Monday, April 17, 2017

Selling handmade jewelry: Pounding the pavement, Part II


At the beginning of the year, I wrote a post called "Pounding The Pavement," where I shared my plan to finally get my jewelry into some more stores. Well, I have some great news! Things are going surprisingly well -- knock on wood, fingers crossed -- and I have some exciting opportunities coming my way.

As you know, I've been making tarot and spiritual-themed pendants for the upcoming Reader's Studio convention. When I told a friend about this, she said, "You know, you teach at a cemetery and will be selling jewelry at a tarot festival. You need to hit up new age and metaphysical stores."

I decided to take her advice and contacted a handful of stores that sell metaphysical, occult, new age and spiritual gifts. I included photos of my tarot pendants, as well as my Zodiac pieces, fairy pendants, tree of life jewelry, etc. Several places have already written back! One in particular is very interested in my work and wants to feature my pendants in two stores. Meanwhile, the store in Upstate New York is still working out a deal with me.

As of now, I still have to finalize my sales with these stores, which is why I'm not mentioning them by name and am being a bit vague. Basically, the owners have to decide which particular products they want, how many items and whether they'll be sold wholesale or by consignment. Much as they like my work, they're still running businesses and have to work out details.

I'm obviously very excited about these developments, especially since the first store I had products in, Threading N' More, is unfortunately closing. However, I'm trying to stay grounded and realistic about the process. I know all too well from publishing that deals can fall through. They can decide that my pieces ultimately aren't right for their stores, my work may not sell ... or a store can close. Anything can happen. It means so much to me that they even like my work enough to consider it. I figure I'm on the right track and this is a numbers game. I just have to keep making jewelry and networking. I'm confident that SOMETHING will happen to me eventually. My big break will come!

Once my jewelry is actually in the stores, I will include more details and links to these places. Like I said, I have my fingers crossed and am looking forward to the future. Meantime, you can check out my jewelry at Naomi's Designs and MayaGirl Creations.

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