Well, for heaven’s sake. I just sold the fourth piece of the…uhm…jewelry line I came up with all of two weeks ago.
Here’s my strategy:
• Wear a particularly handsome example of what I can do.
• Wait until someone admires it.
• Quietly and humbly, murmur “I make these.” 🙂
• Stand by until the person says, “You do? Can you make one for me?”
Amazing.
One of the choir ladies fell into my little trap. But instead of asking, “Can you make one for me,” she had a better idea. She works for the state of Arizona and is required to wear an ID card on an ugly lanyard slung around her neck. “It’s so hard to find a lanyard that’s not hideous,” said she. “Do you suppose you could make one of these as a lanyard?”
Well, yeah. I suppose so. Just finished the same, except that I need to find a large, sturdy jump ring, which I expect to locate tomorrow when the stores open.
Meanwhile, this morning KJG and I are about to shoot out the door to go to the Tempe Arts Fair, a gigantic sell-a-thon that fills that burg’s downtown streets once a year with craftspersons and artists peddling their wares, when the phone rings. It’s La Maya, seeking a present for a birthday party she has to go to at 11:30 a.m. Will I sell her ANY lariat necklace I have in stock?
Well, sure. Unfortunately I’d consigned the only one I have left to Ecocentricity, whose proprietor has agreed to aid and abet me in my new criminal activity enterprise. That notwithstanding, she’s still interested (or at least was, at 9 this ayem) in buying one of my creations.
Think of it.
State of Arizona supervisory employee shows up with spectacular beaded lanyard (and I have to say, the darned thing is pretty!). Fellow employees ogle it. One of them says, “Where did you get THAT?” She says, “I know who makes these.”
Mwa ha ha!
Not counting the time entailed in tracking down the gear, making one of these things takes about three or four hours. Prorate the amount the things are selling for, and you get about $30/hour, net.
That is exactly what the Great Desert University was paying me at the height of my earning power.
Yesh.
I can earn what a Ph.D. and 30 years of professional experience can earn, by stringing beads.
Drop.
Your.
Jaw.
Speaking of dropping your jaw, KJG and I headed for the Tempe Arts Fair, where each of us perused the offerings of craftspersons who peddle the same wares we’re each making: she, pottery; me, jewelry.
We found a number of people selling things along the lines of what we each make. In her case, the number was limited: what KJG makes is not the run-of-the-mill casserole. In my case, the number was vast: everybody and her little sister is stringing beads, for obvious reasons (given the $30/hour payback). But here’s what we discovered: of all the crafts represented at this freaking enormous street fair, the pottery and the jewelry purveyors attracted the largest crowds. At some booths, you had to elbow your way up to the display cases — it was amazing.
Also amazing: the prices these folks were commanding. Handcrafted beaded necklaces? Eighty to a hundred and eighty dollah.
Holy mackerel!
These prices are for the things that were comparable to what my pieces are selling for (although no one is making anything exactly like mine). That’s right. For necklaces made of components that one can buy from wholesalers for an OK price or from retailers through the schnozzola, the going rate ranges from $80 to $180.
The boggle minds.
More than the price, the ease with which this stuff sells is mind-boggling.
Peddling a service — especially one that the clients imagine they can do themselves — is difficult, to say the least. But an object? For heaven’s sake, I haven’t even tried to sell these things! But people are buying them as fast as I can make them.
You realize: if I could sell four of these a month — as many as I could possibly turn out by myself — I would earn as much as I would need to earn by teaching to keep the wolf from the door.
I think I’ve missed my calling in life.
Remember back when I was hating on my GDU job and thinking how much I wished I could live in Yarnell on the proceeds of some handicraft?
Apparently that wasn’t such a stretch, after all…
Hah! Better to have discovered one’s true calling in one’s dotage than never at all.
Just think, somewhere there’s a jewelry designer stringing beads, who secretly dreams of the day he or she can spend all of their time teaching earnest young minds how to express themselves through structured composition.
Good luck with the endeavor, and make sure you get legal as soon as you can – sales tax, track income and expenses, that kind of thing. If the state of AZ is like anywhere else on the planet, their feelings get hurt if they don’t get their cumshaw.
@ vinny — Yesh. The accountant & I are meeting next week.
LOL! Somewhere there’s a jewelry designer who dreams of teaching and who will be absolutely stunned when she learns what kind of living she can make after she’s finished the master’s and Ph.D. At least when I went to school, one didn’t graduate from a public institution over one’s head in debt.
I’m so glad the necklaces are doing well! Let me know if you ever decide to do ecommerce and need help getting set up – you could probably do well online if you’re willing to put up with all the shipping. I’d definitely be in line for one! 🙂
I’ve taught freshmen comp and I’ve strung beads. I know which I’d rather do. Congratulations on being able to make $$ doing something fun. (Think about an Etsy shop.) I’m newly retired and this is inspiring!
jesinalbuquerque
Well, you HAVE to count the cost of materials, time driving to get your materials, and wear and tear on your car to GET to the bead shop.
Have you checked out that catalogue I mentioned in a previous comment? Fire Mountain Gems. A friend bought a lot from them.
Also–you only need to sell 4 a month to match teaching? If so, that would be do-able. Or did you mean 4 a week? That should be do-able too.
Maybe you CAN move to Yarnell after all!
Yes, as a matter of fact Fire Mountain’s page is open on my computer as we scribble. It’s ideal, assuming the shipping charges aren’t outrageous. But even if shipping brings their cost up to what one would pay in a store, as you point out, you still save the gasoline and the wear & tear on the car.
Yup, that’s four a month. That would cover the equivalent of two sections for one semester. Eight a month would pay the equivalent of teaching 2 & 2. Tells you a lot about what adjuncts earn, eh? Some time ago, I figured that I could squeak by on teaching 2 sections a semester. Since I’m keeping the online course, selling four of these things a month would create the same income as teaching 2 & 2.
Isn’t that the dammdest thing?
Look, Funny, I am all for you making all kinds of dough stringing beads, but who is gunna provide our “Adjunctorium” fix, that’s what I wanna know!
LOL! Well, Sandra J, that brings us to a new issue; videlicet: I could use some guest writers for Adjunctorium.
Plus of course the newspapers, the academic blogiverse, and the Adjunct Project all represent little mines of material for that site.