Friday 9 November 2012

Coming up with a classic &/or signature design

I've been making jewellery now for almost six years and I think it's this weekend that will be my fifth anniversary selling at the Woodstock Farmer's Market. Without consciously directing myself (if for no other reason that I had/still have no clue what I was/am doing) I've come to some realisations about jewellery, one of which is the need to come up with one or more classic, easily replicable best-sellers, rather than constantly trying to reinvent the wheel. Yes, there is a place for completly original, one-off designs, but ya gotta think bread and butter.

For me my first classic design and five years of bread and butter were and still are my pure silver Precious Metal Clay lily of the valley earrings made with either Swarovski crystals or pearls, of which I figure I've sold over 100 pair to date. That's a whole lot of teensy-tiny flowers that I've made.





There have been minor variations and tweaks along the way: I've experimented with coloured Swarovskis, which some people love and some people want nothing to do with. Mostly, people prefer crystal AB Swarovskis, but the earring versions with pearls have sold well. I've tried various combinations of Swarovski crystal shapes and sizes, and either made or used store-bought sterling earwires.

What sparked this particular blog entry today was reading my online pal Lisa's blog today about how her herringbone weave copper earrings came to be. Go check out Lisa Yang's classic design. Her Etsy shop is Nota Mona.

Shameless plug: I sell these pure silver lilies of the valley by the each or in bags of 2, 5 or 7 or larger quantities. Please email me for prices/availability. I also make and sell Solomon's Seal flowers in three sizes as finished jewellery or by the each. For a further description of how the flowers are made, go poke around on my website.

What's your classic? How did it (or they) evolve?

Thanks for looking!

PS to Joanne: Note the dog hair, just for you! I can't believe it. The hair made it through editing the photo and I didn't see it until just now.

4 comments:

Nelson Beads said...

Nice dog hair. I love how you captured its essence without overstating its beauty. My software has something called a clone stamp that I use to paint over stuff like that. The worst is trying to photograph on black acrylic, which shows up every speck of dust. Just not worth the time.

I need to come up with a signature piece as well instead of trying something new every time. Surely even simple drop earrings can be varied just by changing the stones. And who doesn't love a simple drop?

I really like those little caps. They're like tiny snowbell flowers.

Barbara said...

Max is very happy to hear that he is the source of essence and beauty...

Yes, simple drops in different colours are *always* in demand. It's worth it to come up with a good, simple design. I get asked all the time for basic black, white, whatever birthstone, but do I have anything suitable, ever? Noperoonies.

JustPinMoney said...

If you wouldn't have said anything about the dog hair, I wouldn't have noticed it... funny stuff. And btw: I like your writing/humor style. Thanks!

Barbara said...

Thanks for the thanks!