Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018 - 11:54 a.m.

Spent a lot of money on jewelry supplies today. Yikes.

Spent the few days before looking at the work and selling contexts of artists I would like to consider my aesthetic and professional peers.

In the sort of galleries I want to be in, $55 is the lowest price point. There are price points clustering around $55, $85, $115, $150, $225. For items not featuring precious metals and gems. My god, you would not believe the prices for very simple designs with mass-produced ear wires etc.

I identified a couple design things I can change to make the pieces seem more finished. Easy peasy.

That said, I revisited my prices and still seem stuck on “my lowest price point can be $45. Then I spend a couple more minutes and another $3 on materials for the next group up, and that will be a...$55 price point?” Not enough of a spread.

Trying to find that sweet spot where I’m not alienating my friends and relatives by charging more than they can afford, but not putting myself in a position where I am not making enough profit for me to want to keep making them, either. That happened before with the leaf pieces. I really resented having to make the fiddly damn things for the wholesale price...that was a sign of a problem. I have to remind myself that the support of friends and relatives is a bonus, but they’re not my market in and of themselves.

So anyway. Working it all out.

Semi-relatedly, author Chuck Tingle is a master of personal branding. Yes, the “pounded in the butt by a tide pod” guy. I looked at his fab page and he knows what the millennials want and oh, how he delivers. I long for that sort of clarity. Next tasks: work more on thinking out the branding stuff. Articulate the value of my work so I can figure out how to convert it effectively. Work on text for item descriptions and the text of the info card/care instructions. Also: I realized that all these photos I have been using are fine for the web but I need to take more at higher resolution for any printed stuff. Blargh.

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