Is Anyone Actually Selling Jewelry These Days?

[Steve Eshbaugh]

Been gone from the board for a long while. Can't believe all the listings of diachroic jewelry from Hong Kong I saw recently on Ebay.!!! Have they taken over the US market or are some of you doing OK with all that competition?

Steve

[Dolores]

Hi Steve!

I started out with dichroic. I slowly migrated to all forms of glass including: borosilicate, float, Bullseye, Uroboros, Spectrum, COE 104, rods, tubes, powders, frits, enamels, china paint, and oh yeah...dichroic (on Bullseye, borosilicate, and float). I manipulate all these glass products by; cutting, grinding, sandblasting, slumping, fusing, laminating, adding gold, adding lusters, and just about any other way I can think of.

The point here is: use anything and everything at your disposal to stay unique, innovative, and on the cutting edge and create your own niche market. Nothing pouring out of a foreign factory can compare to that.

BTW- I started out by selling on Ebay. It was a good first step when I was a newbie, but admittedly impractical now!

Just for laughs.....my first Ebay posting (quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail- "I got better!"):

DOLORES

[Barry Gitelson]

We are doing a once a month street fair here in Kailua-Kona Hawaii. Some months we do good and some months we wished we had stayed home and veged out all day. There are at least three others selling dichroic jewelry that day (out of about 100-125 vendors) and they all have more experience than we do. Good thing I have the day job and don't rely on the jewelry to put food on the table. A couple of months ago I got a call from a resort to have a booth at a welcoming reception for an incentive group and we not only had a good night but also got paid $75/hour for the two hours we were there. Now some more of those would be great! But we do sell enough to pay for the hobby and I do love to melt the glass.

[Barry Kaiser]

We (and every other glass jewelry artist) try to differentiate ourselves from the "slab and cut" dichro that comes out of China. The best way is to make your pieces with your own design and specialized fusing. We (Sharon and I) have worked for 10 years to develop techniques to do just that.
There is no guarantee that our or your designs will sell, but if you just do the basic fused dichro look, you can rest assured that your customers will see similar pieces for much lower prices right next door.
Dichro craftsmen have lived off the bling for about 20 years. Those days are over.

Barry

[dee]

We (and every other glass jewelry artist) try to differentiate ourselves from the "slab and cut" dichro that comes out of China. The best way is to make your pieces with your own design and specialized fusing. We (Sharon and I) have worked for 10 years to develop techniques to do just that.
There is no guarantee that our or your designs will sell, but if you just do the basic fused dichro look, you can rest assured that your customers will see similar pieces for much lower prices right next door.
Dichro craftsmen have lived off the bling for about 20 years. Those days are over.

Barry

very well said barry! one has to work hard to keep ahead of the galloping hoards ;P r&d, thinking outside the box, being unique all help to sell our work rather than the drek being imported from mexico and china...
D

[tom suter]

I have been selling dichroic for close to 6 years. I do between 15-18 shows a years.
At the beginning I was doing 80% dichroic and 20% metal works.
It is now running sometimes 50% on both but the metal on the average is running much higher.
My last show which was one of my best shows ever I did probably 70% or more in metal work.
If I depended on just dichroic sales over the last 2 years I probably would not had a good show,
But between the two I have good shows if the customers at the show is buying.
The Dichroic pieces i sell are usually my higher end pieces that have some abstract wire work on it not the usual
wire wrapping you see. I have certain colors that are big sellers over the years.
I will continue to make those pieces my higher end pieces and sets only.
Unfortunately I have a large stock already and really like to get rid of it to make room for my metal works.

I tell anyone new thats looking to get into it for money that the ship has already left the shore and is about to sink.
I have been to shows where you can get a pendant and cord for under $10. I will not get into the buy sell argument it don't matter if you make something that someone can buy at wal-mart of any of these type stores its a lost casue.
You have to be different much different. There is usually a handful of artist at a show selling dichroic jewelry.
Many of the glass fuser (not jewelry) all have got there hands in the jewelry medium.

[Lynn Perry]

So far this year is the slowest one I have had in the last four. I have had one wholesale account place an order and all the others are waiting another month to see if things get better. My business is about half wholesale and half consignment, and the consignment sales are down by about half, too, but the year is young. So far I have resisted purchasing any dichroic glass this year, because the price has become so ridiculous that I don't want to be part of that product stream. Once I use my remaining dichroic supply, I may do something just for fun for me. I have lots of fusible glass, three kilns, and lots of saws and grinders so I think it would be nice to take a sabbatical from jewelry.

[Barry Kaiser]

I agree completely with Tom. You have to be different. Tom's metal work is superb and very different. That is what creates the demand.
It is not unusual to see very cheap slab and cut dichro at shows. As Tom said that is in addition to the Chinese stuff showing.Anyone need a $4.99 boro dichro pendant?

The way to make sales is to make your product different. That is what we have been concentrating on for the last 6 years. All the processes we teach create jewelry that is unique to the artist.

Dichro is expensive, but it is glitzy. I only hope it doesn't go the route of blue topaz.... chinese stuff getting so cheap that it ruins the value in other real artistic glass product.

We do only 3 "shows" a year. None are in venues with tons of other artists. Two are with 4 other artists and one is a solo show. We still have basic abstract dichro, but most of our pieces are more expensive creations. We considered our first show this ear successful. It was down, but not much.

Barry

[Dolores]

I Just finished my second big show of the year and wanted to reaffirm all that has been said here. There were dichro slabs and beaded assembled jewelry galore, but my show was successful (up from previous years) precisely because of the atypical pieces I offered. The majority of my sales were clients only interested in very unique work, and were willing to pay the price required to own it.
I also saw an unusal increase of fact finders, looky-loos, and browsa-tainers that started to wear me down.

Telling the story and demonstrating the attributes of the work helped to deepen the "love at first sight" response tremendously. If you haven't already, read Luann's blog recommended in Cynthia's thread: http://www.warmglass.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=35593

DOLORES

[Barry Kaiser]

Dolores,
Your stuff is so far and away above the run of the mill that no one could compare. Not a problem for you with the slab and cut.

Barry

[Dolores]

Thank you, Barry!

Now...does anyone have any ideas what to do with the fact finders, looky loos, and browsa-tainers? Perhaps that's a topic for another thread.

DOLORES

[Morganica]

Good design never goes out of style, but bling sure does. I think being different only works long-term if the design is good; otherwise you're in trouble as soon as the novelty wears off or your competition catches wind of what you're doing. But you can mix gravel and iron in a good design and sell it for the price of gold and diamonds (and people have). And design is certainly not a problem for you guys...

[imagesinthewind]

I sell frit blends on Etsy and eBay and I go looking sometimes at what people are selling in fused glass jewelry. I'm surprised still at how few non-dichro things there are. I think I am the only person on the planet who DOESN'T like dichro. There are so many wonderful things that can be done without the bling that are more artistic, I wish artists would try new things. One of my favorite Etsy sellers does pot melts and then cuts those up into fun shapes and sells them as pendants an earrings. No dichro required.
Just thinkin' out loud.