Too much choice?

It's not an uncommon thing to hear at the bead fairs. 'Oooh, you have too much choice' meaning that there are a significant number of beads on display.

Is this good? Is it bad?

We spend a lot of time working on displays for the beads, hoping to find the right balance of presentation and display. We started out with a simple rack of beads, and some laid out on the table and not one single set of lights! Disaster. Lights are SO important when selling glass or anything sparkly. If you don't believe it, take a look at those masters of presentation, the Swarovski crystal people. Halogens everywhere, sparkly and bright. So, as we developed our displays, lighting was an essential part of the plan. And IKEA was our friend, in so many ways. We now own at least three variations on a theme of lighting from them, starting with the clip-on halogens, adding in desk-lights in one incarnation and then moving on to some really nifty folding halogens that tuck away inside our new displays.

But, what is lighting without a coherent layout? We've tried them all. Cards with the beads mounted on them, beads hanging, beads coiled in festive array, beads swagged, beads draped.... and have any of them made a difference?

Honestly, we don't know. When we're faced with comments like the opening one, it's hard to say. Is it because we DO have too much choice? Should we play the 'upmarket jewellery' approach and only put out three sets with tags discreetly turned over? Should we imply that Mike only makes one set a week and they should be overjoyed to be allowed to see the rare outpouring of his artistic genius?

Or, should we sling everything in a heap, put a sign out that says 'heaps o beads, go on then, you know you want to, cheap at twice the price'?

Answers on a postcard. Next time, it's pricing. You know, the Perennial Question.

Bead fairs are your friend

3am, and it's dark. No matter what time of year, it's dark. Darker than dark, really, and dragging ourselves out to the car to travel to Yet Another Bead Fair. 3am means a four-hour drive to the fair, and another four hours home afterwards, depending on the traffic, the pit stops, finding some place for breakfast (McD's a fave of the son, as he loves the pancakes) and feeling sure that the sat-nav is not lying about where the venue is.

The car is full of stock, displays, bags of snacks, a pillow and blanket for the yawning child and two Nintendo DS games for the longer stretches of boring motorway in the dark, where we will do battle with the forces of LEGO evil. Indiana Jones today? Batman? It's difficult to say until we get on the road.

Weeks of preparation are behind, now it's two hours of setting up, and six to seven hours of meeting people at the fair (any fair, they all run fairly much the same). Selling beads is only a very small part of it, sometimes it's the easiest, most straightforward part, too. People mostly know what they want and ninety out of a hundred people come with reasonable expectations, intelligent conversation and a sense of humour. It's great to talk to people about Mike's work and hear their appreciative comments about the beads. It's always a highlight of the day. And there are always encounters that will end up as something to tell our friends who are convinced that all we do is sit around, drink tea and rake in money. Sometimes we simply survive the day on our senses of humour, if the fair is slow and sales slower.

We spend part of the day thinking about what is happening during the fair: are the beads right for the venue, is the display working, do we need more lights or less things out on the table, should we change the layout... it never ends. So much time goes into things that customers never see. New materials for displays, new equipment in the studio, new glass colours, new bead techniques and a pile of discarded practice beads for every style that finally makes it to the sale table. We think about sales, will we just meet our costs or will we be so rushed off our feet we don't have time to think till we're ready to break the stand down for heading home. Sometimes it seems to be in the laps of the gods, all the hard work nothing as compared to the vagaries of location, inclination and economy.

Seven hours can fly past, or they can drag like a Very Slow Dragging Thing. We can smile or we can use the 'clenched teeth grimace' that looks like a smile but isn't. It all depends on so much. How many people are there, do they know what they're looking at, do they want beads or do they just want entertainment. On occasion, it's impossible to tell.

Then it's time to pack. We have a system now, it's almost a ballet, one person does the packing of boxes, one does the break-down of the displays, and it's now down to an art. Half an hour if we're lucky and we're in the car, ready to find someplace to re-fuel ourselves and brace for the long drive home, which can be anything from a couple of hours to a mind-numbing 8-hour crawl along the motor way.

Fingers crossed that the Nintendo batteries hold out!

Selling internationally

Sometimes it can be a problem pricing work for sale. When it's for sale locally, there are factors to consider such as the price people are willing to pay, how much do they appreciate handmade items, the economy locally, etc. There seems to be a willingness to equate handmade with 'cheap' for some reason. A price tag on a mass-produced handbag can be jaw-droppingly high, considering that the materials could have cost pence, the labour paid pence and the profits astronomical. The fact that such things sell readily and regularly is due to the social pressures that fall under that horrible phrase 'aspirational'. A name-brand handbag is aspirational, designer 'gear' is aspirational, but something that is unique and original does not appeal to the people who buy to give a veneer of social success. Only people who are confident in their own status and self are willing to buy something that doesn't have an automatic value in the eyes of others.

What does this mean? Locally, it means trying to find the right markets, the right customers, the right mentality that says 'original is good'.

Add in the factor of trying to sell across not just national boundaries but also across various currencies and it can become a nightmare. It's not as bad if you sell in a currency that is on the lower side of an exchange rate, you can price your work properly and achieve the prices you feel are appropriate for your efforts but if you are selling from the upper slope of the exchange rate suddenly it becomes a problem. A set of beads worth £35 to someone in the UK may be worth the same in unit value, but $35 isn't anywhere close in value to someone whose income is marked in pounds rather than dollars.

So, what's a beadmaker to do? Well, we take a pragmatic view of things. If we sell in a dollar market, we have to price in comparable units, so when we list things on Etsy or ArtFire or eBay.com, we consider the unit price as our guideline. What does this mean? A bargain for UK buyers who get a virtual discount depending on the exchange rate, and a reasonable price for people who pay in dollars.

It's the only way to swim the seas of the international currency ocean. Sometimes you give a little but you get a lot. What we get is great customers and a chance to extend the range where the beads are seen. Can't beat that.

Blogging again

Can't keep up with so many different places to update things so I'll just use this, ok?

The Tillerman Beads online shop, ten new sets going up today.

Etsy, new beads today.


eBay, new auctions this afternoon!

Yes, I know, it's a short post but so much information in such a small space, eh?

The ethics of artistry

It's not often that it happens, but it seems that the very talented Kandice Seeber comes in for more than her fair share of problems with copyright theft of her images of her very lovely beads. This time it has gone a step beyond. Read about it on her blog at http://coloraddictionblog.blogspot.com/

It's a shame that places like Etsy, which are for the handcrafted works of original artists can end up with people using images without permission and profiting from them. Kandice has shown a significant amount of restraint and class in handling what is a very real problem.

Flame-off 2008 DVD

It's come to my attention that the issue over the DVD for the 2008 Flame-off has been raised as to why there has been no DVD released.

I want to state that I was very proud to have been invited to do a beadmaking demonstration at the first Flame-off at Towcester and I had absolutely NO problem at all with allowing the filmed demonstration to be used on the DVD.

Just so everyone is clear on this.

-Mike

How does this work?

A new toy from Artfire:

Tillerman_Beads

Buy Handmade

Artfire Sale with the Glass and Jewelry Collective Guild

Join us for our first time ever event, beginning on February 27th and continuing through March 13th. The two-week event includes members of the Glass and Jewelry Collective Guild featured regularly on Artfire. This sale promotion, however, offers a variety of sale items from participating members and sale prices ranging from free shipping and up to 10% - 25% off some items in the members stores.

The Glass and Jewelry Collective was created to bring our diverse community of glass and jewelry artists, living and practicing all over the world, closer in hope of creating a place and forum to communicate and exchange more easily and on a continual basis. Professional, intermediate, and novice are all welcome to participate. Our focus at the Artfire Guild is on helping promote and sell our work as a group in recognition of the myriad of individual aspects each artist contributes in the field.

Participating members include:

David Louis and Hannah Rosner. Good River Gallery. http://GoodRiverGallery.artfire.com
Blue Flame Art. http://BlueFlameArt.artfire.com
Raisin Mountain. http://GinaJeans.artfire.com
TinYen Designs. http://TinYen.artfire.com
N Valentine Studio http://NValentine.artfire.com
Tillerman Beads http://tillerman_beads.artfire.com
Diane Norman. http://lunacatjewels.artfire.com
Diane's Dangles. http://dianesdangles.artfire.com
WyrmWyrks. http://wyrmwyrks.artfire.com
Peraza Studios http://Peraza_Studios.artfire.com

DogmawGlass http://www.dogmawglass.artfire.com will also offer discounts when you check out from her stores and mention of the sale (GJCG Sale) in the comments section conveniently provided on the Artfire check out page. You will receive the discount in the form of a refund after you check out.

To find other participating members, please check items tagged with GJCG (Glass and Jewelry Collective Guild).

We hope you will enjoy our work and visit with us soon.

Sunday, Sunday...

It's a challenge getting back into a routine after so much time off during the holiday, either from the horrible virii that have been taking hold everywhere or simply the cold and the holiday down-time. Still, it's now all hands to the torch, or at least Mike's. He's been inspired lately and it's starting to appear in the new beads he's been making, I think. He's also working on some new historic types of beads which will make their appearance in York this weekend. All in all, exciting times in glass ahead. We've looked at the upcoming schedule and it's going to be a busy few months. Two days in York, three days in Coventry, one day in Perth, three days again in the Coventry area and two days in Cheltenham and two days in Brighton. And then a weekend off after six weekends on the run.

That sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but it's what we do, and we do like to eat.

After that is the Second Flame-off at the Towcester Racecourse. Mike's been included in the Lampworker's Village for the two days of the Flame-off itself and we'll be at the bead fair on the Sunday, so lots of fun and work all at the same time.

It's hard work but I don't think Mike would trade it for any other job in the world. He loves every morning, knowing that he will be getting up again to go in and melt glass. It just doesn't get much better, really.

's up? Oooh, look, a blog post!

It's been a long two weeks of hard work by Mike, striking a balance between contemporary beads and historic ones. There will be a good selection of both at the York Gem'n'Bead fair at the Racecourse next weekend. We've trimmed back on the online venues we will be selling in, dropping the UK-based Folksy site, and building up stock in the Etsy and ArtFire shops, along with here in the main online shop.

With the exchange rate being so variable and unfavourable to buying in stock from outside the UK, we have decided for the moment to not re-stock the bead pens and beadable items. At the moment, for us to re-stock bead pens would mean a 30% price increase and we simply don't feel it's a good thing to have that sort of price hike. The same applies to silver jewellery such as the beadable braclets. We have seen the value of the pound drop while watching silver prices climb. Again, this means that for the moment we will not be re-stocking anything that will require a price increase. Please note that the Bali silver, sterling silver and copper beads for sale in the shop are still at the prices they were before the current financial situation. We have not raised prices on any items, nor will we. Our prices always reflect the costs at the time we stocked them, we never raise prices on existing stock. This means that some of the silver is actually quite a bargain at the moment, so make sure to take the time to compare our prices with anyone else, we're sure you'll see what we mean.

New beads are in both the Etsy, ArtFire and Tillerman Beads online shop, make sure to check out the bead sets. All of the stock will be with us at the bead fair in York, as usual. See you there!

Waving but not drowning

It's definitely been an up-and-down sort of week, but we're getting there slowly. Mike's made more beads and they're in the shop! Some 'Fitz' beads, some bead sets and also some focals. We're not going to the London Bead Fair due to all the problems with the 'flu this winter, Mike's not up to the trip (poor thing!) Good news, though, as it means more time to make beads.

Blue Monday?

Blue Monday? Don't think so. The back of winter has been broken and although February seems to be miles away, it's just around the corner and after that comes spring! Mike's back in the studio again today, although he's not as happy as possible because he's still got a chesty cough and isn't feeling up to par. Still, can't keep a good man down, he's torching away because it's better than going home and having a nice lie-down in a comfy bed. Men! At least it means beads. And more beads, which will be nice for a change.

Sometimes....

.... the only way I can tell what day it is lately is to see how much of the Cadbury's advent calendar we've eaten so far. The worst part now is the fact that we're almost out of chocolate, but the good part is that Christmas is just a few pieces of chocolate away. It's also almost the shortest day of the year! How do we cope with that? By having another giveaway. So, if you read the blog, then you know that on the 21st we'll be sending out a random email to one of our customers/newsletter subscribers/students (see? plenty of ways to be eligible for this one!) with the happy news that they've won something special. With luck it will help brighten someone's day, even if it is the shortest day of the year.

Brrrr..........

Still cold, but with luck Mike will get to make more beads. We've decided to do something slightly different and give the lucky winner of the drawing their choice of colours for the set of 5 beads instead, as we realized that some people prefer a particular colour combination or don't like bumpy beads, or they do like bumpy beads. We want the winner to really love their beads so the best thing is to give them a choice of colour and surface. Can't say fairer than that.....

Don't forget, the drawing is on Tuesday, the 16th. We've decided to extend it by a day just because.

2009! How did that happen?

It's been so good to have some time off, we've all had the lurgy in one form or another over the holidays but today seems to be the first day where we've felt well enough to simply get on with things. Mike's down in the studio, playing with glass and we're trying to get the momentum going again to get things listed. It's still a few weeks till our first bead fair of the year, it's nice to know we're not having to rush like very mad things to get ready.

It's a good feeling.

Ping goes the glass!

It's been blisteringly cold up here, which has slowed Mike down considerably as it's not as easy to work when it's so cold the glass shatters more than it melts, even in a heated studio. The 'giveaway' beads are in the kiln, photos will be up asap, and the specials keep on coming. Check regularly for what's on special and don't forget to sign up for the newsletter to be eligible for the giveaway.

Advent Calendars and chocolate

Advent calendars abound at the TillerBoat, chocolate rushes at 6am with the First Mate and later today, the first of the fabulous Lego Advent calendars will be opened. I toyed with the idea of a beady Advent calendar, a bead a day but it seemed like just so much work that it's been relegated to Good Idea But Not Practical.

So, have you seen the newest 'Thank You' specials? We've had a special on bead sets, and on the 'Fitz' beads, and on focals. Who knows what we'll dream up next? And, don't forget. Sign up for the newsletter here in the shop by the 15th of December to be eligible for the beady giveaway, names will be drawn from the list of subscribers. No purchase necessary.

So.....

Every day something new. Today it's getting the shop settled in, and making all the bits talk to each other, including the payment systems. PayPal seems to be working, WorldPay is getting there and of course, cheque and postal order works, as it doesn't require any sort of technical trickery to get it running.

Still... what do you think? A bit thin on beads at the moment but getting there. And some of Mike's new beads are worth the wait!

Feeling better than before

... which in a way isn't saying a lot because we've been down with the holiday lurgy in one form or another since November. It's worrying because whatever strain of virus this is seems to not go away unless you wait it out and really, really, REALLY fight it with lots of fluids, vitamins and a sheer determination to not let it get the best of you.

Mike's been down with it off and on for a month now, which means his beadmaking has slowed down too as some days he simply couldn't get out to the studio and torch. It's a bit scary sometimes when it's your income to know how fragile the balance between income and eating beans three times a week is. Fortunately for us, we keep the balance on the right side, and when Mike is in the studio he's very focused and concentrates on beadmaking. So, things don't get too far behind.

He's also had several contacts with various archaeology/museum departments who have been very interested in his historic beads, which has been great as the time and research we've put into the beads is really paying off now. It's not the easiest market of course, because you need to know the subject in depth as you get some very intense discussions about bead construction. But, it's going well and all the people who have received beads from Mike have been extremely positive.

Yaaay.

It's been raining like mad for the last month or so, in between bouts of freezing weather, which means the ground is saturated and the water runs off everywhere, including the street at the bottom of the hill we live on. Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, it's just plain strange to sit in a boat halfway up a hill and watch the road down below flooded and cars stranded.

Isn't life odd and interesting?

Hey ho, where have we been?

In the summer we did have a trip to London, but we didn’t get a single peek at the Queen, instead we followed her to Windsor, where she spent time in the castle and we watched from the opposite hill at LegoLand. Who knew we travelled in such exalted circles?

Anyway, here we are again, posting at irregular, infrequent and random times that resemble the train timetables far too closely.

Mike’s been busy, we’ve been to many fairs, teaching takes up a lot of his time too. He’s been invited to demonstrate his skills at beadmaking at the first UK Flame-Off this April. Should be fun! Lots of beadmaking talent there, and of course, a bead fair too.

It’s been fascinating over the past few years watching beadmaking grow by leaps and bounds. People who weren’t even making beads are now becoming very talented artists on their own, and some have moved to teaching their skills to others. It’s all good, really, the more people who make their own beads, the less the bead-buying people have to rely on *ick, ptui* cheap imported lampwork. But the best part is that the bead buyers over the past few years have said more and more that they’re learning the fine art of determining how good a bead is, and knowing what to look for in a handmade bead is vitally important.

I’d repeat the most valuable bit of advice that I’ve ever heard, from Kandice Seeber. Never sell anything but your best work.

Cheers, and best wishes from the TillerPeeps for happy holidays and a wonderful new year.