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Saturday, March 22, 2014

Are You Wasting Your Energy Worrying About Your Competition? And the Start of My Medieval Inspired Line of Jewelry



Warning…. I’m going to do that soapbox thing now.

Wasted Energy

Stop spending time and energy worrying about competing with other jewelry makers.  Spend your time and energy on improving your work, your store, your listings, your audience.

First of all, it is a turn off to potential customers if you bad-mouth the competition… snarky, bitchy, whiny… all of it.  And guess what?  You NEVER KNOW where a potential customer is.  Anyone and everyone who sees your written words on the internet is a potential customer.

Secondly, it’s a waste of energy.  You will rarely see a focused professional jewelry maker whining and carrying on about their competition.  And by “competition”, I don’t just mean other self-representing jewelry makers.  I mean don’t bitch non-stop about Chinese mass-produced imports.  Just don’t.  Don’t bitch about people copying your work.  Don’t bitch about nasty customers who approach you in your show booth.  Don’t bitch about how much the price of silver has gone up.

If you simply MUST bitch, do it only occasionally and in a private setting with a few people

When you are whiny/complaining/negative often and in public, I can guarantee you are turning people away from your business.

Spend more time practicing your workroom skills and less time worrying about things you have no control over.

Okay, rant over.  Now onto something completely different... a new line of jewelry.

The Start of My Medieval Line

Recently I designed a piece of jewelry as a gift to the stylist of the TV show “The Originals” to be considered for use on the show (wish me luck… this is a new thing for me).  This is the piece…
http://www.brackendesigns.com/servlet/StoreFront

But then I liked it so much (isn’t it great when we like our own work?!) that I decided to keep going and I made the start of a whole line of medieval  inspired jewelry.  Okay, not that vampires and medieval are the same thing, but I think the styling could be similar.

So here are some of the first pieces in my new line.
http://www.brackendesigns.com/servlet/StoreFront

http://www.brackendesigns.com/servlet/StoreFront

http://www.brackendesigns.com/servlet/StoreFront

http://www.brackendesigns.com/servlet/StoreFront

http://www.brackendesigns.com/servlet/StoreFront


6 comments:

  1. I agree about the 'whiny' thing; not grownup behavior at all :-)
    I honestly don't even know what anyone around me makes or does artistically unless I happen to see it in a group setting. I like it that way because I don't want to feel I 'nicked' or subconsciously 'borrowed' from someone else.
    The Medieval line is looking great! More more! :-)

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  2. Thank you for saying what a lot of us want to say, but are afraid to say. I have seen this behavior destroy bead buy groups, destroy other designers reputations, destroy friendships (the worse).
    I don't understand the almost possessive competitiveness - everything from where someone got their beads to someone asked for help.

    Anyway, I LOVE your medieval designs.

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  3. Your rant was spot on. Love the medieval line!!! Thanks for sharing.

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  4. LOVE your medieval line - very nice work!! And agree with your comments regarding folks complaining endlessly. Both as a peer & as a customer, I get pretty tired of the complaints I hear so often. Nice post!!

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  5. Your new line is really exciting and good luck on the TV spot!! You're spot on about the turnoff complaining can be....this tends to keep me out of Etsy Forums, except to lurk....sometimes there's useful info there, too =D

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  6. love the new line of jewellery and agree with every word of the rant.

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