I received a 'phone call yesterday from the National Art & Craft Directory where my jewellery is showcased to advise me that she had been speaking to a lady from Wedding Ideas Magazine. She had been asked to suggest one or two designers' jewellery to feature in their magazine. My "He Loves Me..... Daisy Jewellery" fitted the bill exactly!
http://www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk/onlineshop/prod_1679178-Daisy-Earrings-quotHe-Loves-Mequot-JTAE5.html
http://www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk/onlineshop/prod_1783077-Silver-Daisy-Pendant-quotHe-Loves-Mequot-JTAP7.html
I was asked to send two images from the Je T'Adore Collection to see if they would feature them in their magazine. Watch this space!
Each piece of handcrafted jewellery is expertly handmade and imaginatively designed to ensure that you own a work of bespoke art.
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Sunday, 23 October 2011
War Horse - Fact & Fiction at the National Army Museum
The War Horse "Fact & Fiction" exhibition is now running at the National Army Museum in Chelsea London. War Horse "Fact & Fiction"
My Silver Horse Jewellery Collection is for sale at the National Army Museum in conjuntion with this exhibition which will be running until August 2012.
http://www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk/onlineshop/cat_477554--010-Horse-Jewellery.html
My Silver Horse Jewellery Collection is for sale at the National Army Museum in conjuntion with this exhibition which will be running until August 2012.
http://www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk/onlineshop/cat_477554--010-Horse-Jewellery.html
Sunday, 9 October 2011
The A-Z of selling your handmade jewellery - K
The A- Z of selling your handmade jewellery
Letter K
Ever heard of the phrase KISS? - it's stands for Keep It Simple Stupid!
But, although it's an odd phrase it's one of those which actually does mean a lot. Keeping it simple does help your customers. The more complicated something is, the more people will be 'turned off'. Supposing you have a website where the customers have to find out what you sell? They're looking for earrings, but have to trawl 10 pages to find the earrings.... they're just not going to do it. So, on your front page they need a link to the earrings for them to view them.
If you consider that most people when searching Google will only look at the top 5 listings because it's easier, it gives you an indication of how much effort a customer will put in to finding what they want on your website.
Saturday, 27 August 2011
A-Z of Selling Your Handmade Jewellery / Selling Your Handmade Silver Jewellery
Next week I will be attending the Dorset County Show, so I won't be updating my blog with the A-Z, but this week is
How many people are 'turned off' by you using phrases that they don't understand?
It's important to try and remember the words you used to use before you began making and selling your handmade silver jewellery and remember the knowledge (or probably lack of it) you had.
For instance when I talk about Sterling Silver - what does that actually mean to a customer. They know to ask, is it sterling silver, but do they know what it means? Silver describes a variety of precious metals - for instance the silver is mixed with copper to harden it, so sterling silver is 925 silver and 75 parts copper - but there are other grades of silver around. Tibetan silver for instance, is vastly inferior quality and do the customers understand this? Fine silver is 999 parts silver and 1 part copper (usually produced by precious metal clay workers) - so a better quality silver, but much softer and would be pretty useless for a ring which is frequently worn. Sterling Silver is the minimum quality of silver which is accepted by the Assay Offices. Anything less which is sent for hallmarking by a British silversmith, would be destroyed!
Hallmarking is a another one which customers have very little knowledge of. Again, I'm asked 'is it hallmarked?' - but do they understand what that means? You can bet that the majority don't. It's worthwhile explaining in a little more detail what they have to look for to ensure that they know what silver hallmarks look like. The more people who understand, the less they're likely to get ripped off!
J for JARGON
How many people are 'turned off' by you using phrases that they don't understand?
It's important to try and remember the words you used to use before you began making and selling your handmade silver jewellery and remember the knowledge (or probably lack of it) you had.
For instance when I talk about Sterling Silver - what does that actually mean to a customer. They know to ask, is it sterling silver, but do they know what it means? Silver describes a variety of precious metals - for instance the silver is mixed with copper to harden it, so sterling silver is 925 silver and 75 parts copper - but there are other grades of silver around. Tibetan silver for instance, is vastly inferior quality and do the customers understand this? Fine silver is 999 parts silver and 1 part copper (usually produced by precious metal clay workers) - so a better quality silver, but much softer and would be pretty useless for a ring which is frequently worn. Sterling Silver is the minimum quality of silver which is accepted by the Assay Offices. Anything less which is sent for hallmarking by a British silversmith, would be destroyed!
Hallmarking is a another one which customers have very little knowledge of. Again, I'm asked 'is it hallmarked?' - but do they understand what that means? You can bet that the majority don't. It's worthwhile explaining in a little more detail what they have to look for to ensure that they know what silver hallmarks look like. The more people who understand, the less they're likely to get ripped off!
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Come and visit me
I will be attending a show where you can come and see my jewellery and have a chat. I will be available for the 5 days Friday 5th August - Tuesday 9th August. I will also be demonstrating my craft.
I'll look forward to seeing you there!
Saturday, 23 July 2011
A-Z of Selling Your Handmade Jewellery / Selling Your Handmade Silver Jewellery
This week's letter in the A- Z of Selling your Handmade Jewellery / Handmade Silver Jewellery is
I for Insurance
If a craftsperson is undertaking fairs /exhibitions etc then the minimum insurance they will need is public liability insurance. Supposing a customer were to trip over your draping table cloth and injure themselves - can you afford to pay out several thousand pounds in compensation? - and that's after the solicitor fees!!
For craftworkers, public liability insurance is reasonably inexpensive. I had a policy last year which cost me approximately £55 and this included product liability (ie if my product injured someone). An example of this perhaps would be if a post on a butterfly backed earring broke off in someone's ear.
Clearly I can't specifically recommend an insurer, however I can tell you who I have subsequently insured with (following an increase in premium by £20 in one year). I've never needed to claim, so I don't know how good they are on paying out - but... I'm insured with £5 million public liability (compared to £1 million last year) and have public and product liability within the policy.
I discovered AIR - www.a-n.co.uk for artists. It's a membership organisation which automatically provides insurance when becoming a member. Once you're a member, you can download the insurance documents. The cost for being a member of AIR for me.... which incidentally is a great online resource and sends out magazines (either online or paperbased depending on your membership choice) was £30 the year! You can also post details on the 'what's on' listings plus an image on the interface, as well as review and comments. It covers craft workers - but double check if it covers you for specifics relating to your craft. For example it doesn't cover 'hot works' when you're out exhibiting.
As I say, I can't recommend it - I can just say that it covers me for what I want and I found it extremely reasonable in price too..
Saturday, 16 July 2011
A-Z of Selling Your Handmade Jewellery / Selling Your Handmade Silver Jewellery
The A - Z of selling your handmade jewellery / selling your handmade silver jewellery
This week's letter is:
H
H for Handmade or Hand Made or Handcrafted or Hand Crafted.
If you are wanting to sell your jewellery or indeed any product which you've made by hand - the question is, what do you call it? Handmade, hand made, handcrafted or hand crafted. You need to understand how your customers would think and what would they call it?
There are very useful tools on the internet - a tool which provides an idea for free as to how your customers think is provided by Google. Having typed in the phrases it will tell you based on the country you search how many monthly searches occur for the particular country.
So for the United Kingdom:
Handmade - 450,000 searches
Hand Made - 301,000 searches
Handcrafted - 201,000 searches
Hand Crafted - 27,100 searches
This gives a clear indication that Handmade and Hand Made is far more popular in cutsomers minds than the word Handcrafted/Hand crafted.
Around the world - the same pattern is evident with the following:
Handmade - 2,740,000 searches
Hand Made - 1,500,000 searches
Handcrafted - 1,000000 searches
Hand Crafted - 201,000 searches
This is why I've chosen to name my jewellery Handmade Silver Jewellery
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