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The Beadmakers Liberation Front



 
 
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  #1  
Old February 10th 04, 03:08 PM
meijhana
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Default The Beadmakers Liberation Front

I was impressed by this, and wanted to share!!!

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/show...73#post2015373

I think we should adopt it as jewelry designers, too (and that means you,
too, Harry, both as a jewelry designer and as a supplies crafter). Too many
times do we hear "I just want to get my money back", and with this, I think
we can start to educate others, both as buyer and as fellow seller.

Mary


--
Mr. Winky says "Glass shards are beautiful, but they can be painful." --
www.shardsoglass.com
================
MeijhanaDesigns - Unique Earrings and More!
http://www.meijhanadesigns.com
mary at meijhanadesigns dot com

HandcraftedJewelry.com
http://snipurl.com/45w5
check out my store!


Ads
  #2  
Old February 10th 04, 03:44 PM
Harry
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Default

On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 06:08:06 -0800, "meijhana" wrote:

I was impressed by this, and wanted to share!!!

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/show...73#post2015373

I think we should adopt it as jewelry designers, too (and that means you,
too, Harry, both as a jewelry designer and as a supplies crafter). Too many
times do we hear "I just want to get my money back", and with this, I think
we can start to educate others, both as buyer and as fellow seller.

Mary


Thank you so much for that link! I too was feeling the same way they were.
I also thought I was selling to low and have change my direction of though.
Mary... I never considered myself a designer... but I do now. After all...
I did design and create a beautiful necklace and a few other items and
I did not give myself the proper credit untill the lovely person who bought
my first ever creation told me how wonderful she loved it and it was beautiful.
It was then I had to tell myself over and over that she was right and my
brain was lying to me. Just a check in... did I set my starting bid at a fair
price? I am new at this stuff and have no idea what I am really doing, but I
do know this... if I saw this from anyone else I would buy it in a second. I have
bought others items that were similar and was very happy with them. Let's face
it... anyone who would pay what I do for RAW Paua shell has to have a love for it.
BTW I do want more than just my money back, so I can buy and create other more
interesting and beautiful items.
ALL of YOU are so good for me! Thank you so much!

Harry
My Ebay Auctions are at http://snipurl.com/3okw
  #3  
Old February 10th 04, 04:00 PM
rainbow
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Default

Aside from beads, I have a different home based business, that is a
family entertainment company. I perform as a balloon artist, comedy
entertainer, clown and magician. I sing the same lament on that one as
well. All too often, a creative endeavor is sold for less than it's
worth. On the opposite side is that people really want the most for
their money and might not be really willing to pay for what you are ...
catch 22, huh ? People try to bargain. Really bad entertainers shine a
sorry light on that business and people who cheapen the percieved value
of beads and beadwork do as well. My work is fairly high quality, but
you shoud see those folks who try to wear me down on the prices. And the
seller who doesn't adjust their prices does us all a disservice. Having
recently sold much of my precious work at greatly rduced prices, I know
how it feels to get less than it's worth. The buyer delighted to get my
stuff for way less. ( Not you Margie ... you're an honorable person, and
a nice lady ! ). Of the two buyers, one of them will not even answer any
emails. I don't even know if she lke what she bought. To her it was
cheap stuff to stock her store with. The artistic value of it doesn't
matter at all.
About the most you can ever do is to remain strong and educate people.
Hope that your buyers know your work and love it and buy it necause they
realize value. Casual craftspeople and people who sell cheap, are mostly
doomed, anyway. They can't really make that much money and soon will
work themselves out of business, and their craft becomes a hobby they
don't make money with.
Rainbow

  #4  
Old February 10th 04, 04:11 PM
Barbara Forbes-Lyons
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That's great!

--

Barbara
www.penguintrax.com

eBay: pnguintrax
Justbeadsenguintrax

0
/O\


Need web hosting? Check out http://www.lyonshost.com


"meijhana" wrote in message
...
I was impressed by this, and wanted to share!!!

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/show...73#post2015373

I think we should adopt it as jewelry designers, too (and that means you,
too, Harry, both as a jewelry designer and as a supplies crafter). Too

many
times do we hear "I just want to get my money back", and with this, I

think
we can start to educate others, both as buyer and as fellow seller.

Mary


--
Mr. Winky says "Glass shards are beautiful, but they can be painful." --
www.shardsoglass.com
================
MeijhanaDesigns - Unique Earrings and More!
http://www.meijhanadesigns.com
mary at meijhanadesigns dot com

HandcraftedJewelry.com
http://snipurl.com/45w5
check out my store!




  #5  
Old February 10th 04, 07:09 PM
Dr. Sooz
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Posts: n/a
Default

Rita says:
"....when 1/2 of the market is undercutting themselves it has not only a
trickle down effect but a landslide."

This is what I've always said. It's true, it affects all our sister and brother
beadmakers, jewelrymakers --- and artists as a whole population.

The way I said it recently was deemed unacceptable by some -- but I've been
fighting for this for a long, long, long time. People just don't listen when
you say "Increase your prices, because it affects us all." I wanted to be
dramatic because the message doesn't get through people's heads, as is
evidenced by this thread on Wet Canvas. "The Beadmakers' Liberation Front"?
Drama. You have to paint in bright colors for people to GET IT.
~~
Sooz
-------
"Those in the cheaper seats clap. The rest of you rattle your jewelry." John
Lennon (1940 - 1980) Royal Varieties Performance
~ Dr. Sooz's Bead Links
http://airandearth.netfirms.com/soozlinkslist.html
  #6  
Old February 10th 04, 09:56 PM
Christina Peterson
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Default

One really big thing about pricing beads is how they will be used.

If I'm only going to buy beads for myself, as an end product, then paying
retail is a reasonable thing for me to to for those few beads. But if I'm
going to put them in jewelry to sell I have to work it differently.

Take the cottage rose flowers and bunny sets for $200. What could a
necklace of those beads be sold for? According to most formulas, I should
double the price of my materials and add in my time at $40 per hour (for the
amount of time a fast professional would take to make it), to come up with
wholesale and double that for a retail price. So theoretically, it should
sell for At the very very least $900. More if it is especially well
designed.

OK then do it backwards. If a necklace of those beads could be sold for
$500, and I am selling my skills as an artist, not as a retailer, I would
only get $250 wholesale, which would barely cover my costs to make the
necklace and get it to the gallery.

Now, I don't think THAT is reasonable.

I'm finding that when I make jewelry from a set of lampwork, my mark up on
materials is very small, and I can't make more than a profit of $20 or $30
on a necklace that will sell at the gallery for $150 to $200.

Tina


"meijhana" wrote in message
...
I was impressed by this, and wanted to share!!!

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/show...73#post2015373

I think we should adopt it as jewelry designers, too (and that means you,
too, Harry, both as a jewelry designer and as a supplies crafter). Too

many
times do we hear "I just want to get my money back", and with this, I

think
we can start to educate others, both as buyer and as fellow seller.

Mary


--
Mr. Winky says "Glass shards are beautiful, but they can be painful." --
www.shardsoglass.com
================
MeijhanaDesigns - Unique Earrings and More!
http://www.meijhanadesigns.com
mary at meijhanadesigns dot com

HandcraftedJewelry.com
http://snipurl.com/45w5
check out my store!




  #7  
Old February 10th 04, 09:59 PM
Christina Peterson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Another thing about the admonishment to raise prices, is that is true only
of professional work, and I would guess that there are more hobbyist and
learning beadmakers out there than there are professionals.

Tina


"meijhana" wrote in message
...
I was impressed by this, and wanted to share!!!

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/show...73#post2015373

I think we should adopt it as jewelry designers, too (and that means you,
too, Harry, both as a jewelry designer and as a supplies crafter). Too

many
times do we hear "I just want to get my money back", and with this, I

think
we can start to educate others, both as buyer and as fellow seller.

Mary


--
Mr. Winky says "Glass shards are beautiful, but they can be painful." --
www.shardsoglass.com
================
MeijhanaDesigns - Unique Earrings and More!
http://www.meijhanadesigns.com
mary at meijhanadesigns dot com

HandcraftedJewelry.com
http://snipurl.com/45w5
check out my store!




  #8  
Old February 10th 04, 11:38 PM
AmazeR
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Posts: n/a
Default

On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 06:08:06 -0800, meijhana wrote:

I was impressed by this, and wanted to share!!!

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/show...73#post2015373

I think we should adopt it as jewelry designers, too (and that means you,
too, Harry, both as a jewelry designer and as a supplies crafter). Too many
times do we hear "I just want to get my money back", and with this, I think
we can start to educate others, both as buyer and as fellow seller.

Mary


This goes for anything one is selling..

People say to us (DH & I run another business) our prices are higher than
the opposition and that they'll go with them.. we say fine, but don't
expect the same quality. They come back in time, because they recognise
the quality of our product - we have seen this time and again. People
don't just buy on price - they want quality too. I've said this before..
If I see a cheap product I think 'I wonder what's wrong with it?'
and will buy the dearer product almost every time..

It only lowers our self-esteem to sell below the value something is worth.
I just won't do this.. I'm worth more than that and my products are too..
I fully support this thread. All power to Rita!! And thank you Mary..


Mavis

  #9  
Old February 11th 04, 12:16 AM
meijhana
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Posts: n/a
Default

somebody just brought that up over there.

And even if you are a "beginner" or a "hobbyist", you still at need to price
it to a certain minimum, not just "enough to get costs back" and there are
those who don't even do that!!! But I wouldn't expect to pay $150 for a
strand of 10 beads, without corina's, or Kandice's name behind them,
especially if I see uneven dots, 2 bubbles where one should be, uneven
holes, beadrelease still in them, etc.

That's where the fact that you should pay yourself for time, but at a rate
of what your learning level is. You wouldn't expect to pay someone who just
got out of plumbing school the same as a person who has been doing it for 20
years (or someone who has been apprenticing for 6 months, etc). Time in
grade/pay needs to be accounted for.

mary


--
Mr. Winky says "Glass shards are beautiful, but they can be painful." --
www.shardsoglass.com
================
MeijhanaDesigns - Unique Earrings and More!
http://www.meijhanadesigns.com
mary at meijhanadesigns dot com

HandcraftedJewelry.com
http://snipurl.com/45w5
check out my store!
"Christina Peterson" wrote in message
news:1076446744.695817@prawn...
Another thing about the admonishment to raise prices, is that is true only
of professional work, and I would guess that there are more hobbyist and
learning beadmakers out there than there are professionals.

Tina


"meijhana" wrote in message
...
I was impressed by this, and wanted to share!!!

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/show...73#post2015373

I think we should adopt it as jewelry designers, too (and that means

you,
too, Harry, both as a jewelry designer and as a supplies crafter). Too

many
times do we hear "I just want to get my money back", and with this, I

think
we can start to educate others, both as buyer and as fellow seller.

Mary


--
Mr. Winky says "Glass shards are beautiful, but they can be painful." --
www.shardsoglass.com
================
MeijhanaDesigns - Unique Earrings and More!
http://www.meijhanadesigns.com
mary at meijhanadesigns dot com

HandcraftedJewelry.com
http://snipurl.com/45w5
check out my store!






  #10  
Old February 11th 04, 12:16 AM
Kandice Seeber
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

I have mixed feelings about that whole thread. On the one hand, the
intentions are good, I am sure. The people are mostly nice, hardworking and
well-intentioned. On the other hand, price fixing is illegal and annoying.
I agree about pricing your things in such a way that it mirrors value and
hard work. However, I don't agree with a huge group governing that, or
trying to control things. But I am pretty anti-government, so maybe it's
just that. Or maybe it's because I haven't had my coffee yet today, and
I am cranky.
--
Kandice Seeber
Air & Earth Designs
http://www.lampwork.net

Rita says:
"....when 1/2 of the market is undercutting themselves it has not only a
trickle down effect but a landslide."

This is what I've always said. It's true, it affects all our sister and

brother
beadmakers, jewelrymakers --- and artists as a whole population.

The way I said it recently was deemed unacceptable by some -- but I've

been
fighting for this for a long, long, long time. People just don't listen

when
you say "Increase your prices, because it affects us all." I wanted to be
dramatic because the message doesn't get through people's heads, as is
evidenced by this thread on Wet Canvas. "The Beadmakers' Liberation

Front"?
Drama. You have to paint in bright colors for people to GET IT.
~~
Sooz
-------
"Those in the cheaper seats clap. The rest of you rattle your jewelry."

John
Lennon (1940 - 1980) Royal Varieties Performance
~ Dr. Sooz's Bead Links
http://airandearth.netfirms.com/soozlinkslist.html



 




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