Making and selling jewellery

[skymark]

Im sure that I have read that there are a few jewellery making geeks on the site.

I have just started to make a few bits and pieces, mostly a few necklaces and beaded spectacle chains.

My question is where and how do you go about selling them, other than in your day to day work? I thought maybe craft fairs and such but i'm not really too sure.

Any help massively appreciated.

Thanks

:hug:

 

[loubylou]

Im not one of them but you could try a freewebs site and ebay hth

 

[naturalnails]

I make and sell jewellery and I have done for just over a year now. It is so difficult to get into unless you have something different. Every shop you go into sell some form of jewellery - shoe shops, chemists, clothes shops, beauty salons etc. etc. It is all mass produced stuff generally and is very cheap. You get the odd more up market thing.

I believe we live in such a disposable time that people dont want to spend the money on special pieces anymore but they are happy to spend a fiver on a piece for an outfit that they will only wear once.

I do OK with my jewellery but I certainly wont be able to retire on the profits LOL - I do craft fairs but they havent really given me any major sales, yet. But some people do great at them. The pricing is so difficult, price too low and people think it is cheap tat, too high and it puts people off.

I sell to my nail clients and friends and family.

Good luck with it but try and find a niche market making things that are different to what everyone else does.

Hope that helps.

 

[redsadie]

Hiya hun

I have been making jewellery for about 4 or years and although I had a piece published in Bead Magazine )), like Fiona, I'll never retire on the profit! I started with beaded jewellery (not seed beading - does my head in!) but more chunky stuff and wedding jewellery, only sterling, gold fill wire, Swarovski and high quality stones, then I moved away to more metalsmithing with torches and soldering which is fantastic as it really lets your creativity flow (and I'm a bit of a pyromaniac too :evil::lol, dabbled in PMC (Precious Metal Clay) quite expensive to get started with though, and kind of graduated into looking into glass bead making which is where my jewellery journey kind of halts for a while but is most certainly where I will pick it up again and I can incorporate PMC and traditional metalsmithing into it too.

It's great for stress relief but at the moment I have placed my jewellery making equipment carefully away while I concentrate on my nails and hair.

Fairs are ok, just don't pay too much and research how well attended they have been in the past year. School fairs/fetes are ok but don't expect to sell high end pieces, they're good for getting your name out there. Wedding fairs, I've done a couple. Again, you may get orders but don't expect to sell anything on the day.

Friends and family are great to begin with but there is only so much jewellery they will be able to wear . You could ask them to take some pieces into their work places and see if they can sell some for you, they either get a bt of comission or a piece of jewellery.

Jewellery forums and websites are a great source of education and ideas. PM me if you want any more info hun. I could talk about jewellery making for as long as you can listen! :green:

Good luck, you do need to be a little different and ever evolving to succeed and like anything it depends on who your target market are :hug:

Sarah. xx

 

[Blue Rose]

With the plethora of home parties now, why not try & organise a jewellery party?

I've had stands before at craft fairs where jewellery stands promote the party aspect, rather than immediate sales.

You know what it's like with these home parties, once a glass or two has been consumed, the purses get opened.

 

[skymark]

Thank you all for your ideas. I will definitely be trying some of them out.

It's not something that i'm looking to make a fortune from, more something I enjoy and would be happy to get my money back plus a little pocket money.

I really like the idea of the home parties as I already host and attend these for other products. I'd never considered it for jewellery but it's a great idea.