And some sales (in December anyway)!

At the pamper evening I attended at the end of September I got chatting to one of the other stall holders who said she was organising a charity evening for the girl guides group she works with and asked me if I wanted to be involved. I said yes of course, another marketing opportunity, and this one was in November so I was hoping to pick up some interest for Christmas.

Before the event I felt that although I had a number of bracelets and necklaces available, I did not have very many pairs of earrings and that earrings might sell better for Christmas. A handy factor in making extra earrings for the event rather than other items is earrings do not contain very much sterling silver so do not need to be hallmarked.

The evening turned out to be very quiet because it had been organised for the same evening as Children in Need, so turnout to our event was low. But, I made 2 sales so I was over the moon. My first sales to people who were not friends!!

One of the items I sold was my “Seaside sunset” lampwork bead pendant about which I blogged a while back (Sept 2010), this is it:



Seaside sunset


This sale produced an odd feeling in me – I guess that although I had set up my website with the intention of selling what I had made, I’d never sat down and thought about how I would feel selling what I make to strangers. It turns out I felt slightly uncomfortable, and had to stop myself pointing out the flaws I thought there were in the piece! I think part of the reason I felt odd about selling the piece was because I had made it so long before it was sold and I had worn it myself sometimes. Also, as I said earlier, it was my first sale to a person who was not a friend, my first sale to someone who was buying the piece because she saw it and picked it up and liked it enough to pay good cash for it! She said it was going to be her Christmas present from her husband which was fine by me.

The second sale was of a pair of sterling silver and green aventurine earrings that I had made especially for the event. Because I’d just made the earrings and never worn them myself, selling them turned out to be much easier than selling the pendant. Mind you, it was also the second sale of the evening so maybe I’d already got over the “selling panic” hurdle earlier making it easier the second time around.

I recently got asked if I want to do another "pamper evening" like the one in September, I said "yes" so we'll see how it goes, this time it is timed to coincide with Mother's Day in March.

Until next time
Anne