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: