Dear all, I have struggled for a long time with the marketing and
selling conundrum. I felt for a long time that I was doing something
wrong and to prove otherwise to myself and my family has been hard.
Marketing is relentless and my income is not nor is my energy to
both produce and market. I love both at different times.
I have concluded that even with huge doses of free publicity and
great good fortune that this is a hard row to hoe. I thank those of
you who are willing to write and put your pride aside and really
say what is going on in your art market. At least I am not alone,
it makes the struggle not easier but, shared. I feel this is why I
love Orchid so much.
Now ,to get the energy to start looking at the marketing budget for
another year. I am convinced that advertising needs to be done
constantly. I have gone through a season where I spent the most I
have ever spent on advertising and had a record season. Then the
next season I spent little thinking my previous exposure would be
enough, it wasn’t. Now I am convinced that your self promotion has
to equal your bench work. One with out the other is not enough. Sam
Patania, Tucson
Hi Sam, Thanks for your honesty and openess in sharing your
experience on balancing creating and business. I have recently come
to the hard decision that I would rather (and perhaps be better off)
designing for a jewelry company than for myself. Just for the heck
of it I put my resume out and got an interview. I went in thinking I
did not want this job but I will listen to what they have to offer
anyway. And as I heard the description of their jewelry creation
process and the designer’s responsibilities, it hit me: You mean, I
could just sit back and design jewelry? I don’t have to make models,
samples, assemble, or finish? I won’t have to find and speak with
galleries to show my work, maintain a web site, advertise, handle
customer’s orders and payments, packaging and shipping, shop for the
best finding at the lowest price? Write and print out artist’s bios,
catalogs, and price lists?
So now I am actively seeking a position as a jewelry designer. I
know it has it’s own set of miscellaneous responsibilities - I have
designed for other companies before. But the idea that I will be
working with people and not have to carry out every single little
detail of running a business sounds really good to me right now. I
do hope I can keep selling my own designs on a more limited basis -
probably cut out the sterling and just do 18k. But I just wanted to
share the opposite end of the spectrum from someone who has decided
that running a business is not something all of us are suited for.