Jewelry Business | Jewelry Designer Blog

November 8, 2011

Easy Jewelry Display

Filed under: Jewelry Display & Packaging — Tags: jewelry business, Jewelry display, tradeshows — leah @ 12:26 pm

When I first started selling my handmade jewelry, I needed a jewelry display that was easy to assemble and could work in a variety of settings. Many of my events were at-home trunk shows, or in a group show setting, so I needed the jewelry display to be portable and versatile. I had a bunch of black velvet boards, but found them to be too dark and overpowering for most of my jewelry.

Easy Jewelry Display

The solution I came up with was to cover the velvet boards in a variety of cream fabric, and then add a ribbon to the top. I selected an appealing combination of green ribbons in a variety of textures. The ribbons can be used to hang the boards from a wall or a tall folding screen if wall space was unavailable. I’ve often just set the boards on a tabletop and leaned them up against a wall with the ribbons tucked behind.

The fabric and ribbons are literally taped to the back of the velvet boards (I love duct tape)! I use straight sewing pins to attach the jewelry to the front of the boards. For storage, I slip each board into a large ziplock plastic bag, with all the jewelry attached. The ziplock keeps the silver from tarnishing.

So there you have it – an attractive and easy way to display jewelry. How do you display your jewelry?

Comments (3)

October 25, 2011

Top 100 Women Owned Businesses in Bay Area, We’re #87!

Filed under: Business — Tags: jewelry business, women business owners — nina @ 3:24 pm

The San Francisco Business Times recently rated the Top 100 Largest Women Owned Bay Area Businesses and Nina Designs earned 87th place. They held a fancy dinner on the top floor of the Westin St. Francis Hotel. It was a great opportunity to connect with other fascinating business women. I loved the Biochemical Engineer who ran in late because she was trying to buy another company! The women owned diverse companies from IT, to staffing, to fashion. While acknowledging the challenges of the current economy, most of the women were optimistic that 2012 would be a great year. They stressed resilience, determination and value as key elements for success.

Nina with Publisher Mary Huss

Tasty Treats!

Comments (4)

July 9, 2011

Silver charms make the sun shine a little brighter when skies are gray

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: Inspiration, jewelry business, jewelry history, silver prices — juanita @ 11:11 am

Silver charms and findings always find purpose. Although the world seems to be in a constant state of change, jewelry historically has found a place in the hearts of men and women alike. No matter the state of the economy, the desire for jewelry never ceases to exist. The beautiful ornamental jewelry that hang around our necks and dangle from our ears exist as a reminder of hope. Even when the world looks gray, it is most important to continue to focus on what is beautiful and what makes us happy.

For us involved in the silver industry, it may seem like we’ve been handed a double-edged sword in the past few months. Not only are we trying to climb out of economic depression, but the price of silver has been all over the place. What a combo! Staying optimistic about the fate of our businesses tends to be a challenge. I urge you to remind yourself that jewelry is a stronghold. Women will always want jewelry. Even if we have to budget, jewelry is important to us. Happy little silver charms and shimmering gems have an incredible ability to lift our spirits. Keep making jewelry and keep lifting those spirits!

Remember, we just decreased our prices on all sterling silver and gold vermeil jewelry findings by 9%. Shop our new styles today.

American women in uniform, 1942

Miriam Haskell, renowned jewelry designer and friends with Coco Chanel, opened her first boutique in 1926 and made her mark during the height of the Depression!

Comments (1)

June 30, 2011

Jewelry Design Success Story: Alison Kelley Designs

Filed under: Success Stories — Tags: business tips, Inspiration, jewelry business — juanita @ 10:00 am

This month we’d like you to meet Alison Kelley, a jewelry designer who grew up in a family of artists, woodworkers, and seamstresses. Her family roots are in Malta, a tiny island in the Mediterranean Sea that inspires her jewelry design. Alison started designing jewelry 17 years ago, but in the last few years, with the encouragement of her husband and three sons, she has turned her passion into a successful small business.

What is your favorite Nina Designs charm?
I love the sterling silver pineapple charm. It’s the first charm I ever bought from Nina Designs and still my favorite. It reminds me of my second honeymoon in Maui. I love pairing it with a white fresh water pearl and a champagne cubic zirconia.

Where do you find your inspiration?
Color is my biggest inspiration. I love to study how nature combines colors. This makes it easier for me to come up with inspiring color combinations for my upcoming jewelry designs. I used to watch a TV show on BBC America called “What Not to Wear,” hosted by Trinny and Suzanne, who offered advice on how to wear color and that’s always stayed with me whether I’m designing jewelry, decorating my home, or getting dressed.

(more…)

Comments (0)

June 23, 2011

How Core Values Support the Making of Silver Charms

Filed under: Business, Customer Service — Tags: jewelry business, silver charms, women business owners — juanita @ 10:37 am

Here at Nina Designs it is a priority not only to offer you inspiring silver charms and excellent customer service, but also to support each other as a team and challenge ourselves personally. While we’ve been doing this for 25+ years, we’ve recently decided to draft a set of meaningful core values that will guide each of us through our everyday decisions. Nina’s been reading many books on this process, and we started a book club so we could all help. Here are some of our initial thoughts.

After reading our first book, “Delivering Happiness,” by Tony Hsieh, we were most impressed by Zappos’ deceptively simple yet very meaningful list of core values that express their unique work culture and traits they would hire and fire by. Anyone who knows Zappos would recognize them by reading this list. During our book club meeting we immediately recognized that Nina Designs is similar to Zappos in one very fundamental way – we are both mail order companies. But while Zappos delivers happiness through speedy shipping and incredible customer service, we deliver inspiration through unique designs and support for women artisans and entrepreneurs.

It’s been 8 weeks since that initial meeting, and after much deliberation, we’ve drafted our core values. Here they are:

Brainstorming Session

Creativity
Creativity drives our designs, our problem solving and our approach to life.

Excellence
We design and sell excellent products. We deliver outstanding customer service.

Respect
We respect each other, our customers, our suppliers, our community and our environment. We treat others as we wish to be treated ourselves.

Teamwork
We are an upbeat team with a family spirit. We build authentic, supportive relationships through honest communication.

Initiative
We are self-motivated and responsible. We take the initiative to improve our personal performance, our products, our company and our community.

Inspiration
We deliver inspiration through our unique designs, our support for women artisans and entrepreneurs, and our progressive business model.

What do you think? Would you recognize us by this list?

Comments (0)

February 23, 2011

Use Paypal for your Silver Charms and Jewelry Findings Purchases!

Filed under: Business, Website Shopping Features — Tags: jewelry business, Website Improvements — Emily @ 4:08 pm

Nina Designs is happy accept Paypal as a payment option for your silver charms and jewelry findings purchases! This is a feature many customers have been requesting and for good reason. Here are a few of the great features of using Paypal:

1. Paypal is a trusted and secure way to pay online because it keeps your information private.
2. It’s easy to link your Paypal account directly to your bank account.
3. You can also link your Visa, Mastercard, Discover or American Express card to your account.

Another benefit to using Paypal for your Nina Designs purchases is that if you’re already selling your jewelry online and accepting payments through Paypal, you can turn right around and purchase your jewelry supplies with the same account! This makes your record keeping a bit neater. We hope having this option for shopping with us will make life a little easier. Tell us what you think!

Comments (0)

January 19, 2011

Online Crafty Markets to Sell your Silver Charm Jewelry Designs (Part 2)

Filed under: Business — Tags: business tips, jewelry business, silver charms — juanita @ 12:57 pm

Figuring out where to sell your silver charm jewelry online is no easy task. In Part One of this blog series I listed a bunch of online crafty markets as alternatives to Etsy. Today I started doing a little comparison. Of all the ones I listed I liked the look of Cargoh the best. The pictures are tasteful and well balanced, and because entry to their marketplace is juried, there is a nice balance in the variety of jewelry offered for sale. And, unlike Etsy, there is not an overwhelming amount of jewelry for sale. For instance, Cargoh currently has 37 pages of jewelry for sale, compared to Etsy’s 1250 pages of jewelry. Would you rather be a big fish in a little pond or a little fish in a big pond? That seems to be the choice.

Here’s the funny thing though. While I was shopping on Cargoh, I randomly selected a few jewelry shops to see how they’re doing. Each of the 12 shops I sampled had no more than a few sales. Most had been opened just about 6 months to a year. Weird, I wonder what’s going on? Why aren’t they selling more? Does Cargoh not drive traffic to their site as well as Etsy? Not sure. Do the shop owners have other shops? Indeed, every one had Etsy shops that had a lot more sales. Whether that’s because these shop owners spend more time marketing their Etsy shop and keeping their Etsy shops current compared to their Cargoh shop, I’m not sure. But that’s what it looks like. Of their two shops, the Etsy shops are filled with lots more items, and their Facebook pages direct traffic to Etsy more often than to their Cargoh shops.

Where do you sell your jewelry?

Cost of selling on Cargoh: You pay a percentage of your sale price when your item sells. If you sign up before January 31, 2011, that percentage is only 3.5%. There is no listing fee.

Cost of selling on Etsy: You pay 3.5% of your sale price when your item sells, plus $0.20 for each item listed.

Where do you sell your jewelry?

Comments (0)

January 10, 2011

Shopping for Silver Beads and Gemstones in Tucson

Filed under: On The Road — Tags: business tips, jewelry business, tradeshows — clara @ 12:05 pm

We are re-posting this blog entry because shopping for silver beads and gemstones in Tucson is a lot more enjoyable when you’re prepared. It truly is an experience like no other. The entire city literally turns into one big giant bead show. There are thousands of vendors, some even on the road side. It can be a bit overwhelming. This will be my 8th trip to Tucson and after years of learning the hard way, I have compiled some tips to make your trip more productive and fun.

I highly recommend you check out my earlier blog post titled Bead Show Survival Guide. Make sure you pay special attention to tips # 1, 3, and 5. Having your documents in order, your feet cozy and your energy levels stable will definitely make your shopping days more pleasant.

Plan for all kinds of weather in Tucson. It is usually chilly, but there often are days with full sun and days that are blustery and rainy. Pack an umbrella, a waterproof tote, and a raincoat.

You will need good shoes. I cannot emphasize this enough. I have ruined at least 3 pairs over the years walking through muddy gravel to get from the parking lots to the main entrance of the shows. If your weatherproof shoes aren’t very comfy, bring an extra pair to change into once you get inside.

We Love Dansko Shoes

(more…)

Comments (9)

January 5, 2011

Online Crafty Markets to Sell your Silver Charm Jewelry Designs

Filed under: Business — Tags: business tips, jewelry business, silver charms — juanita @ 11:53 am

Let’s face it – we all love to shop for unique silver charms and clasps, earring findings, unusual gemstones, and all the other jewelry findings we need, need, NEED! And, as jewelry designers we cannot wait to make all the jewelry that dances through our heads. The harder part is figuring out how and where to market our wares. An entire thesis can be written on this topic and, indeed, people have. (Check out Crafting an MBA and Home Jewelry Business Success Tips). This is not my intention here. The question I’ve been thinking about lately is: What are some good alternatives to Etsy for jewelry designers?

Of course, it’s always a good idea to host your own website, but driving traffic there can be a full time job. Having a shop in a crafty marketplace in addition to your own does some of this work for you. It drives a bit of traffic to your site. But for all kinds of reasons jewelry designers may be looking for alternatives to Etsy. So I decided to do some quick research into the alternatives. The following is a short list of the sites that I found. Throughout the month, I will write a brief overview and my opinion of some of these sites in more depth.

Hmm, Where should I sell my Yoga Spirit Collection online?

For now, here’s the list of what I found this morning:
Ruby Lane
Art Fire
Zibbet
Cargoh
Bonanza (formerly 1000 Markets)
Poppy Talk
Made It
Cafe Handmade
Handmade News Blog

These last two aren’t markets so much as resources. Have fun exploring. Do you have any others you’d like to add to the list?

Comments (4)

October 6, 2010

Why you need a seller’s permit if you sell your jewelry

Filed under: Business, Customer Service — Tags: business tips, jewelry business — juanita @ 10:28 am

If you want to buy Nina Designs jewelry components at wholesale prices to make jewelry to re-sell, then we require your state resale license. Here’s why. Most states require vendors to collect tax on sales made within that state. These states require you to obtain a resale license (different states call this document by different names) which gives you the right to make wholesale purchases and the responsibility to collect sales tax on retail sales which is then paid to the state at a later date. California requires us to charge sales tax on every retail sale that’s shipped to any address within California.

Selling your jewelry? Be sure to get your resale license.

The ONLY exception is when buyers have a valid California Seller’s Permit issued by the State Board of Equalization. This documents the buyer as a Wholesale Buyer who doesn’t have to pay tax on items they plan to re-sell. When you re-sell these items, then you as the vendor must charge tax for that retail sale and send it to the State of California. If you are a vendor who is selling your jewelry wholesale (and not retail, meaning you’re not charging or collecting sales tax), California still requires you to obtain a Seller’s Permit.

(click the link below to learn more)
(more…)

Comments (2)

Older Posts »