Iza Malczyk - Jeweler

It is not important if you do not know how to pronounce her name as when you see her work of art, you will say WOW! She made very intricate and awesome wire wrap jewelry pieces. Wish I have just a bit of her talent. Wouldn't you? Here is her site - izamalczyk.com Wonder if she has attended any wire jewelry class or she self learned.

Make Money from Your Handcrafted Jewelry

Someone left me a comment in one of my earlier entry and wish me luck on my online jewelry business. My first reaction was to smile to myself. Smile because I wish I have an online jewelry business with customers from all over the world. The smile wouldn’t go away (imagination run wild!) as people are talking about my designs, how beautiful they are and the non-stop orders I receive, blah! blah! blah!.....back to reality Mei!

OK! First of all I haven’t got an online jewelry business….yet!...been saying this ‘yet’ word for a while now. Even if I have, I will have to quit my full time job to make time to create more pretties and to keep up with orders – just assuming I will get a lot of them! ;o). I really envy people who can start an online business just after a year or less after they started making jewelry and can concentrate full time on it. As for me, I still can’t do that as I still need my regular monthly cheque to survive the ever increasing cost of living in Kuching City. Wire jewelry is still a hobby for me, my addiction. Selling jewelry online will be the next logical step, but the question is when. As it is, I do sell my wire jewelry offline when there are requests. At the moment most of the requests come from co-workers and friends and their friends. Not forgetting family and neighbors :o).

There are several ways to make money from your handcrafted jewelry besides selling online. You don’t even have to put up a store or boutique to sell your jewelry. Setting up store or boutique would involve a lot of money which most of us don’t have enough. Here are some great venues where you can start up.

Handicraft Fairs / Flea Markets
I have participated once but it was at a flea market. I was not very successful then as visitors were looking for second hand stuff rather than unique handcrafted wire jewelry. For spending 4 hours under the sun, I only managed to collect $85. Not bad?

Handicraft fairs are a more suitable venue such as the one I visited last weekend - see my three earlier entries. This is where people of the same interest gather to show their pieces. If lucky, you could make lots of friends as well as contacts such as bead suppliers and other contacts for your future handcrafted jewelry business.

Your Home – Handcrafted Jewelry Parties at Home
This is the best place to start as you have everything within reach at home and this is where you feel more relax and comfortable. You may invite a small group of friends and their friends for a morning snack, afternoon tea or even dinner. Get everything ready – i.e. mirror and your jewelry displayed properly (and little kids away from the show area to avoid disaster!). As the food is serve, you can show your guests your creations. Encourage them to touch and try them on. Tell them stories behind each pieces as this may get them more interested. Be ready with pen and paper in case someone has their own design in mind and would like it custom made.

Once you have enough exposure, you may organize this home parties in a regular basis i.e weekly or fortnightly. You may advertise your home parties by word of mouth, leaflets or business cards distribution.

I have not hosted any home party yet but I will if I have enough wire jewelry pieces to display. In addition, you may also organize short classes on jewelry making for those interested. I have several requests for this but just haven’t got the time.

Online Jewelry Web Shop
Can’t escape this one! Ultimately, one day one must look into online jewelry web shop. Internet has made the world smaller and lots of people are selling their products online. Compared to the two above where the market is local, online shop will market your jewelry to a wider audience, in fact worldwide without you having to leave home or sit under the hot sun.

There are few ways to sell online: 1 is to set up your own website and sell your jewelry directly from your website; 2 is to sell your jewelry in online auction sites such as eBay; 3 is to join online shops that specialize on jewelry or accessories.

Finally, if you love and very passionate about what you are doing, selling is not the most important thing but will be an added bonus. So, create because you love creating beautiful handcrafted jewelry. I am very sure the selling will come eventually when people notice and realize the uniqueness of your creations.

Malaysia Craft Promotion....last

This will be the last part on the Malaysia Craft Promotion held at the Kuching Waterfront last weekend. This stall was set up by Lini Idris of LiniCollection and Paul CCK. Lini has vast collection of brooches, pendants, choker, necklace and earrings, gold and silver plated produced both using modern and traditional designs. As such, their collections are traditional in design but modern in look. Besides costume jewelry, Lini also has a wide collection of decorative items, art and crafts including corporate gifts, gifts boxes, candle holders, coaster, etc. One of the highlight of their promotion include on the spot modification of the pieces you purchase. I purchased a bunga raya brooch but requested Paul to modify it to a pendant. He did it on the spot in less than half an hour. Here are pictures taken at their stall and Paul at busy at work.

Lini's Collection

Paul waiting for the solder to heat up

Removing the pin and solder on the jump ring to form the loop

Still at it

Almost done

Malaysia Craft Promotion...cont.

Last night's migraine was really bad. Made me feel week one moment and nauseous the next. The pain was right on top of the head. Just got to live with it I guess. It visits me at least once every month, sometimes twice....must be the hormone acting up. Getting old already! Luckily it was gone this morning. Today is another unproductive day in terms of wire jewelry making. Morning was spent doing marketing at the 3rd Mile Bazaar (wet market), then I went off to the Sunday Market for some magazines....again I bluffed the boys that I am going to work...on a Sunday!!! Late morning we all went container hunting. Containers for my beads and stones of course. My stones and beads are all over the place that sometimes I found it difficult to concentrate on my addiction. So this afternoon, I spent about three hours sorting them out and keep them in proper storage containers. That done, hopefully I can come up with more wire jewelry soon....... Continuing from last night's entry, here are some more pictures taken at the Malaysia Craft Promotion last yesterday.

Visitors to the Craft Promotion venue

A wood carver busy at work Intricate embroidery by the Kelabits of Sarawak Coconut shell necklaces and pendants

Coconut shell earringsBaskets...baskets and more baskets...

Malaysia Craft Promotion

Normally weekends are reserve for my addiction - wire jewelry - but today I didn't manage to make any new piece. I only managed to restring two of my mom in-law's bracelets and one of her friend's. However, the highlight of the day was my visit to the Malaysia Craft Promotion at the Waterfront, Kuching, this morning. Hubby was out fishing since last night and I bluffed the boys that mommy is going to work (on a weekend!...hehe!). So off I went and I spent more than two hours there.....alone....without the normal "mommy, i want this! mommy buy this!....". I didn't count, but I think there are about 20 stalls displaying and selling jewelry. Mostly are bead works and stringed pieces. None on wire jewelry though. Nevertheless, I still managed to buy some native Lun Bawang clay beads. The Lunbawangs is one of the ethnic groups of Sarawak, mostly found at the northern region of Sarawak - Lawas & Limbang Division. By car, it will be more than 15 hrs drive from Kuching, not taking into consideration the time taken to check through four immigration checkpoints in Brunei as well as on the Sarawak sides - I am not going into the details here though!. These are the clay beads that I purchased today. More pictures in my next entry as I my migraine is coming to visit again and I can't concentrate anymore.

Wire Embroidery

Read an interview with Melanie Schow today and I must admit this is the first time I heard or read the term Wire Embroidery. Maybe I have came across it somewhere before but it didn't have that impact until I saw Melanie's works as shown here. (Pst! I hope she does not mind me showing some of her works here). Visiting her website, Solamente, I was so captivated by her wire work and wire wrapped pieces. They are just awesome. I think I am getting hook into something new here. I hope she doesn't mind me posting some of her works here. Just want to show how beautiful and intricate her pretties are and how I wish I can attend one of her classes or make pieces as pretty as these.

Treasure from the Ocean

This is what you will find in the deepest of the ocean....I am exaggerating again!....LOL. Got this deep blue glass beads necklace/choker done this afternoon and I managed to take some photos from the beginning till the finished product. The blue glass beads are rather large - 1.2cm in diameter, therefore only five were used. The chain is "S" link with Japanese glass beads at the center. The same with the "S" hook. All the component except for the beads is handcrafted. Size of stainless steel wire used is 19g.

Twice Around The World Individual Beads

Here they have been linked with Jump Rings

"S" link component with Japanese glass beads at the center to form the chain

"S" shaped hook

The finished product.