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.
Congrats Carol D. you are the winner of the Humblebeads' owl pendant from last week! Please email me with your mailing address so I can send your necklace out to you!
Well, hello there again dear friend. Hopefully next week we'll be back on track visiting the studios of the rest of our blog team.
What have I been up to this week? I have been slowly but surely refilling my bead boxes getting ready for two awesome bead trunk shows over the next few weeks. (
Click to view my upcoming events.)
You'll have to excuse my Ipod photos, no glamour shots today!
I love doing trunk shows. I've done a few where I've sent a box of goodies to shops and some where I get to go and sell my beads in person and visit with everyone. Of course, I prefer the second. I love meeting people who are excited about beads, you are my tribe after all! I've had the privilege of meeting so many great people over the last few months during trunk shows and book events.
Trunk shows are a great way to start a relationship with a business. If you live in a town with a boutique you could set up a trunk show once or twice a year to show off your latest goods. The best way to start if you don't already know the owner is check out the shop where you feel like your work would be a good fit. I'm a little shy myself, so if I didn't know the owner I would probably see if they have a website and facebook page and then I'd muster up the courage to send a quick introductory email with a link to my website. I'd let them know I am booking trunk shows for the spring and would love to bring in some of my work to show the owner and see if they would like to set up a date for a show. NOT that I've done that with jewelry, but if I was feeling ambitious, that is what I would do.
A trunk show is nice because it's a fun way to build up excitement about your work, you don't have inventory tied up in a consignment situation and it's a nice way for a store owner to see how well your work does without her making any big financial commitments. Of course, follow up with the store owner after the trunk show if you sell your work wholesale.
Make sure if you do a trunk show your terms are spelled out clearly. What percentage is being taken by the shop, who is collecting the money, what advertising is going to be done, what materials will you need to provide for marketing, will you need to bring your own tables and display items? You can never ask too many questions when hammering out the details.
Don't wait for events to happen, create your own!
So you know the drill, each week we ask a question and give away a prize. This week you can win one of my new flower pendants in a bright and cheery orange design inspired by this month's challenge.
My question:
What is one brave thing you'd done lately when it comes to your business or creative pursuits?
I can wait to read your stories.
