Can anyone who has a retail store show work like that, and have any expectation of selling it?
You’d be amazed. I remember early on in my “craft show” career I
made a pair of enamel bead that were truly hideous. I’m still not
sure why I did it, but I made them up into a pair of earrings and
tossed them out on my table with everything else. To my shock, they
were about the very first pair of earrings I sold that day. A woman
walked up and said “Oh, these are just beautiful!!!”
It’s not just a cliche; beauty really IS in the eye of the beholder!
On Don’s spectrum of approach, I probably fall much closer to the
“business” model than anywhere else. With just about everything I
do “Can I sell it?” is at the back of my mind somewhere. The answer
is, there’s a market for everything. The trick is just finding it.
Don’t believe me? Go browse the millions of items on ebay someday.
The really amazing thing there isn’t the volume of bizarre
merchandise for sale, but how many of those bizarre items actually
have bids on them!
Pam East www.pinzart.com Enamel Bead Making Made Easy!
I don’t think her aim was to enter the piece in a beauty contest,
but to teach you how to make one of your own design using the
techniques she demonstrated. Dee
Richard, I have been reading but not posting on Orchid for several
months. This is the first time I’ve encountered a post that was not
only arrogant, but openly snide about another artist. It was like
being hit with a glass of cold water in the face. I had somehow
gotten the notion that the Orchid community was above all that.
You appear to be taking issue with Sara Sanford’s articles on
casting in recent Lapidary Journals. You know, the main reason I
have kept on subscribing to Lapidary Journal after it “slimmed down”
is Sara’s series of technical articles. How could you possibly
imagine that she was trying to hold out her piece of jewelry as the
pinnacle of hot design? She wasn’t; she was just using it as an
example to teach dumb clods like me the basics of casting, people who
apparently have not yet developed a sufficiently rarefied artistic
sense so as to be offended by her good efforts. I can only imagine
how humiliated she will feel when she reads this thread on Orchid, as
she surely will, as someone will doubtless forward it to her. She
will wonder why she put so much time and effort into it, if this is
what she gets.
Why don’t you point us all to your website so we can examine your
work and take a few pokes at it? Do you really think everybody will
like what they see?
Mona
I have never found Lapidary Journal to be the artistic in any way.
Techniques are described adequately.
Richard, I have to agree that their design in that article does
nothing for me. I have a broad range of like and try to keep an open
mind. You are brave to be publicly critical of another artists design
that you do not know. As for what is pleasing to the eye can be a
tough thing. If we all liked the same things it would be a boring
place. Now by no means am I defending this design in question. I work
with a group of other “Artist” and we get together and have “Ideal
Lunches” together. We bring our new things, found objects, wax
carvings, failed attempts and sketches and bounce them off each
other. We all have a different view of what we like and we always
are honest with each other. Our friends and family are always too
willing to say that it is nice. Maybe the designer that made that
piece in the article needs an honest friend to tell them what it
really looks like. Needles to say we are being pretty honest about
it.
Regards, Rodney RC Gems
Dear Richard, It was hard not to laugh hysterically at your
comments! You were voicing my opinion to a tee. Everytime I see that
thing I think it has to be the ugliest piece of jewelry I have ever
seen in my life! Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but it is pathetic
and certainly nothing I can imagine anyone wanted to aspire to.
God Bless you ~Poppy~ www.jewelrybypoppy.com