Sunday, August 31, 2008

Bead Show Prep

I'm still processing what I've learned from the two bead shows I did this summer. One of my Lest Beads Team members, Inferno Glass posted a few great tips from her recent experiences - all wonderful points and I wanted to add a few more.

1) To pick up where Inferno left off, I cannot emphasize enough the Be Friendly part. I recently attended a local show to see if it might work for me in the future. A local beader I know had purchased a craft kit and sat there working on her new project. The booth right past hers had much simpler beads but the artist was so engaging! The line at her booth only proved the point!

I find myself a bit shy at these things. It's easy to sit there and think "No one likes my beads. Why am I here?" So I give myself a chore to get me out of my own head. I make a goal to add at least 40 new people to my mailing list every show. How do I get people to sign up when we're all on email overload??? I have a drawing in my booth every hour!

2) Which brings me to marketing secret #1 - Gift Certificates. I used to give away jewelry and beads and my rubber stamps for PMC but I ended up mailing them after the show which cost me more money. Then I remembered the great gift card secret. Depending on which survey you believe, anywhere from 10 - 80 % of all gift cards are NEVER cashed. On my own websites (Sweet Stampen and HollysFolly.com), it is closer to 80%...seriously!

My beadie buds have very mixed feelings on this. I give certs out to my winners in amounts ranging from $10 to $50. My friends all fear their online shops getting cleaned out with give aways... but it rarely happens like that for me or my best friend (who runs a golf business. She too estimates that over 90% of her gift cards are never redeemed.)

I look at it this way: It at least gets them to my store to look around- possibly several times. Do I care if they cash it in? Heck NO! I WANT them to! What better advertising is there than, "Hey, where'd ya get that cool bead?" "I won it on HollysFolly.com" ??? NONE! It's priceless! But that has to be a risk you are willing to take. I'm still new at this and have nothing to lose.

3) Table Height - Bead shows are tiring for everyone. Most shoppers are bent over tables for hours on end. It's one thing if you're looking at piles of stone type beads where they're all kinda the same. But lampwork requires more attention. You want the customers to linger. They have to if they're going to see everything. If you raise the table so they don't bend over, guess what? They stay longer! They stay longer, they buy!

4) Visual Interest - Make your booth interesting to the eye. Find something to add vertical height (and increase your sales "real estate") and interest to your booth. My friend Bindy Lambell uses palm trees. I found some interesting jewelry trees shaped like women (more like Barbie than any actual women!). I mix those in with the boards I mentioned in an earlier post. I even have a card display made from a china teapot from my rubber stamp show stash. The wires that hold cards, hold beads pretty well too. It's dead center in the photo...in front of my chair.

While I did not raise my table at this show, I did have some interesting vertical displays to make the most of my real estate at the table.


5) Show length... ask around to other friends in the field... is the show too long? Too short? My last show was a two day show but day two was dead. I made exactly the amount I needed to pay the second night of my hotel and no more! I would have been in the same financial spot to go home the night before. Others were in a similar spot. Sellers were wandering around, not even concerned that a customer may pop by... it was that dead! This show could clearly be one day only.

6) Food and water - You will never get to take a break when your tummy tells you it's time for lunch. Pack some almonds, a protein bar cut into bite size chunks and some water bottles. Throw in some wet wipes too. Handling money is a filthy job!

7)Booth sitters - some shows provide volunteers to give you a minute to get some food or run to the bathroom. But not all allow their volunteers to handle money. Ask before the show. At my last show, I was told they come around regularly. They didn't. The first day was busy and one made an appearance around 2:30 - 4 1/2 hours after the show opened. I had seven shoppers in my booth with beads in their hands and trays when she asked if I needed a break. I motioned toward the customers as I said, "I desperately do, but not NOW." She didn't return for hours.

If possible, arrange to have a friend or customer you trust come by and relieve you. Or make good friends with your booth neighbors.

8) If you are a beadmaker, you MUST have some jewelry made from your beads. Finished jewelry at a bead show??? Yes! It inspires them to create something similar with your beads. It makes them buy! And, there are jewelry buyers at bead shows too. One of my biggest sales came from someone who just had to have my sample bracelet!

One lampworker friend confessed, she really doesn't care if her jewelry sells or not. It's there to sell her beads and if the jewelry does sell, she looks at it as a bonus but knows she'll need to make another display piece.


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Sunday, August 24, 2008

New stuff

Hello! I spent the day listing new Lampwork goodies on the HollysFolly site. And I moved an older set, Sweetie, to Etsy. I added new buttons and a sweet set of squeezed hearts in Denim frit -my own blend ;-) - on a white background.








And, I put up last winter's holiday beads for one last chance for my regulars. Time to start clearing out last year's designs. I also moved some beads over to my SALE page.





Hope you bead heads had a wonderful weekend. Busy week ahead for me... but I hope to be back on the torch real soon. Have a good one!

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Saturday, August 23, 2008

Beginnings....

I've had a really hectic month. In addition to taking a job in the film industry, doing my first solo bead show, a death in the family, I've been teaching my tushie off! For the past few weeks, it's been a class every two - three days!

Since I often teach in a college setting, I have to bring tools to sell. My jeep turns into a traveling bead shop! Lots of loading and unloading and setting up. And while all of this can be very time consuming, it's also very rewarding.

I taught beginning bead stringing for the first time in a few years this week. It's so fascinating to see these ladies who know they like jewelry or beads but aren't quite sure how it's all put together into wearable art. Their eager faces and excited eyes dance with the possibility of making their own jewelry.

Some come with a few tools. Some have boxes and boxes of beads but have never even thought about making jewelry before. Others have no clue and leave so excited.

So, how did it happen for you? Anyone out there care to comment on their first jewelry making venture?


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Sunday, August 17, 2008

Sea Dreams

My back is still on the mend but I wanted to move some stuff around on the site. Waterworks has moved to Etsy and I've added Sea Dreams.

This XL raku seahorse, trimmed in lavender is my very first! And I have to say, one of my favorities. I love the texture of his tail, his fat belly and his perfect little nose! He is a major large focal!

With him is a matching fish, an octopus sitting on a raku bead with her big red lips, two etched sand dollars, a shell and one little raku round. A nice set all around.








For Waterworks, I pulled stringer for well over an hour before starting these puppies! An abstract series of teals, blues & violet. Formed in straight sided lentil press (Spree) and then gently "puffed" in the flame. I used all three sizes of the Spree press: 13, 15 & 18 mm.



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Friday, August 15, 2008

New Auction: Snakeskin

Sorry so long since I posted. My back is out and sitting at the computer (or the torch) is torture!

I did get a new listing on the bay! Here's Snakeskin on Ebay:




This is one of my favorite styles of beads to make. It's a silvered ivory technique and I LOVE how it looks like reptile skin in the glass... It's mesmerizing!

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Sunday, August 10, 2008

Just Give

My LEST Beads team is having an August promotion where each lampworker has chosen to charity to give part or all of her profits to.

My chosen charities are: The Animal Rescue Site and Stand Up 2 Cancer.

The Animal Rescue Site raises funds to feed shelter animals in this country. By clicking on the link in their site -- just by clicking - - you can help feed a shelter animal!

Stand Up 2 Cancer is raising funds to provide much needed research and hopefully a cure with the belief that cancer touches all of us (it does me) and that we need to individually help find a cure. You can buy a star in honor or memoriam of a loved one there for a dollar.

I will be giving away ALL monies from my Etsy store in August. No deductions for Etsy or Paypal. I would love to write two big fat checks at the end of the month. Many other lampworkers would love to do the same. Here is a link to a promotion thread on Etsy with links to others participating and each of them tell a bit about their chosen charity.

What a great thing...lampwork and charity!


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Friday, August 8, 2008

A New Direction



I will blog more about the show at a later time... I'm still trying to process it all.

Before I do a show, I'm overwhelmed with new ideas. And this recent show was no exception. I literally dreamed lampwork all night long!

One of the things I struggle with is size. I've always loved big beads yet so many designers want little bead sets... something I don't enjoy making all the time.

And so one day, I thought why not make my favorite beads as big as I dare??? And so I did!





I LOVE making pastry beads... I guess the old cake decorator in me won't run and hide anytime soon! I giggled the entire time I was making these. All are over 1" in size.

I would love to hear what you think.


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