By min, on February 20th, 2009% 
Big Blue
I was asked to make a bead in a similar shape to the one on the left of the picture above, using the darkest blue in the bead. As the original bead had simply grown on the mandrel, I wasn’t sure that I could recreate the shape, the bead in the centre was my first attempt. I used several Effetre blues together, the darkest of which reacted with the others and made pits and discolourations (that bead is definitely heading for the etching solution!) but the shape was ok, if a little larger than intended.
So, on the second attempt I made a bead using only the darkest (and trickiest when combined) glass, Effetre 246, and it worked very well. A lovely blue with naturally occurring streaks and a smooth surface.
I am happy to consider commissions, especially when they work out as this one has. Sometimes there is an awful lot of blood, sweat, tears, gas, glass, electricity and most precious, time, before the required results are achieved, and then there’s the dilemma of charging. Does one charge for all the above, making one bead Very Expensive, or embrace the experience (bless the Learning Curve!) as payment in itself and charge a regular rate? There may even be perfectly good beads arising from the process of perfecting a commissioned bead, as I found recently when trying to get a cat bead just right, what a happy by product of a commissioned piece!
One of the traditionally difficult areas for an artist is pricing one’s work correctly, and everyone has an opinion on the subject. A lady at a craft fair picked up one of my beads, dropped (yes, dropped) it back down and walked away, saying ‘£4.00 for a bead! That’s too much!’ while another lady told me my beads were too cheap, and she was paying £14 for her bead. What can one do?! I’m so over the pricing dilemma. I ask what I ask, and that’s it. If it’s wrong then so be it. I’m glad to be making the beads, and while it must be brilliant to make money from something one loves, almost every bead has been some form of therapy or joy already. Money is a lovely, lovely bonus. Oh, and seeing people buy something I’ve made, for themselves or someone else, is a proper heart warmer. Excellent stuff. Lucky me.
By min, on April 8th, 2008% Two things happened to me today –
Firstly, I dropped my Nokia 9300 into the sea. Expletive, Expletive, Expletive! I’m going to borrow hubbie’s wellies in a minute and go for a wade as the tide has gone out again, my own wellies are still soaked from an earlier rescue effort. I’m pretty good about backing up info so that’s not a worry, but I’ve had that phone since mid 2005, and suddenly I don’t…there was nothing wrong with it, it wasn’t even on it’s way out and about to be replaced. In fact, I have an LG Chocolate still in the box, rejected in favour of my ‘old’ phone when I took out a new contract. I really ought to ebay it.
I lost my phone today because I was juggling three dogs, leads, poo bags, a dog toy, and a camera, and I lost track of coat zippers. Oh well, as they say, ‘worse things happen at sea’, and they do.
………………
Talk about a quick update to a story. David came to tell me that there were lots of people on the beach, didn’t I want to hurry up and get down there? I downed the last slug of my coffee, raced onto the beach, asked if anyone had seen a phone and they shook their heads blankly, far more focused on rock pools and shells. I looked about five yards to my left, and there it was, the familiar brick shape, silvery against the sand. Has there ever been anyone before who was glad to see their phone even though it was utterly kaput? I just wanted to say ‘goodbye’ to it and move on.
Secondly, I sold my first bead via my website, and not to someone I know. Now that was a great antidote to the phone issue, I am delighted. Note that I am resisting over use of exclamation marks…
Yay!
Ooh, and I got a delivery from Tuffnell Glass, yummy CiM glass, mmmm…..and some excellent silver bead caps from bumpybeads.co.uk.
So, all’s well, that ends well.
|
|
