You have until June 30th to send them your interpretation on the theme to be entered to win a gift certificate from glass supplier Ed Hoy’s.

Everyone is eligible as long as your entry is glass.  There is a hobbiest level and professional level for the contest so get working!

Do you know of bead, jewelry or other related challenges or contests that involve submitting art/craft pieces?  Let me know so I can blog it for you and expand your reach!

I remember visiting with Kate Drew-Wilkinson and taking a walk through her past via neat containers of beads that she has held back throughout her life.  They document her long and interesting history in bead and jewelry making for over 20 years.  They tell the story of her life.  Last year at the Gathering Harold Cooney gave a presentation and talked about holding back some of his best work for himself while creating inventory for shows.

I’ve often thought of this and have been very consistent in photographing everything that leaves the studio.  This passion has renewed lately as I’ve been documenting color studies that I’ve been working on.

I printed these pages out for reference and noticed that the colors weren’t exactly accurate and the beads looked nowhere as brilliant in print.  I realized that if I wanted to document accurately I’d need to keep a set of each.  So, that is my next challenge to work on. Documenting my work by keeping actual pieces.

The next step then is cataloging them.  It’s great to have a record with a photo or the actual piece, but who is going to tell its story when you’re long gone?  I need to come up with a system of describing, dating and explaining the time period and processes.  This is one of those things that sounds like a lot of work but once it’s done it feels so good.

What about you?  Do you document your work?  What method do you use?

How long have you been in the glass business? How long in the bead business?
I began lampworking 36 years ago, in January 1972, after seeing the demonstrations at the Disneyland crystal arcade.

Originally a hobby, I found myself selling my work within a year, after a rep found me and put me in the wholesale gift shows. The orders were overwhelming and I found myself leaving wholesale after a few years to try retail where I was able to work during the year preparing for my seasonal sales events. My first Christmas booth in 1979 sold $20,000 in product during the holidays. The following 2 years I doubled my locations and had found my niche!

My personal life abruptly changed and I returned to wholesale. It took a while, but I soon found a great niche in that venue as well. I eventually moved my wholesale business to the MGM Hotel in Las Vegas, working under contract as their resident lampworker. After 3 years in Las Vegas I opened my own Galleria back home in California, but quickly returned to wholesale sculptures, until I found beads.

Out of curiosity, I wandered into the BABE show in the Bay Area and the first beads I saw were Leah Fairbanks. I was in total awe and at that moment decided to give this new art form a try. In January 2003 I bought my first sample pack of soft glass and mandrels and began to teach myself about this art. I owe all of the wonderful bead people online for their openness and generosity in helping me to achieve this coveted goal.

What advice would you give to beadmakers getting into the business of selling beads, regarding pricing their work?
Usually when someone asks about pricing, I ask them if they could sell their beads for half of what they are currently priced.

My first bead sales were wholesale, so right away I had to price them where I was making money at a wholesale level. When I crossed over to retail, I doubled them to match the stores that carried them. It was scary at first, charging “that much” as a new beadmaker, but then I realized that if people were buying them at the stores, they were priced accordingly. And, I wanted to keep my prices the same as the stores, so that I never undercut my wholesale accounts. That’s a big, no no in any business.

Another thing that can throw off a pricing decision is the time it takes to make a bead. We all know the “per hour rule of thumb” but sometimes miss the fact that the years of experience and your design should contribute to your pricing decision. Sometimes an experienced or fast lampworker tries to follow the per hour rule because “it didn’t take that long to make”. I always say it took me 36 years “to make” because that’s what it took for me to get to this point. So pricing adjustments should always come into play based on your unique design and how long it took you to develop your style, let alone that particular design, and experience will teach us if we are on the right track.

What are your thoughts on wholesaling vs. selling retail?
When I began both my lampworking career in sculptured glass, and my bead career, my first sales were wholesale. I then ventured into retail with my sculptures and now at retail bead shows with my beads and jewelry. Both avenues have their advantages and disadvantages, so it becomes a matter of what type of working environment suits how you like to work.

What I love about wholesale is that you spend most of your time doing what you love, melting glass and working in the studio. Before I got into beads, I had a wholesale glass clown and Christmas ornament line that I sold nationwide through reps. This was before computers and so I would fill my reps orders from my order sheets by my workbench. It wasn’t exciting, but it was easy, consistent and I made good money that I could count on. I was usually booked 6-8 weeks in advance and carried a Net 30 on most of my accounts, so I always had a good steady income. That was important for me at a time when I needed to be home to raise a child and support us both.

The disadvantage of wholesale is that your creativity suffers a bit, unless you set aside extra time for that as well. You have to be consistent with your wholesale items, and be able to duplicate them exactly as shown every time, even when being handmade. But….when you receive a $3,000 order that you know will be paid within 30 days of receipt, it doesn’t seem as boring as you might imagine.

The advantage of retail shows is that you get a lot of in person feedback about your work and you get to meet some very nice people in the process. You get to make many different types of beads and jewelry and can experiment with your designs. It’s a bit more risky since you have a lot of upfront expenses with no guarantee that you will make the amount of money you may need.

How do you promote your work?
Right now, I get most of my work from my shows, a few select wholesale accounts, and the customers on my website that have already seen my work at the shows. I was selling with eBay for a while and it was good, but I’m not happy with the way things have been lately and I’m working on bringing customers to my website from the shows I attend. I’m also working on designing some wholesale lines that will take me in another direction as well as with the beads.

What advice would you give to someone just getting into selling their work?
Be consistent with your business policies and your work. Set specific terms for your work and as much as possible stick to those terms. Put them in writing so that your customers, both retail and wholesale know that you have a policy and then they will be less likely to ask for changes. I was at a show and was overheard telling a customer “no” who was asking for a “discount” because she didn’t qualify as either a retail storefront or a designer. I was VERY polite to her, but remained firm showing her my written terms, explaining that I had to be fair to the customers that do qualify and need that advantage to resell and make a profit on their end. A few minutes later a woman walked up to my table and said…”thank you!” When I looked at her rather confused, she said that she owned a bead store, and was pleased to hear that we as artisans, don’t undercut our wholesale accounts.

What is one thing you would have done differently if you knew now what you didn’t know then?
This was the toughest question for me. I really don’t have any regrets on what I’ve done with my glass career. But if I look back at the biggest mistakes I’ve made, it was when I went with a company that was starting “something new” and I decided to get in on the ground floor. I now realize that no matter how hard I was willing to work, a good part of my success was at the mercy of others and if they got their end of the business up and running.

When I did my seasonal boutiques in the malls in the early 80’s I had my first store, and would expand into the new malls that were being built. My sales were exactly half in the new malls, but with the same amount of effort. I was trying to get in on the ground floor but it wasn’t a wise choice. When I went to the MGM, they were just starting out with this new venture at the theme park. I was promised the moon with a contract to back it up, but the promises were never fulfilled because their end of the arrangement didn’t succeed.

When I opened my Galleria, it was in a brand new mall. I wasn’t able to support myself and carry the expenses of the business while waiting for the mall to live up to their end and attract enough customers to keep it going properly. I used to tell the mall management each month….”I can’t sell to ghosts”. My store was very nice, and I attracted an exclusive clientele from another established mall, but the volume of people wasn’t enough to sustain many of the merchants in the mall at that time.

You can find Vickie’s current work and show schedule at vickielee.com.

Thanks Vickie, for taking the time to share your experiences! I know that your pricing hints have helped me tremendously in my own bead business!

All you have to do is go to Links Page and add your site!  The only requirement is that you link back to www.beadnerd.com.  Thus, link exchange.

Go ahead and sign up and tell your friends…I’ll get you approved as soon as I can!

1.  Passion.
Love what you do and if you don’t, find a way to fake it or get the passion back.  If you love what you do you will be more able to talk about it and engage people.  You know that you love making your art.  Others may see that in your work but some may not.  As artists most of us are not wired to sell–it feels unnatural to try to put a spin on things in order to make a sale.  But–and this is important–THIS IS YOUR BUSINESS.  The bottom line is, if you want to be successful in making a living at your art, you need to be able to sell it.  If you can tap into your passion you will be able to talk about your work and that is the first step to selling it.

ACTION POINT: The next time someone notices your work (you are wearing it, right?) rather than saying thank you, use the opportunity to tell them about it.  The more you practice this, the better you will get at it.

2.  Know your work.
Of course you know your work.  You are the one that orders your supplies, develops your techniques and makes the pieces. But can you put it into words so that others can not only understand it, but in a way that interests them?  Why did you choose certain colors or a shape?  What was your inspiration?  What do you FEEL when you are making a piece?  What makes it meaningful to you?

ACTION POINT: Choose one of your favorite pieces.  Sit down in front of the computer or with a pad and pen.  Write three paragraphs that describe how you created it and how the design evolved.  Write something of particular interest about the piece.  Before a show, do this for the things that you want to sell the most of.  You will be prepared when the time comes.

3.  Upsell (or guiding your customer).
Have companion pieces/beads/earrings/cords, etc.  If a customer has committed to buying a piece, direct them to something that goes with it.  For example, if a customer has chosen a focal bead, ask them if they’ve seen the smaller companion beads that are great for earrings.  Or ask them if they need a cord for it.  Don’t direct them to a smaller version of what they’re buying as they may substitute it out and result in a lower sale.

4.  Add Value.
Help the customer feel that they are getting something extra.  Have your pricing set ahead of time so that if they seem interested in your upsell, that you can give them a price cut if they buy the add-on.  Example:  the customer loves a focal bead and is going to buy it.  You’ve shown them the companion beads but they don’t jump on it instantly.  Offer them a discount for today of the wholesale price (50% of retail) for the set of companion beads.  (one set per focal purchased).

5.  Offer y our Ongoing Support and Service.
Be available for your customers.  Even if there is no reason to contact you later, make a point of telling them that you are always available.  Don’t just put your card in their bag…take the opportunity to tell them, “Here is my card. If you ever have any questions or need more of something you can reach me by email or phone.”

6.  Gift Tags.
Have printed tags with your contact information, a short bio, care instructions and how your work is created.  If you know your customer is buying the item as a gift, let them know that you’re including a gift tag that explains the process, your bio and care instructions.  People really like that when giving gifts.

7.  Thank Yous and Confidence.
Of course you will thank your customer for their purchase.  The second part of a thank you is to make the customer confident in their purchase.  Assure them that they are going to love their piece, or the recipient will love it.  You’ve come full circle…if you have passion for your work, you will pass it on to your customer.

——
Do you do this when you’re selling?  How does it work for you? Where do you need more work or help in this area?  Leave a comment below!

I’ve touted lynda.com before and here’s another thumbs up.

Just announced:  Twitter Training on Lynda.com

While you’re there, check out any number of other training videos.  It’s $25 a month and WAY worth it for the information you can access.

(I don’t receive anything for this endorsement…just a happy, previous customer that needs to get signed back up myself!)

Have you used Lynda.com yourself?  What was YOUR experience?  What did you learn?

In a nutshell, they all have to do with getting noticed by the search engines.  I’ll list them here, but be sure to read the article for the full scoop on why these tips work.

1.  Build a sitemap.  A sitemap is exactly what it sounds like…a map of your site that says what every page is and where it is.  This is the page that the internet search engine bots ‘crawl’ to find content for their searches.  (I know how to do this with a wordpress plugin but I’ll look deeper into it and come back and tel you how to do it for your own web site in an upcoming post).

2.  Make sure your links have keywords.  I’ve written about that before and it’s self-explanatory.  Once you start to think in key word terms your site traffic will improve.  If your site is mainly a shopping cart system there is not much place for links.  Consider adding some content in addition to your products to draw traffic.

3.  Choose your keywords carefully.  These are the the words that are in the headers of your web site.  Meta tags.  It also helps to ‘tag’ your images and links.  There should be a field in your html editor (or shopping cart if you are hosted with Pappashop) that calls for key words or meta title.  Type in descriptive keywords that you think searchers will use…for every item and every image.

If you found this information useful and want to know more about the business of art, why not leave a comment with your question or drop me an email?

Table of contents for Automate your image editing process.

1. Automating digital image editing in Photoshop – Part 1
2. Automating digital image editing in Photoshop – Part 2
3. Using Actions in Photoshop Elements – Part 3

I received a blog comment asking if the tutorials I wrote for automating your digital image editing can be done with Photoshop Elements.  Since I haven’t been into Elements since versions 2 I had to google.  What I found was both disappointing, encouraging and exciting for you Elements users!

Disappointing because no, you cannot create actions in Photoshop Elements.  Encouraging because you can use pre-made Photoshop actions.  EXCITING because there is a huge amount of free, pre-made actions!  Read the great blog post on Digital Photography for Moms about actions and find out where you can find them free for Elements.

That should get you pointed in the right direction for using actions in Elements…if it doesn’t take off on a total different track with all of the possibilities available.

Thank you for the question and keep them coming!

Table of contents for Automate your image editing process.

1. Automating digital image editing in Photoshop – Part 1
2. Automating digital image editing in Photoshop – Part 2
3. Using Actions in Photoshop Elements – Part 3

Part 1 showed you how to create automated actions that will save you time when editing your photos in Photoshop.  Part 2 shows you how to use them.  Let’s walk through the process.

1.  Open the images that you want to edit in Photoshop.  You can see that at the size my images come off the camera (1024 pixels) they are very large and slow down my system. Therefore, I first re-size them in a batch to make them more workable and user friendly.  Use the action that we created in Part 1.

2.  From the drop down menus choose File>Automate>Batch.  For the “set” drop down menu, choose where your “500 resize” action is and then choose it.  Make sure that “Source” is set to “opened files” and “Destination” is set to “None”.

3.  Click “OK” and your images will magically resize right before your eyes.  Now we can eliminate the backgrounds.

Removing Background using Wand Action created in Part 1.

1.  With your re-sized images open start with the first one.  The first steps are the same as the ones we used yesterday when we were creating our “Wand” action.  But here are the steps to walk you through:

2.  Press Ctrl+L (cmd+L on Mac) which will bring up the  levels window.

3.  Click the little eye dropper tool bar right above where it says ‘preview’.  You are going to use this to turn the background white; it will also adjust the other colors accordingly.

4.  Click somewhere on the background of your image that should be white. You can click around in different areas to find the effect you like best.  Be sure not to get too close to the actual beads because you might click on a shadow, which should not be white. You will know if you do this because your image will be thrown all out of whack.  If that does happen, either click the cancel box (it shows above as “reset” but will really be “cancel” on your screen at this point) and start over, or press down the Alt button and the cancel box will chance to “reset”. Click on this and it will go back to your original image. Click OK.

5.  Either type W or click on the picture of the magic wand in the tool menu. If you hover over it, it will say ‘Magic Wand Tool (W)’. Make sure that the tolerance is set at 32 on your toolbar, then click on a white area of your background.  You will see what is called ‘marching ants,’ or the dotted line in your image. The magic wand has automatically outlined your image and its shadow, if there is one. If there are background areas that were not chosen, (like around the corners), or you want to get closer to the beads, up on the tool settings choose “add to selection” (see image below) and click those areas to add them.

At this point is where you would contract your selection, feather it and delete it.  All of those actions can be done with a couple clicks using your action.  Here’s how:

6.  Make sure your Actions palette is open (Alt+F9 or dropdown menu “windows>actions”).

7.  Expand the folder where you saved your Wand action and click on it.

8.  At the bottom of the palette press the triangle icon (like play on a vcr).

9.  Your background should have deleted and your image is ready to save for publishing.

Do that for each image.  You will find that it becomes easier and quicker the more you do.  You’ll be done in a breeze.

Do you have other steps that you do when you edit that can be automated?  Record them as an action and save keystrokes!

Table of contents for Automate your image editing process.

1. Automating digital image editing in Photoshop – Part 1
2. Automating digital image editing in Photoshop – Part 2
3. Using Actions in Photoshop Elements – Part 3

If you sell online you know how time consuming photo editing can be.  This two part series will show you my process and how I’ve automated it with Photoshop actions. These instructions are for images on a white background.  Even if you don’t shoot your pictures on a white background, you may find that there are steps that you repeat in your own editing process…you can create your own actions and save yourself some keystrokes.  For an easy set-up to take your photos with a white background, read the tutorial I wrote for the Art Bead Scene.

My initial pictures are large because I like to keep the original, higher resolution, image for later reference.  The first step is to create an action so you can batch re-size the images all at once so they’re more workable.  Second, I’ll show you how to create an action to remove the background of your image with just one or two clicks.  In Part 2 I will walk you through using these actions and you will see for yourself how much time it can/will save you.

Creating a resizing action. (you can skip this if your images are already the size you want them).
My images are usually 1024 pixels wide.  I could easily edit at this size but when I have 20 or more images open, that size makes my Photoshop/computer run more slowly. So I resize them in a batch to 500 pixels wide.

1.  Open one image.
2.  Alt+F9 to open the Actions palette.  (or go to the drop-down menu Windows and choose Actions).
3.  “Create New Action” – At the bottom of the palette click the icon that looks like a pad of posts-its with a corner folded.  See location number 1 on image below.

4.  Type in a name for your action.  I call this one “Resize 500″. Choose where you will want to save your action in the drop down menu.
5.  Click “Record”.  The dot at the bottom (the record button) should now be red which means it will be recording every move you make in Photoshop.
6.  Press Ctrl+Alt+I (Cmd+Alt+I on Mac) to bring up image size screen.  Change the width to 500 and make sure ‘pixels’ is selected in the drop down menu to the right of it.
7.  Click OK
8.  Go back to your Actions palette and click the square icon next to the record icon, to stop recording.
9.  Your re-size action is complete.  You should see the title in the actions palette in the folder where it was created.

Creating an action for removing the background.  Again, this is for photos taken on a good white background.

We need to get the image to a certain point before we can make an action that will work on all images. These first few steps are manual so we’ll do them first and then turn on the action recorder for the rest of the steps we want to capture.

1.  Open the image in Photoshop and press Ctrl+L (cmd+L on Mac) which will bring up the  levels window.

2.  Click the little eye dropper tool bar right above where it says ‘preview’.  You are going to use this to turn the background white; it will also adjust the other colors accordingly.

3.  Click somewhere on the background of your image that should be white. You can click around in different areas to find the effect you like best.  Be sure not to get too close to the actual beads because you might click on a shadow, which should not be white. You will know if you do this because your image will be thrown all out of whack.  If that does happen, either click the cancel box (it shows above as “reset” but will really be “cancel” on your screen at this point) and start over, or press down the Alt button and the cancel box will chance to “reset”. Click on this and it will go back to your original image. Click OK.

4.  Either type W or click on the picture of the magic wand in the tool menu. If you hover over it, it will say ‘Magic Wand Tool (W)’. Make sure that the tolerance is set at 32 on your toolbar, then click on a white area of your background.  You will see what is called ‘marching ants,’ or the dotted line in your image. The magic wand has automatically outlined your image and its shadow, if there is one. If there are background areas that were not chosen, (like around the corners), or you want to get closer to the beads, up on the tool settings choose “add to selection” (see image below) and click those areas to add them.

We are going to delete everything the magic wand has selected, but we need to feather the edge first or it will not look realistic.  This is what your action can be used for to automate the process.

Magic Wand Tool Action

1.  With your image open and the marching ants showing, press Alt+F9 to open the Actions palette if it’s not already open.  (or go to the drop-down menu Windows and choose Actions).

2.  “Create New Action” – At the bottom of the palette click the icon that looks like a pad of posts-its with a corner folded.

4.  Type in a name for your action.  I call this one “Wand – Background Removal” because it is the actions I take after I choose my background with the magic wand.  You can always change the name later if something else is more intuitive for you.

5.  Click “Record”.

6.  Choose the drop down menu “Select>Modify>Contract”.

7.  Type in 8 pixels then click OK.

8.  Choose the drop down menu “Select>Modify>Feather”.

9.  Type in 8 pixels and click OK.

10.  Type the letter D, which will reset your foreground and background colors to black and white.

11.  Press Ctrl+x (Cmd+x on Mac) and your background will be deleted leaving behind a pure white background.

12  Press the square (stop recording) button on your actions palette.

You are finished making your magic wand action.  Part 2 tomorrow will show how to use these actions and save yourself time when editing multiple images in Photoshop.