|
Post by Pat on Apr 27, 2018 22:53:32 GMT -5
Your tomorrow sounds wonderful!!
Great opportunity for you and the jewelers.
Keep us posted and take lots of pictures!!
Enjoy!
|
|
quartz
Cave Dweller
breakin' rocks in the hot sun
Member since February 2010
Posts: 3,334
|
Post by quartz on Apr 27, 2018 23:05:54 GMT -5
Best of luck to you with the sale, you've certainly done your diligence to get the glass right. Nothing like having something unique to stir the troops with.
|
|
|
Post by fernwood on Apr 28, 2018 5:01:37 GMT -5
Good karma sent your way. We are expecting a full report upon return.
I love markets like this.
|
|
|
Post by accidentalrockhound on Apr 28, 2018 6:10:09 GMT -5
Good morning. Hope your day goes well. I'm sure everyone is going to go bonkers over you glass, all your time and effort, nicks and cut's will be rewarded, have fun!
|
|
|
Post by orrum on Apr 28, 2018 6:22:47 GMT -5
Out of the park Jim, swing for the fence!!!!
|
|
|
Post by hummingbirdstones on Apr 28, 2018 9:37:26 GMT -5
Good luck hawking your jewels, James! May the glass gods smile down on you and reward all your hard work the last few months with large orders and new artsy-fartsy customers to deal with!
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
|
Post by jamesp on Apr 29, 2018 1:28:16 GMT -5
Well it was a late start as fire pit customers set up to pick up Sat till 1 PM.
Was well received in most 'solicitations'. The vendors were busy so I asked if I could leave them samples and most obliged. I made about 3 real good contacts. Did not feel good as I had to park over a mile away and my hip joint was acting up.
A local jewelry school needs cheaper stones to practice setting and a couple of venders suggested I market them there.
A glass blower was fascinated at the tumble polish method, definitely captured his attention.
Two gals that are a team since Etsy opened are successful silversmiths gave a plethora of great info, totally intoxicated lol. They suggested Etsy supplies and sell in lots of 5 to 6. They buy their cabs from a company that sends them a large quantity and the pick thru and get what they want and return the rest. I believe the company was in India and the gals had to pay $300 insurance for this approval arrangement, they said they bought $10,000 in cabs last time. Selling $120 to $180 necklaces at a fair clip.
A side note - a black and white dendritic opal from India(looked like moss agate) and a rich teal colored turquoise(from Brazil I believe) were being sold by numerous jewelers. Black/white and teal/turquiose were definitely the trend colors in cabs mounted silver.
Got a long way to go. Will hand out samples when ever and where ever. No hurry. People that sell stones don't often care for glass. But there are all kinds of glass/resin,ceramic and other jewelry mediums being sold.
One guy selling glass from Spain was a big BS'er and had crap glass but was selling with his accent and personality lol. I think I made him nervous. That one a scam artist lol. But he had the gals lined up pulling their credit cards out. You women.
Jewelry was being sold, no doubt. Had I set up a booth and had bails and chains/cords on the glass I believe I would have done quite well.
I may focus on specific markets like Sci Fi and set up at a Sci Fi festival or market Sci Fi on the internet, or some other specific interest or demo group.
The people selling import crap, they do well. Shame. I stood back and watched from a distance. Many of the jewel vendors. 10 minutes and you get an idea of their sales rate with that active bunch.
Came home and passed out on couch at 6:30, awoke at 1:30. Going back to bed shortly. Go hit it again tomorrow.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
|
Post by jamesp on Apr 29, 2018 2:36:27 GMT -5
Still looking at "lips jewelry'. Because I successfully have been creating lips by melting in a specific but sort of complicated fashion. 14,100 'lips jewelry' on Etsy. Just looked that up. Never would have thought it was so popular. More so than Sci Fi jewelry. It is a challenge and somewhat of an art form which makes it interesting. Like a sculpture. It takes some unique glass with a high flow at melt not found on the art glass market.
|
|
|
Post by hummingbirdstones on Apr 29, 2018 9:57:24 GMT -5
Still looking at "lips jewelry'. Because I successfully have been creating lips by melting in a specific but sort of complicated fashion. 14,100 'lips jewelry' on Etsy. Just looked that up. Never would have thought it was so popular. More so than Sci Fi jewelry. It is a challenge and somewhat of an art form which makes it interesting. Like a sculpture. It takes some unique glass with a high flow at melt not found on the art glass market. Lips jewelry has always been popular. One of my favorite pins I used to wear way back in the late 70's - early 80's was a resin pin of just lips. Loved it. I probably still have it stashed away somewhere with other "junk" jewelry. Sounds like you're gathering good intelligence at the fair. I wonder how the guy selling the glass from Spain managed to get into a juried fair. I know a few of our vendors at our gem club show have been adding a bunch of cheap crap from China into their inventory for the last few years and really honking other vendors and club members off. This year they're going to be told that it's not going to be allowed anymore.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
|
Post by jamesp on Apr 29, 2018 10:01:17 GMT -5
Still looking at "lips jewelry'. Because I successfully have been creating lips by melting in a specific but sort of complicated fashion. 14,100 'lips jewelry' on Etsy. Just looked that up. Never would have thought it was so popular. More so than Sci Fi jewelry. It is a challenge and somewhat of an art form which makes it interesting. Like a sculpture. It takes some unique glass with a high flow at melt not found on the art glass market. rockjunquie I wanted you to know that I am trying to crack the 'Etsy-get-seen-in-jewelry' enigma/challenge. I find SEO interesting and if you do get found you usually sell. So I had a ploy I wanted to run by you related to theme jewelry. Etsy has 6000 selling in 'Sci Fi jewelry'. My opinion it is a great market. So assume I have 600 jewelry pendants that could be classified as a Sci Fi theme.(the scraps I got from the glass blower are quite Sci-Fi ish). Let's say I make a shop with 600 listings all titled Sci Fi with jewelry pendants classifiable as Sci Fi. That is about 250 pages of 24 jewels/page. Yes it would take a lot of work but it would be a one time task. Would that not increase chances that you would have about 600/25 = 2.4 pendants per page in Sci Fi category if title words and key words are dialed in to best Sci Fi terms ? If you start logging Etsy sales they stay with your shop. Regardless of what category they are logged. If you have lots of sales and reviews people will buy much quicker. Early on if someone asked me to buy the fire pit thru Etsy or pay cash here at the farm I ask them to buy thru Etsy and I am glad to eat the Etsy charges to build sales numbers. I have learned on Etsy that if you sell apples in your shop you get good exposure in the apple category. I probably have the largest variety(most listings) of fire pits of any Etsy fire pit seller. This was done intentionally for increased number of listings. Only ~25% are the bread winners. Added listings helped get great front pages exposure with out paying but very little toward promoted listings or google shopping. If you have a mixed shop apples/oranges/bananas you don't get near as much frontal pages coverage. ex. lots of fabricators sell fire pits and metal furniture and other fabrications but don't get good upfront coverage. Anyway, I wanted to play some strategy. I thought you might have an opinion.
|
|
|
Post by rockjunquie on Apr 29, 2018 10:07:14 GMT -5
What you say sounds very reasonable. The only problem is you would never be reaching new people. I would do the bulk as sci fi and then do some tags and titles that are completely different. Unfortunately, by only targeting one audience, you are limiting your exposure to one group. What happens when someone feels they have seen or bought enough from you?
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
|
Post by jamesp on Apr 29, 2018 10:40:47 GMT -5
Still looking at "lips jewelry'. Because I successfully have been creating lips by melting in a specific but sort of complicated fashion. 14,100 'lips jewelry' on Etsy. Just looked that up. Never would have thought it was so popular. More so than Sci Fi jewelry. It is a challenge and somewhat of an art form which makes it interesting. Like a sculpture. It takes some unique glass with a high flow at melt not found on the art glass market. Lips jewelry has always been popular. One of my favorite pins I used to wear way back in the late 70's - early 80's was a resin pin of just lips. Loved it. I probably still have it stashed away somewhere with other "junk" jewelry. Sounds like you're gathering good intelligence at the fair. I wonder how the guy selling the glass from Spain managed to get into a juried fair. I know a few of our vendors at our gem club show have been adding a bunch of cheap crap from China into their inventory for the last few years and really honking other vendors and club members off. This year they're going to be told that it's not going to be allowed anymore. The Spaniard ? Politics probably Robin. Or the judges were ladies lol. Slick talking dude IMO. I may start in Sci Fi because I have more shear numbers of pieces in that category. Sic Fi is in, big following, etc. The lips are much more skill demanding and I have a lot of work to do to perfect and make numbers. But the lips impress me from the artistic challenge stand point and probably have more demand. Eye catching too. Damn the people that sell imports. I think they have a higher profit margin without doing any skill work. Not fair. Talking to one of the jewelers, a true silversmith had the opinion that I would have a hard time being categorized as true handmaid because I finish my work in a tumbler. Even with all the composing, melting, shaping, often double melting and double shaping. Lot of dimensional issues to figure on too, to the point testing engineer mind. Compared to reselling an import piece, give me a break.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
|
Post by jamesp on Apr 29, 2018 11:02:57 GMT -5
What you say sounds very reasonable. The only problem is you would never be reaching new people. I would do the bulk as sci fi and then do some tags and titles that are completely different. Unfortunately, by only targeting one audience, you are limiting your exposure to one group. What happens when someone feels they have seen or bought enough from you? This is so true and I want to say that Etsy has gotten so large that it makes me wonder if front and center in a small category may be better than to the rear in a big high competition category. I don't know the answer to that. Used to sell metal loft furniture early on in their trend till the category got to be well over 200 Etsy pages as it became popular. My listings got lost in the mass amounts. Switched to making fire pits which started out with 18 Etsy pages exposure was great and sales resumed at a great pace. Fire pits is now 74 pages but lots of pit accessories thrown in. Still a great 'small' category. Hit a home run in a small category this day and age and they may beat you to death with orders due to the shear size of Etsy. Let's just say I could probably not keep up with 5% of the Sci Fi jewelry purchases on Etsy maybe ?? Anyway, interesting food for thought. A different approach.
|
|
|
Post by hummingbirdstones on Apr 29, 2018 11:25:27 GMT -5
Damn the people that sell imports. I think they have a higher profit margin without doing any skill work. Not fair. Talking to one of the jewelers, a true silversmith had the opinion that I would have a hard time being categorized as true handmaid because I finish my work in a tumbler. Even with all the composing, melting, shaping, often double melting and double shaping. Lot of dimensional issues to figure on too, to the point testing engineer mind. Compared to reselling an import piece, give me a break. The tumbler is a tool, as are all the stakes, gravers, torches, polishing wheels, etc. that the silversmith uses in his shop. I am quite sure he doesn't hand polish his work without the use of a buffing wheel attached to a motor with rouge applied to it, or perhaps he even on occasion uses a tumbler with stainless steel shot and burnishing liquid in it to polish components or even a whole piece (gasp!). Same principal. The silversmith only understands the skill involved in silversmithing and since that is where his passion lies, considers any other art form inferior. Artists are kind of funny like that.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
|
Post by jamesp on Apr 29, 2018 12:12:51 GMT -5
Damn the people that sell imports. I think they have a higher profit margin without doing any skill work. Not fair. Talking to one of the jewelers, a true silversmith had the opinion that I would have a hard time being categorized as true handmaid because I finish my work in a tumbler. Even with all the composing, melting, shaping, often double melting and double shaping. Lot of dimensional issues to figure on too, to the point testing engineer mind. Compared to reselling an import piece, give me a break. The tumbler is a tool, as are all the stakes, gravers, torches, polishing wheels, etc. that the silversmith uses in his shop. I am quite sure he doesn't hand polish his work without the use of a buffing wheel attached to a motor with rouge applied to it, or perhaps he even on occasion uses a tumbler with stainless steel shot and burnishing liquid in it to polish components or even a whole piece (gasp!). Same principal. The silversmith only understands the skill involved in silversmithing and since that is where his passion lies, considers any other art form inferior. Artists are kind of funny like that. Yes ma'am. I get that. Artist may not be so easy to convince though. I sorta don't blame those that do metal smithing or other manual arts. Most of the tool work is one on one. Tumbler an exception because it does do batches making it a potential dirty word. Ha, if they sat with me in making a single piece they would get where all the work goes. I often find myself thinking that my work knocks my socks off but in reality only brings a meh from another. That is human nature. We are often blind like a mother defending all actions of her spoiled brat son whom can do no wrong where you or I would like to choke his drawers full of crap. funny note, would lips with fever blisters be a hot seller ? A product of too much tumbling.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
|
Post by jamesp on Apr 29, 2018 12:14:53 GMT -5
Getting ready to hit it again. A beautiful spring day.
|
|
Wooferhound
Cave Dweller
Lortone QT66 and 3A
Member since December 2016
Posts: 1,422
|
Post by Wooferhound on Apr 29, 2018 14:41:28 GMT -5
funny note, would lips with fever blisters be a hot seller ? A product of too much tumbling. That is a Planetary Nebula with Black Holes
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
|
Post by jamesp on Apr 29, 2018 17:02:09 GMT -5
funny note, would lips with fever blisters be a hot seller ? A product of too much tumbling. That is a Planetary Nebula with Black Holes It does not take much effort when melting different colors of glass together to come up with some bizarre images woofer. I have yet to fuse the Pyrex like you have been tumbling(pretty sure those lenses are Pyrex. I have never tried tumbling Pyrex either but aware it is harder than most glass.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
|
Post by jamesp on Apr 30, 2018 4:50:39 GMT -5
MsAli rockjunquie hummingbirdstones fernwood , others Maybe I scored here. I joined one of the most popular glass fusing forums. I noticed the view count was off the chart high. It appears many of the members sell their wares. I know that few tumble polish glass and the tumbling opens a huge door to variety of fused glass that can be polished. Like really huge. Here is a screen shot of my first thread with a link to some of my best work. I hope it bedazzles them. Lets see where this goes. I am 99% certain they will be quite curious by the tumble polish method. I politely mentioned it is a proprietary process. Today is April 30 2018, curious about the views/contacts after 30 days... flickr link posted to them: www.flickr.com/photos/67205364@N06/albums/72157689895637020/page1Jewelry page on glass fusing forum:
|
|
|
Post by rockpickerforever on Apr 30, 2018 7:43:12 GMT -5
James, it will be interesting to see how this pans out. I think you are going to do just fine!
We went to the silent auction yesterday. Took a bunch of pics, will get them posted later. But here is one just for you:
This guy was selling mostly rocks slabs, but had a handful of millefiori slabs, blue and green. They were about 4 x 1 x 1/4 inches was asking $10 each for them. Each would make a two or three nice cabs, so not too expensive. I didn't buy any, as I was saving my money for rocks, lol.
Hope to post pics this afternoon.
|
|