Wholesaling one-offs

Please check out www.haroldoconnor.com, who does not do production,
only does one of a kind pieces, has pieces in many jewelry books, is
in major museums and galleries and exhibitions all over the world.
He makes his own pieces, does all his own work, no assistants. He
occasionally teaches workshops. Gallery artists Jeff and Susan Wise
do all one of a kind pieces, they collaborate and have help
producing, Gallery artist Todd Reed does all one of a kind pieces,
has help producing his work. Figuring out how to make what you want
to make and how to make it is as much of a part your art as the
production of your work. There is a front end and a back end. Making
it is the front end, marketing it is the back end. Some people do
shows until they have enough galleries to keep them busy. Some people
only wholesale to galleries. Some do retail to the public, and
wholesale to galleries. Some are school teachers that show in
galleries. I started washing dishes in a restaurant to be able to
support my passion, thirty years ago. Now I have a retail store, for
14 years, and my wife and I support ourselves, not rich, no
retirement fund…and I will never regret my choice as my heart has
been happiest doing what I have done.

Richard Hart

1 Like

Sorry Daniel, your right it was early and I was typing fast while
doing a million other things so here you go, with the corrections.

Okay my turn to offer my two cents. I am going to address this to
both Noel and Kim. I, like Roger, have a wholesale production line. I
have several jewelers who either have gone off to do their own thing,
are would like to go off and do their own thing, which I support
whole heartedly. I am going to give the same speech I give them.

Unfortunately we live in a capitalistic society, where the average
buyer is looking for the best deal at the best price, period. Most
people couldn’t either tell the difference, or care if a piece was
painstakingly made by your hand or churned off a machine. Now before
everyone gets in an uproar remember, I am talking generalizations. So
people care and appreciate hand craftsmanship, but there is a reason
that Zales and the like are still in business, with five stores just
like it in every mall in America.

So now for the harsh piece of business reality, if the market won’t
bare the price tag you are putting on your piece, sorry, it is
overpriced. It is not the consumers fault it takes you 20 hours to
make a piece, and that you need to make more than pennies an hour.
Great venue for one offs (no it’s not wholesale), do fairs, art and
wine fests, farmers markets etc. Stores and gallery’s are out to make
money, and if your one off (don’t forget they are going to mark it up
around 2.5 to cover there overhead) has to sit on a shelf for a year
on the hope that someone appreciates it, well they are losing money
since there are hundreds waiting in the wings with products that have
better price points and sell faster. Now I am not saying that
everyone should churn out quick easy garbage, or that you need to
sell yourself short as an artist, but there is a reason they call it
work, even if it is for yourself. If you want to do great labor
intensive one offs, great do it, but realize it is a hobby and find a
way to pay your bills. If you want to make a living as a jeweler with
a wholesale business, well sit down, form a business plan, and go.
Now remember your business plan means coming up with a profitable
product, unfortunately the buying public owes none of us anything,
and it is not our right to have them buy our one offs.

And who knows, if you can make enough of a name for yourself with a
production line, then maybe the market will bear your “signature
piece” one offs, but until then you are going to have to come up with
something that the public likes at a price the public will pay.

Option two, open a retail store, and stock it full of whatever you
want.

Eric

Eric, thank you for a very clear picture of the problems all jewelry
artists need to face if they wish to make a living from their art,
and don’t have a wealthy patron.

Lee Cornelius
Vegas Jewelers

Hi Mr. McCafferty:

Unfortunatly we live in a capitalistic sociaty, where the average
buyer is looking for the best deal at the best price, period. Most
people couldn't either tell the difference, or care if a piece was
painstakenly made by your hand or churned off a machine. 

I’m sorry, sometimes, I have a tendency to be vague. In my original
post, i was trying to agree with you on this point, and I do agree.
I have discussions with my husband on this all the time, as he is a
steadfast in his faith in capitalism.

I’m saying I have a profitable product ( a very good product) but
I’m nervous about debuting (sp?) at my first large retail show in
July. The way it is going, I will sell a lot and I will also get a
lot of orders. I want to be able to satisfy demand, but am a bit
confused as to the point at which someone should take on help. I can
only work a couple of hours a day right now. In the fall, I can go to
30 hours a week. Hiring someone because i cannot even work full time
seems kinda lame to me. I am trying not to push everything too fast
as I tend to get in over my head.

What I said was, “make a lot of things fast pretty much sums it up”
What I mean is, I have talked with a lot of artists and read a lot of
posts on the subject of making money. it seems to me that the artists
who make wonderful, beautiful, one-of-a-kind pieces don’t
(unfortunately) make a lot of money. Is it either respect,
admiration, and limelight or make money? Is there really anyone who
has done both?

I am very happy selling lots and lots of jewelry. it pays for a lot
of classes and a nice Christmas trip to see George Carlin. :slight_smile:

When people look at the pretty beaded bracelets I make and say
things like “what beautiful artwork” I smile and nod, but I know that
what I produce is a product. Noel makes art.

Best Wishes
Kim Starbard
Cove Beads

Oh yeah…I am with Michael on this one. I don’t consign anything.
Dear galleries…figure out what your customer wants and then buy
it. Please don’t expect me to assume all of the risk and decorate
your store with my work at my expense. Ick.

With any luck, my one expensive apple will keep selling.

Lisa, (Tomorrow I trim the goat’s hooves. Has anyone out there ever
wrestled a goat to the ground?), Topanga, CA USA

So now for the harsh piece of buisness reality, if the market wont
bare the price tag you are putting on your piece, sorry, it is
overpriced. 

Best post I’ve read here in two months. Most artisans are
irretrievably lost in fantasy land. I often facet one-of-a-kind
pieces from very expensive material. Everyone loves them, few buy
them, unless I give them away. Better to churn out what is in demand
at a quality that will sell and thus support the things which takes
lots of time and love to make. SOMEONE loves them, it’s just hard to
find those folks. Can’t eat that way.

Wayne

One last piece of wholesale advice, and then I'll get out of here
and let someone else have the floor. Don't consign your work.
Experience has taught me that people are far more motivated to sell
when their own money is invested. 

This is a truth I have recently learned the hard way! I had only one
gallery, and they never sold all that much (on consignment), but I
liked them, felt I had a good, friendly relationship with them. I
was with them for years, so I never bugged them to start buying
instead of taking consignment. Just before Christmas, they gave me
back my work. They said they had overbought, and had to sell the
stuff they had their money sunk in. So sorry! Needless to say,
should they ever decide they want me back, they are welcome to buy
anything they like for cash!

Noel

I’ve been reading these threads and have a couple questions for
those that say they also have a production line - or that the
production line is what pays the bills. I’m getting the feeling from
the posts that production line equals low-end/low-cost, is that
right? What is considered a low-cost/low price-point wholesale
production line? $30 wholesale, $50 wholesale, $100?? Without
casting, how can someone spit out a piece of jewelry using metals and
be able to wholesale it for $30 - unless you are charging around
$5-7 an hour for labor?

I have a line that I was thinking of wholesaling with price points
between $75-$150 (and that’s after shorting myself a little on my
labor to keep them “wholesaleable”) Are these prices high-end
wholesale in today’s market?

I know a lot of the responses are from jewelers that have much higher
price points - so I’m wondering what is considered too high of a
wholesale price for today’s market?

Tomorrow I trim the goat's hooves. Has anyone out there ever
wrestled a goat to the ground? 

No, but I did get to throw and tie a calf someone else had roped.
It’s not as simple as the real cowboys make it look but at least my
time placed me near the top of the dudes trying it.

Pam Chott
www.songofthephoenix.com

Kim,

I can only work a couple of hours a day right now. In the fall, I
can goto 30 hours a week. Hiring someone because i cannot even
work full time seems kinda lame to me. I am trying not to push
everything too fast as I tend to get in over my head.

If your are at a point where hiring someone means you make more
product, which is selling, and you can afford to pay them, then by
all means hire someone. This sounds horrible, but if your labor
figured into the piece is such that after paying them, and covering
shop cost you are still making a profit, then yes hire someone, even
if they work more hours then you.

Eric

I know a lot of the responses are from jewelers that have much
higher price points - so I'm wondering what is considered too high
of a wholesale price for today's market? 

I am not one of the people wholesaling, but I can tell you with
certainty that there are people wholesaling in every price range,
from dirt cheao to astronomical. Look at what is for sale in
stores-- it is all wholesaled (wholesold? ;>) ) I think it is fair
to say that, on the whole, it is more about perceived value than
about price.

Noel

Lisa, goat wrestling? :slight_smile:

Get a friend, hold the head (the goat that is) on the ground, hobble
(tie the feet together) and trim. Trim flush and don’t get into the
quick (the soft tissue like under the finger nail), it may get
infected. If you will get your goat some rocks or cinder blocks to
climb on, you won’t have to do this as often. Boy, I wish I could be
there to watch…

Good luck
Terry

Kimberly,

When people look at the pretty beaded bracelets I make and say
things like "what beautiful artwork" I smile and nod, but I know
that what I produce is a product. Noel makes art. 

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” so perhaps art is in the eye
of the beholder. If people are calling your work artwork, take a
deep breathe, and take in the praise. Do not “sell” yourself short.

Richard Hart

I agree with Daniel Spirer and others who say that developing a
wholesale line is a smart business move. In fact that is exactly what
I am doing. I want my wholesale line to pay a few bills and free me
up a bit so I can make the one of a kind pieces that I love but are
hard to sell. I have been working for a designer at wholesale shows
learning that end of the business. Wholesale marketing is hard and
time consuming work and there can be some big-time expenses involved.
What are some creative marketing options for someone with a small
line who doesn’t want to spend all their time on the road? It would
be interesting to hear some of your experiences in marketing your
wholesale line. What has worked for you? Reps, on-line sales, there
must be more.

Beverly Jones

Unfortunately we live in a capitalistic society, where the average
buyer is looking for the best deal at the best price, period. 

I would dissagree and say that - Fortunately we live in a
capitalistic society where we have all kinds of opoportunities. I
think that the average buyer is looking for the best deal no matter
what the economic basis of the society is. Don’t blame capitalism.
Just imagine where you might be without it.

Joel

Joel Schwalb
@Joel_Schwalb

For me the production does equal low cost. They are my families
designs produced by subcontractors of which I have two. One is an
Orchidian, Daniel Grandi of Racecar Jewelry in Rhode Island who is a
production caster. Daniel casts both ready made work and parts which
I assemble myself. My other sub is a Maquillador business who employs
Taxco, Mexican, craftsmen to fabricate my families designs. Both
these subs were chosen because of their quality of work. I have
different stamps used to denote these pieces were not made directly
by my family and they are called Patania Collection. This line does
pay the bills, it is in sterling and price points start at $15
wholesale up to $200 wholesale.

Sam Patania, Tucson
www.patanias.com

Production line needs to be neither cheap or low end. I can think of
several jewelers who, at a wholesale level, are getting anywhere from
350 to 5000, and that is for production pieces. Production is simply
that, a piece you can “produce” repeatedly, in a profitable manner.

Is 75 to 150 to high? Well I don’t know. Will the public see the
value in the piece at a retail price of 180 to 400? And by all means,
don’t sell yourself short. Our line is price driven by labor costs,
there are plenty of times at the shows when I get approached by
buyers who are looking to buy by weight, they leave without buying
and that is fine, not the market I am trying for. Another one I have
heard regarding price, if no one ever says no, your not charging
enough. I knew another jeweler whose entire line was created by
modifying findings they bought from Hoover and Strong, added stones,
and that was it, no casting. They were able to but the appropriate
mark up on it and make a profit selling it at wholesale. Too high,
well like most things, that is a matter of opinion, which obviously
we all have. If you try to sell a plain silver band for 800
wholesale, well that’s probably too high.

Going back a little, one offs are that, one of a kind. Most
gallery’s are not interested in one of a kind jewelry. They want
something that once it sells (because now they know it is worth
having) they want another just like it to sell again, since that is
how they make there money. Other problem with one offs, they usually
are so labor intensive that the average consumer is unwilling to pay
for it.

Wholesale for today’s market, that depends on the product. If it
turns out what you are asking is too high, well find ways to cut
cost, not necessarily the integrity of the pieces, just little
things to make it go fast, hence cutting down labor. Do them in
batches for example, doing two like a production line usually goes
faster then if you do two one at a time, things like that. But charge
a fair price, a deserving price, and if it is a good product the
market should bear it.

So I feel compelled to ask, if you make one of a kind pieces, and
can support yourself by selling wholesale or retail, seems that you
have a business, and if you are not supporting yourself by selling
your work, is that not a hobby?

I have had to make whatever I had to make, one of a kind, or
production, called it art or craft, called it wholesale or retail,
called myself goldsmith or silversmith or whatever I had to call
myself, to be able to cut, saw, file, weld, fuse, solder, drill,
cast, fabricate, ect.

Working in gold and silver, transforming metal into objects,
containing stones, or not, that have significance, to me, or someone
else, whether logical or rational, or not, has been my passion for
34 years.

A bumpy road at times, a passion that consumed thousands of dollars
before I ever made any money.

I have met incredible people through the years, jewelers, metal
workers, stone cutters, gem dealers, tool and equipment dealers, and
customers who have supported me regardless of how reticent they were
to part with time, money, or knowledge. I took many workshops with
many amazing metal artists for whom I will ever be grateful.

I was as persistent and obnoxious as I needed to be to get what I
needed, being as polite as I knew how to be be, grateful for the
people who shared easily, and hurt by those that did not have the
time, or felt threatened and would not share, not aware that I did
not have the skill or knowledge to do what they had done, even if
they told me explicitly how they had done something.

The bottom line is I was always looking for what was being presented
to me, as an opportunity to learn and grow, even if I tried doing
something I did not like doing, or something I failed at, it was a
step toward success. If just to recognize what not to do again.

So raise a glass and toast, to the cuts and burns, the flasks that
flew through the air, gold and diamonds lost, the shirt that got
chewed by rolling mill gears, the things that got set on fire on my
bench while soldering that was not my intention, stones that got
broken during “setting”, repair jewelry that fell apart while being
repair.

Richard Hart

Hello Noel, et al,

A very interesting thread, this. Simply put, consignment is charity.
I consign to places where the sale benefits a non-profit and then
count my action as being a “good thing”, to quote a well-known
person.

Just my US$ .02

Judy in Kansas, who is planning to drive to the great event in
Tucson. I hope Ol’ Man Winter doesn’t mess with my plans!

To all,

I have followed this thread with interest. A lot of good information
has been offered. I have noticed that there does seem to be confusion
between the terms “one-of-a-kind”, “limited edition”, and “production
line.”

I was always taught by the master goldsmiths I apprenticed under
(who where the owners of an up-scale Mom and Pop jewelry store) that
the one-of-a-kind piece was the icing on the cake. It was the top of
the pyramid, something you would get to make once all your other
basic needs and customers where taken care of. And they meant that it
was truly a one-of-a-kind, and NOT one of several just like it or
similar to it. Generally with 3 or more jewelry items that are
similar in design to each other, even though each is slightly unique,
these items are grouped as a “limited edition.”

On the topic of art galleries…

I have never bothered trying to place my work with “Art” galleries
as most people shopping for jewelry don’t go looking for jewelry in
an “Art” gallery. I have had good sales placing my more artistic work
(as of late mostly limited editions) in privately owned AGS or Guild
(high-end) jewelry stores. Most of these kinds of jewelry stores are
owned by individuals who are passionate about the jewelry they carry.
Also, it has been my experience that the jewelry store owner will
offer to purchase up to 30% of the items, if I agree leave more with
them on consignment.

No doubt about it, this is a hard business to make a good living in!
A good plan is to diversify your income with teaching, publishing,
freelance design and commission work. This is the "bread and butter"
that makes the icing on the cake “one-of-a-kind” piece possible.

Remember Marie Antoinette, when she was told her people had no bread
to eat, she said “let them eat cake!” To my mind trying to build a
jewelry business on one-of=ADa-kinds is like saying “let them eat
icing,” let’s not lose our heads. ;~}

Nanz Aalund
Associate Editor / Art Jewelry magazine
21027 Crossroads Circle / Waukesha WI 53187-1612
262.796.8776 ext. 228