Congrats, Kalera!

Kalera wrote:

No new news! However, I think the tide is changing. Your idea for the
full-page ad is wonderful... I hope that does pan out.

One suggestion I have is to place the ad in Beadwork, because we
(artisan beadmakers) have pretty much been snubbed by Kalmbach
Publishing and having a FULL PAGE ad in their competitor is money right
out of their pocket... money they lose because of their stance in
refusing to give credibility to the evidence of wrongdoing on the part
of one advertiser.

I wrote a formal cancellation of future adverts to both Beadwork and
B&B this week, on the 20th. Yes, I know it's close to the holidays but
not so close that they couldn't have written and said 'We got your
letter, thanks, we're definitely giving it some consideration'. Not a
jot, not a peep. Nada.

I am most inclined to put the ad in the one magazine that listened and
cancelled the giveaway, it's a decent chunk of cash and giving it to a
magazine that ignores us seems a bit painful. It's something that will
take a while to think through, but surely the publications must be
seeing that it is a situation that matters to the beading community. I
would prefer a letter-writing campaign but those are harder to get
moving oddly enough than something like this ad.

Last, I think the ad would gain credibility if the associated website
listed concerned jewelry designers & links to their site without having
to make a donation. That would help show that jewelry designers (the
largest customer base for these magazines) are also concerned, which
would make less-informed designers take note of the issue, and would
also help wake up the magazines.

Yup. The thing now is what sort of domain name would it be? I think
these are vital issues and they will last long past the point of
AH/M*nek acutally doing the legal and ethical thing. I hope to show
them that it's not true that any publicity is good publicity.

-Su

www.tillermanbeads.co.uk
www.britishlampwork.co.uk (new forum opens today!)
www.lampwork.co.uk

Su,

I had some thoughts in mind when I was distracted (happens a lot) by
the domain name thing. I checked a couple of likely candidates and the
one that was available is: artistmadebeads.com -- I snagged it for the
use of whoever does the website, if you want to use it. I got it for
two years and the cost is on me; just let me know where to point it.

I read about the ad, maybe on LE, and I'll sign up there. It's a great
idea--very proactive. I just hope that the focus is about how great
artist-made beads are, not just what junk AH might be selling.

The kiln is hot, so I gotta go do what I do ... hope I've been of some
help to the movement.

Nolly