Don
I have a ?. How do you know in advance what will sell before you make it
? I
have made very nice affordable pendants ( they are large ) picture
jasper
pendants and had not even nibbles [Unable to display image] {
this
scan was before final polish } the stones are 30x40 and the price was
70
for the plain bezel and 75 for the scalloped bezel I have showed these
to
people at work and various other places and gotten " nice work great
stuff
ect" but NO SALES.....what is wrong you could hardly call these artsy
fartsy
at least in my opinion
Don's Response
List providers do not let people send attachments to the lists, so I
could not see the see the photo. Please send me all photos as
attachments to dnorris@frii.com. With out seeing one I can not comment
on what they look like of course. I am sure they are fine. I believe
that as this class continues we will find the answers. Selling is not as
simple as most people think, but is easier than most people think.
Question
How do you know in advance what will sell before you make it ?
Don's Answer
We will begin to cover this as we go along. I truly believe that any
thing you like, you will sell. But we will make a check off list to help
know in advance what has a "better chance of selling". Really, the first
step is deciding how and where you want to sell. Here are a couple of
suggestions.
1. I have found that you do need some pieces priced at under $20.00 to
get people at work in the habit of buying. $70 to $100 is affordable for
most people these days, but still not the price in the price range
that most people will buy as an impulse purchase. They have to think
about it, unless they were in the mood to purchase jewelry for some
occasion. You really do need to "salt the mine", "grease the wheels",
"chum the stream" (oops, that is illegal, don't do that!) but you get
the idea. Sell some cheaper stuff and then have some more expensive
things and soon you will even be selling things for $150 to $200.
Remember it is easier to sell a $40 piece to some one that you sold a
$20 piece to last month, than to sell it to a new customer.
2. Picture jasper is a great stone, one of my favorite stones, but not
with a majority of customers. It is one of those stones that most people
will ask, "Wow, I like that, what is it?" Unless you are really in to
selling, no answer is likely to convince them to buy a $70.00 stone they
never heard of. Rockhounds especially like this stone (again, I am a
rock hound and I love it), but no explanation to a potential customer as
to its beauty or rarity will help. The only real good answer is
something like: "It is a stone that God took the time to create a
picture in, which makes it much rarer and sought after than most stones,
therefore the slightly higher price than those blue, green and red
stones."
3. Larger stones do not appeal to the majority of potential customers,
40x 30 stones a little too large to have as the only stone in a
collection to sell. Have an assortment of sizes of stones and pieces.
Remember, it is easier to sell a $75.00 larger piece to some one want to
match the small stone ring or ear rings that you sold them last month.
4. Even though the $75.00 seems good to you, if you put very much silver
around the stone, it could put that old sales killer in to effect.
Sometimes customers could look at the large stone, nice work, and think
to themselves: "Seems like too good of price to be true. May it is not
silver, may that stone is not worth much?" Again with out seeing it, I
can not guess at this. I truly believe that there are more potential
"jewelry buyers" out there that would prefer to buy a large piece for
$149.00 than $70.00. They may want to be able to say, (especially to
their wives or girl friends!) Some thing like, "Hi honey, I bought this
for you, a great piece, ugh, especially for only $150.00!" Of course we
do not always tell people what we spent on gifts, but I will tell you,
that when men do, they will some how, some way, let the women know. And
some how, some way, the women will find out how much was spent! And, if
it looks like to much jewelry for the price, they will ask, "Where did
you buy that, a pawn shop?".
We will thoroughly discuss all the above some time in the future, that
is all the time I have for it now.
By the way, I would charge more money for the plain bezel than the
scalloped. I bet the plain bezel is costing you more!
Hope this helped, have fun,
Don
Here is question that I thought all my lists would benefit from, if you
are on more than one list, I apologize, just delete the duplicates. That
is why I put the subject line as I do.
Question:
Hi again Don.
I have a couple beginner's questions for you.
I noticed your bezel from the last lesson looks pretty dog-gone perfect
in
shape. Mine does not. Is there a secret to shaping the bezel? I
thought
about using an anvil to work it into a decent oval, rather than the
stone.
The stone is pretty slippery when I push against it.
I was also wondering about "annealing." I noticed Rio Grande has a
blurb
on hardening silver by kiln heating it to 600 degrees F for 30-50 min.
I'm
assuming that the silver goes from harder (due to cold-working) to
softer,
as the temperature rises, then it starts to reduce in size and becomes
progressively harder as the temperature continues to increase. Am I
thinking correctly? Does it retain it's shape as it reduces in the kiln
or
do you have to mess with it again afterwards?
Don's answer:
To make your bezel in to a better shape for the stone, do not use a
mandrel or anvil. This will only put internal stress in the bezel, that
will cause it to want to spring out ward. No real problem unless it
becomes unsoldered during any of the future processes, and then it will
open up a large gap at the solder joint. This will counter act all the
work we did while making the bezel to put internal stress in the bezel
that causes it to spring in, and not out.
Just take your chain nose, flat smooth jawed, pliers and pinch all the
way around your bezel. Pretend the pliers are a ducks beak, and quack
your way around the bezel, gently. This will make sure it is standing up
straight, and automatically make it in to an almost perfect circle. Then
put it over your stone and shape it to the stone. Use your pliers as a
burnishing tool, at the bottom of the bezel only to push it in to shape.
If necessary use your pliers to gently bend it in shape if there is one
area that just does not seem to want to stand up straight and take the
shape of the stone.
Some times this problem of having a problem shaping it to the stone is
caused by over working it during the process of making it in to a
square.
In thirty years I have never had an occasion to want to heat harden a
piece. In fact this has only come in the last year or so as even a
question. The reason is that people are getting so artsy craftsy with
their silversmithing, especially with texturing, that sometimes this is
needed. Remember, silver work hardens, every time you bend it, hammer
it, twist it or work it in any way, you are hardening it.
In most cases a silversmith is more concerned about making it softer,
not harder. This means it needs to be annealed, not hardened. To anneal
a silver, it just needs to be heated to a dull red and cooled.
If you over worked the bezel, you may want to heat it to a dull red to
anneal it a little and then shape it.
Hope this helps,
Don
