GS: It's Worth Whhhaaatttt?

This morning I was up at 4AM with an itchy pup (poor Jupiter got attacked by mosquitoes on a hike the other day) and I thought I would just flip through a few of my favorite sites and see if there was anything new. As I clicked on Etsy, I spotted a giant green stone ring for $50 in the 'Handpicked Items" on the front page...



So, I clicked on the listing to see the materials/information:

"MEASUREMENTS
The size of the cabochon is 0.7 inches (18 mm).
This ring is adjustable.

► It´s made with great quality materials, I only buy from official suppliers of Swarovski components for my work."

I have a few questions/concerns.

First off, that's not a cabochon... it's an emerald/octagon cut faceted crystal.
Second, if this is made out of sterling silver & Swarovski crystal, how is it only $50?

Since I couldn't sleep, and I couldn't really get work done at 4AM because I would have woken up Sal, why not research the materials and pricing.

So, I started with the setting, and I found a similar sterling silver setting on one of my vendor's sites for $22.00, with a bulk price of $18 for a dozen or more. The one I found is probably a bit heavier, so I will guess this Etsyer got theirs for around $15 each.

Next I moved onto the HUGE Swarovski crystal. I checked out the site of one of the largest jewelry supplier in the country. The largest emerald/octagon cut Swarovski was an 8x10 mm and was $32! Wait! What? Now even if they bought 144+, the bulk price is still $25.25 each, and this is still way too small! I can't even find 18mm Swarovski emerald crystals, so let's just toss out a ballpark price of $30 each for bulk pricing of these.

So, that's $15 for the silver setting and $30 for the stone. And don't forget, there's packaging, so add another $1.00. So we're totaling $46. And they are charging $50. A $4 profit? Really? Oh, and don't forget that while these are made from 2 pieces to assemble, so there is some minor labor, I'm still shocked that there is only a $4 profit to be made.

If we want to take this one step further, the average salary for a bench jeweler is about $20-40k/year (depending on if it's a mom & pop shop or a larger named jeweler), so it would take selling 5,000 of these to these to just barely make a living. Which leads me to believe this is a side business and makes them on the couch while watching tv after work.

But this is the kind of jewelry that is forcing me close my shop. How can I compete with that pricing? This is a full time career for me, and I cannot make $4 profit on pieces (even thought there have been plenty of times I have lost money on jobs.) But this is what people are looking for... bargains.

So, for my final thought, if she's being honest about all of her materials, it's an incredible deal, go grab one. It's just too bad that she has to under price by so much that it reflects poorly on jewelers that are fighting to make a living. And... if this person is anything like me... they will probably burn out really quickly by saying their time is only worth $4.

GS: Babies Everywhere, part 2

Okay... so maybe making baby spoons isn't the most glamorous part of my job, and maybe not my favorite type of project, but damn do they look fabulous when they are done!

This one, in particular, is exceptionally cool in my opinion. The designed was to include a giraffe, which is a great design element, but I ran into the issues of working an entire giraffe on the spoon. After playing around a bit I decided the best way was to fit the lower half on the back of the spoon and most the neck and head on the front. I know, it's a little abstract of a design, but I think it's pretty damn cute!

GS: Trying Something New

So I thought I would try something new to promote my work, a holiday vendor fair (basically a craft fair, but with some higher end crafts.) Well, it didn't go quite as planned. No offense to this type of sale, but Green Spot work doesn't quite seem to be a good fit.

I made about 40 pieces, all incredibly affordable for the amount of labor I put into them, and also brought along some of my gold / diamonds pieces and my portfolio to show my normal work. Well, not only did I hardly sell anything (barely enough to cover my table costs) but nobody actually wanted to even talk to me.

What did they want? Well let's see... I'll share a few of situations I found myself in during the evening...

1. One woman saw my German porcelain 'LEMON' ring...





Now, a normal conversation may include things like 'Where did you find the buttons' or 'These are so campy.' But what did I get? 'I just bought an old house that has a porcelain tub, how do I clean it?'

2. I caught more than one person flipping over my tea cup that holds my business cards...




And then exclaiming 'Royal Sealy... I knew it looked cheep.'

3. A woman walked up to my table and mumbled something to her friend in Portuguese when she saw my silver bugs (which I had for a show price of $30.00)...




Funny enough, people don't expect us suburbanites to speaking another language, but my Italian (albeit rusty) helped me understand her say something along the lines of 'Come on. Keep moving. Too expensive, TOO expensive!'

4. As explaining they types of stones (cuts, shapes, precious and semi precious) in my shaker pendants...





I mistakenly used the words 'They are quite fun' when I should have said 'They are quite whimsical.' One woman replied 'I'm sure they are to you' as she walked away.

5. To make my table look nice, I set up a few of my bags and packaging along the side of the table to add a bit of decoration to the table...




More than one woman peeked in the bags and looked disappointed, even annoyed, when they realized they were empty. One woman actually asked (in a rather frustrated tone) 'Why are these empty?!?' I had a feeling she was looking for some kind of a freebie. I said 'When you buy something, then the bag will be full!' The woman didn't find it funny and walked off.

6. I did have a couple women run up and ask 'What kind of jeans are those?'




I looked at the button and replied 'LTB.' Then they said 'What the hell kind of jeans are those? Are they a real brand?' Ugh. So I informed that they are a Turkish brand. It didn't end there... they wanted me to show them my butt, asked where I got them, how much they were... blah blah blah. I wanted to say 'Did you notice I have jewelry for sale' but it just didn't really seem worth it at that point.

7. And finally, as I was packing up, I was wrapping up my jewelry and this woman came by for the 3rd time of the night (running away every time I attempted to say hello to her) and asked it this was for sale...



Ugh. That's my soy sauce dish for when we're eating sushi. No... no my soy sauce dish isn't for sale. I had $2 silver stacking rings in it that are for sale... but apparently my soy sauce dish was way more interesting.

BUT the night wasn't all a wash, one of my favorite women, Susan, came out to support. Susan... you made my night! Also, I got to set up next to two fabulous craftswomen, Sheila and Pauline. Their company was more than delightful. So, overall, it was an entertaining evening!

At least now I have stock for the holidays for my Etsy store!

GS: A Little Something Different

We have all seen the really low-end eco friendly jewelry (bottle cap on wire earring) and the really high end (my usual work)... but I wanted to try to find the middle ground. And have a little fun along the way.

In the spring I came across these fabulous 'cabochons.' They are German made porcelain buttons that were on an old fashioned soda fountain, each button is labeled with the flavor. I wasn't too sure about what to do with them, because they are rather large, but I knew I had to have them!






So I decided that I would use one to make a ring. Seeing that I happen to adore lemon, I thought I would start with a GIANT lemon ring. It is sterling silver bezel surrounded by randomly flush set yellow sapphires.








It's huge, it's quirky and it's eco friendly! Crazy lemon cocktail ring! Woo!

GS: Raven Cufflinks

Groomsman gifts are tough. Do you get them pens? Flasks with their names engraved on them? iPods? Well, my favorite are custom cufflinks. Something that is special to either the groom or the groomsmen.

This raven design is the logo on a sail boat owned by the Best Man...





Now, the pattern automatically lends itself to a cutout (with some slight modification.) But simply a cutout would create a weak structure, so I backed it with another sheet of silver. At this point, it started to develop the look of an antique coin... somewhat militant looking. So I decided to run with this and I not only oxidized the cutout, but the entire piece and then selectively removed the oxidization to give it an antiqued finish.

And this is the final product...

GS: Groomsmen/Bridesmaid Gift Idea, Initial Cufflinks & Pendant

Sorry it's been a few days, I was in the DC area visiting the in-laws (still sounds so strange to say that) and we are sans-internet on those trips.

Anyway, I'm just getting back into the swing of things in the shop after my few days off and don't really have many exciting things happening at bench right now. BUT I finished a fun project a couple weeks back and saved sharing it for just such an occasion! Yup, I'm sneaky like that!

Sometimes I have clients that want me to handle multiple jobs to check as many items off of their wedding 'to do' list as possible. This would include things like (1) wedding bands (2) bridal jewelry (3) bride/groom gifts (4) bridesmaids/groomsmen gifts... things of that nature. So this project was for a Best Man and Maid of Honor, who happen to be husband and wife.

Their last name begins with the letter Q and the bride wanted cufflinks and a pendant to reflect that initial. While my mind directly went to a beautiful high domed, high polished, old typewriter style capital Q, I thought that idea has been overdone (e.g., Tiffany's O pendant.) So I decided we would go the exact opposite... more modern, flat, square, lowercase, negative space and a brushed finish. This is what I came up with...



Seriously, how damn cute are those? And it could be done with any initial!

Here are a couple more photos to detail the cufflinks. The pictures a bit lighter, but it helps to show off the shape a bit...

GS: Evil Eye Bracelet

I was asked by a client to make a quick bracelet, simply a silver chain with a blue glass evil eye bead. This isn't quite my forte, but what the hell. But once I got the components, the client thought it was a somewhat simple looking.

So we played around a bit with the design and decided to add a few different elements. One was a sterling silver bezel around the bead, flush set with blue sapphires, purple sapphires and diamonds. We also added in a few silver disks with one sapphire set in each disk. And then to make the stones 'pop' I used a satin finish.

The final product is contemporary with a bit of whimsy.