Encounters of the "I'm not so sure" Kind

I discovered a store in Brookside called Stuff recently, when out with a group of friends. My first impression upon entering the store was "wow, what a lot of stuff" :) I was overwhelmed by the multitude of products. Being involved in jewelry design, I of course browsed other jewelry desigers' products that were displayed. There was quite a selection...perhaps too much of one. It seemed the glass cases were overflowing with so many products, one artist sort of blended into the next. I had to search in most cases to find a tag or card that identified the artist.

While browsing, one of the employees commented on my jewelry I was wearing and I told her I made it. I wrote down my web store address for her on a scrap piece of paper, thinking "I still don't have business cards! I've got to get on that!" I thought about offering to sell her the piece off my neck, but did not because it seemed a bit tacky. Hopefully she will visit my shop and perhaps make a purchase :) It is always nice to get the positive feedback!

I met one of the shop's owners, who was obviously busy behind the counter. When I asked her if they did consignment, she replied, "Well, we don't discuss that in public." I thought that was a strange response. A simple yes or no would have answered my question, but I took the artist information packet anyway so I could have a look.

When I read through the artist requirements, one statement jumped out at me - "Our guidelines include regional exclusivity and one-on-one access to you, the artist." Whoa - that one made me do a double-take. To me this sounds like if you sell at their store, you don't sell at any other store within the same "region". Whether "region" refers to a one mile radius or a twenty mile radius, that sounds like a good deal for the store, not so much for the artist.

I did some more online research and discovered an article in the Kansas City Star http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/582832.html that discusses a local team of artists that sells recycled purses at Stuff. It states that the team gets 50% of the proceeds. I am assuming that means the store takes the other 50%. Again, sounds like a good deal for the store, not so much for the artist.

Needless to say, I don't think this store is for me as a seller. I doubt there would be a place for me with such an overabundance of products, not to mention talent. Oh, well, on to the next great adventure - tonight I am going to help paint the inside of Now and Then, where I currently sell on consignment (and receive an 80% cut, might I add - I even have my own dedicated display for my product - it doesn't get better than that!). Cheryl Hocker (the owner) is an awesome gal to work with!

New Pendants!

I am so excited about these new pendants! I am using recycled "play-doh" caps as the mold to create them. Some feature inspirational words and some feature glass beads. Creating the glass beads version is somewhat tedious, as each bead must be slowly positioned into the resin. This drives me nuts, but I love the way they are turning out! I will be listing more in my etsy shop soon, so stay tuned :)

The Mighty B

Many of you without young children may not have seen it yet, but oh, my gosh! My daughter saw the first episode of this new cartoon and is HOOKED. It was created by a Erik Wiese, a writer on Sponge Bob, Cynthia True from Fairly Odd Parents and Amy Poehler, from Saturday Night Live. Amy Poehler provides the voice for the main character, Bessie Higgenbottom, who is nine years old (she is missing her two front teeth and Poehler is great at inflicting that lisp you get without those teeth). Bessie is a honey bee scout and is attempting to win every scout award possible. When she faces obstacles in her everyday life, she imagines she is the "Mighty B", a really "buff" bee-like superhero (very humorous to watch).

Anyway, Sophia is hooked on it (it's nice to have her obsessing over something other than Sponge Bob) and asks me every day when the next one will come on...luckily tonight we remembered to tape the episode so she won't go into too much of a withdrawl between episodes :)

My First Fashion Show!!

I participated in my first fashion show last weekend at the Mosaic Lounge in the Kansas City Power and Light District. It was so fun to see my designs on the runway! And all proceeds from the show went to benefit the Chameleon children's charity of Kansas City!

This is a shot of some of my designs featured on the runway. All runway photos are courtesy of Stephen Melvin. He does some awesome work! http://stevemelvin.com/. I now have a slideshow of the runway up on myspace at http://myspace.com/shakeitnbakeit.

My parents and husband came to help me celebrate. We sat right next to the dj booth. I think we were all a bit out of our element :) I drank some fancy Norwegian water because they didn't serve coffee with Frangelico :(

Here I am with Matt (isn't he a cutie?) after the show. We met earlier in the day when he picked up my product for the show. He designed the shirt he's wearing and is going to be designing full time when he graduates this spring. In the background on the left you can barely see Keylee Sanders, who helped organize the event and chose wardrobe for all of the models. She is a stylist out of California. She is currently reworking her website. http://keyleesanders.com

Opportunities and Payoffs, Part Two

I browse Craigslist almost daily. I began looking at the site when my family's home rehabbing business was no longer and I was pondering what to do with myself. At the time I was designing jewelry and listing items on etsy, but sales were few and far between, so I looked through part time job listings, among other categories. One day a couple of months ago I saw a headline stating "calling all fashion designers". It said something about a charity fashion show looking for designers to donate time and product for the show. I answered the ad and got a response from Keylee Sanders, a stylist out of California. She liked my stuff. I sent out some samples to her and will be meeting with her briefly next week to give her some product to be featured in the Artful Threads charity fashion show benefitting the Chameleon childrens' charity in Kansas City. It will be held at the Mosaic Lounge in the Power and Light District on April 18th. This is an exciting opportunity for me! I can't wait to see the show in person, as I've never been to one!

On a side note regarding Craigslist, I also recently answered an ad requesting products from local artists to be placed in a shop. I ended up getting a decent size wholesale order from Alyssa Aley, the new owner of Nancy's Niche in Shawnee, Kansas. It is a very cute shop! It looks like a little cottage! I hope my product does well for her.

Back to the fashion show, here is the ad promoting the show. My name is misspelled :( , but my logo turned out! :)

Opportunities and Pay-Offs, Part One

Last fall I had the opportunity to set up a table at a local retail shop for their open house. There was no charge, nor did they take any part of my sales. That day a group of women came in the store. They were all part of a sorority that was in town for a convention. They had just redesigned their logo and commented on how one of my necklace designs almost exactly matched their logo. I only had one of those necklaces available, which I sold to one of the women and another of the women placed an order for one. All in all I think I sold six items, which I thought was great for my first real live "sale".

Fast forward to a few days ago. I receive a message on my answering machine from the woman who first purchased a necklace from me. She had been trying to track down my phone number for over a month and finally found it. The women in her group just loved the necklace and could she order ELEVEN more? Wow, what a great feeling to hear that!

You never know which opportunities are really going to pay off, so you have to remember to take advantage of as many as possible!

Okay, Here's My Gold

In my previous post I mentioned I was going to create a cuff bracelet out of sections of resin. After deliberating on the idea for a while, I have decided against it for now. It is very time consuming because of all of the pours I have to do to create one bracelet. Because of the time and material cost, as well as the labor involved, the necessary price point would just be too high. Instead, I have settled on these two necklace designs for the time being.

I love the sleekness of them. They have a modern feel with a touch of the 70s. The heart shaped pendant is actually two resin hearts adhered together back to back to create a "puffy" heart. It looks great! I am hoping to find ribbon to be able to do a silver version of both.