Will the Real Competition Please Stand Up!

I've been asked, time again by many people, why I share my space and hard-learned information with other jewelry designers. Even my Project Wonderful and Entrecard ad spaces are typically occupied by other jewelry artists.

Most people cannot grasp the idea that jewelry designers, while in a black-and-white world are competitors, don't view each other as such because we are first and foremost artists and artists rarely deal in black-and-white. Even using a black/white color palette, there are so many shades of gray.

Artists feel a connection with other artists, even if we are using the same medium ... even when our art is our business. At every event I attend jewelry artists are drawn to each other and we compare and share notes (and wine, too!). At every on-line community I belong, jewelry artists form their own groups to compare and share information.

It is my pleasure to feature another jewelry artist, Jill of Liv'nGood Jewelry, who is also a fellow chainmailler! The latest post on her blog hits a note in me because we both seem to be having trouble getting caught up on the photography that is necessary to get our art listed on our various on-line selling venues.

I have my eye on a pair of her earrings! I need to sell some of mine so I can buy them. Yes, I said "buy them" because copycats are not playing fair, even if one is copying for their own use.

Jill is also a member of Creative Bloggers and I invite every creative type reading this blog who also blogs to come and join us!

So, there is real competition for jewelry artists, but it is not from other jewelry artists. I'll leave it to the reader to figure it out. I've made a promise to myself not to market me by stomping on others. Besides, there is plenty of room in this wide world for everything under the sun.

It's Sunday ...

... and time to feature a good buddy from Skwiggazine! This week's featured artist is Corinne Sullivan of Daydream Art Studios! Corrine also has the sweetest blog. While you're checking out her Etsy shop, be sure to visit mine, too.

I'll be providing FREE SHIPPING for all Cyber Monday sales! I'll be furiously stocking overnight. Here's a sample of available prettiness:



Oh, and some linky luv for my recent commenters!
Storybeader Take a stroll through her lovely blog.
Beadsme aka Mandy Harvery, a very talented jewelry artist.
Savey Spender ... you'll save a buck or two!
Leslie of Unique Charm and another fellow Estian!
Always Amy ... always da bomb! (BTW, I signed up for ArtFire and mentioned you as the referral, but I signed up with the wtong e-mail so I have to get my registration straightened out! Here's to our mutual success!)
Anna of A Rose By Name and one of the phenomenal beadweavers. I so admire your skill, patience and talent.
Viv of Creative Minds is another fellow talented Estian. Etsy is stuffed full of talented people!
Kala Pohi Studio ... another talented Estian ... I'm feeling extraordinarily humbled.
And last, but never least, my two partners in the Skwiggazine madness, Michelle of Michabella Creations and Annette of Under the Loupe.

May all your page ranks rise!

Good Morning, Autumn!

It's about time! Crisp and cool weather that is hopefully saying bye bye to the buggies that bug our poor pooch.

As I am welcoming Fall, my friend from down under is welcoming Spring! Annette Piper, who I have featured before, is enjoying her spring although she is quite busy down there!

Annette's blog, Under the Loupe, is back in rotation for our Skwiggazine Blog-Ring. I always enjoy featuring Annette, her work is stunning! Her craftsmanship is exceptional and because of her knowledge of minerals, I always learn something from her.

Speaking of the need to wear earrings, check out Annette's latest earring entry:


Copyright Annette Piper.

She featured them here. Aren't they gorgeous? Did you know amethyst comes in green? I didn't! These lovelies would work in any setting.

Why Business Women Should Wear Earrings

The following is a true story. It happened to me. It came back to the forefront of my memory because of my recent networking experience. When networking, one has anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds to give a "commercial" about their business. It's also known as the "elevator speech" in some networking circles.

When one does a lot of networking, one recognizes the need to change things up in order to sound interesting. I attended a meeting a couple of months ago where Jeff Klein, a local network marketing guru, gave us a presentation on making our elevator speeches more memorable. Most people give their name, company name, what it does, what they do, and ask for your business. After a few of these, the yawn factor sets in. The collective mind of the room begins to wander. Hence the need of giving an effective elevator speech and that often begins with a story.

Here's my story that I used the other day (although 30 seconds is simply NOT long enough to use this story effectively ... I needed 60!):

Once upon a time in a land far away, I was the manager of information systems at a Beverly Hills CPA firm. It was April, a busy time for CPAs, a very, very busy time. Not only are the 1040 tax returns due on the 15th, the first quarter payroll tax returns are due by the end of the month. Needless to say, workers in CPA firms put in a lot of long hours during the month of April. And because of the long hours, workers at CPA firms dress for comfort during that time.

We're talking jeans and t-shirt comfortable. There are some periods of time when even appropriate business casual has to fly away in the face for the need of comfort. Comfort = productivity, productivity is the single most important goal for CPA firms in April. But I digress (which I did NOT do in my elevator speech).

A guy comes in to sell us a computer thingmabob. I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was something in which the firm was interested enough that I took the time to talk to the guy. Unfortunately, he spent his entire elevator speech time, which was much longer than 60 seconds, talking to my boobs.

He did not make the sale.

There are two lessons to learn from this real-life story:

#1. Gentlemen, if you want to sell to a lady, look her in the face! Don't talk to her boobs. And trust me, guys, I was NOT provocatively dressed.

#2. Ladies, no matter what the setting, no matter what is going on in the office, dress in a way to focus attention to your FACE. And of course, the single best tool you have is a pair of noticeable earrings. Noticeable, not extravagant. But even with jeans and t-shirt, there are earrings that are appropriate that will keep the focus where it belongs.

These particular earrings sold a long time ago, but they are a good example of what you can wear with business casual. They are understated but pretty. And they will do the job of keeping the focus on your beautiful, intelligent face.

Pearly Crystal Earrings

Just listed in my Etsy shop.

As I state in the description, Swarovski pearls are the best "fake" pearls in the world! Their luster is second to none, except for the real deal. And even then, it takes an exceptional real pearl to out-luster these.

I love to make these sort of earrings. They are simple and elegant, quick and easy to make, and they can be customized to the color preference of the buyer.

One of my blog-buddies from Entrecard (visit her blog ... she's a very talented artist!) asked me in a comment left on the preceding post about where I get my design inspiration. Most of the time, I get it from the components themselves. Whether crystals, pearls, stones or metal findings ... the shape, texture, color, size "speaks" to me. Sometimes a particular object remains mute until another time, but all the things I gather eventually tell me what to do.

I was blog-hopping last week and stumbled across a blog by another jewelry artist who wrote about a book he appreciates and refers to quite a bit. I do not remember his name, the name of the book or the author but he mentioned 6 principles of jewelry design which I copied into a Word document. I found them compelling and a good metaphor for life in general, not just for design. I'll be discussing each point in the future, as soon as I find that blog again so I can give proper credit to all involved.

I was pleased to see that I instinctually follow all 6 principles!

My target market is the business woman so all of my designs are geared towards her whether "formal" or "casual" or "cocktail." So design inspiration is never lacking.

I do see things in my wanderings that inspire. I saw a painting of Queen Elizabeth I once in a book that inspired a gorgeous necklace, the prototype which I kept for myself and often wear to my networking events.

I am always looking at fashion magazines and internet sites/blogs for inspiration. I avoid looking at jewelry specifically, but look to the clothing to see if I could make something that would harmonize and complete the look.

I realize I need to count myself fortunate in that the medium I chose to express my art is never lacking for inspiration! However, it is a struggle to avoid the mundane and the mediocre.

Some more cubic zirconia

Lovely handcrafted earrings with a lot of bling. Swarovski calls the color of this ctystal "Silk" and the rectangle cubic zirconia bead hanging in the middle of the 14k gold-filled hammered ring is almost identical. These are gorgeous and pictures truly do little justice to the sparkle these beauty reflect.

They are listed in my Etsy shop here.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. We're attending a wedding this afternoon so I'm off to handcraft both the card and the gift card holder.

Why Can't I Be a Joe ...

... and got into plumbing? I have a feeling every entrepreneur in America woke up this morning wishing he or she was Joe the Plumber. Not for the sake of politics, but exposure is everything and this fortunate guy got more than his share of exposure! Talk about free advertising. Sheesh!

Oh well. Such is life. I'll have to settle for making these things. I may not make the money Joe makes ... and I'm sure he'll be getting a LOT more business with his global exposure ... at least my choice of career isn't as stinky and slimy and sludgy.

I really like bling. And cubic zirconia provides a lot of bling for the buck. Isn't the color luscious? Combined with the gleam of the hammered gold rings and ovals, dangling at 2.5 inches, this pair of earrings is perfect when glam is needed.

These will be listed on my Etsy shop later today. I'll be back to update with the link.

ETA: Almost forgot the link!

Fall 2008

I've been avoiding thinking of the fall season. When the temps stay around the three digit levels, even looking at the upcoming fall fashion lines makes me break out in a sweat! But as a designer of handcrafted jewelry, my head keeps telling me to stop delaying! So this morning I went to the Pantone Fashion Color Report Fall 2008 and printed page 2. The ink is still wet on the paper. Good thing I installed a new color cartridge earlier this week!

What a pleasant surprise! I love the colors and it will be a joy to start designing pieces to suit ... once the temps outside dip below 95F. It looks like I'll be using a lot of amethyst and lapis lazuli and smokey quartz. I need to replenish my lapis supply.

The Pantone color reports are important for the small-time designers to consider. Fortunately for us, we can wait until the freebie report is released on the Pantone website. If you're a designer catering to the retail and boutique market and sell at the accessories shows in the major market areas, you need a head start. Pantone offers "membership" to obtain reports well in advance, but it's expensive. Since I sell direct to the wearer, I can afford to wait.

Pantone is the leading manufacturer of dyes in the world so if they say Blue Iris, Royal Lilac, Shady Glade, etc are the colors for this upcoming fall, they will be the colors you see in the stores for fall. Withered Rose is my personal favorite. It looks like a Dusty Rose which was the best matched color for my eyes, hair color and skin tone when I had my colors done all those decades ago. (I wish I was very html-savvy so I could use colored text for the color names I just typed!)

How about these handcrafted earrings? I think they "read" Withered Rose. They are red aventurine and Golden Shadow Swarovski crystals made with 14k gold-fill. I have more red aventurine in my supply so I'm looking forward to putting out new pieces featuring that stone. Aventurine isn't an expensive stone, but it's beautiful. Colors range in green, peach, reddish, brown and blue. It's a quartz with inclusion of mica so there is a subtle shimmering effect called aventurescence.

I'll need to be heading over to Elle.com and check out the runway shows for Fall 2008 (which happened in February 2008) to see what all the trends are showing. Hopefully there will be some Withered Rose!

Hard work pays off!

This picture has nothing to do with this post. Sure, it was hard work (relatively speaking) to make these since it took three different variations before I was satisfied with the final results, but I'm not talking about hard work in regard to my handcrafted jewelry.

BTW ... before I go any further, these earrings are NOT for sale; they are a commissioned work. But I really like how they turned out so I wanted to show off the picture, and I know people who visit blogs like to see pictures.

Getting back to the hard work. It's all about Entrecard. I have been working the Entrecard system for two weeks now. The past several days, I have dropped 300 cards. The first two days of dropping 300 cards took quite a while (I have a tendency to READ a lot of the blogs) but I came up with a system and time budget that works for me. (So far!) Yesterday I had 192 cards dropped on me, a nice 64%. Thank you everybody who reciprocates. I do my utmost best to do the same.

Needless to say, the number of hits to my blog has skyrocketed. Even the few who actually pause for more than 1 minute to read and or look at photos have increased. It's very satisfying to see hard work pay off.

Even better, I have come across a number of blogs that appeal to me on a lot of different levels. I'm beginning to recognize their calling cards and I look forward to jumping back to their blogs for their latest photo, story, joke, pearl or bucket or boatload of wisdom, and of course, I always drop my card.

I haven't had any handcrafted jewelry sales as a result of this effort, but hopefully they will come over time. I do excellent work, I use quality components, but that's not as easy to see on the 'net as it is in the non-virtual world.

In the meantime, increasing the visitors to my 'lil ole spot of the www is an achievement all by itself.

Again, my deepest thanks to all who stop by, even if it's just to drop your card. I look forward to the end of the month when I shall publish my first Top 10 list.

In the meantime, if you need or like or want handcrafted jewelry and you like my style, please visit my Etsy shop. If you have any questions about Etsy, feel free to drop me a line.

More interesting finds

Marketing is tough. Especially when you have a product that bunches of people are selling. I have found that selling in person is much easier than over the internet because the purchaser gets to pick up a necklace, a bracelet, or a pair of earrings, put it up to her face or arm and see whether the colors will work. She can both see and feel the quality of materials and worksmanship. Nothing on the net even comes close to that in order to make selling easier.

But I know enough from marketing, a subject I studied a little in college, being that I was pursuing a degree in accounting, that it takes exposure, lots of exposure. And on the web, the "lots" is expotentially larger.

So in pursuit of exposure, I joined Entrecard the other day. There's been buzz about Entrecard on various social networks to which I belong, but frankly it befuddled me. However, because of the searing Texas heat, I had a bit more time on my hands indoors so I finally investigated Entrecard and its concept and signed up. I was pleasantly surprised ... it can be fun. Exploring other peoples' blogs and seeing my blog views jump has been a thrill. Whether that will translate into sales still needs to be seen, but at least there's additional exposure. If you haven't checked into Entrecard, and you're a blogger, the widget is somewhere to your left ... look for the picture of whoever is advertising on my blog for the day with the black outlined yellow banner that has an E followed by the words "GET ONE." If you're on Entrecard, please drop your card. I do investigate the blogs that drop cards on mine.

Of course, this exposure is causing me to wish I have "moderation" of comments turned on! I need to see if I can adjust my settings on Blogger.

Speaking of exposure, our weekly Skwigglezine blogger to be featured is Michelle of Michabella Creations. Check out both her blog and her website! She does beautiful work. And yes, while the world may take the view that she's competition to me, I know that there's room in any discerning woman's accessory wardrobe for more that ONE jewelry designer just as she buys various labels of clothing, shoes and handbags. Frankly, I'm proud of my association with other talented jewelry designers.

Picture for the day ... earrings! These lovelies are available here in my Etsy shop. They are only $12 and they are made from 14k gold-fill and genuine Swarovski (watermelon color ... not the official color name, but the one I know how to spell and they are the color of watermelons!). I haven't readjusted the price to take into the consideration the large increase of gold prices that has occurred since I bought the 14k gold-filled materials I used to make them! Back then, gold was selling around $750 an ounce. It's now around $930. My dollar isn't buying as much gold-fill chain as it did last year!

I've stumbled upon another interesting social/business site that I just signed up for today ... it's called Zenzuu and it's still in beta testing. But google it, check it out, and if you want to sign up, click here. It claims to kick back advertising revenue to it's members (80%) rather than pocket it all like other popular social networks. Sponsoring other members earns more for you ... yup, social networking gone MLM. It costs $0 to sign up, all commissions paid will come out of advertising revenue. I'm not sure of the exact business model ... it is a multi-level marketing entity, but hopefully I'll either figure it out or it's posted somewhere on their site.

Multi-level marketing often leaves a bad taste in people's mouth when they hear or say the phrase, so there's a more PC version: network marketing. Either way you say it, it is what it is, and it's not a bad thing. It's NOT a pryamid scheme because in MLMs there's a product or service being exchanged. Pyramids are entirely cash transfers with nothing to take out of them, and they are illegal just about everywhere. But the MLM business model is legitimate and is one of those things that you'll get out of it what you put into it. Nothing is free, nothing is gained by sitting on one's rear end. I liked Zenzuu's message in its terms that you'll have to actually do some work if you want to see results.

Close View - Cloisonne Bead

Close View - Cloisonne Bead
Originally uploaded by hiljohnqu

Cloisonne is one of my favorite type of bead. Finding nice quality cloisonne isn't hard, but there's a LOT of junk out there. This is one of those things one gets what one pays for. You will not find quality cloisonne beads at $3.00 a strand.

But there are reasonable sources out there. One of my favorite sources is Bally Beads in Rockwall, Texas. If you're in the area, check them out. They used to be wholesale only, but they have now opened a portion of their shop to the public for both beads and finished jewelry. They are not the easiest to find, even with address in hand. They are located in a house near the shore of Lake Ray Hubbard, set back in the property from Ridge Road. It's easy to miss their driveway. But they are worth seeking out!

I like the vintage look of this bead. At the moment, this is in both a bracelet and a pair of earrings paired with the mobius chainmail florette.

Mobius MOP of Beautiful Pastels

Mobius MOP Bracelet
Originally uploaded by hiljohnqu

I loved working these bracelets up! The colors of these mother of pearl coin beads are so soft and pretty. For the Etsy listing, I used the pale mauve bracelet and earrings, but I like this photo the best from that shoot. I'm using this photo in both the bracelet and earring listing to show the color choices available.

The soft colors play against the hardness of the chainmaille florettes. I'm having fun with this mobius weave.

Bracelets and earrings available at my Etsy shop.