Jewelry Business Blog
July 2005
© by Rena Klingenberg; all rights reserved
The Jewelry Business Blog has essential jewelry business tips, information, questions, answers, and news that you won't find anywhere else!
July 29, 2005 Using Your Chamber of Commerce as a Business Resource Tips for Using Your Chamber of Commerce as a Business Resource - a new article Your Chamber of Commerce offers events for businesses to network and grow. Guest author Candy Loya presents tips for getting the most out of your participation in your local COC. Author Candy Loya operates The Kindred Kiln Jewelry and Art.
July 28, 2005
Risk Management and Your Jewelry Business Risk Management - a new article
Risk management includes assessing and controlling risks that arise during your business operations. Guest author Sally Jones discusses the four qualified advisors who can help you with business management and risk management concerns. Article by Sally Jones of Tea Business Guide.
July 27, 2005
Display Your Best Work by Wearing It Yourself Instead of selling all the best pieces of jewelry you make, you may want to keep your favorites of the very best pieces for yourself. Modeling some of your own finest jewelry art gives you the advantage of displaying your most outstanding work to a wide audience even when you're not at a show. One piece I'm glad I didn't sell is a top-grade labradorite pendant with a strong blue flash in the stone. I'm sure the attention it has drawn to my jewelry business when I'm wearing it has brought me more in extra sales than I would have received from just selling the pendant.
July 25, 2005
Swapping Jewelry Components When you get into a jewelry designing rut, try trading some beads, cabochons, findings, or other jewelry components with a fellow jewelry artist. Having some new beads or findings next to your old ones can help you see your current supplies in a new light and spark your creativity again. Or challenge a jewelry-making buddy to see what he or she can come up with using the same old supplies that sit un-inspiringly on your studio table.
July 24, 2005
Designing Bead Jewelry as You Work If you often adjust the pattern or number of beads midway through designing and stringing a piece of jewelry, you may find it easier to string from the middle outward than from one end to the other. Use hemostats, mini-clothespins, small clamps, or other bead stoppers as needed, to keep the strung beads from running off one end as you work on the other end. Begin your design in the center, and work toward one end. Check the length and design, make any necessary changes, and then make the second side. I find this especially useful when designing bracelets, where exact length is important.
July 23, 2005
Using Dyed Gemstones Many gemstone beads are dyed to achieve their beautiful colors. Garnet, iolite, black onyx, black jasper, colored howlite, and colored "jade" are among the most commonly dyed. Unfortunately, the excess dye is rarely removed from these beads, which means anyone wearing jewelry made with dyed beads may be surprised with color rubbing off on their skin - particularly if their skin is damp. Always wash dyed beads before using - usually several changes of water will remove the excess dye. Keep changing the water till it stays clear and color-free. Dry the beads thoroughly before using. I first discovered the need to pre-wash dyed beads one rainy day when I wore an iolite necklace I had just made. I got caught outside in a downpour, and by the time I got indoors my iolite beads had bled indigo-colored dye all over my neck and the pale pink top I was wearing. I decided then and there that my customers would never have an experience like that with my jewelry! Now I'm careful about dyed stones. I try not to buy them, but whenever I do, I'm very particular about washing them in several changes of water till no more dye comes out!
July 20, 2005
Transitioning to Higher Prices on Your Jewelry When most jewelry artists begin selling their work, they start out with a selection of low-priced items, which makes sense as you develop your skills and experiment with techniques, materials, and product lines. But as your skills progress and you refine your market and your jewelry lines, you are probably ready to start making more expensive items, and charging more for the expertise that's now evident in your work. How can you go through this price transition without losing any of your current customers? The best solution is to carry jewelry in more than one price range. It's important to always have a selection of low-priced items, as there's always a steady market for them; over a year's time, your line of low-priced pieces can really make a significant difference in your profits. But having mid-priced and high-priced items is a good business-building strategy too. I recommend striking a balance by offering something for every wallet. Also, that way your first customers will never say, "Oh, her work just got too expensive" and shop elsewhere.
July 19, 2005
Online Jewelry Party Success Tips Online Jewelry Party Success Tips - a new article posted on Home Jewelry Business Success Tips. At an online jewelry party the hostess invites her friends to purchase your jewelry via your website instead of at her home. It's an easier alternative to traditional in-home jewelry parties. Try these success tips for offering jewelry e-parties on your website. Article by Stephanie Heitner of Avalon Jewels.
July 18, 2005
Stringing Beads on Hemp Hemp can be a tricky medium for stringing beads. As your project progresses, the ends can unravel enough to make it difficult to string more beads onto it. If this happens to you, try putting a little super-glue on the ends of your hemp and letting it dry before beginning your project. The glue keeps all the fibers together and makes the ends stiff, creating a sort of "needle" to make stringing much easier.
July 17, 2005
Tips for Making Eyeglass Leashes Beaded eyeglass leashes and sunglass leashes can be a nice seller for you. Basically, they are a long string (beaded, leather, chain, or whatever material you choose) with a plastic or rubber loop at each end. The loops go over the sidepieces of a pair of glasses and the string goes around behind the wearer's neck, so that a person can wear her glasses off and on throughout the day and have them right with her. Although Walmart and eyeglass stores stock low-priced imported leashes, you can experiment to see what designs and price points are successful for you in your area. Offering something different might be a good approach - such as a strand made of tiny pearls instead of the cheaper beads used on low-priced imports. Whatever you choose to make your eyeglass leashes from, be sure to use lightweight materials. Since a good length for leashes is 29", they can become uncomfortable in a hurry if you use heavy beads. Remember that the leash will be hanging from the sidepieces of the wearer's glasses, so any extra weight should be designed out of the piece. Eventually the plastic loops at each end of the leash crack or break from age and use, and need to be replaced. To make eyeglass leashes that last for years, finish the ends of your eyeglass leash with a lobster clasp, and let the clasps hold the plastic/rubber loops. This way, when the loops disintegrate you won't have to restring the entire eyeglass leash for your customer. Just open the lobster clasps, take off the old rubber loops, and put on a new pair of loops. The loops are quite inexpensive - only pennies apiece - so including a few extra pairs of loops in a small ziplock baggie is a nice touch that can help secure a sale. You can buy the loops in bulk quantities from most major jewelry suppliers.
July 16, 2005
How to Build a Good Reputation for Your Jewelry Business - new article How to Build a Good Reputation - the personality of your jewelry business As your jewelry business grows, it takes on a unique personality. Guest author Angela Schoonen recommends ways your business can build a good reputation. By Angela Schoonen of Grove Jewelry Design.
July 15, 2005
Radio Interview of Rena on a Small Business Talk Show - You Can Listen to a Recording of it Recently I was interviewed on a small business radio talk show. The topic of the interview was how to have a successful home jewelry business. Although I've been interviewed for magazines and a newspaper, I had never been interviewed for a broadcast before, so I was getting more nervous every second while I was waiting for it to start! My interviewer, Diane, called me at an arranged time and we did the whole thing by phone. It was interesting to be in on some of the "behind the scenes" stuff on a radio show, and Diane was so kind that I started to feel at ease almost as soon as we started. However, I wasn't given any of the questions ahead of time, so I had to just come up with answers off the top of my head! If you'd like to hear the interview, you can listen to it via this link to Diane's website: Direct Sales Radio Talk Show.
(Note: The page on Direct Sales Radio Talk Show's site was moved when they reorganized their site - the above link is the new home for the recording of my interview. If you clicked it before and couldn't find the page, please try again now with the new link. Thanks! :o) ) Reader Comment: Was great to hear your voice, Rena. Thanks for sharing your expertise "live." -From Ruth Ellen of Crystal Cloister.
July 13, 2005
Make it Easy to Grab the Right Jewelry Tool If your pliers and cutters are all the same brand, chances are good that their handles all look alike. That means you spend a lot of time accidentally picking up the wrong tool or searching through the tool jumble for the right ones. Why not add a bit of color-coding to the handles? There are a lot of things you can use to color the very ends of each tool's handles differently - - nail polish
- yarn
- colored tape
- paint
It's a real time saver when you see and pick up the right tool immediately!
July 12, 2005
Jewelry Storage Tips Jewelry Storage Tips
Jewelry storage doesn't have to be expensive or ordinary. Guest author Emma Starkey combines storage with display to yield several unusual and decorative ways of storing your finished jewelry. by Emma Starkey of Divine Designs Jewellery.
July 11, 2005
Make Your Own Earwires Tutorial Here's a good tutorial I've come across on making your own earwires with a bead, coil, or other beautification above the loop: Make Your Own Earwires. To this tutorial I would add that, for some of your customers, 20-gauge wire may be too big to use for earwires. In my own experience (and my ears have been pierced for more than 25 years), my piercings are very uncomfortable with any wire bigger than 21 gauge, and 22 gauge is most comfortable for me. So you may want to switch to a slightly smaller wire size than the tutorial calls for.
July 10, 2005
Sell More Jewelry from Your Website How do you get your website visitors to buy your jewelry instead of just browsing and leaving? One way is to make it as easy as possible for customers to make the purchase. Here are a few ways to help your website visitors buy: Consider having sidebars listing your related products or categories that would also be of interest to visitors of that particular page. Have links that enable customers to add a piece of jewelry to their shopping cart with just one click. Suggest products that fill specific needs ("Looking for a teacher gift? We recommend our heartfelt bracelets or gemstone bookmarks.") - and provide links to those products. And borrow some success tips from Amazon.com, the mega online retailer that has spent millions of dollars researching how to make their site's visitors purchase something: Have you seen their helpful "Customers who purchased this product also bought these items...." section? You can do the same thing to encourage your own customers to buy additional related jewelry products - for example, you might suggest chains to go along with your pendants, earrings to match bracelets, etc. And why not put customer testimonals alongside the appropriate products? From my own experience, I know that reading the enthusiastic review of another Amazon customer has often given me the final push to buy something there. For example, let's say one of your customers sent in a testimonial stating how thrilled her daughter is with her new birthstone ring. Placing that quote prominently in the birthstone ring section of your website would do an excellent job of encouraging more ring sales - in fact, probably better than nearly anything you could say yourself.
July 09, 2005
Ring Sizing Tips If you make and sell rings, getting the proper ring size is one of the most important elements in your customers' happiness with their purchases. Here's some great info on getting ring sizes just right for your customers:
July 08, 2005
How to Sell Your Crafts on eBay - new article How to Sell Your Crafts on eBay
Learn how to sell your crafts on eBay with these tips from crafts marketing expert James Dillehay of Craft Marketer.
July 6, 2005
How Much Jewelry Should You Take to a Show? Readers often ask how many pieces of jewelry to bring to a show or jewelry party. I always bring my entire inventory with me, even if I don't plan to display it all. Fortunately, jewelry is small and easy to pack, so bringing everything isn't much more difficult than bringing only part of your inventory. And you know that any items you decide to leave at home will be what you'll wind up having customers asking you about! Also, if you sell a lot of jewelry during the show or party, you'll be glad to have backstock to put out so your display doesn't look empty and you have more to sell. But what if you're new to selling your jewelry, and are getting ready for your first show? How much jewelry do you need to have ready, and what kinds of pieces? Well, your first few shows are learning experiences. Although you may or may not make a lot of sales while your jewelry business is in its beginning stages, your goal should be to learn everything you can about your market - what your potential customers are looking for (in both jewelry styles and price points), and what kind of shows are most successful for you. Keep track of what sells well, what people are interested in, what they ask for, who they buy for, and how much they're willing to spend. To make the most jewelry sales, you'll need to be aware of what your market demands - and to be on the lookout for styles that can become profitable "bread-and-butter" items for you. You don't want your display to appear sparse, so you do need to have enough pieces to fill out your table or booth. Once you know the size of your allotted space, you can play with your display and determine how much jewelry you need. For your first shows, I recommend having a variety of pieces in a variety of price ranges to test your market. Be sure the mid-priced and higher-priced pieces represent some of your best work. Don't forget to include a selection of under-$20 items that would make nice gifts, and under-$5 items that make great impulse purchases. Although selling these lower-priced items may not be the reason you started your jewelry business, they can turn out to be profitable hot sellers and a welcome addition to the rest of your line. While you're testing your market, you may not want to make too many pieces of any particular design until you find out what sells well for you. When my jewelry business was in its beginning stages, I created a necklace design that I was sure would be a big hit - and I spent a lot of time making several dozen of them. After several shows, I wound up cutting the necklaces apart to re-use the beads and clasps in other projects. I had sold only one of them, to a neighbor who I'm sure was just being kind! I wished I had tested my market with just a few necklaces first.
July 05, 2005
Quick Size Adjustments for Stringing Projects - a reader tip When stringing bracelets or necklaces I always attach a jump ring before adding the clasps (even though the clasp may have a loop already). This allows for quick adjustments - i.e., adding a few more jump rings or an extension chain if it's too short. Or in one case, the spring clasp I used didn't work properly so all I had to do was open the jump ring and attach another, rather than restringing the whole piece. Oval jump rings work great, because the opening is on the side and the opening doesn't get "stressed" like it would if it opened at the end. Tip from Cheryl of Tactile Passions.
July 05, 2005
Buying Gemstone Beads Buying Gemstone Beads
Do you know whether the gemstone beads you buy are really what vendors say they are? Lynne E. Richardson of Ellie R Designs shares her experience with buying semiprecious beads from a vendor - and being deceived.
July 04, 2005
Pre-Stretch Silk Thread and Tiger Tail - a reader tip Have you ever made a beaded necklace only to find that two weeks later the string or cord has stretched? All the time you spent making those perfect knots painstakingly snug against your beads is lost! This is a common problem when stringing on silk thread or tiger tail (plastic coated wire). Here are two solutions for pre-stretching the thread: - Especially for silk thread: Undo the entire string from its card and tie one end around a fist-sized rock or other semi-heavy object. Then secure the other end to a high location, like a plant hook in the ceiling.
Leave the rock hanging there overnight - or if you're in a hurry, at least a few hours. This should completely pre-stretch the thread and your knots will stay as nice as the moment you created them. You can do this ahead of time with all your extra cord, then wrap it back around the little paper card, and label the card "stretched". This tip will work for any stringing material that you will be knotting. (Nylon doesn't seem to stretch too much.) - Especially for tiger tail:
String on all the beads just as you want them, crimping only one end of the piece closed. Holding the open end of the necklace in your hand, with the beads hanging below, secure a clamp to it.
I use those big black paper clamps with the silver handles, or a "chip clip". For a piece the size or weight of a bracelet, a "mini chip-clip" works great. Once the open end is clamped, hang it from a small hook. This works well for me as I use chunky stones and a lot of big Tibetan beads. The heavier the beads, the better this technique will work.
The next day you can unclamp your pre-stretched necklace or bracelet and crimp the remaining end closed. Viola! This tip eliminates the problem of having to crimp the jewelry too tight in order to make up for stretching that happens later. Now you can crimp it just the way you like it and it will remain that way, even after your clients have worn it for years!
Tip from Julia Kellogg of Julia Kellogg Jewelry.
July 03, 2005
Give Customers a Reason to Remember You - a reader tip Keep yourself in your show, shop, and website visitors' minds by giving them free extra value *whether they buy now or not*. One way to do this is to print useful information for jewelry wearers on the back of your business card. My business card has my business information on the front, and abbreviated jewelry care tips on the back with a link to the jewelry care page of my website. Since the jewelry care tips are valuable, the person I give my card to is much more likely to keep my card and remember who I am, to come back and buy later, or even recommend me to a friend. You could use jewelry care tips, or information on birthstones if you specialize in birthstone jewelry, anniversary stones for a gift specialty, or any other helpful information. Give potential and current customers a reason to remember you in a positive, giving light, and they will be more likely to come back to shop. Tip from Robyn of Crystals and Jewelry.
July 02, 2005
Photographing Jewelry on Consignment - a reader tip We have jewelry on consignment on stores - that is, they pay us after they sell one of our pieces. When we bring them the jewelry, we take a photo of the pieces we leave with them. Later when we come to see what jewelry is no longer in the shop (sold), they might not remember a piece that's not there. Then we have the picture and can show them which is the piece they have to pay for. Tip from Edith of Israeli Jewelry.
July 01, 2005
Jewelry Photography Tip One of the elements of exquisite jewelry photography is having nice closeup shots of your work. When you photograph your jewelry - whether you use a digital camera or a scanner - crop your photos so that the jewelry fills the frame as much as possible. With most scanners you can do your cropping onscreen before you click to make the final scan, so that the shot you get is framed exactly how you want it. With a digital camera, take as close of a shot as your camera permits, and then crop out any excess area around the jewelry when you edit your photos. For more tips, see Return to current month's Jewelry Business Blog. Return to all Jewelry Business Blog Archives. Return to Home Jewelry Business Success Tips home page.
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