I have heard horror stories about submitting jewelry designs - - is
there anyone out there who could offer some words of wisdom as to how
best to submit designs and to whom (i.e., retailers; manufacturers,
etc.)
Thank you one and all.
Dear CTE7, Submitting jewellery designs to other jewellers is to
presuppose the question of why do you wish to do do this.
Is it to gain more exposure for your skills? Then yes. However,
choose carefully to whom you submit your designs because this raises
further questions about what sort of jewellery designing you want to
do. Do you want to design exclusive, on-off pieces - or do you want to
design ranges of jewellery for mass production?
The question has to be asked; are your designs good enough to stand
out for their originality of concept and the skill of their execution
and presentation? If they are outstanding designs, your target
jewellers will hopefully recognise their quality and want more.
Generally speaking, you may be better off submitting your work to
larger “name” companies than smaller. Often the larger company has
more resources for trialling new designs. Again this is where choosing
your target market carefully is so important.
How well established are you as a designer-jeweller? Competitions and
winning them are not always the sine qua non of true talent, but
they sure do help! There are many good designers who initially gained
their street cred’ by winning national and international jewellery
design competitions.
Sure, there are horror stories of young designers getting ripped off,
but paranoia won’t get you anywhere. Just go for it. There are good
people out there who will recognise and appreciate your talent, but
they won’t know that you’re there if you don’t show them what you’ve
got.
Good luck from Rex in Oz