Silver Charms can do more than make you smile. While we have yet to raise enough money to build an entire school, sales from our Have a Heart Charm Necklace this year, combined with additional sums, have allowed us to make a hefty donation to Half the Sky Foundation. Part of the money is dedicated to funding the art materials at a Preschool for Chinese Orphans for an entire year. Thanks to all of you, the toddlers at one Little Sisters program will have plenty of paint, crayons, paper and whatever else they need to stoke their imagination and fuel their fun.
Read more about Fair Trade & Philanthropy at Nina Designs.
Please consider Have a Heart necklaces for Holiday gifts and birthdays!
Toddlers Enjoy Art Supplies at Orphanage School
Budding Artists
Because we have a large assortment of silver and vermeil style jewelry findings on the internet, some customers come to the conclusion that Nina Designs is a larger operation than we are in reality. From our namesake, Nina , down to the person you reach on the phone, we are an office of 10 full time employees and a sporadic cast of part time employees and interns when we are blessed with the extra help. Although we each have various titles to our employment to keep the office running efficiently, every one of us can count pulling, invoicing and packing orders as regular office duties. The person you may reach on the phone with a question is the same person that could potentially be getting your order out the door. We have an “About Us” section on our website that spotlights each of the Nina Designs taskmasters and is great way to get to know the person earnestly getting your order out to you.
Nina Designs Team
Before you can effectively market your jewelry you need to identify your Target Market. The buyers for any product can be divided into Market Segments. This is usually done by gender, age or socioeconomic factors. By targeting specific market segments you increase your chances of success. For instance, do you plan to sell your jewelry primarily to budget conscious students or to moneyed, empty-nest boomers?
If your customers are students, you probably want to keep your price points low, your designs a bit edgy and your advertising viral. (That just means using social media like facebook, twitter and word of mouth to spread the word without spending a lot of money). If you’re targeting affluent boomers you can use more expensive materials but you should carefully consider how older women dress. They usually prefer longer necklaces and shorter earrings. They also like to pin brooches to jacket lapels. For boomers, building your brand with advertisements in conventional magazines can be a good strategy.
At any time, we can find the exact same Nina Designs pendant and chain combo marketed successfully for radically different price points. This is possible because the designers are selling to completely different Market Segments. If you are selling on Etsy, you need to keep price points relatively low. However, if you are selling High Fashion, people won’t buy if your prices are too low!
If you have an established business, try to identify what Market Segments make up the bulk of your sales. Look carefully at your marketing campaigns. Are you spending your dollars in the right way to reach your target market? In the early days, we spent most of our money advertising in magazines. As our clientele became more web savvy, we invested heavily in Search Engine Optimization. Recently we have moved into Social Media to reach out to the Market Segment of Young Designers, who might not attend Trade Shows or read Trade Magazines. What works for you?
During a recent design session, bird cage silver pendants seemed to flow from our pencils! A loose sketch of a bird on a perch quickly became a chandelier component, with open leaves from which to hang dangles. We love the arabesque curves of our lotus petal hoops, so we used the same lines to create a charming onion-topped cage. The larger version birdcage will be great for layering (imagine a gold plated swallow hanging in front!), and the smaller one contains a little songbird. Finally, the idea of a pagoda inspired a decorative cage with a cutout bird on a swooping branch. It’s always a gift when the creative muse decides to visit – we hope you enjoy these birdcages as much as we enjoyed designing them! We expect these bird cages the office in early November.
Use bird cages to tell a story with your jewelry creations.
It’s easy to shop for jewelry findings from Nina Designs using your Wishlist and Past Order Tools. After you sign in to your account, you can access these tools by clicking on “My Wishlist” located at the top of every Nina Designs page. You’ll then notice four tabs. From the one titled “Past Orders,” you can see an image and the item codes of all the things you’ve ever ordered in the past, and a list of all your previous invoices (great for accounting purposes). The other tab you’ll notice is titled “Wishlist.” Here you can securely house your list of Nina Designs components that you like, would like to buy, but not right now.
The Wishlist is a great tool. Once you’re ready to buy something from your Wishlist, all you have to do is click “Add to Cart.” Adding an item to your cart won’t remove it from your Wishlist, so you can always keep it there as a favorite item you’ll want to refer to again. I love that feature because once I find something I like I don’t have to find it again. It’s great. I just convert My Wishlist items into my shopping cart once I’m ready to buy them.
I’ve had this silver link with granulation detailing on my wishlist forever. It is so beautifully made. I finally bought two of them and made a pair of chandelier earrings with red rice beads. They are the perfect dangles for my earrings and also look stunning with our vermeil style gold plate charms. I’m planning to make a little charm bracelet. I’ll need to add a few other charms from my Wishlist to finish that design idea.
My Wishlist also has all of our Pure Lotus print items listed. I love them all, and have design ideas for each of them. For today, I’ll add the largest round Pure Lotus to my cart from My Wishlist and make a triple strand necklace with a clean, fresh look. I picked up the wirewrapped peridot chain months ago and blackened it. I finally get to use it! As an impulse buy, I also decided to pick up a strand a black fairy ribbon to pair with rough cut quartz crystals with black inclusions. I’m planning a dark, moody necklace that’s gonna rock.
This is just a portion of what I bought on my last order. I really just wanted to share how I do my shopping at Nina Designs. I find this method really works for me, and I hope it helps you shop our site more easily.
Pure Lotus necklace
Wishlist items becoming jewelry
Rockin' necklace idea
How to Price Jewelry? If you are intimidated or merely mystified by this process, follow this Jewelry Pricing Worksheet and learn how to crunch the numbers!
Before you set prices, you must understand your Cost Structure. There are two kinds of Costs:
Variable Costs: These costs rise and fall with sales volume
Fixed Costs: Monthly costs that remain more or less stable
Cost of Materials – variable cost
Cost of Labor – variable cost
Other Variable Costs – shipping, packaging supplies etc.
Cost of Overhead (rent and utilites) – fixed cost
Other Fixed Costs - maintenance, tradeshow fees, equipment leases
Rock Bottom Pricing must cover your material costs or you will go into debt.
Hobby Pricing covers material costs but often excludes labor and overhead.
Professional Pricing must cover Fixed and Variable costs.
Ask yourself, what is my goal? To fund a hobby or to create a sustainable business? There is no wrong answer! (more…)
Have you been looking for a way to customize your sterling silver jewelry supplies? Try hammer finishing pendants and charms. It’s an easy way to add more depth to your designs, and make them unique. You’ll need a steel block to hammer on (I bought mine from Rio Grande) and a small planishing or ball peen hammer (whichever you prefer). Adding a hammered texture to our sterling silver charms makes them look rustic and gives them a hand made appeal. I like how the rippled texture makes them less shiny and a bit “imperfect” looking.
Shiny vs. Hammer Finished Charms
Hammering Tips:
1) A hammer doesn’t have to be heavy to get the job done! You can actually really hurt yourself by using a hammer that is too heavy. Be careful! Using an extra heavy hammer contributes to carpels tunnel syndrome over time. Your hammer should be fairly light and comfortable to use.
2) Experiment with different types of hammers. My favorites are a planishing hammer, with two super smooth faces, one flat and one slightly convex. Both faces have smooth edges that can be used to create deeper and sharper impressions than the convex face. I also recommend trying a ball peen hammer. This hammer has one face that is round (like a ball), and will make softer smaller dips on the surface of your metal.
Take some time to experiment with this technique. With practice you’ll figure out how much force is too much and how much is just right. You’ll also begin to notice how other details of charms may change as you hammer them. For instance, notice on the karma word tag how the lines of the word “karma” became finer. You may also want to start oxidizing pieces after you hammer them for an even more rugged look! Hammer finishing is a really fun and easy way to produce unique jewelry.
Hammered Word Tag
Hammered and Oxidized Silver Charm
We get emails regularly from people heading off to Bali who are looking for a few juicy travel tips on where to go and what to do. I prefer to spend my time in Bali in Ubud, a village in the hills where the temperature is cooler and the culture is very artsy. While in Ubud, you can take lessons in Silver, batik, Dance , Music, Yoga or Cooking. You can also tour surrounding villages which are organized by craft. For instance, Celluk is the Silver Jewelry village and Mas is the mask carving village. My favorite restaurant is actually a Japanese restaurant called Kagemusa but truthfully, the town is full of great places to eat including Cafe Wayan and Casa Luna. Here are my top 10 tips:
1. Spend AT LEAST 2 weeks in Bali. It takes a long time to get there and a few days to recover from jet lag.
2. Pack light and buy an extra bag in Bali for all your purchases. If you love handmade clothing and crafts the shopping is spectacular.
3. Hire a car and driver (about $40/day). Tell him your interests and let him show you around.
4. Don’t over schedule with lots of touring. You will really enjoy days to be still with time to look and listen.
5. Get up at dawn while you are jet lagged and take a walk through the rice fields. You will be transported to a magical place that will stay with you forever.
6. Keep your eyes open for processions and temple ceremonies. Carry a sarong with you so you can join in.
7. Take a class at the Yoga Barn and then have lunch at Kafe.
8. Get a massage with Tumeric Scrub and Flower Petal Bath at Nur Salon. Tel 361 97 5352
9. Herb Walk (I think it should be called Edible Bali) with Westi. He takes you through gardens and rice fields pointing out vanilla vines, nutmeg plants and other fragrant wonders. Tel 081 2381 6024
10. Take a day trip to the ancient temple of Gunung Kawi in Tampak Siring and make a stop at the Sacred Springs.
In the jewelry findings business and in the jewelry business in general, the management of inventory is often the key to success as well as an aspect of the business that is challenging and always changing. As the inventory manager at Nina Designs, I would like to share my current approaches to inventory management that may help you or inspire a dialogue of further discussion on the topic.
Today I would like to discuss the topic of New Items and Opening Orders. We receive an overwhelmingly positive response to our new styles and we keep this in mind when placing our opening orders. We do our very best to keep consistent inventory on all of our items and especially our new items.
New item we accurately forecast from initial order to re-order
There is a trend in new styles in which there is a burst of activity when they arrive on the website for the first time. After the initial burst, the activity will level off for most styles, and for some, it will continue (these often become our best sellers). We have chosen to respond to this initial burst of activity by ordering a large volume in our opening order. This volume is often determined by reviewing the sales of other similar items that we have had for an extended amount of time. We will gradually sell through this large volume over time and we anticipate no loss in sales because we will be sufficiently stocked to not only have the items available for our customers, but to have a large enough time span for reviewing sales for accurate re-ordering.
To continue reading about “panic re-orders,” click here.
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We’ve been experimenting and playing with metal alphabet stamps on our silver and gold plate charms and pendants as a way to customize our jewelry designs. For detailed instructions on stamping and a list of tools, check out our classroom. Yesterday I wrote about stamping on our different sterling silver charms and pendants. Our popular gold plate vermeil style charms offer a warm, rich canvas for stamping. We also tried using markers to add contrast to the stamped letters. This is what we found:
Stamps on gold plate, without ink added.
1. One of our main questions on stamping gold plate was whether the sterling silver would show through on the stamped letters. Fortunately, we found that the letters maintained their gold tone. However, our examples have not been tested over time - it is possible that over time and with wear, the silver may peek out at the edges of the letters. Does anyone have experience with time-worn stamped gold plate charms? How is the durability of the gold on the stamped letters?
With black dry erase marker added to the stamped letters.
2. In an effort to make the letters pop, we tried adding black dry erase marker to them. On both our cast gold plate word and letter charms and our hand-stamped samples, the black dry erase was quite successful in adding contrast, making the letter or word pop against the gold plate. We did notice that the deeper the hand-stamped letters, the better they retained the dry erase ink. After adding the ink, we waited about a minute for it to dry before wiping off the excess. The dry erase maker also worked well on our sterling silver stamped charms.
The top charm has dry erase, the bottom is without.
3. The stamped charms with dry erase marker have not stood the test of time. If the charms are exposed to water, it’s possible the dry erase could fade. We also tried using a black sharpie marker, which would be more permanent, but found that when the excess was wiped away, the permanent ink darkened the overall color of the gold plate.
We’ve had such fun playing with metal letter stamps and are inspired by all the design possibilities stamping presents. Who else has caught the stamping bug? Do you have tips and recommendations for successful stamping?