Ask Me Anything

This weeks question comes from Teri at S&T Creations

How do smaller jewelry makers locate and develop relationships for wholesale purchases?  I know some places where I can get good "deals" and we do have a Tax ID for wholesale, which helps.

But I'd love to find those unusual, out of the way, different sources for the unusual beads that are so striking.  I see them at bead shows. I know companies can source for wholesale vendors who can buy 100 strands of the same bead, but what about us little guys????


 Hi Teri! Thanks for the great question, here's what I know about buying beads for wholesale prices for designing and reselling.

First of all, you can usually buy artist made beads at wholesale prices pretty easily. Most artists will have a wholesale policy that varies a little. There is usually an initial amount that you need to purchase for the discount. It might seem like a large amount of money at first, but if you are designing and selling jewelry, you want to make a statement with what you are selling. So buying a larger amount should be better for your sales. I know with my wholesale policy, you only have to spend the larger amount once and then you can buy smaller amounts to fill in when you sell what you have.

As for strands of glass, wood etc beads. The people who get the best prices actually travel to India, China, or where ever the beads are manufactured. They buy direct from the manufacturers. You have to buy a lot of beads to make a trip to India pay off. Your next best bet is a wholesale only show. Sometimes there are minimum quantities and other times there are no minimums. You must register with the show to attend. This means providing resale information. The Atlanta gift mart has a supply section for retailers and other marts around the country. There are also shows like the Gem and Lapidary Wholesale Shows. These are held at certain times of the year all over the country.

You can find Teri's blog here, 
Borntobewornjewelry.wordpress.com



I am taking questions for next weeks and future posts. If you have a question you would like answered by me, e-mail me (jennifer (at) jangles (dot) net) with the subject line, "Ask Me Anything". Leave me a link in the message as well if you have a blog, website, or Etsy shop.

Visit my Website, Etsy Shop, Blog, Facebook, or Studio and Gallery

Ask Me Anything

Hey, Hey, Here we go for the second ever "Ask Me Anything" posts. I have gotten some great questions, keep them coming, I plan to keep answering them.

This weeks question is from Susan, She Asks...

Hi Jennifer - I have been a big fan of your work for several years.  You always seem to have new products/ideas and I am interested in your creative process - how you keep your creative muse charged up?  How do you take it to the next level and be an innovative as you obviously are?  If and when you have "creator's block," how do you move beyond it?  Finally, any chance that you might come to Canada someday so your fans north of the border could meet you in person?

Looking forward to seeing what lovely surprises you will come up with next.

Jennifer Answers: Hi Susan, thanks for the great questions. So let's see, where should I even start? First of all, I am pretty much inspired to do or make something all of the time. There are not enough hours in the day to make all I would want to. I was in high school when I first really got into ceramics. I found my medium and everything I look at I ask myself, "could that be done in clay?". I think in clay. For instance when toggles started showing up in jewelry ten years or so ago, I saw a silver one and thought, I can make one of those in clay and I did. Every week when I am firing my kilns with orders of buttons and beads I almost always have something new in the kiln. It always fun to be waiting to see how something new is going to turn out. I am never afraid of just trying something, I learn from doing.

Now that being said, I have been wanting to do some needlework projects for myself when I'm not working and I am finding it hard to get started. You can't grab and hour when you have it and then all of a sudden be creative. Or at least I can't. I think I have mentioned my monthly "meetings" I have. It's just me at a coffee shop without any computers, telephones, or projects that need to be finished. It's me and my notebooks. My meetings consist of list making and planning, but also doodling and coming up with new ideas. No pressure just a few hours of doodling. That way when I do have some time I have a notebook of ideas and I can pull from it. My creative thinking already took place now I can take what little time I have and start working.

One more thing, that I think helps me stay charged is traveling. First of all I always take a project for the car, I find limited supplies in a box instead of everything I have in my studio helps me focus and not get overwhelmed. Plus having hours in the car with really nothing else to do is perfect. As a side note, my husband doesn't like my driving and he's not good at sitting still in the passenger seat so I am pretty lucky to not have to be behind the steering wheel much. :)  The other way travel helps, is it just gets me out of the usual, I see new things. And when I say travel, I mean driving to Indiana to see our family or camping at the beach...nothing glamorous.


As for coming to Canada, I would love to but no plans in the future as far as I can see, designing has been keeping me at home and not on the road as much as I used to be.

Thanks again Susan!


Got a questions for me?
I am taking questions for next weeks and future posts. If you have a question you would like answered by me, e-mail me (jennifer (at) jangles (dot) net) with the subject line, "Ask Me Anything". Leave me a link in the message as well if you have a blog, website, or Etsy shop. If your question is chosen I will send you one of my ceramic beads or pendants as a thank you for participating.

 
Visit my Website, Etsy Shop, Blog, Facebook, or Studio and Gallery

New Feature! and Winners

Hello, Hello, Whoa...big day, I am choosing three winners. I had loads of comments on both posts, thanks! I appreciate hearing from you. Trust me on this one, I promise I used the random number generator, I just don't know how to post a picture of it like all those other bloggers do.

The winner of the Holiday beads is Bev. One issue of Cloth Paper Scissors Gifts goes to Crystal for her comment and the second issue goes to Hillary Frye for following my blog. Congratulations! E-mail me your mailing address and I will send your prize. jennifer (at) jangles (dot) net

Now on to my new blog feature!

I received an e-mail the other day from a long time follower of my blog. She wanted some business advice. I am always happy to help and it got me thinking. There are probably other readers out there that might be wondering the same thing. That's when I decided it might be fun to have a new feature in the blog...."Ask Me Anything"

"Ask Me Anything" will be a chance for you to do just that. It can be a business question, a personal question, a crafty question, you name it, I will answer it. I am going to kick off the first ever "Ask Me Anything" with Linda's question, actually she had two questions and I will answer them both below.

I am taking questions for next weeks and future posts. If you have a question you would like answered by me, e-mail me (jennifer (at) jangles (dot) net) with the subject line, "Ask Me Anything". Leave me a link in the message as well if you have a blog, website, or Etsy shop. If your question is chosen I will send you one of my ceramic beads or pendants as a thank you for participating. Here's this weeks questions....

Linda Asks: Long story short for me, I want to be a stay-at-home mom and really start taking my art seriously as a business.  For example, actually getting my Etsy store stocked!  I enjoy making jewelry and many other things.  I just would like some advice for someone just starting out and very much in my infant stage of my business.  

 Jennifer Answers: If you want to make jewelry making your main income this is what I would start with. First of all start designing and don't stop. You need to find your style. It doesn't mean you can't design all types of jewelry, but the more jewelry you design, the more your style will come to the surface. A design style is important for two reasons. one is you will be able to decide where and how you need to sell your work. The second is your customers will know the style they can buy from you, they have the comfort of knowing they can return to get the same style time after time.

Once you have a style, you can look at price points, etc. This will help you decide who your target market is. If you make very glitzy, big, expensive one of a kind jewelry pieces a museum show or high end graft gallery might be what to shoot for. If it's a lower price point and more everyday casual jewelry, then you could do home shows.

There are so many avenues to sell your work. Etsy is a great start. This time of year is the perfect time to sell. People are looking for gifts. Fill your shop up, e-mail people or past customers and let them know about the shop. Start a mailing list, collect those customers names so you can let them know when you have new work. I know I love to know when my favorite artists have new work.

I did a post over the the Art Bead Scene a few months ago about what I learned when setting up my gallery. I am going to post them here over the next few weeks. A lot of this information can be translated into setting up your online store.

I hope this helps. :)

Linda Asks: Can't wait to drink a peppermint mocha out of one of your mugs either! Where do you get your peppermint syrup?

Jennifer Answers: As for the peppermint syrup, I order it online through Starbucks, it's a whole pumper of syrup so you can make them at home. I became addicted last year and started spending entirely too much money and had to come up with something better than driving to Starbucks everyday. Here's the link.

Thank you Linda for the question and the inspiration to make this a feature. Linda has an Etsy shop called DayDream Designs.


Looking forward to next weeks question....send them this way!

Have a great day,
Jennifer
Visit my Website, Etsy Shop, Blog, Facebook, or Studio and Gallery