I know many jewelry designers who are continually taking apart jewelry they have made to salvage the components and design something different with the pieces and parts. Why? Because they haven't sold in a "reasonable" amount of time...and how much time is actually reasonable to wait for something to sell?
Well, I don't do this. A case in point are my last 6 sales on Etsy. Three of them were jewelry items I've had in my inventory for over 24 months! That's over two years!
These pieces would have been disassembled by most beaders in this amount of wait time. But I am a firm believer that what I design is quality work, and it is just a matter of the right buyer coming along to fall in love with it.
I don't "buy in" to this notion that if it is stale, it won't sell. Jewelry trends and different customers come and go. For me, it is a supreme waste of time to disassemble perfectly good jewelry designs. (Something that is flawed is obviously another story.)
So I make this blog post as food for thought. How much time do you spend taking jewelry apart?
Happy jewelry designing -- the first time!
http://dlpom.etsy.com/
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8 comments:
I totally agree - I always think it's just a matter of time before someone comes along who loves it as much as I do!
I completely agree with this. I sale cards, and I just sold one that I have had in my shop for over a year. I can't take them apart like jewelry, but I believe that maybe the right person just hasn't looked. You never know when that person will come across your shop.
www.cgoriginals.etsy.com
I don't take mine apart either, although I do bead weaving and it would be very time consuming to take apart. I've sold items that I've made several years ago. Sometimes it just takes a different show with different people buying.
WoW! This is a great topic for discussion. When I first started making jewelry, I had many errors and thus, many items were taken apart. Luckily for me though, I always took photos of the items so that if later on I wanted to make it again I could!
Having also taken apart some items (mostly necklaces) that didn't sell when I first joined Etsy, I regret that, because, necklaces especially are time consuming to make. I had to learn the hard lesson that it wasn't because they were necklaces that was the reason for no sales, but me needing to get out there more and market myself!
I won't be taking apart any pieces anymore, unless I find they are flawed or damaged.
For me, it really depends on the piece. I have a couple of necklaces that I just haven't had the heart to take apart even after a few years of having them on display. That being said, there are some pieces that I look at once I'm a few months removed from "I just made this so it must be wonderful" and realize "What the heck was I thinking with this one?"
I do find that as time goes on and my work continues to improve, the compulsion to take things apart tends to decrease.
http://designs.gmga.net
Well-- I've had two necklaces that stuck around for like five years. I took them apart and turned them into bracelets-- exact same beads mind-- they sold immediately. Which was funny. But I've only done it twice so far and I"ve been beading about 10 years.
I totally agree, adnd what you say is so true.
Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder and that item needs only ONE buyer:0)
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