Craft Show News

Craft Show News

Get previews and ratings of all the best craft show such as the American Craft Council, Buyers Market of American Craft, and many others.

AP IMPACT: Wal-Mart pulls jewelry over cadmium

LOS ANGELES – Wal-Mart said Wednesday it is pulling an entire line of Miley Cyrus-brand necklaces and bracelets from its shelves after tests performed for The Associated Press found the jewelry contained high levels of the toxic metal cadmium.

In a statement issued three hours after AP's initial report of its findings, Wal-Mart said it would remove the jewelry, made exclusively for the world's largest retailer, while it investigates. The company issued the statement along with Cyrus and Max Azria, the designer who developed the jewelry for the 17-year-old "Hannah Montana" star.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. had learned of cadmium in the Miley Cyrus jewelry, as well as in an unrelated line of bracelet charms, back in February, based on an earlier round of testing conducted at AP's request, but had continued selling the items. It said as recently as last month that it would be too difficult to test products already on its shelves.

In its statement, Wal-Mart did not say whether it would also remove the bracelet charms.

Gem Cutters Guild of Baltimore

I just love Gayle Friedman's jewelry made from re-purposed mink. All the luxury with none of the guilt!

On Tuesday May 4, 2010 I am the featured speaker at the Gem Cutters Guild of Baltimore. The topic is how to market your work for someone that is a hobbyist trying to transition into selling their work. If you live in the Baltimore area I would love to see you!

The Gem Cutters Guild Meeting is held on the first Tuesday of each month (except January, July and August) at our workshop which is located at: Meadow Mill at Woodberry 3600 Clipper Mill Road Suite 116 Baltimore MD 21211

Selling Jewelry Online Part 2

Selling jewelry online is always a question of time or money. Do I have enough time to run my own shop or am I willing to give up a piece of my revenue to have someone else do it for me. Let's take a look at the online vendors I discussed in my earlier post and how they may fit into your marketing plan. I have divided the different venues into three categories.

The first category I call wholesale sites. Wholesale sites ask the jeweler to provide them with a wholesale price (usually 50% of retail), images and descriptions. The site then manages the sales process. The wholesaler advertises, runs the site, pays the cost of shipping, processes payments, and pays the artist a commission at some designated time. They have a stringent jury process and can therefore maintain quality on their site. Two examples of wholesale sites are Artful Home and Art Jewelry Online. I think Object Fetish falls into this category but I am not certain. If someone could give me a heads up I would greatly appreciate it.

The second category I call step up web sites. They maintain a juried site so there is some guarantee of quality but since the fees are significantly less than wholesalers you will have to do a lot of the work yourself. Soleyne and America Creates fall into this category. Soleyne charges an 8% commission and America Creates charges 25%. In both instances you have to upload images of your work, provide descriptions, list tags and input pricing. Both sites indicate that advertising is forthcoming. They are both relatively new.

The third category I call the "It's Your Shop" venue. Here there is no jury process and anyone can sign up to sell their work. This is the case where you definitely have to have time. You do everything from category 2 plus all of your own marketing and advertising. They usually cost little to nothing to list merchandise and then take a small fee once something sells. Some have said that these venues are primarily for less expensive work but I have seen some high end artists do well on these sites. The key is know your customer and market like crazy to that market segment. Etsy, Shop Handmade, iCraft, Artfire and 1000 markets fall into this category. Etsy is the largest vendor of the group.

I don't claim to be the all knowing writer so I hope folks chime in and give me their perspective on things.

Part 3 will discuss how to write a business plan or what I affectionately call, "Where do you want to go and what are you willing to do to get there?"

Earrings by Emanuela Aureli

Selling Jewelry Online

I am surfing the web at 3 am and trying to figure out the best places to sell jewelry. Here is the list I have compiled so far: iCraft (Canada), DaWanda (Great Britain, France and Germany), Etsy, Shop Handmade, America Creates, Artful Home, Soleyne, Object Fetish, 1000 Markets, and of course my site ArtJewelryOnline.

Here's my opinion:

Etsy...Okay for price points under $100 but a challenge to sell more expensive work. I like the fact that you can advertise and track your visitors on Google Analytics.

Shop Handmade...Free to sell by selecting a sponsor like addicted to rubber stamps. I noticed lots of cutsie stuff on this site but I also found some talented jewelers.

iCraft...Free to sell 5 products or less. Not sure how to categorize this one. Primarily a Canadian site that has a full range to low to moderate priced goods.

Artful Home...juried work and tough for jeweler's to participate. Lots of artists doing jewelry but they get lost in all the furniture, glass etc.

America Creates...A newer juried site. They are still working out the technology kinks but appear to be a site for better jewelers. The take a 25% commission when work sells.

1000 Markets...I do not like that they use Amazon for checkout. Amazon has no support system. I prefer Yahoo and Paypal.

Soleyne...Advertises that they are more art than craft. Still in their infancy but appear to be headed in the right direction.

DaWanda...Totally free to sell here. Tough to work the overseas market, but very easy to use and set up shop.

Object Fetish is new to me so if you have any experience I would love to hear it.

ArtJewelryOnline...of course I love this one it is my site. What I like most is that I sell jewelry and nothing else. Not accepting new artists now but keep in touch for future openings.

Would love to here opinions about these and other shops.

Image of Basket Earrings by Gayle Friedman. 18k/ss bimetal.