Sylviebead Journal

Recuperation and relaxation. After 3 months of total focus on The Bead and Button show, I'm taking a deep breath and "relaxing" (which really means shuttling my kids, but not working in the studio)

I have mixed feelings post-show. The show is always a good gauge of what's working for me and what's not, but I left that show TOTALLY confused about my product line. I worked for 3 months straight on the Flora Flora kits...totally focused on them because they were the new big project. Did they sell?? Not really. That was a BIG bummer for me. It's not that the time was wasted...I have 3 classes coming up and I'm now in good shape for the classes...I'm just confused why they didn't sell at the show and the other things did.

I changed my booth and made it less cluttered...had lampwork as a sideline not the main thing...what did I sell a lot of?? Lampwork!

I focused on my big wowza project...My most popular kit? The BEGINNER ring... The Say So ring which is a simple beaded strip with one of my lamp worked flowers. Before you make the assumption that it was because there were a lot of beginners at the show...not so. I only sold it to 2 people who would be classified as beginners. The others were all sold to advanced beaders!! I totally couldn't figure it out.

My Sweetheart bracelet is another SUPER easy project, but looks fancier...did it sell? Sort of, but not as well as I thought once I saw the beginner project selling. So I'm left confused... Marie, who worked the booth with me said that people seemed to look at the bigger projects as too difficult...is that the problem?

Do I make more beginner things that LOOK beginner? Do I change my display back to the cluttered way that it was? Do I give up and get a job at Starbucks? I'm going to give it a week or so and reevaluate before I head to Baltimore for the next show.

It's a hard knock life for us artists!


Tiny blah blah blah..

Coffee? as we "speak" I'm sitting outside Starbucks typing on the iPad enjoying an iced CDL

Music...not right now. I'm eavesdropping on weird conversations that my fellow patrons are having! Lol