I have come to a long thought out decision-I'm going to stop making jewelry. Well, that's not exactly the whole truth - the truth is I'm going to focus on creating wearable art.instead. A few years ago I was into making unique jewelry at mid range prices. I made a lot of jewelry and was also told SO many times-you don't charge enough for the time/effort you put into this. And you know what-that's true! Some pieces I made took hours to complete, and I'd hesitantly put $89 on the price tag.
The people who "get it" had no problem paying that price and those are the people that for years have encouraged me to mark things higher. "You should be charging more, this is so unique and would sell in a gallery for MUCH more" they'd say. I wasn't ready to believe it though then. Why? because the majority of customers balked. "WHY is is so much?" or my fave "it would only cost me $20 to make that at home so why are you charging $80?" People that ask those things don't mean to be rude, they are used to buying things for cheap at Target or Walmart. They don't understand my supplies are vintage or antique, there is no "wholesale" when buying them. They don't understand the beads are gemstones not plastic, that to create a 15 inch long wire wrapped bead chain takes an hour, that you hand make the findings, that my time and skill are worth more than $1 an hour, etc, etc, etc.... And in hindsight, I realize they aren't my target demographic.
So I've decided to shift my focus and attention to creating art jewelry to collect. I'll pour more of my heart, time and money into creating more art and heart focused pieces.
In order to do that, I need to clear space-mentally and physically for it (especially physically). I need to make room for new tools, set up and supplies, things I'll use rather than all this "stuff" I've been hanging onto. For the past few weeks I've been putting things in my Etsy shop so I would have less to move. And a huge thank you to my friend, Andrew Thornton who put the word out about my moving sale on his blog. I love you Andrew for helping me!!!!
Now, I'll be kicking it into high gear with listing stuff so I can make more space and $$ to buy new supplies. I'll be getting rid of a lot of jewelry supplies I won't be using- like base metal findings, vintage plastic beads, bead mixes, etc..... I wish I could have a studio sale, but this area dead jewelry making wise! I am also going to have a sale on my website too. If you aren't on my newsletter list, add yourself now so you can be the first to know when that happens.
I plan to continue to teach others how to make jewelry, actually I'm more excited about doing that now. Especially for beginners. I'm already working on class proposals for next year and creating some online classes. I have other ideas and dreams I want to bring to fruition next year as well.
