Box Making - The Pillow Box

Something a little different today and throwback to my days on The Carol Duvall Show. If it's one thing Miss Carol loved, it was a good, handmade box! As someone who simply adores the fine art of paper engineering, I developed a deep appreciation for them too!

This past week I sold a bead pen on Karen Thomas' Beadable Products page (a lovely little Facebook group devoted to finished beadables that Karen sells and the beads that fit on them!) But it was not any ordinary bead pen! It featured an extra large, extraordinary plant bead from the oh-so-amazing Cynthia Tilker. The humble spacers from me... Meet Audrey:

Isn't she just fabulous??? Cynthia is a master sculptor!  And after it sold ...to someone in Hawaii... I was panic stricken when I realized I was out of long skinny bracelet boxes... then more panic set in as I went to order them and realized Audrey was a bit to plump to fit nicely in a bracelet box!

I searched and searched for the proper box. I quizzed other bead pen sellers and remained panicked!

I started puttering through my box stash and realized that the pocket boxes I ship "cheaper breakables" in would almost fit...but not quite.

We interrupt this post to discuss everyone's least favorite topic: PRICING:

Cheaper breakables??? Isn't all glass breakable?? Well, yes, but the likelihood of a round or donut bead breaking in transit is pretty nil. And... you have to analyze YOUR costs. For me, the jewelry boxes I use for shipping cost me between 30 and 50 cents each. After doing the math on my shipping charges, they are only cost effective for me on orders of $20 or more.

So, $20 or more goes in a cotton-filled jewelry box. Under $20 gets bubble wrap as long as they are simple, less likely to break beads.

But then there are those that don't fit nicely into to that rule structure. Such as the mini witch hat I made this year. It sells for $17.

But that brim is thin... In cases such as this, I use corrugated pillow boxes which are around 18 cents each... a pretty cheap insurance policy if you ask me. I've found these boxes helpful when shipping weight is on the verge of a price increase. The lighter box often makes it a few pennies cheaper to ship.

Back to the box:

You can find a million templates for pillow boxes out there  such as the one below...but it was hard for me to find a ready made one as long and as thick as I needed for Audrey.

The basic pillow box has three parts: 2 sides, a hidden tab, and four "eyes" that form the opening mechanism. For those of you who are new to paper engineering, solid lines are cut lines; dash lines are where you score.

Because of my sizing issue, my template only gave me a rough idea of where to go... so I got out some plain cardstock and my trusty bone folder and made myself a template. I knew it needed to be at least 7" long to accommodate for bubble wrap and just over 2" thick to allow for the big bead.  I used a CD to sketch big round ends... and it was a total failure! It would not close properly.

I pondered my failure for another 1/2 day. Then while getting a relaxing massage for my crappy shoulder, it hit me...the ends have to remain EYE shaped to work!  I knew that by making it a little bit wider, I would get the depth I need!  (See what happens when you relax and clear your mind!)

I made a 2nd template, this time using the full width of the 8.5 x 11 paper. I stuck it together with some temporary tack glue and voila! It held Audrey beautifully! Then I was ready for the final box.

For Audrey to travel overseas, I knew I wanted corrugated for the ultimate in protection. I had some green corrugated rolled card stock in my stash. I traced my template and cut it out. I had to use the round end of the bone folder on the score lines to not puncture the paper and I scored it twice for good measure as the paper was thick! I glued the flap to the inside so the outside remained smooth. Here's the finished open box:

I found the ends a bit hard to open so I used a paper punch to create notches. This took a bit of patience on the thick paper:

Here is Audrey, all bundled up: tissue paper, bubble wrap with an extra piece of bubble around the big bead, all taped up. She fit the box just fine!

Here she is tied up and waiting for ribbon trimming:

Have you ever had a boxing dilemma??? I would love to know how you solved it!

Fresh Glass 8.20.15

More Moonwalks... The red is part of a five bead set... beads 1, 3 and 5... I made 2 and 4 months ago and just never had the heart to make the other three. Partly because these mothers take so freaking long to make. I've yet to make an xl in under 40 minutes and just over 30 for the other pieces.  I know going in that I will never the $ for that investment of time.  A set like that "should" go for $160...but I'll do good to break $100...sigh.

The other XL moonwalk is a moody red - yes red! - covered in more of that honeycomb dichroic. I wasn't sure I would like it but I was trying to break out of the black base bead mold... I think it's lovely!!

Here's the pic of the other two:

Why Are Glass Beads so Expensive?

I wrote this for one of the sales sites on Facebook but decided I should publish here to make it available to all who want it. Feel free to share on your site...with credit, of course!

As makers and sellers of glass beads, we hear it all the time...Why are glass beads so expensive? Well, I'm glad you asked!

Let's take a look at why:

• Torch - While a beginner torch costs as little as $50... most glassers quickly move on from the hothead as it's loud and the ability to control the oxy flow is intimidating! Oxygen flow is used to develop colors in pricey silver laden glass and controlling that on a hot head involved grabbing the head of the torch with expensive welding gloves!

The next torch up is $188... but depending on model and features (heat and the ability to control it from big and bushy to pin point accuracy), the price can go into the thousands!

• Cost of Glass - The average big hole donut weighs about a gram. Some larger focals, such as a 1.3" lentil, can weigh 36 grams. The cheapest glass is around 9.60 a pound.  9.60/ 453(grams / pound) = .02 per gram. Add in the breakage / popping to be generous and for a single big hole donut, our beadmaker has invested about .03...in glass.

But...that's plain glass. Did you know that most glass gets it's color from some type of metal? The price of gold, silver and copper has been on a steady increase for years. And premium glass that we all find so mesmerizing... costs $80 to $100 a pound!  So that same one gram donut made out of premium glass is now around .33... in glass.

• Kiln Cost - So many don't even calculate this in...but they should! A small 6 x 6 kiln uses 1.4 kilowatts / hour  and runs for 12 hour cycle for a total of 16.8 kilowatts. Your electric bill tells you the cost of kilowatts...Mine is 13.3 cents per kilowatt hour + a 10% surcharge from my city.  That come so 14.63 cents x 16.8 kilowatts =  $2.46 per session to run the kiln.  

• Fuel Costs - Most of us use propane and oxygen mix torches. A tank of propane can last from a few weeks to a few months depending on output. Prices vary per state but can run from $16 to $26 per five gallon tank. 

Oxygen comes in the form of an oxygen concentrator or in a tank. A small oxy con burns about .46 kilowatts an hour. So lets say our beadmaker torches a full eight hours / 5 days a week: .46 x 8 x 5 =  18.4 kilowatt hours x 13.3 cents = $2.25 spent every 40 hours on the oxy con... And this is a small one. Many lampworkers use a large one or have two networked ones... Meaning that number could be four times higher for some glassers!

 Tanked oxy is $35 per  300 cubic cylinder (about a five foot tall tank) but there are also deposits on tanks ($50) and delivery fees. Again, overall costs vary with size of torch, whether the artist works hot or cold and how many hours a day they work.

• Cleaning: Once cool, the beads are soaked in warm water and cleaned with an electric dremel with a diamond bit. Let's just say the electricity and water cost is negligible.. 2 cents

• Giveaway Money: Etsy takes 20 cents to list plus a percentage. Ebay takes around 10%. Paypal steals 30 cents plus almost 3%. Yes these are the cost of "doing business" but all selling costs must be factored into the price of the bead! And many bead makers often host giveaways and promotions on their fan pages...trying to get your attention!

•  Overhead: Yet another thing many artisans never think about. 
  
  • Tools... Glass tools are VERY pricey but I'm going with the bare minimum here to make those beads.  Granted, they can be used over and over but they still have to be bought and often replaced! Most presses that allow for consistency in sizes start at $55 ... EACH.  Bellflower presses are $165
  •  Protective eyewear to see in the flame... $60 and up
  • Mandrels: 1.66 per mandrel. This makes the bead hole and you use one per bead or maybe two beads if you rock your heat control.
  • Kiln - digital kilns start at $700
  • Tweezers  $10 To move glass around when you have a little too much on one side and not enough on the other. 
  • Special molding tools- $60 each shape  Ensures consistency in sets.
  • Decent camera - at least $200

I'm not including a computer since that seems to be a given for selling online but... what about photo editing software??   We've got close to a thousand dollar investment in those beads and it seems only fair to say a buck of those beads should go into "overhead."

•  Time: This is my favorite category because so many of us never pay ourselves a decent wage!  Let's say we're making a set of five of those big hole beads:

Making the beads 5 x 5 - 7 minutes each. Let's say six. 30 minutes
Cleaning:  8 minutes
Photography: 10 minutes
Editing: 10 minutes
Description Writing: 10 minutes
Promoting: 20 minutes to an hour

That's an hour and eight minutes assuming everything goes according to plan... An hourly wage MUST be attached to this time! And with fast food workers and other unskilled labor demanding $10 an hour, should the time, skill, cost of educating ourselves AND the fact we play with FIRE all demand a decent wage??? 

And then as a "professional beadmaker" or one who is hoping to make a living selling her art, you have to contend with the "hobby beadmaker." With no commentary on skills or quality here because there are many talented hobbyists out there... but the hobby beadmaker is often content to simply "make enough to buy more glass." But in reality, that hurts the market and lowers the wage of the professional. Just as Chinese glass has hurt the pricing structure so has the hobbyists.

 Add in that it is a field dominated by women and, sadly, so many women undervalue their time. There was a time when prices were calculated at $60 / hour of time involved... a buck a minute.  Those days are long gone which is another reason there are so many fabulous glass beads out there, longing for homes.

• Pricing: That thing we hate to talk about.  But bead makers all need to consider everything above in setting prices! And wholesale... many of us wholesale our beads and that price structure has to be in place before the retail structure!

A good rough formula for any artist is Materials + 25% of Materials costs for Overhead + Labor (for all aspects: making, cleaning, photographing, writing) = WHOLESALE price

Retail is usually double to three times the wholesale price.

So while those fabulous beads may seem pricey, they were made by an artist...with some very real and expensive costs to consider.

Ultimately the responsibility of educating our buyers falls to us...and to them as they must educate their customers as to why the glass bead jewelry costs so much more than  the other jewelry out there. Jewelry designers, like bead makers, are selling miniature works of art. And educating buyers and building an appreciation for the work is the key!

Price Reduction and Other News

Well, I hate to say this but it had to be done...I've lowered all my glass bead prices in my glass bead shop. It HAD to be done. After seeing an artist I love, respect and admire selling her big beautiful baubles for what I consider to be pennies on the dollar, I had to ask myself, "If I were a jewelry designer, would I pay my prices when I could get those for less?" The answer is a resounding no.

So I spent yesterday reducing. Some money is better than none, right? I have not hit Etsy (and may not...Etsy is such a joke in my book!), but if you see something you like, send me a convo...

IN OTHER NEWS:

TWO BIG  pieces of news:

1. I will not be shipping for up to six weeks this summer! If you see something you like... please, buy now!
2. My fan page is thisclose to 400 fans...if you are one...check in for a flash sale THIS week!
3. I put out a newsletter with more details on all of the above!

Next

So, in the aftermath of discovering glass bead "artists" selling their work for Chinese wages, what's next???

Well, the truth is I don't know. I've spent most of the last several weeks deeply depressed. It's not just that beads aren't selling...jewelry isn't either. At least not the high end stuff that I love to make beads for.

Pendants that were for part of a custom order

Midas Wages & Walmart Shoppers

I lost my best repeat customer this year. After buying my beads and those of many other artisan beadmakers for years, she started selling her jewelry. Make that... attempting to sell.


While I found her jewelry designs to be some of the most unique, fun, edgy and amazing stuff I've ever seen... the way she combined materials would blow my mind... within weeks, she found her prices being criticized.

Mind you, she was using huge glass bead focals that run around $50 bucks and usually a nice set costing $50 - $60 in her work, adding in antique beads, fine metal findings and not to mention her precious time designing. I felt in the end she was only recouping her costs plus maybe an hour of her time at a fair wage, which, considering the cost of her materials, she should have been charging MORE.

But many told her they would only be willing to pay $30 - $50 for one of her gorgeous necklaces! Even when she explained the quality of the materials used, the opinion was still the same. So what did she do??? She shut down her Etsy shop, packed up all her beads and supplies and gave them to a friend!

This was supposed to be fun... a way to relieve stress and maybe make a little money. Not a thing to cause stress and be criticized!

Doesn't that just seem to sum up the times we live in? Everyone wants to be paid like King Midas but we all want that deal.

 The gorgeous "Barbie Bead" was also part of that custom order

The Get It Cheaper Effect

Have you ever thought about how Walmart sells for less??? It's not simply that they buy in volume...no, they manipulate in volume. Michael's does something similar which is how they can afford those 40% off coupons. Walmart goes to -  say a vacuum company that sells their vacuums wholesale for - say $75 and says to them, "We're going to buy 100,000 of your vacuums but we're only going to pay you $64."

The vacuum company doesn't simply just take a cut on labor...no, they go to each and every supplier: the plastic mold maker, the nuts and screws people,  motor designers and (the scary part for me) the electric cord makers. The vacuum company does the same thing to each of them and says, "I'll take 100K units but, you gotta make it for 13% LESS."

To me, copper wire can only be so thin before it all blows up! As vendors, I'm sure they feel they are giving us a quality product at a great value. But as consumers, don't we all feel it??? Things break more often. The price of bleach goes up and container gets smaller... same with ice cream and sausage!

There is some illusion that things are the same, but they are not.

Color shifting glass beads are some of my faves. Sold this made to order set out of the blue last week!

Make Quality, Make it Better

I think the thing that hurt so much in finding someone I once thought highly of is selling her beads so cheaply is... our beads are the same. No, not the same same... we have different styles. But as first world artisans, the best argument we had against buying cheaper crap was: the glass is not annealed for strength, it will break; the beads are not cleaned and will muck up the the other beads and the stringing material, and often the skills were lacking in Chinese beads.

But with an American artist selling for Chinese wages, when I know she anneals her work and cleans her beads and her skills are just fine... well, it HURTS!

And while I hadn't torched in almost two months thanks to my depression, when I lit up the baby the other day, I was happy. I was excited. So no, I'm not gonna give this up.

As I sat there at the flame, trying two new ideas suggested by customers, I realized my skills had changed. This often happens to me when I'm away from the torch for a while. You would think my skills might deteriorate... but like so many breaks before... I found I was BETTER! My work was more delicate and the glass just flowed... I only made two beads... but they were the two I set out to make and they came out exactly as the vision in my head!

I realized I'm not going to lower my prices and play her game. If someone wants my beads, they better be willing to part with some paper. And isn't it strange how during this time of re-grouping and re-thinking my art, I landed my biggest custom order ever and the biggest order to a customer out of the blue??? Two huge orders just when I need a little validation! Wow!

But Stuff Isn't Selling

Nope it's not... But I'm still not willing to give my work away. I have a bottom line....which has helped form  my plan. I'm not going to list my beads ad infinitum on Etsy, save for made to order designs.  I'm still using them for their powerful SEO and I'm using Facebook and Ebay the same way. From now on, my sales order goes like this:

• Preview on Fan page w/ 10% discount (no listing, html or multiple photos required)
• Regular items to my glass bead website
• Timely / holiday items to Etsy
• Regular items posted to Etsy after time on HollysFolly
• Two - three rotations through Etsy and move on to Ebay
• Items not sold on Ebay = donated to Beads of Courage

If I have to give my beads away, they are going to children and a charity that desperately needs them! Not to people too cheap to pay for quality!  I'm happy about that!

In the Meantime

I still need a job... at least a part time one. I'm terribly torn... my stamp business actually makes money in the fall and I need to be around for all the last minute restaurant orders that fly in! So, I think full time is not going to work. Of course I could always hire someone to pack orders if need be. Having money again would mean I could throw money at my problem...

I have a teaching certificate for grade school. I got it two years ago, just as my school district went through major layoffs and a hiring freeze... my timing is always impeccable...NOT!  But I've started teaching at a nearby town's community center. Driving there, I suddenly realized my little mountain community that is part of Los Angeles, is surrounded by THREE other school districts and they all need subs!

So, I'm polishing up the teaching section of my resume. And I'm also trying to pick up more jewelry design classes at other community colleges and craft / glass shops.

While these last few weeks have been so challenging, I realize I can only be good at what I do. I can't worry about what others do. I have a plan.I can only keep putting one foot in front of the other!


And if you are still with me on this journey... THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

The Fallout

 Dark Waters - Custom order




I had promised an update two weeks ago... and got sidelined by a nasty fever AND a severe tummy ache from recalled almond butter! Oy! What a two weeks it's been!

I was amazed at the outpouring of support for my last post...mostly private... because so many didn't want to post publicly and appear "unsupportive of women." I also was ripped to shreds by many who didn't get the point. I'm always amazed that someone can read an article that has nothing to do with them or their business and still think it's about them.  They can't just read it and think "well, I pay myself a fair wage and account for my materials so this isn't about ME." I also got ripped for using such broad and general language... but I intended to be controversial to make a point. It's just sad to me that people can't read between the lines.

The most common thing said to me is I should try to be more helpful. I shouldn't be so hurtful and call them names. Excuse me but I need a laughter break! REALLY??? Let me see, I work about 18 hours a day running two failing businesses and teaching, looking for a "real" job for four years, taking freelance gigs when they come along. My house is a wreck and the dog needs to be fed and walked daily, as do I. My sister is dying from metastasized breast cancer and my mom is 90. There is so little left at the end of my day and yet, I'm supposed to find time to help IDIOTS who clearly don't care about themselves much less their impact on the marketplace??? WOW!

Let me just say that I didn't become a television producer at the tender age of 30 because I was warm and fuzzy. No, I'm direct as speeding bullet. And the one thing that pisses me off is that, because I am a woman, I am expected / told / ordered to be "softer." What bullshit! If a man gets to the point and says what he thinks, NO ONE says a word. But let a woman do it... I come from a long line of direct women. Women who held "male" positions with national corporations. And the one thing I've learned from these women is that when someone hurts me and my business, I want to punch and HARD... not give someone a hug and thank them for destroying my business.

It just says to me that the people who think this didn't really read the article... there is lots of good pricing info in there...

Bottom line, I write for me. I just do it publicly.  If someone wants to make a tender loving supportive post for women who want to earn less than two bucks an hour, they can do that on their blog.

But on my blog, I call those women, as well as men who don't value their time, stupid. 

Women Are Too Stupid to Run a Business?

Yes, I am a woman and yes, today I feel that way. Maybe not ALL women, but a Godawful lot of  them most certainly are too stupid for their own good and certainly have no idea how to run a business.

What has set me off is pricing on Etsy. I have long suspected that my lack of sales is largely due to my prices. This week that reality slapped me upside the head TWICE.

Needing something to list for my PromoFrenzy Team's New Listing Thursday activity, I moved one of my made to order sets over to Etsy, keeping it on my site for the same price, but adding few bucks to cover the Etsy fees over there.  I sell this set for $56 or $8 a bead:

Rainbow Chakra Set

I feel that that is a fair price for the set considering the time, skill and materials involved. The set made a big splash, getting lots of hits and into two treasuries that day! As I perused one of them... clicking on all the lovely items to support the treasury, I noticed that much higher up in this treasury was another set of rainbow big hole beads. They were not as nice as mine and there was one less bead. But the maker was selling them on a chain (my Pandora bracelet is only used as a prop.) and they were $22 LESS! OUCH!

Then the next day, a beadmaker I know fairly well... we belonged to the same artisan beadmaking group... casually mentioned on Facebook that she returned home from a trip to orders for 64 big hole beads!  SIXTY FOUR! I've never sold 64 of anything! So I go to her Etsy, the only place she sells. She sells her big hole beads for $5 plain, $6 decorated and, get this, $7.50 for a set of FIVE! Somebody explain the math on that one! 

Breaking it down....

Let's just take a look at that, shall we? Many of the better-known glass workers I know feel that charging a dollar a minute of torch time is a fair price. But in recent years, I know many, myself included, have cut that in HALF...

Glass: My beads of that size weigh about a gram apiece. So five grams of glass and the cheapest glass is around 9.60 a pound.  9.60/ 453(grams / pound) = .02 per gram. Add in the breakage / popping to be generous. So we'll say the glass cost her 15 cents.

Kiln:  My kiln uses 1.4 kilowatts / hour  and runs for 12 hour cycle when I make beads for a total of 16.8 kilowatts. and I know from looking at my ginormous electric bill that I spend 13.3 cents per kilowatt hour + a 10% surcharge / bend over fee to the great shitty of Los Angeles, so we'll call that 14.63 cents x 16.8 kilowatts =  $2.46 per session to run the kiln.  Boy, that took a chunk out of her profit!

Cleaning: Once cool, the beads are soaked in warm water and cleaned with an electric dremel with a diamond bit. Let's just say the electricity and water cost is negligible... 2 cents.

Handouts:

Listing fee: .20

Sales fee: .23

PayPal: .22 + .30 = .52

So far, that set of beads for $7.50 has cost our artist 3.58 for a profit of 3.92. But we have not considered several things here. 

Overhead:

Tools... Glass tools are VERY pricey but I'm going with the bare minimum here to make those beads.  Granted, they can be used over and over but they still have to be bought and often replaced!

• Mandrels: 1.66 per mandrel. This makes the bead hole and you use one per bead or maybe two beads if you rock your heat control.
• Kiln - digital kilns start at $700
• Tweezers  $10 To move glass around when you have a little too much on one side and not enough on the other. 
• Donut mold- $60   Ensures consistency in sets.
• Decent camera - at least $200

I'm not including a computer since that seems to be a given for selling online but... what about photo editing software??   We've got close to a thousand dollar investment in those beads and it seems only fair to say a buck of those beads should go into "overhead."  So now we are down to a profit of 2.92 for her most precious investment...

Time:

Making the beads 5 x 5 - 7 minutes each. Let's say six. 30 minutes

Cleaning:  8 minutes

Photography: 10 minutes

Editing: 10 minutes

Description Writing: 10 minutes

That's an hour and eight minutes assuming everything goes according to plan... For $2.58 an hour (2.92 / 68 minutes = 2.58) , I'm wondering if I should call her state's labor board and report her for slave wages??? 

While that is the bottom line, she's still not considering other factors... My God, we play with FIRE. It's dangerous. It's also a costly skill to learn. I've spent thousands on my education in books and classes and tutorials! What part of that 2.58 an hour is she putting back into her education to keep her business and skills growing???  China pays on average 1.36 an hour... so I guess she's just trying to keep an eye on her competition!

How it should be...

Let's look at those same costs:

3.58 raw materials costs. Every pricing study I've ever read says you should be charging three times raw costs + overhead + labor = retail sales price. But as artist we also have to allow for wholesale! 

I would say 25% of the materials  cost is a fair overhead fee and according to our Bureau of Labor Statistics the median income for an artist in this country is 27.91 which seems a bit high to me so I'll round down to 23.00

3.58 materials + 25% materials  .90 for overhead  + labor 26.07 (1 hour 8 minutes)  = 30.55 is the WHOLESALE price of those beads!

If we were calculating for actual retail, that price would be 30.55 x 2.5 (conservative) = 76.37 making my $56 seem like a bargain!

But we're not in the real world. We're in Etsyland....

That's not all folks...

I know from this woman's post that her big order will take her four days based on the tools she owns. Let's assume that 60 of those beads are  12 sets sold at  7.50 and 8 are singles for $6. That's $138 dollars - Etsy's portion 8.14 and Paypal $8.50. Her takeaway before considering costs is 121.36 for nearly a week's work. Can YOU make that little and survive??? I can't.

But then, she's had over 700 sales on Etsy. I probably haven't had 200 on Etsy / Artfire and my own site. Would I be better off with some money instead of none???

So, how do you compete with STUPID WOMEN??? Women who call it a "hobby business" or who have husbands that support them and "just want to make enough to buy materials?" I've read more than one article where the powers that be at Etsy feel that as much as 60 and up to 70% of items on the site are UNDER-PRICED! And yet these stupid women still persist and it hurts everyone!  And the fact is, it will not change!

I'm not worth that much...

Why won't it change??? Because glass beads is field dominated by women and WOMEN ARE STUPID!

A family member of mine is an educator. He has managed oil field operations and has been a politician but sports and education are his heart. When I was a teen and we were loading kids up to go to some event, a group of moms started chatting with us and the subject of how little we pay our teachers came up. My relative simply nodded and said, "Yes, teachers will always be underpaid because the field is dominated by women." 

The mothers in that group gasped audibly and started to get defensive when  he added... "Women always undervalue their time."

Back to that buck a minute scenario mentioned above: A dear friend of mine offers her beautiful intricate beads for way too cheap! When I asked her her formula for pricing, she admitted she charged  about 26 and hour or about .43 a minute and she felt that was high but she discounts her beads to anyone spending over $100! She felt she was high to anyone wanting just one set! When I asked her about the sage advice of our leading bead-makers, she actually said to me, "I don't think I'm worth $60 an hour!"

Phah!!! NOT WORTH THAT MUCH??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? She wasn't. 

Well, this chickadee has made as much $150 an hour in previous careers (that are ageist and I cannot return to...) and you know what??? I WAS WORTH EVERY PENNY AND MORE!

And I truly wish EVERY woman would begin to realize what she is worth. You know those government surveys that come out every year itemizing how much someone would pay to do all the things a woman does around the house, cooking, cleaning, driving kids, etc.? It's always some tremendous number. Most women I know poo-poo that. But we shouldn't. WE are ALL worth so much MORE! 

The bottom line...

I'm not willing to cut my prices. And I'm not going to give my beads away.  I'm single, live alone and have a mortgage. And I'm NOT too stupid to run a business like many of my fellow artisans apparently are. I'm stepping up my job search. The writing is on the wall. I cannot make a living doing this, I can't compete with idiots and simply must move on.

I will still teach and my plan does involve beadmaking... but you'll have to read about that tomorrow.

Pros and Cons of Moo Cards

Last week Moo was having a sale and I've long wanted mini cards for my Creekhiker blog and since I had a bead show coming up, I thought it would be fun and eye catching to have lots of my bead images on my booth table.

File Tabs

But, largely due to feeling ripped off on the shipping, I ended up with cards for the blog ONLY.

They've arrived and I thought I would write a pro and con for other consumers.

Pros:

• I'm giddy over the little file tabs making it easy to separate my cards from the cards I collect at a show.
• Moo allows you to put up to 50 different images on one side of your cards. The other side must be the same image. 
• Moo can use photos from your online photo albums! They have links to Picassa (Blogger's album), Flickr and more. Or you can upload from your own computer.
• Easy editing. Moo's software allows you to move the pictures to frame each image and flip the cards from vertical to horizontal.
• They have all kinds of accessories for your Moo Cards:

Key chain card holder

• They are darn cute!!!

Just SOME of the 50 images

Cons:

• The cards are pricey at .20 each. My full size, double sided, UV coated business cards are about a penny each (GotPrint.com).
• Software does not allow you to choose the same photo multiple times. I have a logo photo from my other blog and I would have loved multiple duplicates of that. In the end, I worked around this by uploading the photo several times under different names! But I would have loved it if their software would have allowed me to just say...Print more of this one!
• Their access to the online albums only go back so far. I was frustrated that I couldn't access some older photos.
• I was also frustrated that I couldn't combine resources i.e. pull pics from blogger AND flickr or blogger AND my computer. I realized I don't have all my pics in any ONE spot!
• I found their shipping outrageous! To order 300 mini cards and a holder was going to run me 18 bucks! Not in the age of flat rate shipping! I kept playing with different configurations and the price would drop low or go way high. I wrote to their tech support and they openly admitted "a glitch" in the cart calculation. Glitch aside - their shipping costs are off the chart. 
• This is my package - It weighed 9 ounces (2 sets of mini cards and a holder):

This should have cost them 2.73 to mail (actual postage) and around 3.45 to allow for the packaging material, yet I was charged 6.50

Just to compare, all my items would have fit in a priority mail box (the small one!) which is around 5 bucks and the post office provides the packaging: 

I picked up the orange box without moving the green to be sure I could get THREE boxes of cards in there:

It fit with room to spare! This combination - which could ship for $5 - would have cost me $18 at Moo. 

All in all, it really tortured me purchasing because I always felt that the shipping was a HUGE ripoff. If I worked at Moo, this would be Item #1 on things to improve! 

I will say, IF you are photoshop savvy, MyMiniCards.com is a much more cost effective option. 16.99 / 100 and FREE shipping!  The downside is they don't allow you to upload from your web albums. But if you know anything about graphics...this is a good thing! Some of my Moo cards are pixelated from being too small! If I had it to do over, I would download the templates at MyMiniCards, prepare a file of 50 images in one place on my computer and go that route. It's a little more work but... in this crappy economy, I have more time than money! 

Custom Work - A Matter of Choice

Sorry for the posting delay. My computer locked me out after a software download and I was offline over nine hours!

The other day, a jewelry designer asked me to remake a witch's hat like the one I had used in this piece on Etsy.


And so I made three knowing full well she only wanted one.

Why make three??? Because I would like a choice and I assume my customer would like one too. Still when I told the BFF about needing to work on a custom order, she warned me, "Make three and no more!" (See previous post!)

So I did. And it really was a good number. And good practice as I hate making the same bead! But it also gave me a little lesson in pricing.

My buddy Bindy Lambell always determines price on a custom order after making three. And I learned why. My first hat, I was out of practice. I hadn't turned on the torch in 10 days thanks to our fires and I had not made a hat in over a year.

Bead #2... I wanted it to look well worn with a patch...and the brim broke after getting to cold while I was futzing with the ribbon. So that had to be patched and melted.

Bead #3 is another version of #1.

The basic shape and process went like this. Pull ridged flat stringer for the ribbon; cased stringer for the flower. I had stringer for the centers. Make a perfect cone, double checking for height. "Mess up" the base of the cone with wide, wiggly wraps that will melt in as you work on the rest of the bead. This gives a "head mold" to the bead, making it look like it was worn. Heat a generous gather and decide where the floppy part of the hat goes and heat that spot on the bead. Touch down with the gather and twist in and on and around, thinning the glass to a point and burning off. Super heat both sides of the bead where this attaches to the cone. Use commercial stringer for the brim. I used about seven wraps. Heat your flat stringer and wrap around the hat just above the brim and secure in spots with a razor. Add flowers, razor in details and add the center. If adding a patch, use flat stringer and decorate a bit.

I timed myself using the digital timer on my kiln. Bead #1 = 25 minutes. Bead #2 = 20 minutes (even with breakage and that patch!). Bead #3 = 17 minutes.

Bindy would average this out and determine that it takes me 21 minutes to make this bead and use that number to determine price.

My customer took the 1st bead and the other two are up for grabs. #2 on Etsy and #3 on the Folly site.

See you back here on Monday at http://hollysfollybeads.blogspot.com