2008 Bead and Button Show - Milwaukee

The Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee is destined to be bigger and better than ever. While the actual show only lasts 3 days (June 8 - 10), there are several additional days of pre-show classes involving all types of bead and jewelry media. If you love making your own handcrafted jewelry or beads, you will be in heaven with this year's class selection.


The B&B Show is the largest jewelry and bead show in the US, and this year features 360 vendors. Offering over 500 classes during this year's show, some of the teachers on the roster include Stephanie Sersich and Justin Tabor (who are teaching a Master Class), Milon Townsend, and include such topics as seed bead stitching, wire jewelry design, lampwork bead making, loom work, polymer clay, precious metal clay, and more.


Some special events at the Bead and Button show include the Meet the Teachers Reception, Private Shopping Review, Bead Social and Auction Night, and the awarding of the Excellence in Bead Artistry Award, honoring Diane Fitzgerald, a Minneapolis seed beader who is famous for her ginko leaf necklaces (pictured below).


There are some dates you will need to keep in mind, the most important of which is January 15, which is the day class registration opens. The popular classes/teachers fill up fast, so have your schedule planned (and include alternates) before this date.


If you plan to sign up for classes for B&B 2008, be sure to check out this blog's companion site, Beads Central, for some of the best bead deals available on Ebay. At Beads Central you will find any kind of bead you need, including Swarovski crystal beads, handcrafted lampwork beads, seed beads, gemstone beads, and much more.

Glass Rod Sale at Olympic Color Rods

I got an e-mail message that Olympic Color Rods is having a sale through Monday night, December 31! Check out the Olympic Color Rods website, and you will find specials on Gaffer colors, as well as 10% discounts. Also, Olympic Color is increasing the standard quantity discount.

The sale ends Monday night, so hurry over there and take advantage of these great deals!

Something is Missing!

I realize the most important element of a bead blog is missing - bead photographs! This is just a quick post to acknowledge that I am aware of this travesty, and plan to rectify the situation as soon as possible. Unfortunately, my husband (the computer guy) re-purposed my old hard drive - the one with all of my bead and jewelry photographs - and I failed to remind him to save the digital photos.

I'll be getting into the swing of things with jewelry and lampwork badmaking soon, so expect to see photos coming soon.

Sorry for such a plain blog for now, but hopefully the information provided will make visiting here worthwhile for now!

Venues for Selling Your Handcrafted Jewelry

If you design and make your own jewelry, you are probably a lot like me in that you make more jewelry pieces than you can possibly wear. Perhaps you have an even bigger problem like my friend Roseanne who gets stopped by people complimenting her handcrafted jewelry and end up buying bracelets off of her wrist.

When you are ready to sell your own handcrafted jewelry, you should be aware of several venues for selling your work. I've had my own success in several of these venues, and would like to share some tips for finding the best customers for your work.

Home Parties/Trunk Sales
I have had only one home party, but it was extremely successful and I plan to have more. The key is generating a buzz about your jewelry and about the show. My home show was actually at my Mom's home, and because she is my best advertiser, she sent out over 200 invitations (that I had printed with photos of my work) and told every single person she knows, including her piano students' moms. The key here was that she has several friends who appreciate high-end jewelry and are willing to pay over $100 for a unique, artisan-made bracelet (although we did have a few curious people come in who balked at my pricing).

Consignment Stores
I've had my beads and jewelry parked at bead stores on consignment, and as far as selling, it is an easy way to get your jewelry into customer's hands. Be aware that some consignment stores have you pay a monthly "rent" while some keep a percentage of the price of your jewelry. The store's share commonly ranges from 20 - 30%. As a struggling artist, I was never fond of sharing that much of my profits with the store owners, though. I wanted to keep my prices fair for my customers (usually two times the cost of supplies and my time), but the store's share kept a good chunk of my profit, making this my least favorite venue in my experience.

Galleries
I personally have never had my jewelry in galleries, but many designers find them to be a successful venue for selling high-quality jewelry to high-end customers. The downside is that the gallery commission is higher than a consignment store (I've heard reports of 40-50%), but the upside to that is that gallery patrons expect to pay high prices. I welcome comments from anyone who is experienced in selling jewelry at galleries.

Selling Online
Etsy.com is a popular marketplace for artisans and designers to sell their products, but it doesn't have the name recognition of Ebay, and I have never tried it. I don't know how Etsy markets to customers, so if anyone has experience with Etsy, feel free to leave a comment about your experience or drop me an e-mail with your story.

For a while I had good success at selling both my lampwork beads on and my sterling silver wire jewelry on Ebay - I picked up a few regular customers from Ebay who often asked to see photos of my jewelry before I offered them to the public. These pieces were selling for $175 - $225 each, and it got to the point where they were sold before they were finished.

Ebay is an inexpensive way to start selling online, and *can* be a good way to build a loyal customer base and get your name known, providing you are regular about keeping active auctions available. There may be a big temptation to price your jewelry low in order to make it look attractive to customers, but this will work against you, so do your research and price your pieces according to their true value.

Expect to pay at minimum a listing fee based on your starting price, and a final value fee (which is a percentage of the final bid amount). You can also draw attention to your listings by making them "featured auctions", and adding highlighting and borders so your auction stands out from the others. Click the banner below to learn more about selling on Ebay:

Technical aspects of jewelry design

While I primarily focus on making jewelry from sterling silver wire, I enjoy making strung jewelry as well. I had the privilege of taking a jewelry design class from award-winning jewelry designer Kate McKinnon a few years ago and was pleased to have learned some fundamental lessons in creating jewelry from a more technical standpoint.

First of all, it is important to note that the quality of tools that you use in making jewelry really does make a world of difference. The cheapo $8 pliers that you get from the craft chain stores really are not adequate, and can cause pain to your hands and wrists. When teaching wire classes, students who compared their cheap tools with my Lindstrom brand tools were amazed at the difference.

One noticable difference is in the grip of the tool. The cheap pliers just don't grip wire as well as the Lindstrom or Softflex brand tools, no matter how hard you squeeze. And of course, the harder you squeeze, the more likely you are to experience hand pain.

Second, make sure the string that you use is of good quality. The cheap "tiger tail" stringing wire is not at all flexible, and likely to become brittle. Try the better quality "49-strand" stringing wire (Softflex stringing wire is my favorite).

And finally, the beads you use should be of excellent quality. Remember, if you want to command high-end prices, you really need to use beads that are of great quality. That means that chinese lampwork and crystal knock-offs are a no-no, unless you prefer to sell your jewelry at bargain-basement prices. Seek out "self-representing" artists (That means they are not in a factory mass-producing beads. Rather, they are making one-of-a-kind pieces of glass art).

When you focus on quality in your jewelry designs and supplies, you will be attracting a customer base that is willing to pay for great quality and innovative design. By sticking with low-quality supplies, you are not only limiting yourself to customers who don't necessarily have extra disposable income, but you are attaching your name - which is your brand - to lower quality jewelry. Improving the quality of the product is an important part of what separates the artist from the mass-producer.

An Addiction to Beads Begins

I started my addiction with beads in an unusual manner. In fact, I didn't even like beads at first. However, now my sunroom is devoted just to beads, as is a portion of my basement.

My first experience with beads was when I was in Junior High in the early 1980's. The "in" thing to do at my school was to exchange friendship pins that were clipped onto one's sneakers. These were simply safety pins that had beads on them, and the number of friendship pins on your sneakers was indicative of the number of friends you had. I admit it. I wasn't addicted to beads at this point. They were just a means for gaining acceptance among my peers.

In my late twenties, I was introduced to rubber stamping by a co-worker, and became addicted to that craft. We often went out on our lunch breaks to shop for stamps and inkpads. I walked into my favorite stamp store one night, and was quite annoyed to find that the owner had moved an entire table of ink pads and replaced it with a display of beads. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why anyone would want to buy these beads, when stamping was clearly a better hobby.

Little did I know that the store owner Jackie would soon be opening a bead store down the hall. I ventured in to this bead store, and had never seen so many beads in all of my life. I still didn't see what the big deal was, until I saw the display case featuring handmade lampwork glass beads. They were simply beautiful - especially the florals - and they were selling for $10 each! I was shocked at this pricing, and instead of buying one I thought to myself "I can do this myself."

And I did. I set out to learn everything I could about making lampwork beads, and with the help of a couple of books by Cindy Jenkins and James Kervin, I taught myself how to make glass beads. Now a $10 bead is my bread and butter, and I have improved my skill level such that I get $30-45 for a focal bead with floral designs.

My addiction to beads naturally evolved to include an addiction to making my own handcrafted jewelry using my beads, and I'm now including a variety of stone beads , crystal beads and metal beads along with lampwork glass beads. I love beads so much that I created a new website, Beads Central, which is an easy way to find any kind of bead you could possibly want.