finally…

I’ve been searching the Internet for years – craigslist.org, Google, jewelry business sites, as well as print resources and word of mouth, looking for retail opportunities. I even created an artist’s bio to send to prospective retailers, with the extensive input of my friend Judy, of Juma Jewelry (with her extensive retail experience) and my sister Gina, who is a great writer and editor. I had everything in place, except the courage to send out all this information about my work.

Since I’ve had time on my hands the last few weeks, I decided that now is the time to finally start contacting shops. I sent out 2 prospectuses today, and applied for 2 holiday shows.  I also spent some time today at AC Moore and Jo-Ann Fabrics, working on a holiday theme for my show set-up. I found a pretty holiday paper at AC Moore in blue, silver, gray and white – basically the colors I use anyway, so I’m keeping it simple and using touches of shiny silver for holiday displays.

holiday paper

I also found a pretty silver basket for holding marked down jewelry and luckily I already have some silver shimmery ribbon for draping.

I will be able to use these at my upcoming shows:

Thursday & Friday, November 5-6, Pennsylvania SSHE Women’s Consortium, West Chester University Sykes Ballroom

Saturday, November 7,  Wayne Presbyterian Church Christmas Marketplace Wayne, PA

Stay tuned for further updates about the retail experience!

fun at Intergem

Yesterday, my friend Judy of Juma Jewelry and I were waiting at the door in time for the opening of Intergem’s spring show. We headed immediately for the wholesale room, to visit our favorite vendors: Sanjay of Shri Impex and Helena of Pearl Concepts. We both walked away with items we needed – small rondelles in various colors, briolettes in mystic quartz and pink amethyst and center-drilled freshwater coin pearls, as well as some things we just wanted – London blue topaz small rondelles, aquamarine briolettes, and for me, my first Tahitian pearl. We also discovered some new vendors, S. I. Gems and Beads, where I got micro-faceted, deep honey colored citrine rondelles and from Divinity Imports, smooth London blue topaz briolettes of incredible size and clarity. I think I can safely say that we had a good day.

Swiss blue topaz smooth briolettes and pink amethyst faceted teardrops

  

moss aquamarine and mystic quartz briolettes

Bead Fest!

I completely forgot to update you on my fun day at Bead Fest Philadelphia on August 22nd. I arrived at the Valley Forge Convention Center and met Lissa who was waiting outside. As we were waiting for Judy, I ran into a couple of friends who were on their way for a day of bead shopping (Hi Gretchen and Lindsay!) Judy made it just as Lissa and I were going to go in and leave her behind, and we made our way through the line to get tickets.

pink chalcedony, prehnite, amethyst spiral twist, multi-gems

We decided to go straight to our friend Sanjay of Shri Impex, whose showroom we got to rampage through in June. Judy met up with a couple of her friends and we spent a good hour chatting with Sanjay, in between squeals of “Look at these!” and “I want it!” While Judy was still deliberating on some final choices, Lissa went looking for lampworked glass and I discovered the pearl vendors across the aisle from Sanjay’s booth.

I found some great fall colors in pearls and some pretty light bronze large keshi pearls.

freshwater pearls for fall

I also got to see my friend Jerry of Singaraja Imports, who had my favorite filigree rectangles in vermeil as well as sterling, and T-Beads Glass – I showed her the earrings I made using her beads which are gracing my business card.

my design using T-Beads Glass floral beads

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, I’d say all three of us had a successful day – Lissa’s top purchase had to be the lovely carved tourmaline leaves, the humongous crystal quartz faceted teardrops and (my favorite) amethyst slices of stalactite.

carved tourmaline leaves

faceted top-drilled prasiolite

Judy also had some amazing finds – my favorites were the white topaz and all of her pink amethysts.

white topaz faceted nuggets

pink amethyst in all shapes and sizes

There were so many great vendors at Bead Fest, I can’t name them all, you’ll have to see for yourself. I overdid myself, but I’ll recover in time for Intergem.

Stay tuned for the fantastic creations to come!

                                                                                  

friends on flickr

I’m really enjoying exploring flickr - at first it was just a way to keep up with my friend Judy’s work, but it has become so much more. Not only can I post my photos (which I have been doing enthusiastically), but I recently discovered flickr Groups. You can join any group that interests you, which means I immediately started looking for jewelry groups, and I found loads! The newest group I joined was Artisan Jewelry on Etsy, which has a wondrous plethora of great jewelry designers. Some of the really cool designers I found on the group include Rhonda of Magnolia Designs, whose collection consists of delicate, airy designs created in wire and gemstones. 

Isis bangle by Magnolia Designs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my other favorites from the group is Su of Quercus Silver, who sculpts sterling silver and resin into clean, streamlined designs.

Quercus Silver blue resin ring

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Make sure you check out these artists, and all of the other great designers whose creations are available on etsy (and now you know where to shop when you need to buy me a present!)