Selling Beads and Jewelry

ShellyJo1969 · #1 2010-07-21, 11:44am

I have some experience in the past with making and selling wire wrapped jewelry but it's been a while and it was gemstone jewelry not my handmade lampwork glass bead jewelry...blah blah so it's not really relevant to what I want to know now.

Out of all of you on LE who make your own beads and sell them, how many of you also make jewlery from them to sell? And out of the two, do you find you sell many more bead sets or do the jewelry pieces sell equally as well? I'd imagine bead sets but then I don't know so that's why I'm asking!

I'm just trying to figure out where to concentrate my efforts. I know I want to make and sell some jewelry too so I'll have to get educated on it all anyway, but you know, just asking so I can figure out what I want to focus on.

Have to sell stuff so you can keep buying more glass! Right!?

Moth · #2 2010-07-21, 3:02pm

Everybody is different, you just need to start making beads. When they get good enough you start sharing them with people. Either give them away as gifts or sell them. Make some jewelry for yourself and for your friends/loved ones. Get even better. Make more. Get a feel for what you like to make and see what your target market is.

You can't make jewelry from beads you haven't made yet.

Fire up that torch, girl and get melting some glass. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you create.

You think you have a lot of questions now? LOL You have no idea what you're in for! Go melt some glass, and get ready for us all to be asking for pictures.

Don't be like some of us who can't see the forest for the trees. Take baby steps, one at a time, and try not to get too far ahead of yourself.

When I first started I was totally set that I would be making beads that matched fabrics I had for making purses. That was the whole reason I started. As soon as I had my first few florals done, I had completely forgotten about the handbags and immersed myself in glass work.

I concentrated on making encased florals. I thought they were AWESOME!! Within 5 months I felt like I was becoming a one trick pony and didn't want to be pigeon-holed as the floral girl. So I branched out. I started doing organics and geometrics and anything I could do besides florals.

I thought I would NEVER get the hang of making sculptural beads. I would have sworn I'd never be able to make a frog bead or a bird or a mushroom or any of the other ones I've since written tutorials about. LOL

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the glass takes you where you need to go and at the right pace.

All you have to do is light the torch and stick some glass in the flame. The rest will come.

Hugs and best of luck.
~~Mary

As a direct answer to your question- the more time and labor you put into a piece the higher you'll have to price it to get paid. I make jewelry when I want to make a gift or if I get inspired to make a specific piece. I think it is (personally) a little bit harder to make money on jewelry than it is to make money with beads. BUT ten other people would probably disagree with me. You just have to wait and find out what you want to do.

Moth · #3 2010-07-21, 3:05pm

Oh, and be safe. Set up a safe studio. That is tantamount and above everything else.

Toni Lutman · #4 2010-07-21, 3:15pm

Slow down.

Stop trying to figure it all out before you’ve had a chance to find out what you enjoy doing, or even IF you enjoy doing it. What will you do if you find out that sets sell better, but you HATE making the same bead over and over? Or maybe focals sell better, but you really get bored when you work on any single bead for more than 15 minutes.

You will end up doing best, what you enjoy doing most. Give yourself a chance to find out what that is.

Right now you should concentrate your efforts on laying down a good footprint. Making a well balanced bead with nice puckers. Making your own stringers and twisties. Dot placement and stringer control. Get all the basics down, then start thinking about where you want to take this.

I was probably overly critical of myself (as a lot of us are), but I didn’t feel my beads were sellable for a loooooong time, and I’m glad I waited.

Lisi · #5 2010-07-21, 3:33pm

Making good quality sellable beads didn't happen overnight for any of us. Most of us learned the same way - starting with the very basics and then moving on to the more complicated techniques. All of this takes time and more time and practice for some than others.

mandyjw · #6 2010-07-21, 3:47pm

I think a lot of people here make and sell both and at different times I've sold more jewelry than beads and then more beads than jewelry. It all depends on your style, your preferences, the market, how you choose to market your work.

It generally takes a very large time and money investment to get to the skill level and have the materials that you need to make even a small amount of money back on your lampwork. It's even harder to do now that it was as silver and gold prices have more than doubled and there are more mass producers of lampwork beads out there.

Not to be discouraging, but I believe it is important to go into this for the sheer love of making beads, or jewelry or whatever it is you find you love to do. I fondly remember the first summer I began making beads and the thrill of finally figuring out how to do new techniques and carrying around successful beads and staring at them all day, no matter how badly I had executed said new techniques! Not that it's not still nice to learn new things six years later but it's not quite the same as it was at first.

Wiley · #7 2010-07-21, 3:48pm

LOL!!

I've been making beads since 2004 ... IMO I'm still not ready to sell .... so I don't. Maybe someday I will be ... maybe not. Then again I didn't start lampworking, playing with glass (stained glass for several years before that), or making jewelry to make money. *shrug* I do it simply because I love to create and fell in love with glass....

SuzyQ · #8 2010-07-21, 4:18pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by mandyjw

I fondly remember the first summer I began making beads and the thrill of finally figuring out how to do new techniques and carrying around successful beads and staring at them all day, no matter how badly I had executed said new techniques!

I remember this too! I always had beads in my pocket so I could look at them and be proud of what it was I had just figured out.

As Nike says "Just do it!" The rest really does follow.

SilverRiverJewelry · #9 2010-07-21, 4:39pm

I started making lampwork beads because I wanted my jewelry to be more unique and stand out a bit in the crowd (of jewelry sellers, pretty much everyone buys from a lot of the same suppliers, so making my own lampwork would help me stand out more since each bead is, of course, unique). I also do my own wire wrapping, I cab my own stones and make my own settings so this was just one more step on this road. Or so I thought lol.

I started making beads and discovered I LOVE IT! Totally and completely just love doing it. So now I make so many beads I have to sell them or I would need a room just to store the beads. And I do have to pay for it somehow. I still make jewelry and I still love it but truth to be told, I think I like the glass more.

My beads sell better than the jewelry currently but that may be because right now the economy sucks and beads are cheaper to buy than finished pieces. Or it could be any number of other factors. I have separate shops for the beads and the jewelry.

SilverRiverJewelry · #10 2010-07-21, 4:40pm

I might add that you do indeed have to actually make the beads so you can decide if you really like to do it or not. I took a class before I bought anything to see if I though I would like it or not.

DesertDreamer · #11 2010-07-21, 4:53pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moth

As a direct answer to your question- the more time and labor you put into a piece the higher you'll have to price it to get paid. I make jewelry when I want to make a gift or if I get inspired to make a specific piece. I think it is (personally) a little bit harder to make money on jewelry than it is to make money with beads. BUT ten other people would probably disagree with me. You just have to wait and find out what you want to do.

I wanted to single this out from all of the rest of the excellent advice in this thread. I think Mary is right, but I also think it has a LOT to do with where and how you sell. Single beads and sets will do better at a bead-focused show while finished jewelry will sell more at a finished craft/art show. I started out selling jewelry, and quickly learned that I had to switch gears and change my focus to sell my own beads.

Do your research on shows and other venues, and be prepared for a degree of trial and error. I had a show that I did for 5 years. The first 3 were great (after 2 years of scouting it out and getting up the nerve to apply), but the 4th year was awful, due to totally insane weather. The 5th year they moved the venue, a lot of the competition dropped out, and I kicked beaded butt. If I hadn't moved, I'd still be going and it would still mostly be a crap shoot every time.

Most of this selling gig is a crap shoot most of the time. The one essential ingredient, though, is passion. Don't ever do it for the money, do it because you just can't help yourself...you have to create, you love to make beautiful things. If customers can't see the passion, they'll go to Claire's and buy mass-produced stuff instead.

kirrakat123 · #12 2010-07-21, 5:38pm

hi, I have listed single beads, bead sets & jewellery made from my beads on
auction sites (like ebay). but I have found that the jewellery didn't sell & the
bead sets only sold if they were small quanities, such as 3 or 4 beads. By far
the most popular are the single beads or single pendants. The buyers are
people who want to make jewellery for themselves or as gifts. Like everyone
else has said 'do glass work because you love it & practice alot'. All the money
I make thru sales goes back to buying glass & I am still lampworking at a loss.
But I don't really care because even if I never sold a bead, I would still be
working glass. It makes me happy. Thanks Cynthia

Sheila D. · #13 2010-07-21, 6:53pm

I've been a jewelry designer for about 8 years and a lampwork artist for only one year.I've been doing pretty well on Etsy selling my beads,but the jewelry market is sooo saturated.I sell my jewelry(lampwork and otherwise) at carft/art fairs and do very well there.So, you just have to find your niche."Do what you love and the money will follow" as the saying goes.I absolutely love melting glass, but I still enjoy making jewelry too.Just have to figure out the best way to combine the two.

Carolyn M · #14 2010-07-21, 8:43pm

I sell bead sets on ebay and made jewelry at shows. Do not try to sell your first beads, you will regret it, unless you are some kind of savant and make awesome beads from the get go.

Don't expect to make huge amounts of money either because you probably won't. I sell regularly on ebay - 99% of my sets sell, and when I come to do my income taxes, I thank God this is only a (barely) profitable hobby.

ShellyJo1969 · #15 2010-07-21, 11:33pm

Good advice all. I don't intend to try selling beads until I feel very happy with them. My husband has shown them to several people at his job and several of them have requested me making something from some of them which is encouraging. I won't charge for them though, those will be freebies/gifts.

I figure my first ones are on average with everyone elses, still wonky in spots, working on getting perfect puckers everytime, I still can't make a perfect round or an oblong one to save my life! But I'm working on it. I started doing this because I've wanted to for 10 years and I finally had the opportunity to purchase the needed equipment and I went for it after researching about it for a long time. I do not regret it at all. You're right, it's very costly, I've already spent a chunk on it but I don't regret any of it. Probably like a lot of you I've always been into crafty things, but this is by far the best and most favorite thing I have ever done, Ever. I pour my heart into every bead I attempt. It is a passion.

And I'll tell you something else, I've heard a lot of you come down hard on your beads, especially the first ones, and some of you even now after years of experience. But I don't see it that way. Even the first crappy/wonky bead I wound on a mandrel, I've thought they were each one awesome! Every single one, even the crappy ones, are neat. Now I might not want every one that isn't "as perfect as i can make it" representing me and my work as I am not up to the best I can be yet and won't be for a while most likely. But still, glass beads are just pretty I think. That's it. They are all sparkley and unique, and I love everyone I"ve made so far, even the ugly ones. Even my husband who couldn't give two flips about any type of jewelry item thinks they are really neat because of the whole process of how they are created and because I made them, he even tried to make a few at the beginning.

The town i live in is a craft town and I hope to get in on selling some items in town when my beads are top quality whenever that may be. That and selling online at first and hopefully, possibly someday maybe at bead events. But right now as I have hope for selling them in future, right now I am just enjoying each new effort. Everytime I get one out of the kiln that's beautiful, I just feel pure joy in my heart and a wonderful sense of pride that's been hard for me to come by in my life. There's so much amazing history behind beads and behind lampwork beads especially. Don't you feel some pride just saying "I make lampwork beads"? I do.

Happy Lampworking Everyone!

Michele

Sheila D. · #16 2010-07-22, 3:00pm

I like that Michelle...

SuzyQ · #17 2010-07-22, 4:53pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShellyJo1969

....right now I am just enjoying each new effort. Everytime I get one out of the kiln that's beautiful, I just feel pure joy in my heart and a wonderful sense of pride that's been hard for me to come by in my life. There's so much amazing history behind beads and behind lampwork beads especially. Don't you feel some pride just saying "I make lampwork beads"? I do.

Michele

Yup, I do.