I posted the other day and the post lead away from my main question.
That is: "Are any of you still offering fairly heavy pieces?
Especially those which incorporate cabochons? Or is there only a
market for little, delicate, airy, pieces?
J. S. Ellington
http://www.jsellington.com
J.S.
Yes…I love heavy pieces!! Many of my cabs are 45, 50 x 30,40mm or
more and I set them in sterling at 18ga. Most of my pieces have cabs
(and maybe a faceted stone or two). In my view, while I love working
with the metal and am not adverse to metal jewelry, the metal is
primarily a carrier and a way of presenting the stone. My preferences
seem to carry over to my students as well. One young lady is making
huge ‘breast plates’ with cabs even larger than mine with large
emphasizing silver accents. Others have been producing large cuff
overlay bracelets.
I believe LARGE is definately in.
Cheers from Don at The Charles Belle Studio in SOFL where simple
elegance IS fine jewelry! @coralnut2
Most of my work using stones is with cabochons. I love working with
free forms but also do a lot of work with traditional. At this point
most of my work is being sold through the gift shop in a natural
history museum where cabs fit right in. I find I have a lot more
flexibility with cabs than faceted stones.
Mark Johnson
JS,
That is: "Are any of you still offering fairly heavy pieces? Especially those which incorporate cabochons? Or is there only a market for little, delicate, airy, pieces?
I am having success with both approaches. I tend to make delicate,
light pieces of fine jewelry (bead/"micro"pave’ set diamonds,
fabricated, engraved, etc.) for many of my commissioned pieces, but
in my local cooperative gallery, I am having success with large
cabs…as long as they are interesting. Just finished two rings for
the gallery: one is set with a 15x45mm marquise rutilated quartz cab,
and the other has a 20x35mm rectangular opalized wood cab. Almost
sold the rutile piece before I got it entered into inventory.
Matthew Crawford
www.MatthewDesigns.com
Hello JS,
That is: "Are any of you still offering fairly heavy pieces? Especially those which incorporate cabochons? Or is there only a market for little, delicate, airy, pieces?
I can’t speak for your particular marketplace but in Paris this year
big is very “in”, even more so than last year. We’re talking big
stuff, stones as much as an inch or more on a side sometimes! Of
course I’m speaking about the kind of people I’m used to catering to
which is not the mainstream, deep-pockets, plat-and-diamonds crowd.
That said even the big, mainstream stores here are stocking a fair
amount of “in your face” designs. So much so that I’m seriously
working on even bolder stuff than I usually do.
As to the cabs question I’ve had enough requests for “big stones”
that I’m working in that direction too. I’ve taken a look at the
stuff on your site and FWIW there’s nothing there that would be out
of place here, at least not for now.
Cheers,
Trevor F.
in The City of Light
Visit TouchMetal.com at http://www.touchmetal.com
I posted the other day and the post lead away from my main question. That is: "Are any of you still offering fairly heavy pieces? Especially those which incorporate cabochons? Or is there only a market for little, delicate, airy, pieces?
I still mostly do larger pieces usually with cabochons. Yesterday I
sold a 7-inch long pendant that included a five inch piece of
amethyst cluster. I admit this size piece sells less often than the
two to three inch sizes I normally do, but many men and larger women
seem to be attacted to the monster pieces.
Cheers,
Paul Ewing
Shining Moon Creations
Hi:
That is: "Are any of you still offering fairly heavy pieces? Especially those which incorporate cabochons? Or is there only a market for little, delicate, airy, pieces?
I also like to make neckpieces incorporating large cabs. I am moving
away from it though. The cabs I am using this year are about half the
size of last year’s, but they don’t sell as well as other things
right now. Around here, (Connecticut) people are really into
multi-strand necklaces and multi-strand cuff bracelets. These are
things that I cannot make enough of. You can see pictures of the
necklaces in the Orchid galleries under Kim Starbard if you like.
After looking at your work (which is very pretty btw), I am
wondering (please don’t be offended) if either my work is priced
terribly low or is there the possibility that you are paying more for
your material than you should be? There is a large difference in our
pricing, but we do use different techniques on the cabs. I weave
around them and you set them in silver. One other reason I am moving
away from the large cabs is that I am making a lot of “quicker”
lower-priced work right now to keep the cash coming in for school (I
go in June) and equipment, so it’s not entirely that they don’t sell
as well either. I am seeing so many of the “layered” multi-strand
necklaces all over the place, so they are probably good right now.
It’s just that I am not wanting to string anymore. I want to go to
something else. (I like your rings a lot too…very pretty).
Good Luck
Kim Starbard
I am working only with cabochons monster ones are to me display
pieces to attract that sell once and awhile the bulk are smaller
cabs. In anycase the only thing I make that sells well be are cameos
lol
Teri
Silver & Cameo Heritage Jewelry
www.corneliusspick.com
My preferences seem to carry over to my students as well. One young lady is making huge 'breast plates' with cabs even larger than mine with large emphasizing silver accents.
Just where are these cabs located?
Elaine
Elaine Luther
Metalsmith, Certified PMC Instructor
http://www.CreativeTextureTools.com ™
Hard to Find Tools for Metal Clay
Kim-
My pricing is loosely by a formula I learned from Thomas Mann, then
adjusted some downward. I never have complaints about my prices.
I had a really hard time learning to price reasonably (high enough)
to cover materials, overhead, labor, and a little profit, but price
has never kept people from buying my jewelry I don’t think.
My jewelry is still selling here locally, it was just the trip to
Dallas that made me think there’s a trend toward only light, airy,
understated jewelry.
Maybe they just weren’t selling the heavier stuff in that market.
J. S.=
At a recent show, it was interesting to note that many of the
customers were wearing huge beaded necklaces sporting large cabachon
pendants. However, the silver jewelry they were buying were my very
smallest items. They passed up anything with large cabachons, and
focused on pieces with 5 to 6 mm stones. The earrings they selected
were all very small—mostly with posts. This surprised me, as I
expected them to go for the large dangling ones.
I did get some surprising questions, from more than one customer
such as, are these real stones, or are they glass." This is the first
time I have had that asked of me. Of course, this might have been
because at a booth not too far from me, the artist was selling fused
glass jewelry.
Several customers complained about soaring gas prices, and concern
about the economy. There was little or no impulse buying. People took
a much longer time to decide whether or not to buy than they did in
the past. I Wonder if rejecting large pieces and buying tiny ones can
be tied to concern about the economy. Just a thought.
Alma
"Are any of you still offering fairly heavy pieces? Especially those which incorporate cabochons?
yes! i missed responding to this when it was introduced and answered
but this past weekend was a great affirmation that big pieces with
larger cabochons are still moving out fast.there were times during
theat show when i had to assign numbers to new and repeat buyers as
to the order i would take their money
the important answer to your question is this: make what you want.
make enough to learn more about what you want your design style to be
and then start making what best utilizes that design style.
if you can afford to ‘be you’ in your work, do it. people will want
you to do qvc [?- heard about but never seen it] styles or
popular-for-the-week styles or what the-celeb-of-the-month is paid
to wear in the latest movie [and they are paid] styles.
you want to do larger cabochons, check your design ideas - not ours.
ive
who knows that journeying outside your own into other people’s style
should be marked like the unexplored areas on old maps: ‘here be
monsters’
Just where are these cabs located?
Elaine…most of them are in a box in my shop!!! Now and then I
drag a few out to sell but…I just love to cut and collect. The
student to whom I referred, took my cab and fab classes and cuts her
own stones.
Sometime later this year, I expect to have a site up and will let you
all know when.
Cheers from Don at The Charles Belle Studio in SOFL where simple
elegance IS fine jewelry! @coralnut2
Just where are these cabs located?
Elaine....most of them are in a box in my shop!!!!
You missed my wry joke. Your student made a breast plate, described
as having cabs on it.
I wondered…where on the breast plate are these cabs?
Elaine
Hi Alma,
I did get some surprising questions, from more than one customer such as, are these real stones, or are they glass." This is the first time I have had that asked of me. Of course, this might have been because at a booth not too far from me, the artist was selling fused glass jewelry.
We experienced a similar line of questioning at a juried show last
Christmas as the fused glass artist/jewelry maker was stating this:
“We make our own stones”, but she often failed to specify that they
were glass. She was directly across the isle from us and we cut our
own real stones.
No wonder people get confused and become wary of getting got.
Just shaking our heads…
Cynthia
Cynthia & David Ryder
http://www.mboot.net
as the fused glass artist/jewelry maker was stating this: "We make our own stones", but she often failed to specify that they were glass. No wonder people get confused and become wary of getting got.
A vendor at a recent gem show here (who sells 99%
stone/gemstone/organic material beads) had one product that
perplexed my amateurish attempt at identification, until I examined
it more closely and figured out that it was glass – but they denied
it was GLASS, calling it instead “simulated crystal.” (and that is
different from glass HOW?)
C.Rose
Houston
Elaine…sorry for delay…yes…your joke completely went over
my head!!! Sorry about that. In fact…she wore it to class the
other night and guess what? The cab is in the center but there are
cute little curls of silver on each side!! I’ll leave the rest to
your imagination.
Cheers from Don at The Charles Belle Studio in SOFL where simple
elegance IS fine jewelry! @coralnut2