I am thinking about making small info tags or cards for my jewelry
and wonder if any one else has some experience and suggestions
especially how to print it and on what material, etc. I started as a
sculptor and they always reflected my situation in life at the time
of making. My jewelry is the same and shows the emotional and social
effects of the country I am currently living in. In fact living in
Japan with its confined space compared to Canada made me turn to
small sculptures, i.e… jewelry. Sometimes troubled or elated
emotions effected the images. But I would like to make some thing to
explain to my customers some of this ‘special’ background to the
pieces. Any advice will be enjoyed, thought about, and very grateful
for. 100’s of heads are better than one.
Sharron in cool, not over 30 C. today, Saigon after a rain.
I use self-cut stones. Many are self-collected Bay of Fundy agates,
or are unique in some other respect; I love to explain all that. I
tried numbering each piece and setting out a printed "catalogue"
beside the jewelery piece explaining number 1, number 2, etc. That
didn’t work so well: you spend as much time explaining to viewers that
they needed to look over here on this sheet where they’d find the
description of the piece as you would explaining the piece in the
first place. Plus the description sheet takes up space on the display
table.
Now I use little printed tags on stiff card stock folded to stand up
like the roof of a house. But to get any amount of on, you
need to use microscopic print; moreover, I find the the tags visually
distracting in that they diminish the “purity” of the jewelery pieces
on the back velvet.
Two experiences - no solutions. I’m curious also to hear how others
tackle this.
The Avery stationary company makes all kinds of peel off, self
adhesive tags. You can find their products at almost all the major
office supply stores. Here’s what’s nice about Avery products. Most
of your popular PC and Mac word processors allow you to select a
"template" specifically for Avery’s label sheets.
You will find the instructions in the Avery product box.
My firm has been making die-cut black cards for years. They are
chiefly for earrings, tie-tacks, and button covers.
Die-cutting has to take place for any special size, shape, and
perforations on your card. Die-cutting ain’t cheap here in the
states, and I don’t know about Saigon. Maybe cheaper there, what with
a longer history of paper use, and lower labor costs.
Perhaps a one-size-fits-all approach, with your business card doing
double duty, with printed info stickers on back. Include area to
accomodate price on each card or tag.
From an ex-forestry, ex-graphic design student, current catalog
producer. Dan Woodard, Indian Jewelers Supply Co. Gallup
Hans - I’ve experienced the same problem, sometimes worse due to the
fact that I always carry several hundred loose cabs of various
materials I’ve cut for folks to pick from for custom work. I have
found that it is a crowd pleaser to give a brief explanation of a
stone when asked. My tags give material and source/site. For the bulk
of my material, and ALL of the NYS source stuff, I can give
clear-to-the-folk explanations of how they formed, why they formed
where they formed, and (often) how they were mined (if I didn’t dig
them myself). As a result I frequently get asked to speak before
school groups, 4-H and Scouts. Our local club, The Gem Polishers
Guild has several other members who give free lectures, too. You may
not find it comfortable at first to give a short spiel, but with
practise it really is fun, and (I find) it helps develop rapport with
your potential customers.