For The Love of Beads BlogThe adventures of Suzanne, Nibbler, and friends in the world of beads and jewelry making crafts

Have you ever seen one of those artisans who sell their beautiful jewelry on the streets? These guys are in the streets of almost every large city in the world and yet you can´t help wondering why they prefer to be selling such nice things outside rather than in a store.

Well, today we are going to present to you an interview with one of those enigmatic guys. He lives in Mexico City, but you can find him almost anywhere. He´s that kind of artisan who likes to travel around the country selling his stuff at the main public squares or in the Zocalos. I met him one particular weekend when he came to my hometown. His name is Pedro Lopez and he sells semiprecious gemstones hand coiled in silver wire. He likes to use amethyst rectangles, black agate coins, coral beads, lapis lazuli beads, turquoise beads, jade beads, among other stones. Sometimes he mounts the stone in a silver frame with a loop at the top for stringing. He sometimes uses chamois leather or silver wire when he adds more little stones.  His prices range from a few pesos to hundreds and despite the simplicity of his designs they are made with good taste. He seems to balance perfectly the color, size and quantity of stones.

So, we approached to ask him a few questions about his work.

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One day, my wife and I had decided to expand our beading business and we came up with the idea that the best way to do it without neglecting our booth, or our jewelry making was to approach to a retail store. We soon found out that it was more complicated than we thought; putting your things in another place where you are not going to be selling them personally requires from you a lot of organization, even before going to talk to the store’s owner or the manager-in-chief.

For starters, you need to realize that you are going to attach yourself to a big promise that, in some cases, could involve legal liabilities. Therefore, you must be very serious about this. First of all, it´s very important to establish what kind of jewelry you are making and its potential market. From this, it decides what kind of store you want to approach. Once that´s settled, go to pay a visit and look around, but don´t make any appointments yet. Your goal here is to check out if they already have similar items to what you are trying to sell. Store owners always want to sell originals products.

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Displaying jewelry is always a process as creative and fun as the jewelry making itself.  There are so many possibilities doing so that we need to determine several factors beforehand.  What kind of market do we want to target?  Are we selling on the Internet or at a craft show?  Are we going to start selling among friends and family or delivering to a local retailer?

Whatever the case might be, we need to look for a big contrast between our jewelry and the display case in order to accentuate the beauty of our work.  This is not a moment to be shy, rather be bold and audacious.

Rustic Log Jewelry Display

Since my wife and I started working in this craft we have found out that either you are selling at your own booth or you are delivering to someone else’s.  The way you display your jewelry is a very important issue.  We are always looking for that eye-catching and sometimes dramatic look.  The other day we delivered to a very important local retailer and we had a display case made to exhibit our merchandise.  That case actually turned out to be more attractive by itself than the products exhibited in it.  But it worked out perfectly in selling the goods.  Unfortunately, we don´t have any pictures of it.

You can also make a statement through the way you display your own products.  Say you are concerned about global warming and want to avoid buying necklace and bracelets in plastic displays and packaging.  In this case, going green and getting an organic and earthy look would be your best option.  Grab some dry sprigs to hang up your necklaces and your bracelets and you can even use branches like fingers for showing off your rings.  Here is a picture with the same idea by sculpture-design.com

We came across with this idea, when we went to sell at the beach in Puerto Escondido, Mexico and we weren´t able to carry our cumbersome display case.  We figured out that the best way to show our products was using what Mother Nature had in that place.

But, if you think it´s more suitable to have commercial displays, our advice would be to wrap them up with contrasting colors and fabrics to bring out the colors in your jewelry.

The Economy Necklace by Amber Stone Pets

If you are selling by Internet then the options are unlimited.  Of course you need a good camera but mostly a great deal of imagination.  Taking pictures using members of your own family or friends of yours is a lot of fun and you can create the appropriate environment for specific items.

Take for example this picture of man´s best friend modeling a nice necklace by http://amberstonepets.com/

Take a look at these sites for some more great ideas:
http://jewelrydisplayideas.com/

http://www.jewelrybyannalea.com/Jewelry_By_AnnaLea/Home.html

We hope these ideas are useful for you and send us pics of your own ideas about how to display jewelry.