin with? Which of my pieces lend themselves to the kind of production work that would be necessary for establishing standard pieces, sizes and prices? Because the shop owner is my friend, I am even more motivated for this collaboration to work out well. I find myself asking, can I squeeze my prices a little lower to make them more affordable for both wholesale and retail buyers? Can I streamline any of my production methods to decrease time, and create lower prices that way? Wholesale really causes a person to evaluate their work and practices differently!

We settled on starting out with a few different earring designs. I plan to start wholesaling with one line, keep things flexible, adjust, and add lines as I go. Will I really dare wholesale? I sure plan to - next stop, some earring designs to go!

It's been a while!

Feb 14 2010,Happy Valentine’s Day!

I can’t believe how long it has been since I have posted last! I guess I haven’t figured out how to fit blogging into my regular schedule. A year seems like a long hiatus, no? But it’s been a good year, full of many happy things, and lots of jewelry fun and sales.

I love teaching metalsmith classes at the Garden of Beadin in Bartonsville, PA, and classes are going strong. I like it so much that I have been dreaming of finding new places to teach. Maybe something will turn up soon. I had begun teaching classes at a wonderful new shop (for me), My Father’s Beads, In Coopersburg, PA. Sadly for me, they are closing soon. I will miss the owner, Jeri, and the people I was beginning to meet and know there.

Here are some samples I made in a great workshop I took last fall, with Janna Gregonis. Steeling Kisses is an example of the Korean art of Po Mak San Dum. First, make a nice sharp chisel. Then, chisel an intricate pattern in steel sheet. Finally, hammer in some metal foil. Anything from 24K gold foil to colored candy foil will do. That’s how Steeling Kisses got its name: Mild steel combined with Hershey’s Kiss foil! (Extra perk – you get to eat the kisses.) Here, another pair of earrings for a friend’s gift, this time with 24K gold foil.

Below, some Keum bu earrings from the same weekend, 24 K gold foil heat bonded to sterling silver. Janna taught keum bu with both a hot plate and a torch. I have done keum bu before with a hot plate, but I didn’t want to have to buy and store yet one more piece of equipment. I just loved learning how to do keum bu with a torch! It was right up my alley, and helped avoid a case of hot-hand. Now, if only the cost of 2 K gold foil would drop. Ha!

On TV!!!

OK, now that it's all over I'm just SOOOO excited! But I'd better start back at the beginning. A few months ago, I sent an email to my college alumni correspondent. I found out that she lives in my town, and edits a local business journal, so I contacted her to say hello. When she found out that I make silver jewelry, she asked me if I would do a presentation for a group she is a member of - the Monroe County Earth Science Association. They go on gem and fossil digs, share mineral samples, discuss earthquakes, and are interested in all manner of earth science based careers. Apparently, they had been hoping to find a silversmith to do a presentation for the group. Well, I teach Earth Science, and my daughter is a major rock hound, so it sounded like the perfect match.

Over the last few weeks, I considered how to go about this presentation. Intro, a bit about silver, pass some stuff around, show some of my work. Zzzzzzzzz. What about a demo? Everybody loves fire, right? Can I bring a torch with me? Sure, said the library. If the fire alarms sound that night, we'll just shut them off again. Go right ahead.

I was a little tense as I pulled up to the library the night of the meeting. I asked my daughter to say something so I wouldn't be nervous. She said, "Mom, you are an intelligent, educated person. You have nothing to worry about." Huh?? WHO was this in the car with me? No child I've ever met! My darling Rick showed up to help out and support me. I was covered.

So, in we went. I talked about how to harden silver with a hammer, and how to soften it again with a torch, and then I went about hardening and softening some silver while I demonstrated how I make a leaf pendant for them. I had a great time. I must be a natural ham. It wasn't until halfway through that I saw the camera. I can't believe I had forgotten - my contact had told me the local cable station might come out to film that night! I had been sure they wouldn't show up. As it turned out, not only did they film, but I even got a private interview afterward! I was on TV!!! I was on cloud 9. (I was on TV!!) I don't know when the show will air. (I was on TV!!) I never even found out what show I was on. But heck, I was on TV!!! (I must be famous!) My 15 minutes of fame, at last.

Forging Ahead

I had a fun time I had teaching my February metals class. The subject was basic forging, and the goal was to create a sterling silver neck ring and a sterling silver cuff bracelet in 3 hours. It was tight, but everyone did a great job! We practiced on copper first, to get the feel of the hammer and the metal, and then we switched to silver. The sounds of metal on metal could be heard throughout the store, the sound of a happy class hard at work. Just look at them go, hammering away, helping one another out. Here's Diane, proudly modeling her new copper neck ring with the pierced tree pendant she made in our first class. Many who missed that first class would like to try it now! Like all of the students, she did a great job!

I have been really busy planning for future classes, writing lists of materials to order, developing project ideas and creating sample pieces. If I can get of my ideas off the ground, maybe the time will be right for some second level classes. How cool would that be? Already, I’m preparing to make a pitch for getting a torch in the room. First comes annealing, so we can move more metal. I think fusing isn’t far behind. And I hear there have been some requests for soldering!!! Big happy face here! We’ll start seeing some interesting projects from these classes, I think. Can’t wait!

Finally -- Off and Running at 1000 Markets!

Whew! Finally, I'm waiting for approval to go public with with Silver Vine Jewelry on the web at 1000 Markets! Even as easy as www.1000Markets.com makes it, it still takes time and energy to upload all of your photos and descriptions, and learn your way around a new site. I'm having fun organizing my work into collections, and my Leaf Collection is getting filled out first.

I can tell I'm going to love it here! Everyone is friendly and personable, and the shops are wonderful. I keep getting distracted by the variety of fascinating hand crafts produced by craftsmen and artists from all across the nation. I really want wone of the amazing artistically knitted hats I saw - I've never seen anything like them before! Browsing around is so easy with the "browse" tab just staring at me from the top of the page, and before I know it, another hour has passed, and I have barely begun to post my pieces!

Well, it's time to get back to posting. But wait, there was a beautiful watercolor I saw just a few minutes ago, I wonder what else she paints.....

Pierced!!

Well, it's been a while since I posted, and have I been busy!!! My first jewelry teaching gig is behind me, and the next is coming up fast. I am so lucky to have found Meredith and Cherie, at The Garden of Beadin', our local bead shop (if you're in the Poconos, that is). They are warm and friendly, just great to work with. Cherie's lovely little shop is a perfect place to take classes in jewelry making. My classes in cold connections for jewelry have been warmly recieved. I can tell I'm going to like it here. Our first class, held Jan 10, was a piercing class. It covered the basics of using a jeweler's saw, and piercing a pattern into metal by drilling a hole inside the pattern. Students learned how to thread and hold a jeweler's saw, how follow a pattern, and how to use a light touch. I am so proud of them! Conversations, questions, and amazingly few broken saw blades, an incredible feat for a first experience. I was very impressed as dragonflies, trees, wolves, and more emerged from under their saws. Everyone walked away with a copper or silver pendant to be proud of.

Our next class will be held on Feb 7, and I will be teaching basic forging while we make bracelets and neck rings to hang our pendants from. I really enjoyed teaching the class. It's quite a different experience from being a student, and I can't wait for the next class. I have posted a few of the pieces that I made as class samples. Before class, I readied another pendant that had a scattering of viney leaves on it. I pounded it with a rawhide hammer to help harden the silver when it was complete. Well, my wonky, misshappen hammer hit that piece at some weird angle, shot it off the workbench, and I haven't seen it since. Oh well, some day in the future a beautiful, dusty, viney disc will appear from out of the sawdust, and I'll be back in business, ready for a new groupof students!

What Company!

I was busy through the 1st of December, choosing the pieces and creating the display for a show I have been privilged to be a part of. This is another show hosted and supported by the wonderful and talented folks at PSG (PA Society of Goldsmiths). When I arrived at the location, Temple Keneseth Israel in Philadelphia, I thought I was hallucinating from sleep deprivation. Sure, I was hoping for a nice place, I had heard they had a gallery. But this place couldn't possibly be right. Would a temple really take up a city block? I entered to find a granite and marble reception area remniscent of an art museum. Obviously, I must have made an error. That's easy to understand. You see, setting up for this show should have been easy. We can set up a whole booth in a few hours, right? How long could it take to arrange some jewelry in 3 of PSG's ubiquitous black frames? No more than a couple of hours, I was sure. Oops. 21 hours and no sleep later, I only had a 2-1/2 hour drive to Philly, and then I would finally be done. It was easy to understand why I might have taken a wrong turn. Amazingly, there was the gallery, and what a beautiful space! And there were the members of PSG, velcroing and arranging, hanging the frames that have become identified with the group. It must be the place after all!

A couple of hours later, all of the black frames were hung, the artists names were in place, the glass cases were locked, and we stepped back to take in the whole picture. to me, this was just irresistable. The quality and variety of the work was astounding. To see all of this work hung in one place gave me flutters! (Or was that the fourth cup of coffee?) Check out some of the photos to get an idea of the breadth and quality that PSG artists are capable of!

The following Sunday, we all joined together for the opening and artist's reception. Hors devoirs and quality art jewelry - is there a better combination? It was great fun to meet with all of the other artists, and to get to know the temple director and meet some of the members. Quite a few pieces had already been sold, and we got right to work. I saw pieces being wrapped up steadily, and I helped to make a few sales as well, if I do say so myself. Many PSG artists donated a piece to the temple's fundraising silent auction, and I can't wait to see how much they raise. With several activities taking place that same day in its various auditoriums, it's obvious that this temple is a vital and vibrant presence in the community, and well appreciated by its members.

So it wasn't a case of sleep deprivation after all. And it turns out that 20 hours isn't all that unusual to create the displays for these events. Well, I'm forewarned for next time. I won't wait until the last day. I will plan, and prepare early, and.... yeah, right. Okay. It's late. I think it's that sleep deprivation thing again. Time to sleep, and dream of the beautiful pieces hanging there.