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  • February 21, 2019
You are here: Home / Archives for Annmarie

In praise of lampwork beads:

August 5, 2016 By Annmarie Leave a Comment

Anyone can make jewelry. It is the unique and different beads that make one’s jewelry stand out to others.

I sell findings that one cannot find elsewhere because they make a big difference. The same beads with different findings give it a whole new look. They make each piece a little different. I am in LOVE with lampwork beads because they are the water color palette to the jewelry making world.

Jen Hopkin's lampwork bead

Jen Hopkin’s lampwork bead

You can find beads in all sizes and shapes, but most especially, you can find them in multiple colors and in watercolor like designs. Every earring I made with a lampwork bead made by Jaci Sinkewicz sold. Every pendant I made with a bead made by Jen Hopkins was admired.

Here in Connecticut, there is the Lampwork Society with a listing of lampwork artists. I know that I have too many beads to count, and at least 20 Jen Hopkins beads, but I bought two more yesterday. My mother expressed dismay at my lack of financial and bead buying control, but I told her, “These are my crack cocaine. End of story.”

Pieces of the Sun Glass bead

Lampwork bead made by Jaci Sinkewicz

I went to Jen’s Studio, The Artsake Gallery, on Rt 74 in Tolland to have one of my watercolor pictures framed. Because she is an expert in this with years of framing experience, she could suggest different combinations of mats and frames for different looks one could achieve. She suggested a cream mat to offset the white in my buildings in the painting. She has a variety of beautiful framing option from which to choose. Jen suggested a white washed frame which would have been perfect if the painting was for a beach house. My painting was of an Inn at Martha’s vineyard so her suggestion really was a perfect one. Despite this, I went with gold- because I am partial to gold (and diamonds- they are a girl’s best friend) frames and have other gold ones in my house.

While there, I saw lampwork beads in front of me by the register. I saw a rainbow of sorts dazzling my eyes….. especially because once there, the lampwork pendant size beads only cost $5 to $15 and I saw the same things at a bead show in Philadelphia for $30-$50. I left with two beads and held them in my pocket like magic beans.

You can find handmade lampwork beads anywhere in Connecticut. I found more at Jen’s framing shop (The Artsake Gallery, RT 74 in Tolland) by the register, but anyone on the Lampwork Association listing will have them as well.

Jewelry making and other crafts are enjoyable in that we work on inspiration. We get in the mood to make jewelry or do other crafts. If you ever experience a jewelry making rut, the addition of a handmade lampwork bead is one way to ramp up inspiration. I see beautiful beads and my jewelry making ideas flow. (Sometimes I sketch them if I think I don’t have time to act now)

ArtSake gallery Beads by Jen Hopkins

Lampwork beads for sale at The Artsake Gallery

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Artsake Gallery, Fire in the Sun Beads, Jaci Sinkewicz, Jen Hopkins, Lampwork Bead Society, Lampwork beads

Shopping Online

May 28, 2016 By Annmarie Leave a Comment

May 28, 2016

My mother went on vacation to Florida in January. She had a great time in Key West.

As they travelled, one young woman with them saw a pair of sandals at a shop for $45. She went online and found them for $35 and bought them. The young woman did this three times in my mother’s presence. It did not matter that she would not have known that the sandals and other items existed until she saw them in local stores, she was just going to buy them online. She assumed she was buying them for cheaper, assuming that they were the exact same thing at the same quality which you don’t know until said item arrives.

Shopping online is here to stay. It is causing upheaval everywhere in retail.

The expected biggest clothing retailer in the United States in 2018? Amazon. I did not expect to read that.

I pulled out a home decorating magazine at the doctor’s office. All the ads were for online retail sites, not traditional stores. I opened my Rachel Ray cooking magazine and all her vendors for cooking items, clothing, workout wear, etc were online sites.

As a bead store, many of my customers say that they want to see the quality of the beads that they are getting. Especially true of gemstones which vary widely in quality and price, seeing is believing and knowing. It is true of sterling silver and pewter too. If you have to shop online, you will want to find a good vendor that you can trust and stick with them- especially for things like crimp beads (which can vary WIDELY in quality and price) and gemstones.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

70% off All Jewelry Making Supplies

May 14, 2016 By Annmarie Leave a Comment

Sale excludes the handmade and consignment items. Pendants are now 50% off. 70% off All Jewelry Making Supplies (beads, wire, findings, hemp, sterling silver and swarovski crystals) now through 5/22.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Art Stroll Tonight

May 5, 2016 By Annmarie Leave a Comment

Imagine Main Street

begins tonight with an Art Stroll from 5:30pm to 8pm. Join us for artist demonstrations up and down Main Street. There will be a strolling puppeteer.

At The Silver Chest, we will have master painters Zaigham Ali and his father, Mr. Ali, painting again using acrylics. Singer John Lacey will be here to entertain us as well. All are accomplished artists.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Craft Fairs

April 24, 2016 By Annmarie Leave a Comment

Tis the season to sign up and pay for craft fairs. We go hoping to make money. It would be good to make money.  I need to cover the cost of my beads and beading addiction. It is imperative that one cover the cost of the booth.

I have been accepted for a couple of handmade items only craft fairs…. then have been located next to someone selling items that are not handmade. They sell them for very cheap prices. Once, I was next to a man selling large hole beads for $2. The beads are manufactured in a far away land no less (obviously not handmade to the people running the craft fair). At another craft fair, a woman was selling manufactured bracelets that looked like ones sold by Fire Mountain Gems. She looked at some of my items and asked question that revealed her total lack of jewelry making knowledge. FMG was selling the bracelets for $2.50 reach, she sold hers for $9.99. She sold a lot, I sold a little.

Said one person about them, “I haven’t done a craft fair for the past two years because I am tired if people standing in front of my booth discussing how they can make my product cheaper. Some even have nerve to ask for instructions. Rant over.”

Amen sister.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: craft fairs, juried craft fairs

Pirates

April 15, 2016 By Annmarie Leave a Comment

It was Friday afternoon about 4pm. A man in his thirties walked in and instead of looking around, walked up to me and asked, “Do you sell pirates?”

“No, no I do not. I sell no charms.”

He stood there. I felt compelled to ask as a nice female, “What kind of pirates did you want?” I was thinking what size, shape, color.

“I don’t know.”

In talking to him, I found out that he was not creative. He did not know how to make anything, nor how he wanted to make his pirates. He was not currently making anything. He had never worked with any artistic mediums such as wood, clay, silver, plastic, or even paper mache. What he did know was this, “I am going to make a lot of money selling pirates.”

“Well, what are you going to make them out of?”

“I don’t know. What do you suggest?”

We had a discussion about clays, silver and plaster mold making. It was more me informing him and he looking like he was listening. I am not sure that he was listening but I am sure that he could hear money falling in the background. He could see dollar signs as we talked. I had started to tell him that it is not so easy to make money unless you have economy of scale in production but I did not waste my time. He did not yet make anything himself. If he wanted to get rich selling pirates, he could figure things out for himself.

In three years of selling other people’s art on consignment, I have never met a woman with such a focus on the dollar. This man was sure he could get rich making things and that is why he wanted to make things. Most of the women I meet like to make things and then wind up donating them or giving them away.

“What would you make pirates out of?”

“I don’t know. I have no idea because I have no interest in pirates.”

“What’s that got to do with it.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Well, I am interested in making other things, and of them, pirates are no where on the list.”

“Like what?”

“Well, 3 D butterflies in silver clay.”

“How are you going to make money off of them?”

Creatively, I want to make them. The problem of how has been working in my mind for a while. My first one was a disaster as I tried the silver clay paper- which has none of the useful qualities I associated with paper. The creative process evolves down a creative (and not so creative) spectrum. Our interest fuels motivation to work and try things (create), aided by creative problem solving which helps us innovate, as long as it is our creative desire to accomplish something.

“You should make pirates.”

Now I was starting to get annoyed. He was not listening. He had stopped thinking about making anything himself so he had no more questions. “I do not have any interest in making a pirate or pirates.”

“So.”

He kept talking. He had heard what I said, decided it sounded like a lot of work that he was not willing to do and wa-la!! He was going to get me to make pirates for him. I assume he was developing a plan where he could make money off of me! That is how he would get rich. I wondered how much I would make in that scenario in his head. Apparently, fools think no one else is as smart as them.

He has no talent, no drive and not enough motivation to even make a prototype but he was sure that he could get rich. I marveled at his thinking. Why don’t more women think like that? I know more women with better ideas, better work ethic and talent.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: life in retail, women as business owners, women in business

Gemstone Sale

March 25, 2016 By Annmarie Leave a Comment

Labradorite Beads

Labradorite

All jewelry making merchandise, including gem grade gemstones, are 50% off, now through March 30. Cheap gemstones are close to clear in color with bare greenish tints. These beads are all deep green, many with the labradorite flash.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Gemstone bead sale, great gemstone prices, Labradorite beads

Women as Business Owners

March 13, 2016 By Annmarie Leave a Comment

Before opening the store, I did my own taxes. As I took steps to start a home based business, I was told to get a real accountant. I followed a suggestion and wound up in Newington. I did not get the suggested accountant. I wound up with another.

“Do you get alimony?” he asked.

No. I never sought alimony, nor thought about it. My first husband stopped working during my brief marriage and he might have been able to ask for alimony but we never made enough money to satisfy his standards. I felt no need to talk about the past with this man. I said no.

Again he asked, “Do you get alimony?”

No.

I wondered about the married man’s attention span that he asked the same question twice. I was not there for personal taxes as much as business advice. I didn’t think that he was thinking about my business while I was there.

“Do you get alimony?”

No.

“Do you get alimony?”

No.

“Do you get alimony?”

Why, why would a man ask the same question five times???? Why?? What is wrong with him?

Here I snapped. “Do you have any advice for me that is business related?”

He stopped, leaned back in his chair, and Said, “Well if I thought that you might have a business making $200,000 a year….”

Said I, “I want to open a retail store this upcoming year. I am trying to prepare.”

“Huh,” was his only reply. He had a different look in his eye then but I was done paying any attention. He had wasted my time for an hour probably wondering more about my personal life than my professional aspirations.

I had a home based business then. I think I qualified for a home office deduction. Do you think I got one? Do you think this accountant even thought about it?

 

I get married again. I got a great accountant…. Who has thousands of clients. If I have a forty minute appointment, I am billed for an hour. Details are irrelevant when it comes to billing… in accounting.

With my great, expensive accountant, my taxes are always automatically extended to the September extension deadline. He smoothly tells me that other non-profits needs to get their books done first (before me). I am poor person running a small business, I could really use the tax refund money and yet I wait until late summer for my taxes to get done with the great and powerful accountant.

I am learning Quickbooks on my own. The accountant insists that I let his associate do the many of the Quickbooks entries for credit cards that I didn’t now how to enter.

The Hartford accountant yelled at his female assistant in front of me when a bill was screwed up. Sadly, I don’t think that she did the billing…. And I think that he didn’t tell her that I had paid upon leaving last time… I am not pleased with the way he talks to this woman. I am pretty sure that she runs the place without credit or assistance. I wonder how long she has been suffering.

He sends his assistant to me to train me in Quickbooks. The assistant missed the first appointment. I call him, I do not tell the great accountant who is his boss that his assistant forgot the appointment.

I was supposed to be charged $35 an hour for the assistant to train me. I wait again for the assistant to show who is about 25. He shows, breezes in and says in 3 sentences, don’t do this, that or that. It could have been done over the phone. Did he have my file to show me on a computer screen what he is talking about? No. He drove to my store to train me, nothing in hand for a visual aid, and it lasted 3 minutes. Apparently, just showing up is an accomplishment for him. Quickbooks training sessions can last 6 hours, he left after I asked a few questions which he answered tersely. He arrived at 10:03, he left at 10:08. I was billed $90. If he was costing me $35 an hour, that was over two hours of work. As it was, he missed the first appointment wasting my time and then arrived and wasted my time more. This was the end of the great Hartford accountant for me.

As I went back to do the books for my 2013 taxes, I saw all these entries already listed for 2013, that should have been entered for 2012. Someone screwed up all the entries. The accountant wanted me to let his assistant do the books (all general journal entries, all credit card expenses, all cash purchases) for me, and the parts he touched were entered with wrong date. I can do that on my own. That meant my 2012 taxes were missing big expenses. They should be redone.

I need another accountant. I have trouble finding one. I wind up in Newington again. My husband liked his accountant. Filing my business taxes upon extension meant that we could not use his accountant for our personal taxes.

We are issued an April appointment because we had no appointment the year beforehand. I tell my husband that they can’t get business taxes done on time if our appointment stays in April. My husband calls, is told it will be no problem to get all the taxes done. We arrive. Said the accountant, “Oh, I didn’t realize that you had a store. I thought you had some home based business.”

If a woman has a business, it is small peanuts. For the second time, the same accounting firm has assumed that my business would be something inconsequential. He assumed that I probably sold tupperware with some pass though income to list on one line, not a corporation requiring a separate 1120S form. It is depressing to go through this.

His accountant does not want to redo the 2012 taxes. “Not worth the effort for the return.” Apparently, he does not want to do the work. He is more than willing to bill for his time. Again, with another accountant our taxes are not done until September. He had said that they would be done by the end of May, then never returned a phone call in June or July. In August, he has the nerve to say to me, “You know, we need to get these done. The extension only goes until September 14.” I want another accountant.

My intuition has told me that there was a woman who could help me. I spend a year looking for a female accountant. I do not find her. Before Christmas, I call someone local and they do not call back.

I just went to add in my loan interest for this past year and find another loan interest entry for 2015. That means last year’s entry for $7000 (I paid $7000 in interest on my business loan) was entered wrong, and is not in the figures for 2014. My accountant, the one who does not return phone calls, made a $7000 mistake. I could do that myself.

If there is a message and a lesson in all this, it is that you need to know what is going on with your business and your money. Sometimes you can make your own mistakes and make no worse ones than the professionals paid to help you. Know your stuff and do not give over all your power to others. Our money does not matter to anyone else as much as it does to us. You also know your business better than others.

You need to look critically at all figures and ask, ‘what might be missing?’ In particular, is there a time when the business credit card did not work? Mobile credit card processing often fails at craft fairs, trade shows, gem shows, exhibit halls and at event held in other large venues. If the business card didn’t work, how did you pay and has that been entered as an expense? Are there other times when you may have used cash? Tolls paid with cash or easy pass? Have they been accounted for yet?

My business taxes were done first by two expensive accountants (the pro bono one was the one who did the worst job but who kept telling me SBA loans were a waste of tax payer money and that I should declare bankrtuptcy) and neither made sure that my inventory purchases were entered as cost of goods sold. My husband had set the Quickbooks up first and had not done it properly (free help). Neither accountant caught it. Then, my inventory purchases were not entered in the year of 2012 as costs of goods sold because the assistant entered them as ‘adjustments over and under’ in the wrong year. No one there caught the fact that there were low sales and no costs of good sold being deducted. Common sense would have said that the numbers did not add up- cost of goods was too low. I asked someone myself to see if I was seeing things correctly and I was told about entering material purchases myself. Then I found the wrong entry listed in the wrong year. I can do bad all by myself. If I am paying professionals $150 and $175 an hour, why do I have to figure this out myself?

 

Dealing with accountants is like taking a car to the dealership for a woman. The dealership tells you what great service they are giving you but I always wonder if they actually fixed the problem I brought the car in for and I am always sure that I overpaid after I left. I have had three different accountants screw up my taxes in simple ways that I would have done. I could have done that myself.

Small business owners have a hard time delegating; that is in the literature. Sometimes it is really because no one does it as well as you. I was just in the beginning stages of a business and I have had more mistakes made when others were paid $150-175 an hour than genuine assistance.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: female business owners, sexism in business, women as business owners, women in business

50% off All Jewelry Making Merchandise

March 12, 2016 By Annmarie Leave a Comment

Now through March 30. Sale excludes handmade items sold on consignment.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Sales are great

February 19, 2016 By Annmarie Leave a Comment

Our store did really well in 2012 after opening in November of 2011. In my first January when retail is traditionally slow anyway, we wondered about ever succeeding. A woman came in, walked all around, and said, “I just bought beads 50% off in Longmeadow yesterday. It is really great to get half off.” She bought nothing from us.

It is great to get half off. It is usually a strategy to get people into the store during traditionally slow times, but I had a bad feeling about this big sale.

It is not usual for a privately owned store to be running half off sales… Unless they are going out of business. I worked at the mall while substitute teaching. Chain stores have sales of 60 and 70% off but I am sure that they are still making money even when they do. A small business has a bigger struggle to cover rent, taxes, electricity, cable, phone and advertising, staff before ever making a profit.

Even though I had tried to research all stores selling beads within a 100 mile radius, I had never heard of any stores in Longmeadow selling beads. When I did find it, it was already out of business.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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