LazyBreeze Jewelry Tips for Jewelry Parties January 4, 2009

How to Have a Great Jewelry Party

Tips on a Fun and Successful Event

If you make handmade jewelry then you have probably tried different ways of selling your jewelry. One really great way is to throw a party at your house, or at a friend’s home. These have been very successful for me and I wanted to share a few tips so you can have a smooth enjoyable experience.

These are the things I found to be useful for my parties.

• Plan your party 2-3 weeks in advance. This is a good time frame, if you plan it too far ahead you and your guests can have many unexpected things come up that prevent them from coming. Also, its easy to remember something that’s coming up in 2 weeks, not so much for a month from now. If you only tell them 1 week in advance, they’ll probably have other plans already!
• Make sure your items are displayed in a pleasing and professional manner. Invest in a small table (4′ long is a excellent size, I’ve noticed) with a pretty tablecloth that reaches the floor. These run about $40 and you can get them at Wal-Mart.
• Make it about them, not just your jewelry. Have a little spa or fun and games! If you can, have other friends bring their lines of products too. I had a friend who brought her line of scrubs and bodycare products, another brought makeup. That way there’s not as much pressure on anyone and you can all benefit. You’re guests will feel pampered and much more willing to buy items that will compliment their natural beauty.
• Its not a party without great food and drinks! I like to have homemade salsa available, vodka and wine. You can provide anything you like, just make sure you have enough and serve them as attractively as possible.
• Prepare a playlist of songs to be playing in the background. Since my parties are little spa events, I play relaxing, soothing music. This is very effective if you’re having the party on a work day, the girls can chill after a long stressful day.
• Have plenty of business cards and fliers available. You’ll want to make sure the girls take more than one with them, encourage them to hand them out to other friends or family members. If you’re going to be attending a fair or event and have the flier for that as well, ask them to put them up on announcement boards at their jobs. This way even if someone doesn’t buy from you at the party, they can still help spread the word about your beautiful products.

Some of the girls and me, far right

New Earrings

Latest Videos December 26, 2008

Here’s my latest video, a continuation from the previous one. Some of these items have already been sold! Make sure to stop by my Etsy shop to get your favorites before they’re gone forever! Buy handmade at LazyBreeze Jewelry; Everyone, Everywhere, Everytime

My First Arts and Crafts Fair December 26, 2008

I attended my first fair last friday, as I’ve been mentioning, I was invited to participate in Homegrown for the Holidays.  I’d like to recount my experience, hopefully it’ll give some insight.  When my friend Elizabeth and I arrived everyone was in the process of getting setup. We were able to park relatively nearby to the area where my table would be, but we had to be quick.  The spot we’d found could not be used for the event, and we kept getting harassed to move.  We explained we were unloading really quick because the event parking was very far for us to carry everything.  We managed, but I must say, had this been in Puerto Rico, several guys would have immediately offered to help carry what were obviously heavy and cumbersome objects.  Hard to find gentlemen these days…

Anyways, my area was in the back part along with most of the other vendors. I was lucky that the angle I was in prevented the sun from beating down or getting in my eyes all day, I think I saw one girl’s back beat red by the end of the day.  My table turned out to be a good size, and I was able to fit most everything under it for storage, my two organizers on wheels which contain all my jewelry and supplies.  I had originally planned on making jewelry while I was there, but I didn’t manage for several reasons. One being that I worried things would fall and be difficult to retrieve or become dirty, another that space was limited and frankly, I was kept busy and entertained for most of the time.  Here’s some pics of my table so you can get an idea of what I did:

After setting up and trying to cram as many of my pieces as I could on the table, I left Liz to watch the things while I did some exploring.  I stopped by and chatted with as many vendors as I could, analyzing their wares, displays, prices, attitudes and more.  I weened as much information as I could, how long they’d been crafting, how did they find out about the fair, did they know of any other events?  I really practiced my social skills, tell you that, normally I’m a bit shy around new people and prefer to sit back and observe before jumping into conversations. It turned out to be worth it, as I was able to learn a wealth of valuable information.

LazyBreeze Jewelry managed to get quite a bit of attention, I’m happy to say!  Many people stopped by to look, ask questions, comment on the different pieces and so on.  I had a few sales, not as many as I would have liked, but I didn’t expect much. Besides, no one else sold much either.  It was a small fair, and most people were just browsing or were broke, not surprising in the current economy.  Nonetheless, I was happy. My main goals for the fair were accomplished, namely, garnering as much information and feedback as possible.  I now have several events to look into and renewed confidence that my jewelry is indeed liked and considered to be fairly price.  Until then I had that gnawing fear that the sales I’d had so far had been sympathy purchases, made to support me and my efforts and not so much because of a real desire to own the piece. I shouldn’t have worried, I received so many compliments for my art that I have no doubt my jewelry is worthwhile.

All in all, I truly enjoyed my experience, it was enriching and incredibly fun.  I ran into people I know, met many new artisans with whom I intend to foster good professional and friendly relationships, and left renewed with inspiration and determination to succeed.

Patrice Originals Bags December 11, 2008

Ever since my days as an anthropology/french student at the University of Puerto Rico I’ve had  a love affair with bags. All kinds and sorts, name brand to handmade.  Patrice Original’s bags remind me of that time, when I wore flowy skirts, dared to bare my midriff, and spent all my money on artisan accessories. My choice in clothes has changed, but the love for original, one of a kind accessories has remained.  These beautifully crafted bags are on my Christmas wishlist.  I particularly love this one, Butterfly Fairy, the details are so cool, the way she’s incorporated a vintage pic of a lovely girl with a butterfly.

Make sure to browse her store, the bags are excellent quality and she is willing to accept custom work, so go for it!

Musings on Orlando Craftings December 11, 2008

I’ve been thinking, how to make the blog more appealing? I’m still new, and frankly, its not like I have a bunch of followers yet, not on my blog anyway. Probably because I haven’t really let my true self shine through my writing.  Anyways, I thought it’d be nice to have a blog that focuses on Orlando’s many artisans and crafters. I can’t seem to find one. And of course there are plenty of blogs showcasing different artists, I’ve been lucky enough to be featured on a few, but what I’d like to do is show the undersold artists from Orlando. Those who, like me, are still struggling to get themselves out there. Its difficult to infiltrate an already saturated market, stand out among the crowd, find a niche, plus all the work that gets put into advertising. So, in an effort to not only sell my products, but help others in my community, as well as make some new friends, I think I’ll be changing the focus of this blog. We’ll see what happens!  And now to pick the first artist!

Dragonfly Set for Mother-in-Law December 4, 2008

Here are pics of the set I will be sending to my mother-in-law for Christmas. She loves dragonflies so when I found this pendant in an antique shop I knew it was perfect.  This is based on a style which is very popular right now in Puerto Rico. Those are made with religious icons tho, crosses and silver pendants with saints.  I’m not into that kind of iconography, mainly because I’m not Catholic, but also because I think it will prevent women from other religions from wanting to wear what is otherwise a lovely style. My version has the same large beads and will have dragonfly charms attached to it, once they arrive. I ordered some cute dragonfly charms from Etsy, can’t wait for them to get here to finish this and mail it. Wanted you all to see it before its gone though!

Homegrown for the Holidays December 1, 2008

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m so excited about my first ever fair, and it really does bear mentioning again. Specially now that I got my packet, everything’s confirmed and here’s the flyer!

Art Fair

Black Friday Cyber Monday SALE November 26, 2008

From right now till December 1rst, 2008, LazyBreeze Jewelry is offering free shipping on any purchase no matter where its shipped to.  Take advantage of this fantastic offer and get your Christmas shopping done for all the beautiful ladies in your life, treat yourself to something one of a kind!

Buy handmade this Christmas, support artists!

Etsy vs Other Venues November 25, 2008

I have the shop on Etsy of course, but there are so many other sites that offer similar services, some for free even.  And of course there’s the option of opening your own online shop, your own dot com.  At some point, I definitely intend on having my own online store, I’d rather not have to pay fees forever, its like paying rent when you could own a house. I wish I had the time and resources to post on several sites and see which one works best for me. At the same time, I feel if I split myself up like that I’d have a hard time keeping track of everything. Not to mention, its hard enough marketing for one site!  I don’t know, guess I’ll stay here for now, till I can make my own website.

Making Jewelry vs Advertising Jewelry November 22, 2008

I was very pleased to log in this morning and see I had a sale at the store. That particular bracelet has had the most views, and I was wondering when someone would go for it.  The reality for any jewelry or other kinds of handmade items is that we spend more time promoting, advertising and trying to get our brand known than we do actually making and working on our art.  I can make a pair of earrings in 45min or less, but I’ll spend hours getting it seen.  There’s pictures to take and edit, then post the item in the store, then having the pics on sites like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Webshots, Indiepublic.  Uploading those pics from one site to the other can be easy sometimes, time consuming at others, specially if I have to write descriptions and put in tags for each. Of course, on the social networking sites, I make sure to participate in groups and forums, make connections and friends.

Frankly, my shop doesn’t reflect the amount of sales I’ve had, I’m sure this happens to others as well.  While on a trip in Puerto Rico, I sold at least 10 sets of jewelry, which of course don’t show on Etsy and I simply took off the site. It’ll be interesting to see how many sales I manage to get at the Homegrown for the Holidays fair.  Am I better at selling one-on-one, where I can talk about my jewelry? Not to mention its harder to leave something behind that you like if the maker is right there, at least thats what happens to me when I shop at fairs. Something about knowing the work and love put into it.

Maybe I need to change things on the Etsy stores, according to the Feng Shui philosophy, there’s colors, shapes and other design elements which go in line with my personality and which in theory can help boost sales. There must be some truth to it, since we know studies show yellow makes people hungry, and other effects colors have.  I’m going to have a Feng Shui pro analyze me and my shop, see what she recommends. I figure its worth a shot and there won’t be any harm in it, at least.

Hopefully, I’ll eventually reach a point where its a bit more balanced, where I spend a good deal of time creating my jewelry and only part of the time on advertising. It’ll take time and patience, and lots of work, but so far so good, and I’m not going to give up!