Blue Skies

Pretty blue necklaces to match the color of today's sky....

 Dainty glass teardrop and seed beads with silverplate. Both have sold.

 Dainty glass teardrop and seed beads with silverplate. Sold.

Sodalite, pewter and glass seed bead. This one sold it's first day on display!

Beadware now in Port Townsend

Today I am shipping out a new order to Don's Pharmacy in Port Townsend. You will find this selection of glass bead and stone earrings in this shop on Water Street. 

 

 Triple dangle glass bead earrings in a variety of colors. 

 Stone earrings including moss agate, amethyst, turquoise, peridot, rock crystal, iolite, jasper, hematite, jade, rose quartz, tiger eye, agate, red tiger eye, and sodalite.

As part of this order I created a new style of earring card that can be hung on standard earring racks using a small plastic tab on the back. For all my wholesale orders I am using clear labels for the "ingredient" list instead of handwriting. Another change from my retail materials is that for wholesale orders I remove my name and contact information form the cards. To leave that on would be considered tacky.

Next time you are in Port Townsend stop in and see what Don's has to offer. 

Happy shopping! 

All About Ears

A friend recently gave me a box of assorted glass beads. I decided to turn them into earrings.

All are $10. Send me an email if you see a pair that speaks to you!

 A few leftover freshwater pearls from another project

Tangozulu Online

You can now find a selection of Beadware necklaces among the items featured in the Tangozulu Imports online catalog! 

Click on either Jewelry or the Made in USA sections to see six of my stone necklaces for sale.

 The blue agate necklace on the right can be found there, as well as

the black agate in the center and the painted desert jasper on the right.

If you are passing through Port Gamble be sure and stop into their brand new location in the Morrill Pope House on Rainier Avenue and see the rest of the Beadware necklaces they have, as well as the beautiful fair trade baskets they are known for. . They are open daily from 10 to 5pm.

Green Ocean Jasper

A leaf and a rose, dragonflies and bumblebees........

Green ocean jasper with flecks of cream and gold.  Glass seed beads and small rounds of moss agate accented with gold plated brass. SOLD. 

 Green ocean jasper with a silver plated leaf charm. Silver plated rounds and a rose clasp. SOLD

A greenish blue ocean jasper with a pewter dragonfly charm and small dragonflies along the necklace. On the pewter claps are bumblebees! SOLD.

Green Fancy Jasper

These sweet little stones are drilled through a corner resulting 

in a a different look than my usual pendants.

 On the left: fancy jasper, moss agate, glass seed beads, silver plated rounds and a pewter clasp. On the right: fancy jasper, silver plated rounds, glass seed beads, Swarovski crystals

 and a pewter clasp. Both are SOLD.

Both of these mix fancy jasper, moss agate, glass seed beads and copper. Both are SOLD.

March Green

Green is not just for St Pats, it is also the color of spring! 

Watch for more new green necklaces this month. 

First up is the last in a long line of green necklaces - this is the last  teardrop green jasper that I had in my collection. It is mixed with jasper chips, jade, copper glass seed beads and copper accents.   Matching bracelet and earrings in jade and copper. All have since sold.

All About Ears

Today I made a few earrings. My inventory is really low and I have to start re-stocking for show season! Often beads or stones tell me what they want to be. (OMG she is crazy her beads talk to her!) When I saw many of these beads I just knew they were meant to be earrings. Most of these will not make it to my online store so just shoot me an email if you see a pair you like.

 The main beads in the pairs on either side have a great swirly design.

The matte blue and green disks were destined for earrings.

I like the fun multi-color oblong beads with a chevron-like design.

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!!

Traveling

I am traveling this month so that is why things have been so quiet here. Even my online store is closed. I'll resume that and posts when I return in early February.  In the meantime, if you need a Beadware fix feel free to peruse the picture albums on my Facebook page or via the picture gallery links on the right side of my blog.

Hope your new year is off to a great beginning!

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!

This Weeks Work

I have been making these bracelets for many years and they continue to be very popular. I sold out of them at my last show so made a few more for this weekend. They feature furnace glass or cane glass beads (the chunky multicolor beads) mixed with an assortment of colorful glass beads and silver accents. The toggle clasps all have a small handcrafted silver dangle for a fun attitude.

This shimmery grey necklace started out very differently with a large zebra jasper pendant, but I was not happy with the way it was looking so I took it in a different direction. Instead it is 3 strands of grey and shimmering grey glass seed beads with a delicate crystal dangle. This has SOLD.

Exciting and Scary

Yesterday I met with a wholesale rep who wants to represent me at stores through out western Washington!! She said she picked me because my jewelry is unique, I have a nice variety, a good price point, and am a local small business. How flattering!

Thinking about all the various aspects of this is a bit overwhelming. I left the meeting with a list of homework assignments. Things to research, things to ponder and things to create.

Much of my work is one of a kind so how do I combine it to make it easier for a store to order from me? Which items and styles should I choose to start with? What samples should I provide to the rep and how to package them? What will be my polices on payments, orders, returns, and shipping? What will be my minimum order amount? If successful will I be able to keep up with orders?

I will need to create a wholesale line sheet, wholesale price sheet, a leave-behind post card or sheet (someday a catalog, but that is for the future), order form, packing slips, invoices, new tags, and a contract.

Luckily I have a few artist friends who have traveled this road and they are willing to share info with me. There is also a wealth of info on the web.

My goal is to have all of this figured out before Christmas so that I am ready for my rep to begin marketing me in January. My rep - that has a nice sound to it! So much for down time this month!

2013 looks to be an exciting and scary year for Beadware!!

New Gallery for Beadware!

As of this afternoon you can now find a selection of my whimsical bead art pins, a party on a pin!, at the Crazy Lady on Bay Street Gallery and Gifts in downtown Port Orchard. 

Shelly Wilkerson took over this gallery last month and is amassing a collection of whimsical and fine art from around the region. 

I will be adding more items through out the month of December. 

Check out her Facebook page for more info on the gallery and artists.

 

 724 Bay Street, Port Orchard, WA 98366 (369) 443-2249  Tues -  Sat 10-5, Sun 11-4

Stop in the next time you are in the area and be sure to say hello to Magic the gallery cat.