It's been a long time coming!

Having just checked, I know that my last post was March 2011. I’d like to say that the gap has been caused by my just being too busy to blog – but that isn’t the true of course.

For a long time in 2011 I could not find any enthusiasm for making jewellery or even anything to do with jewellery making or my fledgling business.

Before my last blog posting I visited the Spring Fair at the Birmingham NEC in February 2011, while there I bought a number of new beads which at the time I fully intended to use in new pieces. But, although I have lots of unused sterling silver wire in the house I have not been able to summon up the enthusiasm to make any of the items for which I have drawn sketches.

In early September I visited IJL in London and again I bought more beads that I intended to use but still the lack of enthusiasm continued.

Then a friend of mine suggested that I join her as a stall holder at a “pamper evening” that was taking place at the end of September. The idea made me a bit nervous but I said yes to the suggestion. I didn’t think that I’d sell any items but I knew it would be good experience for the future, and maybe even a good marketing opportunity.

I had plenty of sterling silver pieces available to sell on the evening but since it was being held in a primary school I wanted to have more pieces made from gold or silver plated wire as I thought there might be an opportunity to sell to girls as well as their parents. So I spent some time making cheaper selling items. As it was, it turned out to be a parent’s only evening and my extra work was for nothing which was slightly disappointing.

But the evening itself was fun, I spent time talking to some of the other stall holders and trying to get the hang of selling my own goods. I’ve helped out at sales before but never when it’s been items I have made on the table so it was a whole new experience for me. Although I didn’t sell anything, I did get some nice compliments about some of my sterling silver items so that was great.

I found that suggesting people take business cards was hard to do, and not very rewarding as no one picked up a card. I had put out some postcards I'd had made, but again no one seemed interested in picking them up. So it did not turn out to be the marketing opportunity I thought it might. But it got me back into thinking about selling jewellery for the first time in months.

Anne