Tips for a lousy economy

Well, I'm a little late posting this but i just had a really great weekend. The weather was perfect and the show i did on Saturday was very successful, for me. people were buying jewelry for themselves and enjoying the entire experience. it was really just so pleasant. i will have plenty of pictures to post of things i sold in a day or two. my local photographer is not the fastest.

on the right is just a little fun pair of sterling silver earrings that have been selling pretty well - for those who are interested in something different, that is! I call them UFO because that's what they remind me of. They are made with 16 gauge wire, which is pretty hefty but i do love that weighty, "important" feel of that gauge wire.

so, on to the economy. i have been doing some really hard thinking about the economy & the (apparently) inevitable significant decrease in sales that will come along. so, i have a plan! don't all us humans do better when we have a plan? and, btw, did you read in the newspaper today about the chimpanzee in Stockholm who has been proven to plan?? he actually made a big pile of rocks over a several hour period then began throwing them at visitors to his place in the zoo! amazing. anyway, i digress - my plan has two parts - a craft/art show part and an online part.

first, for the "show" plan. now, most of the jewelry i create is really weighty and sturdy - the kind that you know you have on when you are wearing it, you know? so, i thought about that & about how there are actually lots of people out there who do not want, need, require of even like that type of jewelry!! go figure, uh? anway, my plan involves designing jewelry with those folks in mind - same great designs (pardon my modesty), same great semi-precious stones/beads, same great service BUT just on a smaller scale for the smaller, younger woman or for anyone who just enjoys daintier baubles! this accomplishes two goals for me. first, it allows me to reach a larger audience/customer base which seems essential in this economy. second, it allows me to have a jewelry line that is just a little bit less expenive than my original line, again reaching out for a different customer who maybe i have been ignoring by my previous designs. pictures on the way soon!!

I love these and so do my customers - very simple but really lovely fine silver beads - very cool.

so, okay, now on to the second part of my plan. this plan involves making a BIG presence for my jewelry online. to that end, i'm adding lots of new jewelry to my website (laurateague.com), i have a site on etsy (laurateaguejewelry.etsy.com) and on artfire (laurateague.artfire.com) AND this blog. i'm doing this not only for the economy but also as a hedge in case i need the extra income at some point down the road for whatever reason. 16 gauge wire again! they could certainly be made with lighter weight wire but you know me & big wire - gotta love it. coin pearls - oooo, always classy.

so, there you have it. my proactive plan for getting to the other side of this bleak economy! live well!

ArtFire - something new & different??

i have just opened a web presence on artfire.com - i guess my full address there is LauraTeague@artfire.com. it's kind of like etsy but not nearly as big so i thought i would give it a try. it's pretty easy to set up so i posted a couple of my sterling silver bracelets for sale there. i working to have more of a presence on the web - now i have my own website (laurateague.com), this journal and the artfire account. i have also been approved to open an etsy shop but just haven't worked up the energy to get that off the ground yet!

i have several new jewelry designs that i can't wait to post here but they are currently being photographed; i should be getting them back in a day or two & i'll post them. in fact, in a day or two i should have lots of new photos to post of my most recent work. i've been in a real "earring mood" lately so i thought i would post a couple of earring photos - see what you think. my goal is to always have something new & different - not just the same designs over & over but new things. it's more fun for everyone that way~

i like these copper earrings - not a lot of people work in copper, that i have seen & i find it wonderful! very warm.

my designs tend to be pretty simple, really - just a line, for the most part. i'm challenged to always find new & different ways to use & move that line- what i want to do is bring it out of the 2 dimensional into the 3 dimensional, if that makes any sense. i want the earrings to have some bulk and weight, well, not weight exactly but just to have a presence to frame the face. not an afterthought but something substantial there that frames. sigh. i don't know if i'm making sense about this.

Excellent Photography

i've been thinking a lot about photographs lately - especially photographs of jewelry. it is notoriously difficult to get good photos of jewelry. oh, i know, i know, there are lots of great tutorials online about how to take your own wonderful photos of your jewelry. believe me, i have tried all the tips and i did get acceptable photos. here is an example of a photo i took.

not bad, really. it only took a little work in picasa, which, BTW, if you haven't tried is a really great little FREE photo editing program. i set up the little light tent i bought as well as all sorts of crazy furniture configurations to get the camera and the tent to exactly the right height, figured out the camara settings AGAIN....why do i always have to figure it out all over again every time i take photos? anyway, a couple of hours later, a few acceptable photos were born. i was getting really frustrated and it was taking DAYS to get enough good photos for a website or to send pictures to a potential customer. so, i applied for a grant for professional photographs of my work. to my complete surprise, i was awarded the contract! i immediately contacted a wonderful photographer, ralph gabriner, who lives in new york. he agreed to photograph my work for $75.00 per photo. whoa - this seemed like a lot to pay for a photo but i was frustrated, desperate and (thanks to the grant) i have MONEY!! so, off they went - a small handful of my favorite, handmade bracelets. i decided to let ralph choose what to photograph and he did well. here is the same piece above but photographed by ralph this time.

wow! see the difference? i could NEVER in a million years make my jewelry looks this fabulous. well, i guess if i trained & practiced for years to be a jewelry photographer maybe i could but i would much rather be making jewelry. so, the moral of the story is: pay to have a couple of great photos taken of your work, if you are an artist. it will be well worth the price. BTW, i recommend ralph, if you need to have photos of jewelry taken.....

Introduction

Welcome! This blog is my jewelry journal, where i plan to post my random thoughts about jewelry, jewelry design, marketing and whatever else occurs to me that i would like to talk about. i plan to have fun & enjoy the ride - come along if you want.

European Weave - also called European 4-in-1, because for all the rings that are fully in the pattern, 4 rings go through one ring

i started making jewelry about seven years ago....beading, of course, like everyone else in the country & maybe the world. i made tons of those little stretch bracelets that everyone was wearing then. I could not get enough of making those - i just loved the beads & the bracelets that happened when i put the beads together. each one seemed cooler than the last, to me. i was totally and completely hooked. well, there are only so many stretchy bracelets that a person can wear and even giving them to friends (which i didn't like to do because they were all SO COOL), there is just a limit, you know?

I call this bracelet liquid silver because that's what it feels like on the skin - very slinky & delicious.

so, i started looking at different options that would give me the same creative "high" and that would be affordable to create. at first, the effort was just for me; i just wanted to make jewelry, it's as simple as that. i checked out mountains of books on jewelry making at the local library and started to absorb everything i could read both in print & on the web regarding making jewelry. again, i couldn't get enough information - everything i read was fascinating to me.

eventually, after much reading & experimentation with lots of different materials, i more or less settled on working with wire. of course, i would continue my love affair with beads of all types, eventually learning the technique of lampworking (making beads using a torch and glass rods).

so ---- what i love is heavy wire jewelry - not so much intricate as weighty with fairly simple designs.

This is an early bracelet i made from copper wire - i was copying an African Elephant hair bracelet - i liked it!

some of my lampwork glass beads on adjustable leather necklaces - i love these. i have made them from the beginning & still love to make them. each little glass bead is, to me, a miniature work of art. they are all unique. because of the way lampworking is done, it's almost impossible to tell how the work is going to look at the end - everything is glowing orange when the bead is being created in the flame. once it cools, the true colors show. always a surprise! so much fun.

this is an early copper bangle - heavily influenced by the work of connie fox and eni oken and i thank them for their generosity in providing so much help in the beginning. i love these simple bangles but don't make them routinely anymore; i now work more in sterling silver and have moved to other designs, but this design was certainly one of my early favorites.