Are people not spending money anymore?

I had a jewelry show on Friday, really part of the Medical Alliance money raising effort. The day includes a style show, luncheon and bazaar (where I had my booth set up). The booth itself looked great, the jewelry was all new this year, a combination of glass, natural stones and gemstones. I wanted to cover all areas that would appeal to the most people. I am usually the only one that has glass lampwork jewelry which made my booth different from the other eleven jewelry displays this year.

The distinction didn't help this year. There is a new group going to the shows now, younger with young children and they look like they aren't buying unique jewelry. There were several booths with cheap knockoffs ala John Hardy, etc. They sold a lot of things, everytime I looked there was a large crowd aound that booth. There was another large booth filled with Chinese made items, more the natural stone type, turquoise and other stones. One woman had exquiste craft jewelry with gemstones only and she also made all the silver items. Another booth had fine jewelry as in jewelry store items. And there was me, with unique items. I don't think the fine jewelry was in the running for purchase at all, and I meant to ask the other woman with the gemstones if she sold much but I just wanted out of there. I think we packed up everything in about 30 minutes.

I sold three pieces, one leaf type pearl necklace with blue topaz and 14kt gold findings, another necklace that looked very oriental with beads by Pati Walton and a moss agate pendant that looked like a Chinese or Japanese watercolor. The other necklace had a glass focal bead by Jen Geldard with a pendant of green amethyst and strung on blue pearls with lapis in between with gold findings. I had hoped to sell more but it looks like the customers only want to spend money on the knockoffs.

This show had always been my best show of the year but I think that the people who arranged for the vendors had too many jewelry makers there. Next year if I am invited I will ask how many jewelry vendors there will be and make a decision then. My expenses this year were more than my profit.

It's always disappointing when I work for weeks getting just the right combination of colors and textures and then putting it all together and then not be able to sell them. I am thinking about having a trunk show here at the house before Christmas. Possibly I can sell some things that way.

The people who are my regular customers say they always get compliments on their jewelry whenever they wear something that I made so there must be other people out there who would like it if they would try it!

Feel like dancin'

I found this clip in my email today and I thought it was so cute! This is lifted from someone else's blog but it's certainly a worthwhile cause.

http://birdloversonly.blogspot.com/2007/09/may-i-have-this-dance.html

Just click on this link, I think the owners will forgive me.

It really is a year!

It really is "Thoughts Randomly Spoken". About one year ago I posted the last blog and speaking of.....



I went to see Kinky Friedman on Monday night at Barnes and Noble for his booksigning of "You Can Lead a Politician to Water but you Can't Make Him Think". I found him to be a very nice man, a loyal Texan who wants the best for Texas.



He talked about some of the reasons he lost the election, what he would do differently and how he stills feels about some issues. Take teachers for instance; he believes teachers should be paid more than they are and should be able to teach their chosen subjects rather than teach to the TACS test. About that very issue, my daughter Kathy just resigned from her teacher's position in the IISD because of the long hours and low pay. She taught in one of the best schools around for special ed students and her subjects were science and physics. She was sad to leave because she loves her students and the other teachers and loves teaching but the school system demanded more and more of her time which left nothing for her family. This is happening all over Texas. The lottery was formed here for the express purpose of helping the educational needs of the state but so far no money has gone to the school system.



Another problem is voter registration. Voters in Texas have to be registered six weeks in advance of elections. Why? Kinky thinks same day registration like they have in other states would have helped him get more votes. He was very, very popular with the young people and spoke at many college campuses, unfortunately when these students went to vote they found they weren't registered and couldn't register so he lost their votes.



I for one hope he runs again. His ideas should be put into practice and we should vote these self-serving politicians out of office.




By the way that's Kinky Friedman with the cigar, the other one is me.