Working at home

In Ohio, the Ohio Arts Council puts out a pamphlet that has
alphabetically listed the counties/cities shows. There is usually
enough info for each to help you decide whether you could fit in:
type of show, number of exhibitors, how many people attend, and even
sometimes what the average gross realized by the exhibitors is. This
would include shows that you won’t be ready to do just yet, but also
local community shows that are very helpful in getting new artists
started. I am sure that many states (assuming you are in the US),
have something similar. In our trip to Ireland, we found several
local shows as we drove around the island, and we were there for
only a couple weeks. As you practice you craft, continue to put out
feelers, just like the current post, with people who might have the
info your after.

Attend some of the shows you know of, and ask the vendors how they
are doing, whether the shows require slides for juries, what the
promoters are like to deal with, and anything else you can think of
that might be pertinent. Be sure to wait for a lull in sales so as
not to cost anyone money.

Shows sales have slumped from what I understand, given the internet,
Etsy and the like, so you should probably look into that while your
getting better. I am probably just repeating stuff you have already
thought of, but this is basically how I started doing shows a couple
of eons ago. We made a living at it for well over 12 years,
ironically putting my wife through nursing school. Best of luck,
Thomas III

Donna,

I haven’t attended the shows for several years, but when I did
attend It seemed the prices at the AGTA show were definitely higher
than GJX. An advantage of the AGTA badge though, is that it gets
you in to all the other shows.

I wrote another post about this subject, but didn’t post it as I
thought I needed to shorten it and didn’t have time. Larry made all
the same points and apparently we had similar experiences as I used
to attend the Dallas show with my parents back when it was a really
big deal in the early 80’s until the early 90’s when it started to
peter out.

We saw one of our customers there too, but she wasn’t a banker or
even a metalsmith. She gained admission through her tax number and a
phony business card, which is all you needed back then. She was a
florist. We used to buy flowers from her for the store and we had
always considered her to be a good friend as well as a good customer.
She had sought out one of our vendors at the show and we walked up
just as she was buying a piece she had been eyeing at our store for
some time. For our cost, from our sales rep.

I wonder what her reaction would have been if she saw us buying
flowers from her supplier’s truck driver or if we made a deal through
her supplier for a small weekly delivery so we could do our own
arrangements. Actually I don’t have to wonder, her vendor’s driver
told me exactly what she would do sometime before this incident took
place, without me even asking. He had dropped a few flowers on the
ground as he was unloading and I bent over to help him pick them up.
He told me to please leave them right where they were. “If she sees
you holding those flowers out here…” Apparently, she would not have
viewed the practice as a satisfactory business arrangement.

But the other way around was just fine. Everybody knows the
exorbitantly high markup on jewelry. It’s not like jewelry grows on
trees, like flowers or leaves or something.

That’s the main reason there are such rules for admission and
setting up accounts. The businesses and organizations that have these
rules are there to serve the retail brick and mortar jeweler and
their vendors, primarily. They are not there for the home-based
metalsmith or lapidary artist, or really anyone that’s not fully
engaged in the brick and mortar jewelry business. My guess is that
most home-based metalsmithing business owners would not find much of
interest at a JCK style trade show anyway. I own a retail brick and
mortar jewelry store and I still don’t. Maybe some tools, but that’s
a very small part of any show like that. AGTA, well, again, they are
there for the professional jewelry trade, and people that work from
home, regardless of the type of work they do there, are generally
not considered to fit in that description. Fair or not, it is what it
is.

Selective admission is not an arbitrary or vindictive action on the
part of these organizations, it is a well thought out business
decision based on the needs and desires of their core customers and
membership. No different than SNAG and Metalsmith. Or even Orchid and
Ganoksin.

As others have said, there is no shortage of trade shows,
organizations and gatherings aimed more towards the individual artist
and craftsman, and trust me, if you’re creating jewelry in your home
for fun and/or profit, you aren’t missing a thing being shut out of
the big-shot shows. Two or three hours and you’re outta there, most
likely with nothing to show for your time and effort. They offer very
little you want or need that you can’t get somewhere else a whole lot
easier.

If someone really wants or needs access to the goods and services,
or the industry-perceived prestige and credibility afforded by
membership in these organizations and businesses, they will have to
do what Larry and I did, and what every other business that is
permitted access did, open a brick and mortar jewelry business. Then
they will happily let you in. They might even offer you a free drink.

That will be a very expensive free drink though. Be careful what you
wish for.

Dave Phelps

Hi interesting points David makes.

But if you work at home as a FULL TIME manufacturer then would you
not have enough invoices and tax receipts and returns to prove your
bona fides? And a maybe web page as well. Also business registration.
Even as a semi-retired silversmith I still spend $5,000 plus a year
on silver FOR FABRICATION and a good few thousand on gems. Keystone
that and I sell more than the average person makes in a wage.

Also I have a professional set up workshop the equal to many I saw
when I worked in the jewellery area of Sydney, actually it is much
better now than the one I had when I worked full time.

Selective admission is not an arbitrary or vindictive action on
the part of these organizations, it is a well thought out business
decision based on the needs and desires of their core customers and
membership. 

That is exactly what I like about my gem dealers O’Neils Affilliated
trade references to get in through the 2 steel doors.

I would not like to see my local florist in my gem dealers. Gem
dealers like people who know what they want, no time for silly
questions. When I visit my gem dealers I have a list of what I want
and while the young lady is putting the order together I browse for
the extra interesting pieces. A fossil shark’s tooth, a piece of
amber with and insect or perhaps a piece of a carved mamoth ivory.

I was ready to have a federal politician and the local mayor lined
up to write letters of reference for the Vocational College I work at
to get an account at the gem dealers. I did not need it because I
have done business with them for years and they trust my word. Does
not happen for government schools a big win for the College.

think about how the local jewellers (who just buy in stock and
triple keystone it) will react when these kids start production
making. the one local hand makers will not have a problem as their
skills are better than the kids and do not make basic designs.

In Australia word of mouth through the trade gets you through all
hoops. That is what is good about being trained at The School for
Silversmiths, being trained by a master craftsman like Walraven van
Heeckeren who is well known through the trade got me through every
hoop as a student. WE DID NOT MESS AROUND. Being properly trained we
knew what we wanted and did not waste anyone’s time. We were in
business.

Richard

they will have to do what Larry and I did, and what every other
business that is permitted access did, open a brick and mortar
jewelry business. 

Thanks, David. I’ve been watching the grapes sour on this thread
thinking eventually they’re supposed to turn into wine, good or bad,
but they never seem to. I have credentials and references from here
to eternity and I can’t go to the Las Vegas jewelry show. Why?
Because I’m a manufacturer and the show is BY manufacturers FOR
retailers. I get that, I’m a smart guy, I don’t need it explained to
me.

The most important thing to know of all of the things to know is
one’s placein this world. When you get to be Harry Winston, then you
get to act like Harry Winston.

If someone that makes items the caliber of Gerry’s & can’t get in a
show etc., the system is cheating itself & the vendors by excluding
very qualified people arbitrarily. I work from home, doing little
that would compare to Gerry’s scale of value or skills, but found
that in our little burg you could purchase a "artisan/craftsman"
business license for about $50 / year that, along with a tax ID
number, allowed me access to most “to the trade” shows. Maintaining
the tax ID number is a pain, because they require monthly submittals
even if you sell ZERO DOLLARS in product. God forbid you miss a
month; here in Florida they will estimate the amount they think you
should have sold and fill out the form for you with the taxes due
billed at the end. The number they assigned me was 10 times higher
than my best month, and I did the paperwork to correct this, but
unfortunately it’s part of the price you pay to have access that is
deserved.

Microsoft, Mattel & Disney are just a few examples of businesses
that started from home. And The Ramones. Home business is the way it
was done in the past, and is now the way it will be done more so in
the future.

Sharon M. Thompson
Sanford, Florida

If someone that makes items the caliber of Gerry's & can't get in
a show etc., the system is cheating itself & the vendors by
excluding very qualified people arbitrarily. 

For anyone who feels slighted because they can’t get into a JCK
style trade show simply because the people that run them have no
respect for home-based businesses, let me fill you in on some of the
hot topics of discussion, no doubt the talk of the shows that you’re
upset at being shut out of ~

Billboard design.

Halogen versus fluorescent versus LED lighting for in-case displays.

What you should have in stock for Father’s Day.

So how much of this kind of fun and profit can you handle for three
or four days?

Does anyone really think they’re missing out on anything as the
owner of a home-based business? I can assure you, that unless they
are there to undercut their friendly neighborhood jeweler for
finished, mass-produced jewelry, they’re not missing a thing. Tucson
blows these things away.

AGTA ain’t got nothin’ you can’t find cheaper and in much greater
abundance and selection than at Tucson either. Except maybe for the
window sticker and stationery logo proving membership. And if that’s
what this is all about, who’s being the real snob here? Aren’t the
high standards that they have for admission the very thing that gives
them the perceived credibility and snob factor you want or need to be
a part of in the first place?

Dave Phelps

Hi gang,

To amplify what David said, JCK (Vegas) is cool, but after the
second or third day, once you can pick your jaw up off the floor,
it’s mostly just acres and acres of mass produced mall jewelry. Vast
quantities of it, but nothing much on the main floor that really
floated my boat. (I was there with Otto Frei, repping Knew Concepts
in the tool area.) The stone room is neat. Bowls of loose stones on
tabletops do have that effect, but lord knows I don’t have the
budget to play in that league. The only artistically interesting
part of it for me, was the ‘designer craftsman’ section upstairs. I
didn’t find that until the last day my first time, and only had a
few minutes to blast through it, but that was worth seeing.

One thing that was ?amusing? was that when you get casino people,
who are congenitally paranoid, and let them play host to serious
diamond people, the paranoia level reaches levels previously unknown
in the annals of humanity.

If you’re into booth design, you really want to see that show.
Some of those booths are unbelievable. I remember one that was four
(4) full sized conex shipping containers, 2 side by side, with an
isle between them, and the other two on top. With stairs, and
decking to the second level, and a balcony on the back. I almost
think they had a grill up there. Absolutely staggering. If you want
to know what the ‘best of the best’ booths look like, this is the
show. But I know for a fact that even the smallest of those booths
cost several thousand just to ship, nevermind the cost of the
actual booth itself. (or setup, or staff, or stock. etc.)

But for your average ‘studio metalsmith’ type? Yes, the tool area
was fun, and it was a blast to see all the neat toys all in one
spot, but the rest of the show doesn’t have much that most of us
would need or want. It isn’t like Tucson, where there’s raw
material. This was all finished goods and faceted stones. I don’t
think I saw a cab the whole week. Yes, it’s exclusive, and for good
reason (see: paranoids on parade.) but just because they won’t let
you in, it does not follow that you actually want to be there.

FWIW,
Brian

I am amazed that people in this industry have not a clue what the JCK
show is, what the purpose is, and why they have the policies they
have.

There are designers and manufacturers from Germany, Italy, ect.

Some booths (sometimes pavilions) have many millions of dollars of
diamonds, diamond jewelry, ect. There are no wholesalers at Tuscon
that equal these wholesalers and distributors. Different market.

Please get serious folks, if you have a real need to be there, you
would be there. There is nothing about snobbery, there are businesses
there that have a clientele that they serve. High end. The year I
went, someone said if you walked the whole show, it would be 17
miles.

If you cannot run with the big dogs, don’t whine, it is not
attractive.

First requirement, retail brick and mortar store. Second, probably
starting around $250,000 gross sales, and these people would be a
small percentage. People bitch about qualifications for Stuller, and
JCK show. Real simple, if you meet the criteria, it is not an issue.

Richard Hart G. G.
Denver, Co.

if you have a real need to be there, you would be there. and also
some of the recession thread

Aphorisms but true and to the point

  1. Cream rises to the top 2) There’s no such thing as too smart, too
    rich or too beautiful. People who say otherwise are generally
    lacking. 3) Whether you see the walls as barriers or things to be
    climbed will largely determine your lot in life. 4) Perhaps most
    importantand the oldest: Be nice to the people you meet on the way up
    because you meet the same people on the way down. 5) See #1