Guest Blogger ~ Sharri Moroshok

In chatting with the Mavens about who we wanted as guest bloggers, what we wanted to bring to you and to learn ourselves, one of the things that came up was how to make it work as a business.  There are so many ways to sell what you do, but what works?  We needed some people with experience and first up to share their experience with us is the Queen of the Beaded Bead.....

Sharri Moroshok

I was delighted when Mikki asked me to write a guest blog post for Bead Mavens. The topic is – my adventures as a bead designer/teacher who also sells my finished jewelry.

So, here are my bona fides:                                                         

I began doing beadwork and creating beaded beads in the early 1990’s.  I set about the things we all do as novices – placing jewelry in local galleries and doing local craft fairs. I had a bit of success with this and so I ventured further afield and  traveled the U.S. to many of the major bead shows. This was in the boom times of the mid to late 90’s.  But even then I had to add teaching to my agenda to realize any true profit beyond just paying my show bills and buying materials.

Then came 9/11/2001 and the burst of  the Tech Bubble. In a weaker economy Gallery sales began to diminish. Show sales dropped while expenses relentlessly increased. In response I diversified my booth more. I started selling kits and reselling some beading supplies. I created a website. I advertised in Bead & Button Magazine. My gross sales at shows did increase, but it seemed no matter what I did my expenses always outran my income. 

Tired out from years of travel, in 2007, in partnership with a good friend and fellow jewelry artist, we opened a brick–and-mortar art gallery.  The economy was lack luster in 2007, but still we had enough success to move from our small initial location and expand the Gallery in early 2008.  It was interesting that jewelry sales (especially my own and my partners work) were some of the strongest selling items in the shop. I stopped doing shows completely and I also stopped traveling to teach. Then yet another economic bubble burst in September 2008 followed by The Great Recession. What can I tell you? The art biz fell off the cliff.  We hung in through 2009 and 2010 and finally closed our doors in January of 2011.

So, what to do now? I was now 60 years old and just not loving the idea of schlepping a booth from show to show around the country.  Neither did I want to rely on consignment jewelry sales in struggling galleries.  I could focus on teaching. But, to be honest, I really just wanted to work from home.  I looked around at the landscape I had to work with. And lo and behold – it’s really true! Doors close, doors open.  The internet had really come of age and Social Media had appeared.

Gathering up everything I had learned from all these experiences I decided to open an Etsy shop. Then I started a Facebook Fan Page.  Almost 3 years later I now have a thriving online shop TheBeadedBead.etsy.com  in which my jewelry as well as my kits and tuts sell well, and a Facebook Fan Page Facebook.com/TheBeadedBead with nearly 5,000 Fans. I can do this from the comfort of my home and studio with the lowest overhead I have ever had.

So I will share with you some of what I think makes my shop work. It may not be a formula for success for all, but maybe there are useful elements for others to consider.

• You have probably heard this a million times but it bears repeating – the internet is all about visuals.
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  You must have great pictures of your jewelry or it will never sell online.  You don’t need a fancy camera or photography setup. Do some online research - there is a wealth of information out there.  Edit your pictures. You do not need to learn Photoshop (I am still totally mystified by it).  I use an online photo editor called PicMonkey. It does everything I need to do with pictures.  If you are going to sell finished jewelry online you need to learn to love doing product photography. Period.
• I know many people have separate online shops for their finished work and their tutorials/kits and supplies.  My experience in my teaching, my show booth and my brick-and-mortar shop taught me that a well curated and interrelated variety of items work to sell each other. So, I keep everything under one roof in my etsy shop. I have many transactions that combine items from all 3 of my sales categories. It’s kind of like a miniature department store. Some people shop around and gather and some are very targeted paying attention to only one shop section. It works for both kinds of customers.
•  Advertising/marketing of some sort is a must. There is no such thing as “build it and they will come”.  Luckily, if you are doing business online, there are some free things you can do to shout about your work. The first thing I will say is not technically advertising. It is SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  It means having a system of internal links and key words that search engines recognize integrated into your shop item titles, descriptions and tags. Here again, you don’t need to become an expert. You just need to do a little research. Read about it and then do your best to optimize your shop. But you can’t stop there. The next thing is you must engage in social media. Choose your platform – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,  etc  – whatever your choice is, make it only 1 or 2 at most.  Then work it!  Don’t simply post about what you have for sale, this is where you get to work that magic that happens at Fairs and Shows or in galleries when you or the gallery sales person tell people something about your art, your process, and you, the artist. Communicate! You now have a targeted audience and a free international platform to do this. How amazing is that??

• The last thing I will say is – it’s a job, this business of selling your art.  If you want to sell your jewelry online you have to work at it in at least one of the above ways almost every day. I know for me, it’s a labor of love!   

Guest Blogger JUNE Wiseman.....yes, I said JUNE!!!

Two of my favorite people on Planet Bead are Jill and June Wiseman, their banter on Facebook, from different computers in the same house, makes me smile, laugh and sometimes have fits of hysterical, hyperventilating, tear streaming giggle fits. They should be a sit-com.  They tell what its really like living and working full-time in the bead world but with a humor that just makes you happy you're in the same world.  As 'star' Jill gets more and more of the limelight (well deserved) I thought I'd shine a little spotlight on June.
So I'm happy to welcome....

June Wiseman

Birth of a Kit

I’m June Wiseman, the mother of Jill Wiseman, part of Jill Wiseman Designs, formerly Tapestry Beads. Most people know of Jill’s designs, but don’t know that I also design for the business. While Jill is our “front man” (front woman? front person? Front clown?), I generally work more behind the scenes.

A lot of people ask us how we come up with our ideas. Many designers have tried to answer this question. Usually their answers involve being inspired by architecture, nature, etc.  And to some extent, that’s true – sometimes you’ll see something and try to figure out how to represent it in beads. Being a simple girl, I tend to use less esoteric methods.

Design Technique 1: What if?
What if I used a size 15 bead instead of an 11? What if I used a twin bead here? That’s exactly how our Shell Game came about. Working a double spiral variation, I wondered what it would look like if I used bugles instead.

Shell Game has been one of our most popular kits in 2013.

Design Technique 2: A goal
Another way I design is to start with an idea of what I want to accomplish. For example, I knew I wanted to do some kind of a bracelet with flowers on it.  I decided to use netting for a base, because I knew I would be embellishing it, and I didn’t want the bracelet to get too heavy. After I finished the base, I pulled a bunch of beads, and started playing. I experimented until I came up with a flower that I thought would work. I made probably 10-12 variations before I was happy with it. Sometimes Jill thinks I’m nuts with trying to get it just right, but then I think she’s nuts, so we’re even. And besides, I’ve seen her do the same thing to get it right.

After I found a flower I was happy with, I made a bunch of them in related colors, then laid them out on the netted base. I decided I would need some leaves to fill in.  I made the leaves on the base first, then sewed the flowers on, using a crystal to add a pop and help secure the flowers on the base. The result was our Ramblin’ Roses.  We refer to the color below as “blurple”. It’s a technical term.

Design Technique 3: Start with what you love
I love spiral herringbone, and decided to make a lariat using it. Really, it was just an excuse to do herringbone and pretend I was working. I had a vague idea of incorporating flowers on it. After I finished the length of the lariat, I went back and added some leaves and little flowers. The leaves are fairly common, and I had also previously used them other bracelets. For the flowers, I just started experimenting again until I came up with a small bunch of color that I liked. For the ends, I did branching, again with my leaves, and experimented to get a slightly larger pop of color for the flowers.  

After I finished it, I wore it for a few days. We try to do this with all our designs, to see if they are really wearable. What I found was that the small flowers and leaves at the back of my neck got all tangled up in my hair. So I went back and ripped out the embellishment at the back. The result was Twining Vine.

I deliberately made Twining Vine without crystals to make it a little less flamboyant. (Jill said, "What? No crystals? Are you nuts?") Sometimes, particularly during the daytime, not everyone wants flashy and blingy. So then, of course, people asked for me to make a more flashy and blingy Twining Vine. Our good friend DollyAhles said she thought black, gold, and pink would be pretty. Jill didn’t think so. I ignored Jill and made Sparkling Twining Vine. I used Swarovski crystals, and made the branching longer. It turned out great and really is a head-turner. Thanks, Dolly!

Making the Actual Kit
After a project is designed, photos are taken, and the instructions are written. Supplies are ordered – Jill does the ordering and whines about it all along the way. We get seed bead amounts in kilos and half-kilos. If the Feds monitored her e-mail, they’d think she was a drug dealer. 

Our bead room was converted from a bedroom. We have shelves and shelves of seed beads in plastic storage containers.  We have a revolving rack for Swarovski and firepolish crystals. And we have a large seed bead stash for designing. 

When we’ve received the supplies, we start makingthekits. Before a big show, we spend weeks and weeks makingthekits. This is when I start whining.

We generally make between 15-20 kits for a new design initially. Take Ramblin’ Roses as an example. There are 7 colors of size 11 seed beads in the kit, plus crystals, snaps, Fireline, and needles. To make 20 kits in 2 colors, we’ll use 520 plastic bags. Of those, 440 will have labels printed and put on them. We calculate the amount of seed beads for each color and weigh them out.  When all the contents are weighed or counted and bagged, we put them in a larger baggie to keep them all together.

Instructions and kit covers are done on a color laser printer, and we go through reams and reams of paper. A cover, the instructions, and the baggie with the kit contents are put in a 6 x 9 inch baggie, and the kit is ready to go out the door.  It can get tedious when you’re making lots of kits in lots of different colorways.

What I hope you take from this blog is that giving birth to a design is easier than giving birth to a child. If you want to design, try asking “what if” and then experiment. Start with what you love. You may just come up with something fabulous. Oh, and the other thing you should know? Makingthekits isn’t always fun. And Jill whines.