Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.
This weeks winner is ErinS. Congratulations! You have won a Holiday Pendant from Jennifer Heynen of Jangles.
Send Jennifer an e-mail with your address and she will get it right out to you.
Send Jennifer an e-mail with your address and she will get it right out to you.
This week we visit the studio of
Tari Sasser at Creative Impressions In Clay.
Tari Sasser at Creative Impressions In Clay.
Happy Saturday to all and welcome to the glamorous life of buttons! Wait, it's glamorous?! I didn't get that memo. Above is what I have been working on. Snowflakes and Alpacas...sexy (hmmm, right.)
Clay is a muddy business and it only became remotely sexy with the movie Ghost. Believe me, Demi Moore I am not. Most potters detest even hearing that reference.
I haven't thrown on my wheel for quite a while but really need to just for therapy. Like Calgon, take me away. There are times you need to have your mind go somewhere besides the task at hand.
Or the mess at hand. This is the usual mess on my work counter. Take your arm and push any and everything to the side so you can begin another project. At some point you will have the time to clean up the mess.
Time is something I haven't had a lot of in my studio. I have started working outside of the studio. Something I haven't done for many, many years. You do what you have to do.
I work at a wonderful gallery. What better place to be than a gallery and be able to look at art all day. It's an American Art and Craft Gallery. Yes, some of my jewelry is being sold there.
I get to explain how items are made and techniques used. I love that part of my job and it helps customers understand what is put into making art. Along with the prices that go with the art.
The owner of the gallery uses Wholesalecrafts (lots) and also attends shows to purchase items for the gallery. I just realized yesterday that she placed an order with our own Virginia Miska.
Since I am now uber curious to learn about Wholesalecrafts,
My question(s) is:
Do you use wholesalecrafts.com? Is it worth the cost? Has it been a successful tool?
Do you vend at any of the wholesale shows to sell and market your art?
Answer one of my many questions and you could win the Celtic Buttons shown above.
My sincere apologies to the winner of my last Studio Saturday.
I have misplaced your info, could you please resend.
Feeling sassy as usual.
Tari Sasser
27 comments:
Hmmm - I have never heard of wholesalecrafts.com. On the surface, I gather it is for selling items at wholesale? However, I don't think I have the energy to make enough items to sell at the wholesale level.
Off to take a look.
Thanks,
Jane
I don't sell wholesale--I just create jewelry on the side as a creative hobby, so I don't produce the kind of quantity necessary for that type of selling.
The celtic buttons are rally cool!
I've never heard of wholesalecrafts.com But I don't sell wholesale. I just make my Glass Kreationz and Jewelry to sell online and to people I meet/know.
Her buttons are adorable.
Yep, clay is messy and an wreaks havoc on the skin. My limited experience comes from watching my stepdad sculpt his gnomes.
I've never heard of wholecrafts either. I've just recently gotten serious about selling my jewellery and I make a point in creating one of a kind pieces.
And your buttons are lovely!
I really thought that more knew about wholesalecrafts. I will see if I can get Virginia to comment.
Virginia was one of the original 6 of Art Bead Scene.
Thanks everyone!
I don't know anything about wholesalecrafts either but I poked around their site a bit and it looks interesting. I would be interested in more information especially from someone who is using it. I send you an email- I was your last winner :)
I'm glad Virginia can afford the $395 needed to just see what may be on offer there! I'm curious to get an insider's view of it.
I have been with Wholesalecrafts.com since 2008 and I love it! I've been making and selling my line of ceramic jewelry for many years, and before joining Wholesalecrafts.com I had to either attend very expensive trade shows or hire a sales rep to keep orders coming in. More and more buyers of handmade American and Canadian shops are discovering WSC as a way to stock their shops without traveling to expensive trade shows. We also have a very supportive community through a discussion board where artists and retailers can communicate with each other. I cannot say enough good things about WSC! Feel free to contact me if you want to know more.
Having met a good number of artists who are members of Wholesalecrafts.com, my understanding from them is that most of their sales were garnered at the shows sponsored by the site in Orlando and Las Vegas. Very few of those I asked had gotten sales off the website. This may not be the case for everyone, but it was for the dozen or more artists that I spoke to who are participants. However many of those who do attend the shows apparently do very well. I must also add that I know at least one gallery who has purchased off the website a number of times.
lol, i so have to agree with jane above. Not heard of them but that is what they sound like. I wouldnt be able to break even by making enough to sell wholesale. I do small craft fairs, etsy and am trying to get my soaps into a local LYS.
This is the forst I hear of Wholesalecrafts, but then I don't create items in such bulk that I could sell them wholesale.
The buttons are lovely (and sexy!)
I have sold my enameled pendants wholesale to several bead stores but the trade shows are crazy expensive and I just can't take financial risks! I never heard of Wholesalecrafts.com.
In the past when I had my antique and gift shop, I was affiliated with WSC and loved their items and their prices. I have been out of the loop a long time so I probably would be considered not knowledgeable about WSC. I love those Celtic buttons. Yes, clay plays heck with your hands. I don't think I miss that part. :)
Hi Tari,
Love the snowflake buttons! Super cute.
I have been on wholesalecrafts.com for probably 10 years, or at least that's my best guess. I know I was making selling there before I sold beads.
It always pays for its self and I have gotten some good customers from it. I think the artists who do really well do a lot of advertising.
You can always e-mail me if you want to know more.
Jennifer
I'm not anywhere near ready for wholesale since I'm very early in my jewelry-making. Still perfecting a style and working to do any kind of sales consistently. At some point I would like to produce components for use by other jewelry artists, but that's a ways off yet.
I loved your buttons on Craft Gossip so clicked the link... I'd never heard of Wholesale Crafts. Reading the comments, I don't think it would fit my style of selling. I can't/don't produce enough anymore! My venues are "bear shows", etsy.com and BearPile.com.
I only make gifts for family and friends and sell some of my items. I am in pain all the time so I use crafts as a way to forget the pain for awhile. If it was something I had to do I would not enjoy it as much as I do. So no I don't use Wholesalecrafts.com Thank you for this wonderful giveaway the buttons are beautiful.
I sold the rattles wholesale for over 20yrs, and at one time considered joining WSC, however it seems you must be able to turn out quite a lot of product to do well..that was always a question for me..how many new accounts I was perpared to take on.While the price per year is cheap compaired to doing wholesale shows..it's still a gamble if you will actually get shops/galleries to visit your WSC store and make a purchase..when I started doing wholesale, I researched my market and sent out samples to likely shops and galleries and received a 40% positive response( buying). Spending $400 per year, baseline, could go really far if you were directly contacting shops and in my opinion you would have more success because you could specifically target your most likely buyers.
I looked at the website from your link, but it doesn't fit my small number of items I create for my own work. Teri
http://borntobewornjewelry.wordpress.com
I had never heard of the site. I am too small to wholesale. I use jewelry as a means of decompressing from my family law practice. I started making for myself and as gifts and has grown but not enough for wholesale.
The Celtic buttons are AMAZING. I started making jewelry to wear to shows for my Celtic Punk band. Think I might have to purchase some...
What gorgeous celtic buttons! With a last name like McMillian, they practically have my name written on them! :-)
I had not heard of Wholesalecrafts before, but will check it out. I started my business earlier this year trying to sell wholesale to local businesses. It worked so-so.
I just opened a shop on ArtFire this weekend, so I'm excited to finally be selling for myself! While I realize that even with an online shop, there are more overhead costs than selling wholesale, and many things were much simpler selling direct to stores, I'm really excited to have a shop of my own now! (And I'm not sure the two must be mutually exclusive either. I'll have to think on that.)
At any rate, thanks for the link and the question for us to consider! Not to mention the opportunity to win those Celtic beads! Best wishes!
Never heard of it, will go and check it out. I am having trouble with wholesaling, as I have been asked to do recently because of the cost it makes the pieces retail for. I know that is what they are worth but I find it difficult to put a price tag that is over 175.00 on a necklace (,y own issue) Anyway, your pieces are amazing!
Shannon C
Never heard of it, either. I have a very small inventory and rarely sell anything. I hope to gear up, but have to finish a masters degree first!
Ann
mycriticaleye.com
I think a post on wholesalecrafts.com is in order. I am working on getting one from the artists viewpoint and gallery owner viewpoint. Hope to educate all of us.
Thanks for all the comments!
I don't make anything in large enough quantities to even dream about selling
Hmmm, no i have never used wholesale.com....my products are embelleshed handknits, so wholesale is not currently in the future vision for me...however, you have peaked my interest in handcrafted buttons since i have joined an irish guild group representing 16th century fashion....button button, i would so luv the buttons! ;]
I love the Celtic style beads!
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