What are the different ways you diversify your business?

This is the topic of the week at Flaming Hot. Most of us sell our beads and jewelry online, however that isn't always enough. I have a wholesale Children's line of jewelry that doesn't include lampworking at all, but it is what lead me to start lampworking in the first place, so I am forever grateful to that line. I also have a wholesale line of knitting markers that is a lot of fun as well. I also look forward to the selling at different shows in my area. I love getting to meet my customers face to face and enjoy the reactions of them as they say, "You make the beads?" I always carry some glass and examples of beads in the stages of making a bead so that I have a tangible example of how I create the beads. This helps them understand the process of lampworking better and they can appreciate and understand why my items are more expensive than a lot of the other jewelry at the shows. My other favorite way of selling is to do home shows. It is a win win situation for all involved. The hostess earns a pair of free earrings, a discount on her purchases, as well as earning free money based on the sales at her party. Her friends get to come and visit, shop, and snack on good food. I get out of the house, and once again, get to meet my customers face to face, and create new friends. I always have a wonderful time at these parties. In the end, the best way to diversify my business is to keep an open mind, to look for new and different ways to market my products. I only wish I had enough time to implement all of my ideas. Time does get short in a house with 4 kids after all!

Allison's first beads!

Yesterday Allison got to make her first beads! Needless to say, Mom held her hands over Allison's. She had a lot of help, and was never without my hands on hers at all near the torch. She is not ready for that, but had a fantastic time! She first made the bead on the left, then the right, and then asked if she could make a froggy bead. It took me almost 4 1/2 years to work up to that, and here she is on her first day, wanting to try anything! I should be more like her in that way, not being afraid to explore new ideas and techniques. Anyways, I told her that if she made the base bead, that Mom would put a frog on it for her. She was delighted and  quickly picked out her colors. After I made the frog and put it in the kiln, she went inside for about 5 minutes. She than came out and declared," I think the beads are done now, can we get them out?" LOL! She wasn't thrilled when I told her they wouldn't be ready for her to see until the morning.  When she woke up this morning, the first words out of her mouth were, "Can we get my frog out of the kiln now?" She was so excited when I answered yes!  Here she is with the beads right out of the kiln, a close up of her beads, and then her with her beads and frog all dressed up on a necklace. It was so much fun to see her excitement. She wants to make more beads today, I may have created a monster!

Back to reality

Reality came at me early this morning as I woke up and realized that Tyler’s alarm clock hadn’t gone off for school, so I scrambled quickly out of bed, woke him up, and wished for a few more days of spring break. After a glorious week of sleeping in,  no one was ready to go back to school today.

The kids had a good spring break filled with friends, movies, and of course, they played a lot of Wii. It would have been the perfect week if I hadn’t thrown my back out on Wednesday. Chris was sweet and stayed home with me so he could drive me to the doctor’s as there was no way I could drive. They loaded me up on muscle relaxers and pain killers that knocked me out each day. I don’t remember the last time I slept so much. I was finally able to start moving around well on Sat. and I snuck in some “therapy” otherwise known as torch time. I had to make more frogs, I just can’t seem to stop making them! Here are some of the new ones.

One great thing about my back going out was that I was able to get some reading in. I read the last book in the Tally Whyte series, "The Bone Man." I loved it! If you haven't read the series by Vicki Stiefel, you should check them out. I sure hope there are more of these books coming soon as I want to know more about Tally and where her life takes her.

LEST Featured Artist

My friend, and fellow lampworking artist,  Nicole Valentine is featuring a different artist from the Etsy street team LEST on her blog. This month I was chosen as the featured artist.You can read the post here. I think this is a great idea and it perfectly timed as LEST is having a Welcome Sale that starts today and runs until April 7th, be sure to check out all the fantastic artists who are participating!