Monday, July 29, 2013

On the Process of Giving

Hi guys!

For the last week, I've been downsizing both my bead stash and my collection of handmade beadwork. In my last post I detailed the rigors of handing out jewelry to unsuspecting friends. I encountered many of the same question and answer scenarios but have gotten better at the convincing part. ;-)

In contrast to gifting jewelry out of the blue, it is incredibly easy to give away the beads themselves. I held a destash giveaway on my Facebook page with spectacular success! And I had a helper:

This is Phythagoras!

Pythagoras is a handmade Katamari cousin. We found the crocheted bit at a Goodwill and sewed on the face and antennae! I hope there is a future game of Katamari where you can build your own cousin, because this dude would totally make it in!

He's been busy helping me roll up ALL THE BEADS! And now, we've been packing boxes:




And this is what my living room floor looks like. 19 boxes waiting for shipping payments and addresses:


I am entirely too ready to start beading again! I just want a clean house right now. :-/ However, it was all totally worth the effort put in to make other beaders be inspired and creating things that I can't. May all your creations be beautiful!

I suppose the biggest question is What Now? Well, I've broken down my future projects into the following categories.

1. Made to order designs for wholesale accounts. This is my number 1 goal right now. I would love to know that there's a destination for my pieces while I'm creating them. I've had more than enough of 'hoping' something sells. 

2. I'm a nerd, and so are many of the people I know. All my 'fun' beadwork will usually be focused towards making wacky things as gifts. (Ex. companion cube, tri-force, katamari, etc.)

3. Since "Be your own best customer" is a good motto to go by, I just want to make a few designs for myself for once. Wearable things I can wear on a daily basis. I have a difficult time making dainty things, so this will be challenging. More than likely, anything successful will be turned into a wholesale design.

4. If I really get the itch to do something elaborate, I will carefully plan competition pieces. Not many, just enough to keep my name out there as a designer.

I think these seem reasonable considering I haven't entered a competition in several years, have one pair of earrings for myself planned, and only have a couple of nerdy ideas started. That leaves tons of free thinking space for wholesale designs. I've had 12 years to figure out what I do and don't enjoy making so that's a good head start.

Opinions?





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