Making jewelry

[Eireann]

Where is a good place to sell it? Czech beaded earrings and a bracelet!

[BlaqueKatt]

have you looked into ETSY?

[Kanalah]

Yeah I have to 2nd Etsy.

Pretty easy to set up and use. And even though I haven't done any advertising except passing out cards at my shows, it's done alright for me so far.

[zombiequeen]

I just started my etsy store, so I haven't had any sales yet. Although, I do get a lot of people asking me about it, or asking if I have one. Once you have a good seller rating (3 sales with all positive at least) it'll help you out tremendously.
I hope this helps, I'm trying to find people to buy from my shop by advertising on my blog, facebook, and on my business cards I hand out at shows and to people who ask about my work.

[MaggieTheCat]

Etsy is good. There's also a site called Artfire that I've heard good things about, although I think Etsy has more people who visit it. Of course, it also has more vendors, which means there's more competition. I'm not sure which is better, per se, but when I finally get around to it, I'm going to make an Etsy site.

A suggestion that I got from a good friend of mine who also makes jewelry and sells on Etsy: Make a Deviant Art account as well. Post pics of all your stuff on Deviant Art and enter them into the various groups that they have (there are groups for jewelry, beaded work, etc.) That way you'll get followers who will be interested in your type of work. My friend holds drawings about once a month or so for free stuff, which is a huge incentive for people to start watching her Deviant Art account. I think she's gotten over 500 followers on her DA account now (she's been a member since July or August, I think) and after every drawing she does, she also gets several sales.

[AccountingDrone]

Really?

Excellent advice. I am getting ready to start doing beadwork and jewelry to both keep busy and make some money. I really like making things, it appeals to the creative in me. I have always liked making jewelry and beadwork, and it is something I can make without stressing my body out.

I have decided to start getting more active, starting a blog, and crafting, and getting ready to go back to school for a degree.

[zombiequeen]

Blogging is really good. I have a little Blogger account I update with my life, pictures of my crafts, and it has a link to my Etsy, DeviantART, and Facebook pages. I'm also working on a personal website, but that's a LONG time away before I get it working properly.

[Eireann]

A friend of mine sells on Etsy; she did warn me that people often go there looking for deals, and sometimes try to haggle with her. But I can always try.

[Eireann]

I have all the pieces listed on Facebook. It's free, and my friends can recommend me to their friends, and so on. I'll try Etsy in a little while. Thanks for the advice!

[Amina516]

A friend of mine sells on Etsy; she did warn me that people often go there looking for deals, and sometimes try to haggle with her. But I can always try.

Sadly, I see Etsy going the way of eBay..which makes me sad b/c I love Etsy.

[zombiequeen]

Yeah, I showed my mum Etsy the other day, and her first response was "Sure it's nice, but isn't it expensive? I mean, I know it's handmade, but wow, that's really expensive. Can they lower the price?"

[MaggieTheCat]

Ugh...and there are so many people, even people who make handmade stuff themselves, who just don't understand the amount of time that is put into our work. Not just time it takes to actually make a piece, but time it takes to research patterns and learn how to do what you do in the first place, and buy materials, and take nice pictures to display your work, and set up an account or accounts on Etsy, Deviant Art, a blog, etc., and so on and so forth. Sure, it might only take you an hour to make something, but by the time you factor in how long it took you to figure out how to make that, and to find materials for it, and then to properly present it to the public, you could easily double or triple the actual time it took to make something.

I make chainmail jewelry, and there is (or at least was...haven't checked to see if s/he's still around) someone who was selling work similar to my own for DIRT cheap on Etsy. S/he had it priced something like, for every link s/he used in the piece it was $.05, for the clasp it was $.50, plus $.50 for every inch long the piece is. The average bracelet is about 8 inches long, so s/he got $4 for that, plus probably around $4.00 for the amount of links s/he used (approximating here) plus $.50 for a clasp. That's $8.50 for a bracelet. I charge twice that much for a BASIC bracelet, and more depending on if I have beads, charms, pendants, etc. on it. It's not fair to people who actually are trying to make money off of what they do. The person who charges $8.50 for a bracelet is not making money off of their work, at least not money worth the amount of time invested. It takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to make a basic bracelet (longer if it has beads, etc. on it.) Even if you don't factor in all the other elements I mentioned above, once you take away material costs, that person is making maybe $4/hour charging the way they do. Sorry, but no. I can go out and get a job making more than that.

[zombiequeen]

Yeah, and my mum thinks my stuff is expensive. I am trying to do this as a job, not because I'm lazy, but because it's what I love and what I'm good at.
I made her sit down with me on her day off and watch what I do...from getting up and checking emails to tracking shipping numbers, getting payment, and also working on my stuff. She kind of gets it now...but she's cheap at heart.
I actually am saving up money to get handmade things, because I sure as heck am willing to pay more for handmade quality that is personal and unique than something I could get imported in a case of 3000 for the same price. What would I do with the other 2999?

/rant

I would love linkies from people who are selling on facebook and etsy, it makes me happy. I'll share too if you want. We artists have to support each other!

[Eireann]

I'm really getting into it. I can do a damned good bracelet, and I just made my first necklace. All I did, before starting, was to find out how to attach a bead (or something else that's shiny) to an earring post or hook.

That's it.

Everything else? I've done it all. I've made several pairs of earrings, five bracelets, and a necklace. I went to a bead store today and examined an intricately-beaded necklace to see how it was done. I'm making it up as I go along. I'm posting more photos to Facebook every night. My friends are recommending me to their friends. And on it goes.

I haven't sold anything yet, but it's a nice and relaxing activity, plus it's creative.

[MaggieTheCat]

Beading isn't too hard once you have the right tools and figure out how to do it. When I first started doing chainmail and decided I wanted to add some beaded bling to my work, I couldn't imagine how I'd ever figure out how to make eyepins and such. It's so easy now that I've been doing it for a while.

Glad your stuff is turning out nicely.