The Potter’s Guild sellers had two days for their show, I went on Sunday.   A fabulous day for an outdoor show, not a cloud in the sky, crisp but not cold (lo siento Olivenhain sellers).    I don’t know if a lot of pieces were sold on Saturday or Sunday morning, but there wasn’t as much work as I expected to see displayed.  Found a couple of pieces that I would have bought, but when I circled back after seeing the whole show both pieces were gone.  Oh well…

This weekend I’ll be at a show, second to the last for the year; can’t say I’m sorry to be ending the show season, but I do like meeting new people and connecting with previous customers and all my ‘show friends’.  Plus, I usually wrangle my daughter to help me at the show – she’s  moved into her own place while attending SDSU and I miss her very much – so 8 or 10 hours of set up, show and break down, is mitigated by having her with me for the day.

Here are the shows I found for this weekend in or near(ish) San Diego:

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The Talmadge Art Show – ok, my favorite show, and  I’ll be selling here.  Sharon Gorevitz and Allen Greenberg put this show on three times a year in Point Loma at Liberty Station.  Sharon has a great eye for selection artists and fine craftspeople,  this is a juried show – all handmade, and there is always a nice selection of items to see and buy.  http://www.talmadgeartshow.com/

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The Encinitas Fall Festival – it’s a street fair, not more I can say about it other than it’s in a super area, always an interesting walk through downtown Encinitas.    http://www.encinitas101.com/events/fall-festival/

Art in the Dunes.  I’ve never been to this show – honestly I have no idea where Bermuda Dunes, CA is located – but maybe…  http://bdcommun.com/ART_IN_THE_DUNES.html

Christmas on Third Avenue is a new show, don’t know anything about it other than The Talmadge Art Show used to be held in this location on this date.  http://sandiegowomansclub.org/events/christmas-on-3rd-avenue-craft-show-live-music/

Boardwalk Craft Market in Poway  – never attended this show, but it appears to happen every Saturday from Labor Day to Christmas.  http://www.poway.org/Index.aspx?page=604

And, not an Art Show – it looks like fun – haven’t made it up there yet, but I want to go.  The Long Beach Antique Flea Market & Swap Meet is this Sunday http://www.longbeachantiquemarket.com/

The Potter’s Guild show is this weekend at Spanish Village in Balboa Park

My favorite little craft show is in Encinitas / Olivenhain this Saturday at the old school house, here’s a link:  http://encinitas.patch.com/articles/more-christmas-shopportunities

The Creative Arts Guild in Sierra Madre is having their Fall Arts show this weekend as well – it’s an indoor show – but here’s hoping the rain stays away.   http://www.creativeartsgroup.org/sched.htm

Not a art / craft show,  but fun nevertheless is the West Coast Gem & Mineral show.   http://www.mzexpos.com/westcoast_fall.htm

Holiday Faire in Irvine

http://www.cityofirvine.org/cityhall/cs/finearts/specialevents/holiday_faire.asp

Think homespun Craft

http://www.batesnutfarm.biz/content.php?content_id=1002

Small, but good show – buy faceted gems, cabochons, rough gem. Also, some used tools.

http://www.sdmg.org/GemDiegoShowinfo.html

Jay is having an Open House this weekend – call for details

http://whaleystudios.ning.com/

Love Opals…

http://www.opalsociety.org/Opal_Show_2011/opal_show_current.htm

Street Fair – biggest on the West Coast

http://www.carlsbad.org/products/productList.aspx?uid=27-109

Local San Diego Artisans & Craftspeople

http://www.coronadoartassn.com/

Local Artisans and music

http://www.myfairsandfestivals.com/167415-flower-hill-fall-art-showcase-del-mar-november.html

Incredible show – some of the best Artists and Craftspersons showing in Santa Monica

http://www.contemporarycraftsmarket.com/

Etsy has changed their Search default to ‘relevancy’ from most recently listed – totally makes sense.  Actually, truthfully I thought that was always the default – who searches by most recent?!  So, after the big hoo ha on the forums, I started really looking at my titles, tags and descriptions…they were kind of a mess.   Missing tags, nonsense tags, repeated tags – I got busy reading and *fixing*.  If anyone is having fits trying to figure out what’s ‘relevant’ here’s what I did with this beach glass locket:

First thing, the title – I want to be make sure that most important words are recognized by the search engines whether that is google or Etsy.  This item is titled “Sterling Silver Locket with Beach Glass“   I would have rather named it something creative or romantic,  but no would search on ‘Big Sur over your heart’.

Next, I thought about the tags.  I want to think about the tags before I write the description so I can use those keywords in my description.  Some of the words I used are: beach glass, sea glass, sterling silver, silver locket, big sur california.

Next is the first line of my description – Etsy says they don’t include this text in their search algorithm, but I know other search engines do crawl these words, so I’ve tried to incorporate some of my key words into this sentence, while still making it readable:  “A smooth, glowing, perfect piece of beach glass from Big Sur, CA deserves a special case…a sterling silver locket built for this incredible sea glass pebble.“

Hopefully, I’ve done it right (if you see problems with my listings, please let me know),  only 32 more listings to go.

The Civil War was about money – pure and simple – not the romantic/simplistic notion of freeing the slaves, it wasn’t about slavery at all – it was about money, just as the current war between the factions isn’t about ideology, it’s about money. ‘We’ (everyone not in that 3% of income earners), are being played by rich – Americans are being pitted against each other against our own best interests for the benefit of the ultra rich and the corporations. This is a economic civil war and the American people are being steamrolled.

One example – why the hell are we fighting each other about clean air and clean water?! This should not be on the table for debate – we need clean water and air to survive as a species, but it’s now bargaining chit…how much crude oil is ok to drink or eat? We are manipulated into fighting amongst ourselves about something that should never be questioned – ever…it’s a distraction. While we decide how much pollutants (poison*) we can safely ingest, those top earners – on both sides – are stripping billions and billions from our pockets.

Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Tea Party…names made up to make it easier to distract us from the reality of what is happening to us and our country. We are being hustled – it’s a three card monty, the ball under the cup and a pyramid scheme all rolled up into one. Individuals are actually defending multinational corporations against taxes while most Americans pay sales tax, local tax, gas tax, state tax, federal tax, food tax – how much of our income goes to taxes?! All the while the major players not only pay little or no taxes, they get subsidies and tax credits from US – we pay our taxes so Bank of America (insert any major company name), doesn’t have to pay taxes on the money they earn from our patronage…what sense does that make?!

Americans are fighting a class civil war and most of ‘us’ don’t even know it. We’ve willingly committed ourselves and our heirs to slavery for the benefit of major corporate shareholders. Don’t kid yourself, unless in you’re part of the top 3% of money holders in America, you are being played by the ultra rich/politicians/major corporate shareholders.

*and people are mystified by the increase in autism, Alzheimer’s, cancers, etc…seriously?!…some constructive thought is in order.

I teach chain mail classes in my home, at trade shows and in a school setting.  I never taught at a store because the owner wanted to sell all the supplies and the tools and pay me a pittance for teaching…yea, no.

I include supplies in the class price and have extra kits for purchase.  As far as class price – you are the only that can decide that: what are you willing to pay yourself? what are your expenses to teach the class – travel, parking, prep time?

The absolute key to teaching is ORGANIZATION – a must.  Secondly, a schedule is necessary if the class is going to finish on time – everyone’s time is valuable.  Don’t assume everyone/anyone wants to stay past the allotted time to finish.  Not everyone is going to finish – accept it, but don’t hold up everyone else for that one person.  Get everyone started on the next step, and you go back and help the person having difficulty.  Conversely, for those people who are faster – you may want to pull them aside and help them get started on the next step.

If possible, have someone there to help pass out kits, sell extra kits/supplies, answer a quick question or sit with that person who is having real difficulty with the project.

I organize the classes to build on knowledge, usually have 1 or 2 steps as mini projects (about 15 minutes each to complete) that once learned build confidence and makes understanding and executing the main project easy.  Again, all the supplies are individually packed and labeled, I passed them out as the class progresses so no one mistakenly uses the wrong kit for the project at hand.

Good luck & have fun!

Or, so I thought…an email announcing the upcoming guild workshop arrived moments ago…the siren’s song of a workshop.   Betty Helen Longhi in February…damn it – best laid plans and all the rest.

“Can anyone give me some general basic financial/sales experience as to how
long or what product to make and begin to recoup my investment? As a beginner,
my work is not complicated yet. And to earn some back, not time consuming. I
have approx $600 rough estimate invested thus far.”

My reply:

I don’t think anyone can answer this question for you. There are just too many variables to factor into the equation. You’re not buying bottled waters at Costco and reselling them at a street fair on a hot day.

If you’re making jewelry because you love it and can afford to lose lots of money…go for it. If you’re making jewelry to make money…stop right now.  sorry, but you’re better off at a $600 loss than going forward.

Unless you’re that one in a million with the right product, in the right market at the right time, you are not going to make money selling jewelry. Equipment, education, materials, selling/marketing and time – so much more than you can imagine – will eat right through your bank account and the hours in your day.

I know (3D and online) loads of people who make jewelry – extremely talented with mad technical skills people who are struggling in this economy – supplementing incomes with teaching, selling tools/kits, DVDs, etc… working at Costco or as a mover (sad but true).

That being said….Is your work ready to sell? Where and how are you going to sell your work? Is your local economy sagging or robust? Selling online…Etsy has over 1 million pieces of jewelry listed, what’s your plan for getting noticed? Website…how are you going to get traffic to your site (not to mention buy and build the site)? The question comes down to how hard are you willing to work at making and selling jewelry?

Selling your own handmade jewelry is not for the faint hearted, it takes a remarkable amount of time and effort and requires an extremely thick skin.

I would love to read how others would have answered this question.