“In my experience, it’s in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are.”
Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist
Quote for Monday, October 12, 2015
Aside
“At least for the novitiate, some period of artistic recapitulation is both inevitable and, by most accounts, beneficial. …But once having allowed for that, the far greater danger is not that the artist will fail to learn anything from the past, but will fail to teach anything new to the future.”
Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland
To Buy Wholesale, Prove You’re In Business
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We’re talking about what you need to access wholesale-only areas of retail shows, and wholesale-only shows. Besides your business and/or resale license, there may be other proofs required by shows. Advertising, websites, business cards and brochures, line sheets—all of these can prove to wholesale-only show gatekeepers that you’re really running a business. Costs can be high, for these, but then, if you are in business, you’ve probably already created some of them. If you haven’t, here’s a quick run down on the possibilities. Continue reading
Quote for Monday, October 5, 2015
Aside
“The space is the music of unsung poetry.”
Ulises Carrión, The New Art of Making Books
The Business of Buying Wholesale
Congratulations! Your jewelry work is catching on. You have a following on Etsy, your website is beginning to outsell your day job. You’ve been contacted by a gallery or department store. You are ready to formally go into business.
Now it’s time to take off your artist’s apron, put on your power-suit jacket, and get serious about the business end. Continue reading
Jewelry, Form, and Fun
Before we go on and talk about form as an element of design, let’s talk about the pleasant, joyful aspects of jewelry form. What makes it fun?
There’s no doubt that jewelry is beautiful to behold, but jewelry is essentially small sculpture. So while it’s meant to be seen from multiple sides, jewelry—its form, surfaces, corners, edges, and texture, whether smooth, rough, nubby, scratchy—is really all about touch. In fact, most people who wear jewelry fiddle with it. Have you seen men and women finger a ring when nervous? Adjust a watch or bracelet? Slide a pendant on a chain? Pull an earring? Of course you have. You’ve done it yourself. (Pandora bracelets are excellent jewelry toys. They have substantial weight, they slide around the wrist, and the beads spin on their cables. You can even take all the beads off, reorganize them, and put them back on the cable. Perfect for fiddling!) Continue reading
Can I Buy It Wholesale?
The word wholesale conjures up images of buying things on the cheap. Deep discounts. Bargain basement prices. Have you salivated at the thought of getting into the “wholesale only” section of gem, bead and jewelry shows wondering what delectable goodies were going on the block that you didn’t know about? Who are the special buyers entering those restricted regions? Could you become one of them? Continue reading
Spectacular Spinels
Hope Spinel surrounded by diamonds. Photo courtesy Bonhams.
Okay. My bias is going to show here. But when it comes to spinel, I think it’s one of the most under-rated and under-used stones in the jewelry industry. Part of the reason for that is because it’s not as common as, say, garnet or tourmaline. But to have a stone that is beautiful, is rarely treated, is extremely durable (it’s an 8 in hardness and has little to no cleavage risk), that comes in a luscious range of reds, pinks, purples, oranges, and blues, and to make little use of it is, well, spine(l)less! (Sorry.)
You know they’re beautiful when enormous spinels found their way into the Crown Jewels of England and were, for many years, paraded as rubies. (They can be that good!) And just this past week, an AMAZING spinel was sold at Bonhams, the auction house, in London, for an equally amazing record price of £962,500 (just under $1.5 million). The so-called “Hope Spinel” was once owned by Henry Philip Hope, 19th century London banker who also once owned the Hope Diamond. (Full disclosure: the Hope Spinel buyer was not me.)
It’s the range of subtle color is what really makes spinels useful to a designer. You could create a brooch, bracelet or neckpiece with a lovely sherbet-colored palette of spinels, or use spinels as accents for a flashy cabochon of agate. A deep-colored spinel would be a stunning centerpiece for any ring–and there would be virtually no wear issues!
But spinels have gotten a bad name for something that is not their fault. Spinel, like corundum (ruby and sapphire), is easily and inexpensively synthesized. Probably tons of spinels are churned out to fill the synthetic birthstone market. A great many of the “emeralds,” “aquas,” “peridots,” and “diamonds” you see in birthstone rings, necklaces, and pins are synthetic spinels. As a result, many, many people have come to think that “spinel” is synonymous with “fake.” Not so! However, it does mean that designers have to educate themselves first and their customers second, on the beauties and desirability of spinels.
Spinel is not often found in caliber-cut shapes and sizes. This, too, makes them perfect for designers as the stones demand unique settings. If you want matching sizes for a particular design, you may end up having to commission a cutting job. That may get to be expensive. Although at one time the lack of market familiarity meant spinels were often quite reasonably priced, that has changed. When the prices of rubies started going through the roof, buyers looked for a suitable substitute. As a result, spinels are climbing.
But it’s still a stone worth looking for. Just remember: The Hope Spinel is taken.
Combining Geometric and Organic Shapes in Artisan Jewelry
Rebecca Strzelec creates an interesting piece by combining organic and geometric shapes in Cross section #5, from her Army Green Orchids series. Photo courtesy Rebecca Strzelec.
While shapes may loosely be grouped into geometric and organic categories, jewelry—or any object, really—rarely falls into one camp or the other. For example, in this piece from her Army Green Orchids series (2006), Rebecca Strzelec, Professor of Visual Arts, at Penn State University, Altoona College, combines a rigid rectangular shape (as well as a girder-like interior) with the gently curving outlines of flowers—orchids, to be exact.
Strzelec printed the piece in toy-soldier plastics using flower shapes to make a particular point (read her artist statements here). However, even knowing nothing of the artist’s intent, the piece can be appreciated on its own merits simply by looking at the combination of shapes.
Materials and Pricing Artisan Jewelry
If you’ve started your business as a hobby, chances are good that you’re pricing by materials alone, with a bit added in for labor. It’s time to stop that practice right now if you’d like to make jewelry making your career rather than your hobby. But because you’re already most familiar with materials, of the four parts to a product price–materials, labor cost, overhead, and profit—let’s start there. These are the tangibles, such as metals, metal clay, stones, beads, glass, and fibers that are actually part of the jewelry you deliver to a customer and the part of the jewelry that customers appreciate.
But do you also consider findings? Continue reading