[Jewelry making - Article 00669] - Re: [Orchid] Drilling holes in Glass and perceptions of value

[Elizabeth Gordon-Mills]

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    Many thanks to all of you who posted tips on how to drill holes in
    beach glass.  Now I do not have an excuse for not making something of
    my "marine treasures" box which has been sitting on the shelf for
    many years, gradually being added to.  Some of the jewellery I have
    seen on various websites is gorgeous.  And doing things with objects
    from the beach gives me an excuse to make more trips to the beach,
    which I love, having been a marine scientist in the past. 

    This brings me to another issue.  A jewellery range I did in the
    past was not that well received, I think because the "stone" - a seed
    from an Australian native fruit (quandong), was perceived as worthless
    because you could pick it up off the ground. People would say "Oh, I
    have a box full of them in my garage", as if they could make a
    necklace themselves.  It is actually quite hard to do it properly -
    to get the hole going straight through the  middle of the stone, to
    match the markings etc, and then of course to string them on silk
    etc. 

    My  designs were "antique" in style, and used elements of buds,
    flowers and leaves in various combinations with the stone.   One shop
    owner made a judgement on my pieces (without even looking at them) by
    saying that silver was only 42cents an ounce, and so how could I
    charge so much!!!  It didn't seem to matter that the designs and work
    that went into it had added value to the original stone. I have to
    say also that there were also shop and gallery owners who loved the
    pieces, and sold them for me. 

    Beach glass fits into the same category, although you do pick it up
    from the clean sand, rather that the dirt, and it has been through
    the "purifying" process of being washed and worn by the sea. 

    It always amazes me that people who spend over $100 on a face cream,
    which is used up in a few weeks, will think that a silver pendant at
    $75 is "expensive". 

    My questions boils down to this.  How do you find out what people
    will value and therefore spend their money on? 

Elizabeth Gordon-Mills


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