Please help me save time

[bruggen]

Hi - No answer to your question but admiration for your jewellery. Where did you get those earhooks from, are they Cookson's? Very elegant.
Theresa

Hi Theresa, glad that you like what I do, the earwires are from W J Sutton, they come in a pack of three pairs, are called Silver Modern Safetywires and are serial coded SM056, Cookson's don't make them. I think they cost in the region of £5, they have a minimum spend of around £50 I think but not 100% sure on that.
Steve/Bruggen

[medusa]

I have accounts with both and did put some stuff on but it didn't sell and I lost heart. Not put any of my recent stuff on though.

I think it's sometimes a bit of a slow haul to start with. I just had a couple of things up but started getting more sales when I had more stuff up. There are also circles you can join which I think help, because people who like one shop sees your shop if it's in the same circle. I'm in one with a couple from here and I've ended up buying a few things which were brought to my attention via circles and favourites.

I also find that some people don't want to buy directly from etsy so approach me directly after finding me there. Not sure why they don't want to go via etsy, but hey ho, a sale is a sale, so I can't complain.

after all this waffle I suppose I'm saying it's worth sticking with.

[bruggen]

Thanks for the encouragement Medusa, I may think again, juggling cats at the moment, making, preparing bits for the future, got some bits in one shop, preparing bits for another shop and still have not sold much. Just finished a pair of cufflinks today, in the tumbler at the moment, carved two sets of initials and two tennis racquets, casting gone up to 10 quid and their silver is 1.05 plus vat, can't believe the price hike.

[medusa]

... casting gone up to 10 quid and their silver is 1.05 plus vat, can't believe the price hike.

my sympathies. I'm building up to pretty please asking my casters if I can use my own silver. I pay something like a 30% surcharge.

[theresa]

Hi Steve re your comments about Folksy/Etsy. I have shops on both sites and sales have dropped substantially since Christmas. Sold a pair of earrings last week but that was the first sale online since Christmas - pretty dismal all round. I also have a showcase locally and sales are down 70% over last year. I just hope it's the current economic climate and things will eventually pick up again because it's very depressing. (Though it has made me find uses for all those offcuts of wire and sheet - amzing how little you need for a pair of earrings!)
Theresa

[bruggen]

As an update on this question, I have telephoned half a dozen casting companies and the squares could be cast either individually, in pairs or the best was a mould of six per sprue, multiples of these sprues would then be cast as required and costs were between 80 pence to £!.50 for each square, plus metal at up to £1.55 a gramme plus vat plus postage. I am afraid it just isn't economical to cast these items in any quantity in this country, so if anyone has links elsewhere let me know. I don't really think that it will be the way for me and will continue the individual cutting route. A bright beam of hope though is Cooksons said they would look at the cutting charge if I was ordering quantity, hundreds I guess. Other tooling was just too expensive, economy of scale!!

[Dennis]

How about this then:

If strips are cut repeatedly from the same side, albeit by Cookson and then chopped into squares, most of them will end up as squares bevelled on one side. The flat side could face the beads, but you would still have to drill them, ideally using a small pillar drill like the smaller Proxxon. You would also need the drill vice that goes with it.

Cutting strips like this does cause some slight twisting, but not that much.

Alternatively you could work out the distance between the holes and drill them all in the strip before having them chopped, or chopping them yourself. If all this brainstorming is making things worse, tell me to shut up. Dennis.

[caroleallen]

Have you thought about getting them layered or etched. I've had both done very successfully.