2009 November | Jewelry Designer Blog

November 25, 2009

Recycled Silver

Filed under: Greening — Tags: environmental issues, green silver, recycling — nina @ 11:24 am

Some Scrap to be Recycled

Recycled Silver is in high demand these days. Did you know that 60% of the silver used in all of our handmade Bali sterling silver styles is recycled from production scraps? We never publicized this fact in the past because it seemed obvious to us that every bit of valuable silver would be melted and re-used. However, I have recently seen companies advertise this practice as proof of their Eco-friendly, Green Business practices and I wanted everyone to know that we do it too! We also recycle all the rejects and scraps that accumulate in our California office.

Before we printed our recent insert, I did a great deal of research into recycled paper. It turned out to be a slippery slope! There is recycled paper made from paper mill floor scraps (I still don’t know how I feel about that. Did they really just throw it away before or did they always use it?) and recycled paper made from post consumer waste. The latter is about twice the price of regular paper stock. In addition, recycling post-consumer paper is very resource intensive, using lots of energy and water. Some people feel that using paper from sustainably managed forests is a wiser choice.

Instead of using the recycled paper, I decided to set a “greening” budget for 2010 and try to figure out where that money will have the greatest impact on the environment. It may be best spent on recycled paper but we might get more bang for our buck somewhere else, like supporting water restoration projects in silver mining towns. I will keep you posted……

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November 23, 2009

Jewelry Findings - Plan Ahead to Meet your Holiday Deadline

Filed under: Business — Tags: business tips, holiday shipping, jewelry business, shipping — Yolanda @ 10:29 am

Have you started planning your holiday gift projects and only just realized that your beading supplies are running low? As the email order processor, I have been answering a lot of questions lately regarding how quickly we can get orders to designers who are preparing last minute for holiday craft fairs and boutiques. So if this sounds like you, don’t worry. You are not alone. Planning around holiday shipping schedules can be challenging. To help you meet this challenge, below you’ll find Nina Designs’ Holiday Shipping Schedule.

NORMAL SHIP PROCESS: We process orders Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm. Though we try our best, depending on our order volume, your package may or may not go out the same day they are received. As long as we get them by 2pm Pacific Standard Time, expedited orders requesting UPS Overnight, UPS 2 Day, or UPS 3 Day will go out the same day they’re received. Orders requesting UPS Ground and USPS Priority are processed after expedited orders and then in the order they’re received.

Monday is always our busiest day with each day slower than the previous as the week progresses. This means that a UPS Ground order placed on Sunday may not ship until Tuesday or even Wednesday. Mondays are usually spent processing expedited shipping orders placed during the weekend: UPS Overnight, then 2-Day, then 3-Day orders. After expedited orders have been processed, we move on to UPS Ground orders, starting with those placed on Friday, then Saturday, then Sunday. Additionally, any expedited orders placed on Monday might be processed before we get to a UPS ground order placed on Sunday.

HOLIDAY SHIPPING: Please keep in mind that we are currently in the middle of our busy season. Though we are processing a high volume of orders everyday, we are not able to process all orders received everyday. Also keep in mind that UPS and USPS are also moving a lot more packages during holiday season, so UPS Ground and USPS Priority mail packages are taking longer than usual to be delivered - possibly up to 2 weeks after they leave our office. UPS technically has that amount of time to deliver Ground packages before they are considered late.

To see details on Holiday Shipping Dates, click here: (more…)

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November 20, 2009

Silver Jewelry Investment

Filed under: Business — Tags: jewelry business, marketing, silver prices — nina @ 9:53 am

As silver prices raise, we all face the challenge of repackaging silver jewelry as an investment and luxury item. There are obvious difficulties in finding new markets but opportunities as well. Over the past few decades, the public became accustomed to sterling silver so cheap that it was sold alongside base metal as inexpensive costume jewelry. As prices began to rise, silver moved into upscale boutiques and Bridge Jewelry at department stores. Now, silver is making the leap into fine jewelry stores. It takes time for customers to adjust when relative values shift (witness the real estate market) but historically, silver was traditionally much closer in value to gold than we have been accustomed to and it looks as if we are headed back in that direction. The 600 year chart of silver values is fascinating. You could definitely make an historical argument for silver at $40-50/oz. On the bright side, when a material has high intrinsic value, people are willing to spend more on labor to embellish it. That means that quality products will thrive, while the low end dries up.

Here are a few marketing tips for the New Silver Reality:
1. Stress the investment value of silver, which most people have not internalized.
2. Market your jewelry as a collectors item.
3. Don’t be afraid to approach fine jewelry stores.
4. Vermeil style gold plated silver is booming as an alternative to solid gold, which has also experienced skyrocketing prices.
5. Invest in branding. A strong brand commands premium prices in any economy.
6. Cultivate individual collectors through Trunk Shows or Private Sales. Personal connection fosters customer loyalty.

At Nina Designs, we try to create products so gorgeous, they are irresistible. We hope our designs will help you endure these challenging times. Hang in there!

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November 18, 2009

Silver Prices Soar

Filed under: Business — Tags: jewelry business, silver prices — nina @ 11:11 am

Silver Prices have become a stomach churning roller coaster ride over the past few years. For the first 20 years I was in business, silver hovered predictably between $4-6 an ounce. The price was so stable, I didn’t even think about it. In 2003 prices began to rise. In 2006, with the opening of the first Exchange Traded Fund or ETF, we entered a new era of price inflation and volatility that has wrecked havoc on all of us in the silver business. As the ETFs grow, they buy up silver that is henceforth unavailable for use in industry or jewelry production. The ETFs also allow speculators to easily buy and sell silver, causing extreme volatility as they alternately bid up or sell off shares. In addition, investors flock to silver ETFs when they fear inflation or think the US dollar is going to loose value. All of these scenarios put upward pressure on silver prices.

When the economy starts to improve, jewelry and industrial demand for silver booms, putting upward pressure on silver prices. Traditionally, photography was the primary industrial use for silver. As digital photography replaces film, this segment is shrinking. However, silver has become widely used in some of the most cutting edge technology including bandages, batteries, catalytic converters in automobiles, odor resistant clothing, water purification, and wood treatment to resist mold.

The combined appeal of silver as a safe haven for investors in bad times, and demand for silver as a natural resource in good times, creates a situation where prices seem to just go up and up. If you look at a 600 year chart of silver values, you can see that it was historically under-priced for a long time. A partial explanation for this in recent decades is that many countries were selling off silver reserves, keeping prices artificially low. Once the reserves were gone, prices began to rise. Where will it end? There are people (especially websites pushing silver as an investment) that see silver over $100 in the near future. Personally, I don’t think it will be that extreme but the evidence does seem to point to higher prices in the long term, even if we see prices fall back in short term dips.

10 Year Silver Price Chart

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November 16, 2009

Price Increase on November 23rd

Filed under: Business — Tags: jewelry business — nina @ 1:31 pm

Price Increases are always dicey but in a recession they can be catastrophic, so why are we doing it now? The truth is, we would do just about anything NOT to raise our prices. We know how difficult this year has been economically for everyone and we hate to exacerbate the problem. We have been holding out, watching our margins shrink, as silver prices increased dramatically. At this point, we have to make a modest price adjustment in order to stay economically viable. Prices will go up approximately 8% on Monday, November 23rd at 8:30 am. Prices on the website are always current. We have no control over the silver market, which seems to be on steroids. In my next post I will explore the forces causing silver to inflate, but today, I just want to apologize for the terrible timing of our price increase.

For those of you who have been tracking silver prices, our increase will come as no surprise. We tried to wait until at least a chunk of your holiday purchases were complete. We wanted to push to the end of the year but our replacement costs are just too high at this point to ignore. Our current pricing only covered us to silver at $14 per ounce. Raising our prices approximately 8% will only partially cover our increased costs. We know how hard it is out there and we are doing our best to keep the pipeline full of gorgeous, irresistible new designs. Hopefully, the worst of the recession is behind us!

Silver has been on the rise and is currently between $16-$18 an ounce.

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November 13, 2009

Rejecting Gold Plate Vermeil Style

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: recycling, sterling vermeil style, vermeil — leah @ 9:56 am

Gold Plate Vermeil jewelry parts continue to grow as an overall percentage of our sales. It seems like every week we are sending off larger and larger boxes of silver to be plated. Last week it was a 20 lb box of silver! We love the look of the 24k satin finish and we have a number of styles that sell better in gold than in the original silver version.

Gold Plate Vermeil Style rejects that did not pass our Quality Control. We will sent it to a refinery for melting so we can at least retrieve the raw silver for re-use.

Gold Plate Vermeil Style rejects that did not pass our Quality Control. We send rejects to a refinery for melting so we can at least retrieve the raw silver for re-use.

However, we also experience quite a bit of loss in the plating process. We quality control every gold plate item before we put it into office stock. Gold styles may be rejected because they physically break during plating; because the satin finish has a rough, almost sticky-looking surface; because the items have black “gunk” in the crevices that cannot be removed; or because the items have major pockmarks or scratches on the surface that are revealed after plating. Occasionally we’ll have a style, like S2460, a large puffy hammered heart, that looks fantastic in gold plate. Unfortunately, due to the item’s construction, it oozes a greenish blue liquid that dries into a crust after plating. After rejecting almost 90% of the stock sent for plating, we no longer plate S2460.

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November 11, 2009

Sweet Summer Beads (Part 2)

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: gemstone beads, Inspiration, jewelry design, sterling vermeil style — clara @ 9:35 am

When I gathered my jewelry findings and gemstones together to make some jewelry for a summer wedding, I didn’t so much have a picture in my mind of the finished piece as I did an idea of what I wanted my jewelry to feel like - joyful and fun. I looked at my goodies, an array of colorful stones and luscious vermeil style gold plate findings, and started putting things next to each other. I had lots of ideas, but it wasn’t until I started wire-wrapping stones to links that a bracelet started to take shape. Black garnets and gold links formed the base of the bracelet while colorful aquamarines, rubies and other gemstones wrapped on headpins made it more playful.

Sweet Summer Bracelet

When I looked at my finished bracelet I realized what a great necklace it would make! Since I made my bracelet long enough to wrap around my wrist twice, to make it a necklace all I had to do was attach a clasp to a length of chain that would fasten to my bracelet. Doing this at least doubled its length so that I could now slip it over my head and wear it as a necklace. To give myself yet another way to wear this design, I tied a black silk ribbon to it. This way I end up with an entirely different third look - a luscious double strand necklace that’s even more joyful and fun.

I love how my design process evolved as I made this bracelet so that I ended up with a convertible design that I can wear three different ways. I am not sure that I would have made such an ingenious piece of jewelry had I tried to draw out my design in advance.

Click here to read “Sweet Summer Beads, Part One.”

Sweet Summer Necklace

Double Strand Sweet Summer Necklace

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November 9, 2009

Recession Jewelry Marketing

Filed under: Business — Tags: business tips, marketing — nina @ 10:23 am

Whether you are a start up company or financially strapped from the recession, guerrilla marketing can deliver great results for very little money. When I was in High School and College, I used to carry my jewelry around in a shoe box. I would take it out before classes, on the bus, at intermission in the theater, at Cafes. The moment I opened the box, women would flock to me, asking to see my earrings. They would call their friends over and pretty soon we were having a party. I never had to “Sell”. Women love jewelry, they will take any excuse shop. All you have to do is show up. People knew I carried the box with me and they started asking me to come to parties. I even had one woman insist I bring out my box at her wedding! Just last week, I caused a traffic jam at the airport parking lot because the attendant wanted to buy the earrings off my ears.

Here are a few guerilla marketing tips:

1. Always wear your jewelry! It is a great conversation starter and will lead to effortless sales.

2. Have at least a few samples in your bag at all times.

3. Carry PostCard size Business Cards with a luscious photo, your website address and a discount coupon.

4. Cold Calls are not as bad as you think. Saunter into a boutique draped in gorgeous jewelry and you can usually get an appointment to show your line.

5. Aggressively pursue Free Press. Peggy Li has great tips for this on her
blog.

6. Team up with a clothing designer to do a casual Fashion Show in a friend’s garden. If you both invite all your contacts you can double your mailing list.

7. Team up with other craft artists to throw a Holiday Craft Sale party. Everyone needs to buy holiday gifts and it is always more fun to support your friends. If you make this an annual event, you can build a following.

8. Try selling at your local Farmer’s Market. The fees are low, the traffic is heavy and there isn’t much jewelry competition!

9. Offer to set up at Charity Events and donate a percentage of your sales to the cause. Donate a piece to the silent auction to generate interest.

10. Consider selling on Consignment at your favorite boutique or gallery. Cash strapped store owners might be reluctant to take a chance on a new line. Consignment eliminates their risk. Once your jewelry has a track record, you can renegotiate.

Bonus Tip: Ask your biggest fan to throw a Jewelry Party and give her a credit for 10% of anything you sell. Identify possible hosts in different cities and develop an annual circuit.

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November 6, 2009

Halloween Earrings at Nina Designs

Filed under: Behind the Scenes — Tags: working moms — leah @ 9:42 am

This Halloween, Nina Designs had its best themed costume ever: a pair of Silver Earrings! It’s become a yearly tradition to wear our Halloween costumes to the office where we share a group lunch and admire each others handiwork and creativity. This year, when Juanita walked through the door dressed as an earring, we all cackled with delight! The T1102 hook earring was made with thick wire (actually the stem of a fake sunflower) with a A729 peace charm disk hanging from it. Of course, she changed into another costume for the evening festivities because otherwise, who but a bunch of crazy jewelry-obsessed Nina Designs’ employees would know what she was?

Juanita dressed as an earring!

Bottom Row: Leah, Phoenix, Stephanie. Top Row: Nina, Juanita, Anna, Erin, Clara, Carly, Yolanda

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November 4, 2009

Beautiful Silver Bangle Bracelets

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: Inspiration, sterling vermeil style — Stephanie @ 9:38 am

I just can’t resist our new shimmering silver bangle beauties! Silver bangles are one of my favorite jewelry accessories. I can wear them in a stack for maximum sparkle or mix them with our new satin finished, gold plated bangle to soften the sparkle and add some color. The great thing about our silver bangles is that they are ready-to-wear, so you can wear them alone or you can simply wire wrap a sterling silver charm, dangle or bead to personalize it. You can wear them with any outfit, dressed up or down. Our silver bangles are elegant and quite substantial in weight and thickness, so I don’t have to worry about it bending or warping. My simple pleasure is the soft chime they make when you wear a few on your wrist. For a future design idea, I would like to wire wrap a few together with a thick gauge wire and add a gemstone or pearl. They’re just so easy to slip onto your wrist and go out the door, just as I did today!

Charmed Bangle Bracelet

Mixing Silver and Gold Plate Bangles

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