Studio Sunday! - Show Me Packaging - with Rebecca Anderson of Songbead

Welcome to Studio Saturday....em, Sunday! {Yes, I messed up a little and this Studio Saturday post is coming to you a day late! Better late than never, right? So you'll be getting a two in one with this post - a Studio post and a Show Me Sunday} 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.
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This weeks winner is.... Jeanne aka Gem Chick

Congratulations! 

You have won a beautiful set of ceramic beads from Gaea Cannaday.

Send Gaea an e-mail with your address and she will get it right out to you.

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This week we visit the studio of Rebecca Anderson of Songbead and The Curious Bead Shop. 

As we are featuring packaging this month, I thought I would talk a little about my own packaging here - how I protect and 'dress up' my jewellery and beads to sell, and also some of the paraphernalia that you need to think about when selling at a craft fair.

Obviously, selling both jewellery and beads has some areas of overlap, but there are also some some areas unique to each. When I am selling online, I have to post my jewellery/beads out to people - sometimes all the way across the world from little old me, here in the UK! I have had the privilege of sending out to such far flung places as Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, Finland, Canada, many different states in the US, Australia, and of course, all over Great Britain. {It's one of my plans for the coming few months to make a map of my sales, so that I can see everywhere that both my jewellery and beads are now happily residing :-).} First and foremost of course, is ensuring that the product you are sending is received safe and secure by its new owner. I have lovely little recycled brown cardboard boxes for the jewellery, and tissue paper and stickers for the beads and cord. These in turn get tucked into padded envelopes or sturdy little boxes, to protect them on their way to their new owners. Here's a shot of some of my beads, getting ready to travel all the way to Austria:

Wrapped up neatly with colourful (I am ALL about colour!) tissue paper, sealed with pretty stickers, and my business card tucked in. The cardboard box this is in will be taped up VERY securely before it leaves my side. 

With jewellery, which can be more delicate than loose beads and cord, I add a double layer of protection. The jewellery sits snugly in a hand decorated box, is covered with a folded sheet of tissue paper, before being securely taped up in a padded envelope. I've learned the hard way here - I once had a bracelet reach it's destination in Canada, and when its new owner opened the box, she discovered that a delicate lampwork flower had a petal missing - it had snapped off en route. I now make sure that my jewellery cannot really move, even within its own box, to avoid such mishaps occurring again. 

You can see here that, like my one-of-a-kind jewellery, I like to decorate my boxes in unique ways. No two come out the same! You can also see that I stamp my details on the base of each box. You can NEVER give out your business details in too many ways. Business cards can and are easily discarded, but jewellery boxes are often kept, and my details along with it. 

And along with decorating my own boxes, I make my own price tags for craft fairs. 

Brown cardboard, cut, stamped, ready to be hand-written with prices and item descriptions, and simple cord ties attached.

You can see too that, although my jewellery and supplies businesses are separate, the packaging  that I use for both is sympathetic. The brown paper 'kraft' materials are something I use as a bit of a signature for both Songbead and Curious.  I've developed my own style and I like that to be an area of overlap between the two businesses. 

Last week in the comments, Ann Schroeder said:

I am a buyer, not a seller. My main concern is that my beads arrive safely. However, when they are packaged in a special way it's really fun. My favorite wrapping recently was in a box with pretty ribbon that had a little freebie charm that matched what I had ordered! That really made me feel special and gave me a good feeling about that seller. 

So you see, it's not just jewellery that people appreciate being presented beautifully! When I send out my beads, they get hand strung on cord, and each strand comes with a tiny key charm tied onto the end:

This shot is from beads I sent out in my opening weekend! You can see I had more strands to go out than I had keys.....now every single strand comes with a bonus charm. Photo courtesy of Bo Hulley Beads.

The key is also my business logo, so it links in nicely, and hopefully customers appreciate that little extra touch in their package. I am planning on expanding Curious' range to include handmade beads and findings too over the coming months, and I'll be thinking of new ways to present them in special ways too. 

One thing I'd like to focus on with my packaging for the future is getting it to be more green....as I said, I already use recycled kraft boxes for my jewellery. I would like to switch to recycled tissue paper also, and look for more ways to make my packaging as environmentally friendly as possible. I know that it is something that I really value as a customer as well; for me, it's worth the extra time and effort, and even the few extra pennies that it can cost. This area of focus is one I will talk about in next week's Show Me Sunday. I'd love to hear any ideas that you have about this or any other areas and elements of packaging!

So that's my bribe to you for this week - tell me something about your packaging that you like, or that you'd like to improve. Or if you're not selling yet, what do you as a customer want to see when your beads and jewellery arrive through your letterbox?

Leave your comments for the chance to win $20 worth of (beautifully packaged!) goodies from The Curious Bead Shop. 

And before I go, here are the Bead Blogger Links - it is Sunday after all!

A Bead A Day 
Have you ever created a piece of jewelry and wondered if you went one bead too far? Stop by A Bead A Day to share YOUR story. 

About.com Jewelry Making 
Fernando Dasilva is this month's jewelry designer interviewee. 

Resin Crafts! 
Do not miss this post showing you how to embed vintage trims in resin! 

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! 
Jean is so thrilled that Nina Designs is offering great new videos on how to make lovely and versatile jewelry. See her blog for an example she really liked!

Beading Arts
Cyndi has new polymer clay projects to share, including resin and beads!

Rebecca is a Scottish jewellery designer, currently living in Manchester, England. You can read more about her and her work at her blog, songbeads.blogspot.com and see more of her jewellery at songbead.etsy.com. She also has a supplies shop atthecuriousbeadshop.etsy.com.