Calling all Beaders!

tahitiangirl

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Joined
Aug 16, 2006
Messages
73
I have a very important question. I have just started to sell my jewelry. I made 25 pieces for Christmas and sold all of them! Most of these pieces did not have pearls or gemstones but sold anyway. My question is do you notice that pieces with certain gems or pearls sell better than others? I am going on a supply buying trip and need to know what will sell at a craft show. I think that because it was around Christmas and jewelry is an easy gift, all of my stuff sold, even the jewelry with just glass beads. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
-Stephanie
 
Wow!!! Congrats! Wish I could say I sold all my pieces, all 200+ of them!! ;)

You must be doing a lot of things right, so did you take some photos to show us??? What did you make? Earrings? Pendants?? Please do tell!!!!

What "themes" did you find that sold?

My suggestion would be to buy a few strands of really high quality lustrous pearls ( maybe 6-8mm, not necessarily very expensive) and try incorporating with your designs and your glass beads if you like. You will find that often pearls have smaller holes than other beads, which can be a bit of a challenge if you use very small pearls.

Also try some of the less expensive (for good quality) semi-precious beads, as garnet, aventurine, smoky quartz, black onyx, clear rock crystal. Also mother of pearl and abalone shell are beautiful!

Do you have some bead fairs in your area for shopping? Obviously your instincts for your market are killer! :cool:
 
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Congratulations on your successful foray into jewelry sales!

I've noticed that semiprecious briolettes are popular and abundant lately.

Where did you sell your pieces? It seems like those designs should provide a good baseline for future stock-- not that you shouldn't expand, of course.
 
Congratulations! I find that color sells well regardless of the materials. Buy things you like and you'll be more inspired to use them creatively. :)
 
I don't make anything for sell, just for myself, friends and family.

I believe jewellery and colours also has trends like clothes, handbags and shoes etc., therefore, it is worth keeping an eye on the trends via glossy magazines etc...

For instance, anything appears on the catwalk is likely to become a trend 3-6mths later :)

Good luck with your business!

DK :)
 
Hello! Congratulations on the sales!

Jacqui and I did a few bead and gem shows over the summer and into the fall and found several jewelry designers and beaders alike came back to buy unique loose pearls from us such as baroque tahitians, baroque freshwaters, small (nugget 8-9MM) and large freshwater keshi's (11-14MM), and coin pearls. One customer in particular came back at every show to buy the larger 14MM freshwater keshi's. She sold 60 sets of earrings in six weeks between Mid-July and Labor day weekend at various New England craft fairs. Without a doubt the larger freshwater Keshi's received the most "oohs and aahs" at our table at all of our shows (except of course for the AAA round Tahitian strands we had on display). We also sold several 12MM tip/top drilled coin pearls in gold/peacock/rose/peach colors.

If you aren't familiar or haven't worked with any of the above mentioned pearls let us know. We would be happy to send you a couple of samples (on us) for your trip so you can match them up. We have some strands left over from our show circuit, which we are getting out of to focus more on our online strategy.

Best of luck!

Steve
 
I think the advice about buying what you like is very good. I find the pieces I sell are the ones I really like the best. Partly because it shows in the creativity, and partly because when I talk to customers about them, it shows as well.
Learn as much as you can about the stones, pearls, glass beads (there are differences), all the materials that you use, people love knowledge and again it translates into the fact that you care about your product.
Know you market/regional area. I actually sell way more high end stuff because the people that shop at our market also shop in good jewelry stores. They recognize the quality and the value. I've had people buy several (4/5) high end necklaces at a time, because they know that they could only get one of them for the same price in a fine jewelry store. If I were to sell in another area I might feature all less expensive items, because that would be a better match.
Look at other vendors at the markets and fairs, not just jewelry vendors. Who is busy and why. Look at their set-up, their prices, their product etc.
Try to set up next to someone who sells something very different, but that will attract the people you want to sell to if possible. I am next to the lavender lotions and essential oils - it attracts the women, and then they move over even though they might not have come by (and vice versa, so Alice loves me too!)
If you have the ability to make connections with other vendors, do that. They will help out, and send people to you. Try to visit and talk especially to any regulars on the selling circuit. I learned a lot from the other vendors.
Good luck!
 
A few years ago I started looking at jewelry in fashion magazines every couple of months--magazines like Vogue, W, Marie Claire etc. I found that they are far more out on the front lines of jewelry fashion than the Jewelry Industry periodicals, which tend to be reactionary (I don't mean politically!) and can be from one to two years behind the styles. You can laugh at the more outrageous pieces and then focus on what your customers are more liikely to buy. This will be strongly influenced by geographical location, age, affluence and other factors that you should keep in mind. The women who buy or influence the purchase of jewelry tend to read these fashion mags as well so are often up to date on trends. My sales improved as a result of following fashion trends.

As for general style, we have come out of the trend to small, petite pieces that started in the 1970's and are back into larger pieces more akin to what one saw in the 1950's and 1960's. I saw this trend developing a few years ago and thought long on hard on it's implications. I figured out that a lot of the semi-precious gem materials that were still quite inexpensive were goiing to get hit with demand from jewelry manufacturers who would be looking for larger gems to set in larger pieces that their customers could still afford. Subsequently, I stocked up on what I thought would be driven up in price. I turned out to be almost 100% correct and now find that some of these stones have either gone way up in price and/or have almost disappeared from availability as jewelers bought them up. Lately, I've noticed that one can hardly look in a fashion or even a jewelry trade mag without seeing agate set in gold, for instance. I find that gems that have something "extra" going on in them are consistently very popular. Opals, rutilated quartz and quartz with other inclusions, star stones (asterism), catseye stones, stones with sheen such as rainbow or velvet obsidian or many of the feldspars such as moonstone and sunstone are just a few examples of these. Many of these can be obtained as beads and will look good with strung pearls.
 
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Marcus - wise words, and great advice - thank you.
I also like the thought of politically reactionary jewellery industry journals...
 
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