Deryn Mentock has written an interesting blog post regarding copyright. She compares stealing from another's work to committing a fashion faux pas, while using your own ideas, she says, is like wearing what looks good on you.
Mentock also quotes a letter from Hazel Wheaton, editor of Art Jewelry magazine, regarding the nature of copyright.
The blog post is interesting and informative, and deals with an onerous topic without being too heavy. Take a look!
"So, what do you do to earn a living?"
Ah, yes. That question.
My standard answer is, "I'm a full time, self-employed jewellery artist", which means that the next question is invariably, "What kind of jewellery do you make?", or, "What does that involve?"
I usually manage to cobble together some kind of reasonably cogent response to the first question; something along the lines of, "I make hand-assembled jewellery from pre-made components, and I have two brands", followed by an explanation of the brand styles. In answer to the second question, however, my impulse is always to to ask, "How much time do you have?"
What I actually say is much less succinct, and involves a lot of fumbling for a way of translating the technical terms of what I do into a pithy statement that will be understood by people who don't even know what a cabochon is, much less a baile or a headpin. And most of them haven't even heard of Twitter!
So I have been thinking that I need a more coherent, eloquent way of expressing what I do. And it came to me a few weeks ago:
Many artists find it very difficult to talk positively about their own work. When someone compliments you on your bracelet - which you made and are wearing - what do you say?
Just, "Thanks"?
Or, "Thanks - I'm really pleased with the way it turned out"?
Or the self-deprecating and downbeat, "Oh, this old thing? Not my best work, I'm afraid"?
Lots of us, enamoured though we are of our work, become completely tongue-tied when someone compliments it. Starting to talk about ourselves and our art feels a bit too much like bragging or aggressive marketing (yuck!). Yet we don't want that precious compliment to slip away without the giver knowing what it means to us as artists. We want that person to know that they have just complimented not just our tastes, but our work - our art - our souls.
And, of course, we really want them to know where they can get a piece of our work for themselves - and pay us for it ...
Here is a clever solution from Megan Auman of Crafting An MBA.
Be sure to read some of the comments for further expansion on the idea.
I'm going to use this next time someone compliments a piece of my jewellery. I'll let you know what happens.
The relaunch of Silverlight Jewellery, with a new look and new designs, took place yesterday (Monday the 13th). The Silverlight Jewellery shops on Felt, Zibbet, and ArtFire were given their new banners, and I started listing the new jewellery designs.
It doesn't sound like much, does it? New banners and new jewellery designs.
Yet there were months of preparation: new branding, new business cards, banners, and stickers, new designs, new photography style, new shop announcements ...
To be honest, I'm now feeling a bit flat. It will be weeks, if not months, before I see any sales from this brand. I had only just managed to get 3 pages of listings into my Whiteleaf Felt shop (the Whiteleaf Zibbet shop is still rather empty), and now I have to pour my energy into the Silverlight brand and hope for a return some weeks down the track.
This 'running your own business' thing ... it's hard work.
That's so glib, so easy to say; so clichéd. But it is. Seriously hard, emotional and mental labour.
What you see in the shops, and on this blog, is the tip of a pyramid of labour. Every decision is important. Every piece of jewellery has to be perfect. Every photograph has to be attractive.
I am Atlas, holding up my own little world of a business, and sometimes it gets rather heavy.
I have been flat out preparing new designs and new photographs for Silverlight Jewellery's big relaunch in - argh - four days' time.
As promised, here's a preview of some of the new designs.
Zibbet.com relaunched today, with a new front page, a sleek new look, and an improved search engine.
It is stupidly cool. As a buyer, I would be hooked on sight. As a seller, I am thrilled to have such a sexy venue for my wares. I feel as though we now have a visual indicator that Zibbet has raised the bar for itself and is openly competing with other such beautiful venues as Etsy and Felt.
Here's a link to Zibbet's new front page.
And ...
to celebrate the relaunch, Zibbet is offering a free sixty-day trial to the first 100 people who sign up for Premium Accounts. The normal cost of a Premium Account is $9.95 USD per month (unless you got in early like I did), which is cheaper than ArtFire!
To obtain the 60-day trial, click on the image below, which will take you to Zibbet, then click 'sell' in the top left-hand corner and sign up for a Premium Account using the coupon code '60FREE'.
Easy.
I have a confession to make.
I don't wear earrings.
I make them and sell them, but I don't wear them.
I know, you're shocked and horrified. Please try to forgive me.
And let me explain ...
For a long time, I refused to make earrings, for two reasons. Firstly, I felt that since I don't wear earrings, I wouldn't know the difference between a good, comfortable pair and a clumsy, uncomfortable pair. Secondly, I felt that earrings were too small. Yes, too small. If you were a painter, and you could choose between a big canvas and a little one, which would you choose? I'd choose the big one. You can do more on a big canvas; you can say more and express more, because you have more space. So I felt that, artistically speaking, I could say more with a necklace or a bracelet than I could with a little pair of earrings.
But I kept getting requests for custom earrings. People would ask for earrings to match the necklace that they had bought, or because their disposable income was small and they could afford $20.00 for a pair of earrings but not $40.00 for a necklace. Every pair that I made was well received, so evidently I wasn't bad at making them, even though I didn't wear them.
Then I got to a point where I needed some lower price points in my shop. There's a recession on: people admired my jewellery but couldn't always afford it; plus, when you're new to purchasing online, paying a stranger $15-20 over the Internet feels a lot safer than paying $50-100.
So I decided to make a few pairs of earrings and see what happened. And lo and behold - it was fun! I had easily as much fun making earrings as I did making necklaces or bracelets. The joy of making something small but perfectly formed was just as much of a thrill as making something larger and more complex. And they were so quick to make! For instant gratification, you can't go far past earrings. I was surprised. (And slightly mortified that it had taken me so long to figure this out.)
Moreover, speed of production equals efficiency: in one hour, I can churn out four to ten pairs of earrings, compared with one to four necklaces or bracelets in the same amount of time. More product naturally means more items to list online, which means more chances of getting seen online, which equals more sales. FAB. Pair this (pun intended) with the fact that people are more likely to buy earrings and you have a win/win situation.
And now I sell more earrings than everything else put together.
There has been a lot of discussion in the Etsy forums, over the years (or is it only months?), as to whether or not renewing is a profitable strategy for being found in the masses of items that throng Etsy's website. Some say it is; some say it does little but eat up profit.
(For those who are unsure, 'renewing' here means relisting an item before it has sold or expired; in other words, 'refreshing' a listing so that it appears at the front of the search results and the categories, and paying the listing fee again in order to do so. 'Relisting', on the other hand, is listing an item again after it has expired or sold.)
Something Blue took it upon herself to find out the scientific way. The results are quite fascinating.
If you sell on Etsy, or - like me - are planning to sell on Etsy eventually and in the meantime are curious to know whether you'll end up renewing a lot when you do, take a look.
http://shopsomethingblue.blogspot.com/2009/08/etsy-experiment-revealed.html
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a handmade item in possession of an online listing must be in want of an excellent photograph.
(O.K., that was dreadful. Apologies to Jane Austen.)
It says in my profile that I have two brands of jewellery. Well, this is mostly true. Or it will be true shortly. Because, ladies and gentlemen and others, on this day next week I will be launching my second brand: Whiteleaf Jewellery. (Trumpet fanfare)
Oh, the excitement! The terror! The enormous amount of work still to be done!
Here's a sneak preview:
I am a chronic Etsy browser.
Most New Zealanders are not familiar with Etsy, so here's a little description: Etsy is an American based, international, online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods and supplies. If you are an artist or craftsperson of any kind, Etsy is arguably THE foremost place to sell online. It's a browser's delight: a veritable online world of beautiful, handmade goods with personality and individuality - many of them eco-friendly, recycled, vegan, or organic as well. I'm almost certain that a person's entire life could be supplied and maintained solely with items purchased on Etsy.
If you are looking for it, and if it's a physical object, then the chances are high that someone will sell it on Etsy. And while you're looking for it, you'll find a bunch of other things that you (a) had no idea existed, and (b) didn't know could be bought online. Homemade vegan marshmallows. Soap that looks like a chocolate truffle. Italian-sausage-scented lip balm. A fabulous coffin-couch.
And that's just a little taste of the delicious buffet that is Etsy.
One of the features that I really like on Etsy is their 'Quit Your Day Job' interviews with artists who make their livings by selling their work on Etsy. One sentence that crops up repeatedly from these full-time, self-employed artists (besides 'work on your photographs'!) goes along these lines:
"I have never worked so hard in my life".
For someone who is at the beginning of the journey towards full-time artistic self-employment, that's an intimidating thing to read.
I have never worked so hard in my life.
From all accounts, that's what artistic self-employment requires. A tonne of hard work.
It must take even more hard work when you are trying to succeed in a crowded marketplace - and, while I don't know the statistics, I would guess that the Internet is now the biggest and most crowded marketplace on Earth.
