Making jewelry

[AccountingDrone]

Another problem is mass produced jewelry from India [or wherever they are working for a quarter an hour]

I made a lovely amethyst necklace. The materials alone cost me just under $25. Realistically, they say to double or triple the cost of materials to make the sales price. You can buy similar necklaces for $25, what I paid for the materials because I am not getting it at wholesale - I buy from Fire Mountain Gems. The people in India or wherever are paying a tenth or so of what I pay.

So, people who see the same type of necklace for $25 do not want to pay me $50 which is theoretically what I should charge. [That is why the 'good stuff' gets made for gifts to my friends instead of for sale, I do beadwork for sale. I can get beads at insanely low prices wholesale =) ]

[and you really don't want to know what I charged for the hand pearled elizabethan gown that had almost a full pound of seed pearls.]

[Eireann]

By the way, I'm still available to buy beads here for anyone who's interested! Today, at a store downtown, I found beads shaped like:

Fire engines
Skulls
Ghosts
Wreaths
Candy canes
Aliens
Coffee beans

and more!

I think they're all handmade; they certainly look like it. The price is approximately 1 American dollar per bead, and they're sold in little bags of two beads.

[Andara Bledin]

Beading isn't too hard once you have the right tools and figure out how to do it.

Beading or using beads in metal work?

I've been beading for over 20 years, but I've never done any metalwork. My brother, however, doesn't bead, but he does wire wrapping. I should probably push him into listing some of his work on Etsy, now that I think about it.

Another problem is mass produced jewelry from India [or wherever they are working for a quarter an hour].

The mass-produced imported beadwork is actually done by machine. That's why the beads are so uneven, and the threading is always too tight. The machines have no finesse. If there were humans behind that stuff, you'd find more of it with loose threading as well, which is nearly as bad.

My mother and aunt make a point of hitting the garment district in downtown L.A. every time they drive down to visit for the supply shops.

^-.-^