I've been beading my life away
by Ruby
(Armstrong, British Columbia, Canada)
First of all... I'm a jewelry artist. Secondly... I just turned thirteen. When I was eleven I saved up all of my birthday and Christmas money and spent it all on beads.
Pretty soon I had a huge collection of handmade jewelry.
One day I happened to be reading the local newspaper and I saw an ad wanting people to participate in a craft sale supporting the local museum. Of course I signed up right away... well, after I asked for my mom's permission to let me.
Two weeks later it was the big day! I had my table set up (a silky blue table cloth, a black velvet earring stand and some paper snowflakes were all I had), and then laid out my jewelry.
Even though I was only twelve at the time my jewelry actually looked more interesting than all of the other beaders.
My advice to you there is to actually weave and do different stitches (like: peyote, dutch spiral, netting, spiral rope, square stitch, daisy chain, ladder stitch, herringbone, brick stitch, African helix, South African scallop - an awesome stitch I must say - and bead crochet) to make your work look unique, because everyone else had simply strung necklaces that only look pretty because of the beads.
I did pretty good - I made $100 which doesn't sound like a lot but to me that's wonderful because:
- I was tweleve.
- It was my first time selling jewelry.
- My display wasn't very attractive.
The reasons that I was successful:
- Twelve year olds are cute.
- My jewelry was unique.
- I brought my cute seven year old sister with me.
This year I am planning on doing two or three shows making $150 - $200 each time. Thanks to your website my display will be totally unique and draw more customers.
You rock Rena.
