[Jewelry making - Article 00310] - Re: [Orchid] Experience with the Rosen show

[Lisa Bialac-Jehle]

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    Hmmmm...maybe I didn't put something in the right words. I didn't
    mean at all to discourage applications from viable wholesalers, just
    giving you the particulars. Really, it depends on what medium you are
    in, and your work overall. 

    For example, if you made beautiful inlaid knives, or small handcast
    fountains, chances are you would get in right away as there aren't
    many who do that. But do you have any idea how many jewelers apply to
    just about any show? Go and count the ratio sometime. I think there
    must be about 2 jewelers to 1 of any other medium, at Rosen. That's
    why it is harder to get in making jewelry. 

    Some jewelers get in immediately, because their work is so unique
    that it stands out, (in a good way). Some get in after doing a summer
    show or two. Some don't get in because their work simply does not fit
    the venue, or because it looks like someone's work who is more
    established, (amazing how many variations we all come up with using
    the same materials isn't it?), or because it isn't good enough for
    the judges that year, or that your slides are lousy, or that the work
    just isn't good enough period, no matter what your friends and your
    mom have told you. 

    Other than Baltimore, the ACC still hates me...one of them told me
    that my work was, "too organic". (It was good enough for Cherry Creek
    though, the one time I applied). 

    I got lucky a long time ago. I had not been in business for very
    long, and had only done retail shows. Not all that successfully. My
    best friend of six years made picture frames, and had been selling
    wholesale for some time, although not at Rosen. She talked me into
    applying to Rosen, with the idea that she she would apply too, and
    help me through the whole process. I scraped together the money, did
    the slides and sent in my application. 

    I got in, she did not. She was furious. Called up Rosen and told them
    that I was a rank newbie, and could never do a show without her. I
    even called to try to get her in, (I was green ok...?). They did not
    let her in for another two years. She pretty much stopped speaking to
    me. 

    I went and did the show. It was a summer show that was then in
    Boston. It was horrible! I was at the end of a row at the back of
    the hall, and several booths around me were last minute no-shows. On
    the up side, a cute guy jeweler down the aisle asked me out for
    dinner that night. 

    By the end of the first day with the help of that silly, "New Face"
    banner, 37 stores had placed orders with me. ( I worked my tail off
    to fill those orders. I was a single mom, newly divorced with no
    source of income and no degree. Yikes!) 

    The cute guy told me that he couldn't go out with anyone that was
    more successful than he was, my relationship with my best friend was
    over, (oh...she went on to produce a million dollar a year picture
    frame business), but boy was this wholesale business easy!!
    Lol...lol...lol...Turned out that I wasn't quite so slick without
    the banner at the next show...Winter, but I have done well enough in
    jewelry do to nothing else but that for the past 13 years. 

    So what the heck...apply....you never know what will happen....You
    might end up in the wholesale business....Oh yeah.....I did go back
    to school and got the degree. 

    Lisa, (couldn't figure out why the heck the 22k medium solder wasn't
    melting around my bezels. Turns out I had inadvertently grabbed the
    hard solder. I must have been distracted by the owls hooting right
    outside the studio window....Yeah right! Excuse me while I go bang my
    head against something! ) Topanga, CA USA

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