I was exhibiting at the Contemporary Crafts Market in Santa Monica. I had just finished a pin that I really loved which featured, among other things, a dentalium shell (thank you Andy Cooperman :-)).
What is this dentalium shell? Will I feel foolish for asking? I
know, that’s two questions, but I can’t resist.
Danny
Thanks, Beth, for the great story!
About the woman who lost her tooth (twice), and later broke the
dentalium shell that was mounted in the jewelry …
Did anyone else notice this: you could call it psychic
foreshadowing…
…a dentalium shell is a “tooth” shell!
I think the dentalium shell was doomed from the moment that woman
touched it! Perhaps she wanted it because she hoped it would serve
as a protective talisman for her remaining (natural?)teeth…
Dentalium shells are beautiful, but fragile. Filling the shell with
something to strengthen it is a good idea, but perhaps it should be
something less rigid than epoxy. Something like wax would actually
penetrate somewhat into the calcium carbonate of the shell
structure, and possibly make it less brittle. And all shells dry out
and become more fragile over time, after the animal’s death. Oiling
or waxing of shells destined for display, rather than study, used to
be fairly common, to restore some of the original sheen. At the
Museum we had shells from historic old collections, that were
gradually “dusting” away. Everytime you would open the collection
drawer, there would be more white powder. I’m sure air pollution
accelerates the process.
Lin Lahlum (former illustrator, Mollusc Division, Field Museum of
Natural History,
Chicago)
Your Choice $99. on individual trays,and repeatedly had customers like the story of ring size say 99 Cents?? Like a piece that took 30 hours of work even looks to them like it should cost .99 cents Well ,I don't take that as a reflection of my work but rather a reflection of their intelligence to even think like that... some people just walk through life in a fog...
Over the years, I have learned that many people have no regard for
the amount of time that it takes to make a piece nor the process
involved and then they don’t seem to feel that one should make a
“living wage” let alone pay for materials used. For some reason,
when it comes to items made by artisans in the USA the general
public thinks we should be selling our pieces for the same prices as
those who make pieces in third world countries.
Of course QVC and other TV retailer’s have defined a discount at
which ALL jewelry should sell (according to those watching and
buying.) People assume that they should never pay the price on the
tag . . . but always, at least half of that.
What is this dentalium shell? Will I feel foolish for asking?
Of course not :-)! I found this page by doing a Google image search:
http://www.molluscan.com/tusks/. I had no idea their colors were so
varied until I saw this myself. I’ve only seen white and pale green
ones before.
Beth
Excuse me, is it permissible to add a word or to here? Dentalium
shells are shaped like a tiny elephant tusk, hollow with a hole at
each end. The Pacific coast Indians used them in their jewelry and
for “jingles” on dance costumes. I saw an article not too long ago
about how the Indians harvested them from the sea floor with sort of
a broom arrangement. I think the animal itself has tentacles.
Rose Alene McArthur
Beth: What an interesting site - had no idea the range of the
dentalium shells. Here’s another site with some interesting
as long as we are expanding our knowledge of dentalium
shells.
http://www.sfu.ca/archaeology/dept/gradstu/theses/masters/barton.htm
Kay
Over the years, I have learned that many people have no regard for the amount of time that it takes to make a piece nor the process involved and then they don't seem to feel that one should make a "living wage" let alone pay for materials used. For some reason, when it comes to items made by artisans in the USA the general public thinks we should be selling our pieces for the same prices as those who make pieces in third world countries.
I think that part of the above mentioned problem is that many people
have no clue as to what it takes in terms of time and talent to
produce the things that we make. I becomes our responsibility to
educate the general public about this. Now we can’t spend a lot of
valuable time during a show or in a retail location explaining all of
the intracasies of how a piece is made. Maybe it would be in our own
interests to develop some kind of printed hand-out that clearly and
concisely tells the general public about the process that has been
used. I have the luxory of spending a fair amount of time with my
clients on a one to one basis and most of them are pretty astute
about what it takes to design and make a piece but in a previous
incarnation I owned a craft gallery and had to do a lot of
educating. Joel Schwalb @Joel_Schwalb www.schwalbstudio.com
"living wage" let alone pay for materials used. For some reason, when it comes to items made by artisans in the USA the general public thinks we should be selling our pieces for the same prices as those who make pieces in third world countries.
Well, sure! Why not? I mean, a random buyer picks up two equally big
rings labeled “14k”. One’s a cheaply-made mass-produced thing with a
thin shank and maybe some kind of pass at finishing, and the other is
a nice, handmade, polished-to-shine piece of art. While many people
do like and appreciate the artistic qualities and details, a lot just
buy jewelry because it’s made out of gold and diamonds (or whatever
stone you like) and thusly can wave it around and say “looky.” Flash
over substance sort of thing, and those kinds of people are looking
for the most flash for the least cash. 
It’s thinking like this that allows cast-snip-and-bomb pieces to hit
the market and actually sell. I actually have a pendant (a gift from
a long time ago) that would probably poke me if it weren’t for the
fact that the snipped sprue point is atop the bail of the pendant and
does not actually touch me. In fact, it wasn’t till I got into
jewelry work that I realized why it was that there was a little
point sticking up like that! ;D
–M. Osedo
Howdy Joel and List, I occasionally try to ‘defend’ some of my
prices by asking folks how much they pay the guy who repairs their
car. Once, a man replied he repairs his own. I asked him how much he
would charge me! He didn’t have a response then!
I recall a welder at a previous job (surface and borehole oil
exploration equipment[logging tools we call them]) who was very
helpful with folk’s ‘home projects’ on his break and lunch time. A
’bean counter’ from the ‘main building’ was having a kid’s trike
repaired when he said ‘hey, maybe I could come down during lunch
soemtime and you could show me how to weld?’ Andy the Welder says
’Sure, and then I’ll come up to your office and you can teach me how
to be an Accountant!’ Man I’m glad I was hanging out there that day!
A lady once picked up a ballpoint pen which had one of my wife's
lampworked beads on it with a few accent beads. Underpriced (I
think)at $28. She replaces it and says ‘That’s a lot of money for a
pen’ and turned to walk off. I lost it, went berserk(out of
character for me I swear) and threw a Bic we keep for checkwriting
at her heels while saying ‘Here’s something if you just need to
write, uh, you CAN write can’t you?’ She just kept walking though.
Glad my wife wasn’t in the booth.
Very few folks actually BUILD anything with their hands and are
accustomed to either mass produced (cookie cutter) jewelry and other
goods OR items imported from inexpensive labor markets.
Carl
1 Lucky Texan
Reminds me of some rings a customer brought in to be sized recently.
She had gotten a ‘wonderful bargain’ on about 1/2 dozen large gold
colored rings with white stones. Of course, she thought she had gold
and diamonds. She actually had gold plated brass with CZ’s. And
even at that, there was still a big piece of sprue sticking off the
bottom of each ring. Jim
Very few folks actually BUILD anything with their hands and are accustomed to either mass produced (cookie cutter) jewelry and other goods OR items imported from inexpensive labor markets. Carl
Carl, that’s so true. My worst thing was the time I was at a VERY
slow fair, selling my bone carvings. A man came over and picked one
up. It was about six inches long and shaped like a knife handle. It
was a delicate female nude. He looked at it long and carefully. I
had priced it at $75, which is, I think, also underpriced. After
about 10 minutes of staring at it, he literally threw my piece down
on the table and said sneeringly, “I’ve seen carvings better than
that for $5 in the Phillipines.” Whereon he stalked off. I was
speechless. Later on, however, his karma caught up with him. I saw
him again. This time he was the one in the booth and I was walking
around. He and his wife were selling wood carvings. Mass produced.
From Bali. For between $40 and $250 dollars. He started giving a
customer a sales pitch about how greedy American artists were, and
how he liked to support overseas artists who were harder working and
not spoiled. The man went off on him, and by the time he left the
table, this vendor’s face was beet red. Hip Hip…!
Sometimes, what goes around, comes around.
Marie