Shop Local, Shop Handmade - Ventures, Gifts for Good

Starting Friday you can now find Beadware at Ventures in Pike Place Market! This unique and inspiring gift store is the "retail incubator" of Washington C.A.S.H. (Community Alliance for Self-Help). Their stores showcase handcrafted products from their program’s participants and other local and low-income entrepreneurs, offering direct market access as well as hands-on training in retail product development, pricing, and presentation. Working together, they are committed to the growth of small businesses, stronger communities, and brighter futures throughout the Puget Sound region and beyond.

Pike Place Market store

The first location is in the historic Seattle Pike Place Market at 1st Avenue and Pike St. on the Mezzanine Level, under the main arcade, in Suite 521. Easy directions are to start at the pig, walk down past the fish tossers and hang a right! The second location is a retail kiosk in Concourse C at Seatac International Airport.

SeaTac store

 They have a nice selection of art and gifts, many from friends of mine such as Kaleidescapes, Eastern Wind Glass and Echo Artworks.  They will have 2 dozen Beadware stone necklaces and several dozen earrings available. I will post a picture of the display as soon as I receive one.

Restocking Angeline Spa

Today I made another visit to the gift shop at Angeline Spa at the Clearwater Resort in Suquamish. They had sold all but one of the necklaces they purchased from me at the end of September! 

Working with Belinda the manager, we selected another batch of stone pendant necklaces with various healing and metaphysical qualities. Here are are some you will find there:

The Spa is nestled behind the Clearwater Casino and next to the hotel. They serve both resort guests as well as the public. They offer a menu of facials, manicures, pedicures, body wraps and massage for women and men. The manager and staff are very personable and will make your comfort and relaxation their top priority. Check out their website or give them a call at 360-598-1420 for more information. 

Angeline Spa

A lovely selection of Beadware stone necklaces can now be found at the gift shop at Angeline Spa at the Clearwater Resort in Suquamish! 

The Spa is nestled behind the Clearwater Casino and next to the hotel. They serve both resort guests as well as the public. They offer a menu of facials, manicures, pedicures, body wraps and massage for women and men. The Hawaiian Healing massage and the foot reflexology sessions sounded great to me. I relax just writing about them!  

The manager and staff are very personable and will make your comfort and relaxation their top priority. Check out their website or give them a call at 360-598-1420 for more information. 

Working with Belinda the manager, we selected a variety of nice stone pendant necklaces with various healing and metaphysical qualities.

 Flower jade to enhance your confidence.

 Sodalite to soothe you.

 Snakeskin jasper to help move energy during your massage.

 And several dragon blood jasper pendants to ground you and heal your heart.

These as well as several more necklaces can be found in the gift shop, along with a nice selection of body and and bath products. Tell them Beadware sent you!

Tangozulu Imports

Another new retail venue for Beadware is historic Port Gamble a the north end of the Kitsap Peninsula. Tangozulu Imports is a family owned business that brings quality handcrafted fair trade products from artisans throughout the world to their customers at affordable prices. Their specialty is African baskets, but they also carry a wide array of other artisan products as well, including many made locally in Kitsap County. They are committed to fair trade practices, quality products, and superior customer service. 

You will soon find a nice selection of Beadware necklaces in their shop and in their online store. 

 Ocean Jasper and Agates

 Agates and Owyhee Jasper

 Green Opals and Agate

 Zebra Jasper and Needle Agates

Agates and Painted Desert Jasper

Wild Bird Center

I shipped out my first order to the Wild Bird Center of Silverdale last week. Here are the Beadware items you will now find in their shop. 

 Moss agate and ocean jasper earrings

 Red and purple glass teardrop necklaces

 Hand hammered copper earrings

 Assorted jasper earrings

 Assorted jasper earrings

Moss agate earrings and a green opal and copper necklace

I created new earring cards and jewelry tags that do not have my contact info on them. That can be considered bad manners when you are selling to a store. And I used small clear labels and printed out descriptions instead of my usual handwritten ones. 

 I created a thankyou card and a 4x6 artist bio card they can put in their display.

Next step was to wrap everything up, label , and tuck the cards, an invoice and packing slip into the box. Then it was off to the post office!!

Wholesale Catalog

I now have a new page on my blog about wholesale purchasing. There you will find my brand new catalog!!! It features some of my most popular designs. I am so excited to be venturing down this path. Please note the prices listed in the catalog are for wholesale purchase by brick and mortar shops for resale to their customers.

My retail customers will notice prices in the wholesale catalog are lower than what they may have purchased an item for. Why is retail more? One of the biggest reasons is the time involved. Wholesale is quick with little time investment for me. Retail requires a huge investment of my time and resources sitting in my booth at various events around the area.

I use a pretty standard formula to determine my prices that uses 3 things: time, overhead and materials. Add these together for the cost of an item. Double this number for wholesale. Double the wholesale figure for retail.
 
Time: I pay myself a modest hourly wage. I use a timer to see how long it takes me to make an item.  This can range from 10 minutes to several hours.

Overhead: This is 33% of my time. Overhead includes a myriad of things. The creating of tags and ear cards, cost of office supplies, studio expenses, marketing, vendor fees, booth equipment, and many, many more costs that I incur in the operation of my business.

Materials: This is the actual cost of the materials used in the making of an item. I try very hard to buy things on sale and in large quantities to keep my prices reasonable. When I bring home a purchase of supplies I figure out the cost per piece.

Here is a simple example: Let's say it took me 1/2 hour to make something and my rate of pay is $10. That is $5. Plus overhead of 33% is $1.65. Cost of materials is $5. So the cost of this item is $5+$1.65+ $5 = $11.65. The wholesale price is then $23.30 and the retail price is $46.60. That means a "profit" of $34.95 on this item. I put profit in quotes lest you think I am getting rich on all of my profit - not going to happen! I am just happy to cover all my expenses.

In the retail world many businesses will charge much more than double of wholesale for the retail price. Often in a shop they may take the wholesale price they purchased the item for and as much as triple it for the retail price. I have seen this on some of my own pieces.

I may also add into the wholesale  price the cost of working with a sales rep (usually 15% of the price). I will also look at the retail price and consider how it relates to similar items I have in stock and what I think someone would pay for it and adjust (up or down) accordingly.

Does your head hurt yet from all this math?! Luckily you can leave all this to me and just enjoy shopping and wearing my beautiful jewelry instead!