Feb
08
2010
Feb
07
2010
Feb
06
2010
Spring Wish List Results & Survey Winner
Lindsay Mader was selected as the random winner in our Spring Wish List Survey. We just sent her a $100 Gift Certificate for her participation. Congratulations to Lindsay!
We received more responses than ever in this survey. Thanks to all who participated. Many of the results were as expected, but you also provided us with a few surprises. You also took to the time to provide very detailed feedback and ideas that is always much appreciated. We don’t get to talk directly to many customers, so its invaluable to us to receive that much feedback.
I’ll summarize the results in the next few tables and paragraphs for you:
- You are most likely to buy gemstone, crystal and pearl beads in the coming months
- You are least likely to buy lucite, wood or pandora style beads
- With metal beads, you are most likely to buy Sterling Silver and Solid Copper
- In findings, you are most interested in Clasps & Closures and earwires in Sterling Silver, followed by base metal and solid copper findings
- For gemstone pendants, the most sought after style is unique, one of a kind faceted focal beads. We were amazed at the high price point the majority of you are willing to pay ($7-15)…of course we realize it needs to be the “right” pendant
- Other sought after gemstone pendants are rectangle, triangle, free form and briolettes
- For other focal pendants, you are most interested in lampwork pieces
- Overwhelmingly, we were asked to add more styles of crystal beads and larger and smaller gauges of Sterling, Gold Filled and Copper Wire
- The majority of respondents bead for themselves, but DO sell jewelry on Etsy, Artfire, websites, or local craft shows.
On the more detailed level, we received a lot of great ideas for findings we should add, gemstones you are looking for, new styles of glass and crystal beads, new stringing materials. You provided a lot of pricing suggestions as well as good feedback on the quality of items you would like to purchase. The devil is in the details on this survey, but you can bet that we are paying attention to the feedback you provided.
One suprising request was for more higher end gemstone selections. We have been hesitant to add high end semi precious or precious gemstones because it’s difficult to show the difference on a picture on a website. For every faceted gemstone, we could choose from 5-10 different grades and we tend toward the middle rather than the high end. You’ve convinced us we need to move closer to the top quality grades than we have in the past. We’ll do it slowly to see how customers respond, but we did buy a quite a bit more than ever before this week.
Again, thanks to all who participated!
Feb
05
2010
Tucson Day 5 (Thursday)
It was Holidome Day at last. Gorgeous beads, jewelry, findings, calibrated stones, etc. It’s the place to be seen…if you can find anyone among the masses. It’s a wholesale show that attracts bead stores, designers, gift stores, jewelry stores, and everyone in the jewelry business. Unlike the AGTA and GJX shows, which are mostly calibrated gems and fine jewelry, this show has those as well as beads and pearls from India, China, and elsewhere in the world.
I generally don’t care for the shopping experience there because of the level of chaos, but this time did enjoy some of the people and interactions. As I was waiting for Cynthia to buy some copper beads, I stood on the side of one of the main isles and watched people. A couple guys came buy from India speaking Hindi, then a few women walked by speaking Italian. The guy behind me was speaking Chinese on his phone. In the 10 minutes I stook there, I also heard some Slavic language that I did not recognize, and saw several people with badges from France and Japan. It’s truly an international show! Fun to be in an environment with all that diversity.
We actually finished most of our shopping before the show opened since we have many sources for most of the items we buy. But, it’s the still only place we can find certain items and vendors.
After we finished up in the Holidome, we spent the afternoon visiting with some new potential business partners who represent new products lines. Quite fun and informative, but we are all talked out and looking forward to being home on Friday!
Here’s a few more shots from our journeys. You were all asking us for some more focal beads, so we bought a few tons of rough Rose Quartz for some very large focals (NOT), we orders some Chandelier Crystal from Preciosa that you can wrap for focals (NOT). Seriously, if you haven’t seen rough gem stock, this is the type of thing sold throughout Tucson in the gem mineral shows. The last pictures are a couple shots from the Holidome.
Rose Quartz Rough Stock being sold in Tucson Mineral Show
Just for fun…Preciosa Product Line Chandelier Crystal Samples
One of 50 tables just like this in the Holidome
Crowded isles and boths in Holidome.
Feb
05
2010
Tucson Day 4 (Wednesday)
Mostly meetings with many of our primary vendors today. Checked out their new products. Lots of fun things in beading supplies, findings and such.
We also spent a lot of the day looking at potential, brand new product lines. It will be a few months before we launch them, but we’ll be adding some products we know you are going to love!
We did find time to buy some Sterling Silver items, but it was a rather thrifty day by this week’s standards.
Thursday is the Holidome. I call it the horrordome because its so crowded and chaotic. We’ll pick up diamonds, rubies, emeralds…..all the cheap stuff!
Feb
03
2010
Tucson Day 3
It was a big day on Tucson Day 3! Very spendy day, but well worth it. We restocked our economy and mid range faceted gemstone beads, finished up on pearls, restocked out turquoise, added some base metal chain and findings, and much more. Based on recent survey input, we also added some higher end gemstone strands and large round pearls. We’re looking forward to posting them in abeadstore.com!
Here are some pictures of some the the more specialized booths that sell turquoise, copper, and faceted gemstones. There are literally hundreds of vendors with faceted gemstones, the key finding ones you can trust and who will give you a good price. A good selection of Solid Copper beads and findings much harder to find as most vendors prefer to haul around Sterling Silver since the revenue on it is so much more than copper. Turquoise is everywhere, but most prices are simply too high for our customers. We have a few really good vendors for each one of those materials. They make it hard for us by being at different shows, so we have to motor all across Tucson to finally get to them all.
Wish we could have them all!
Chinese Turquoise - One of the ‘smaller’ vendors in terms of inventory
No way to do these sparkly gems justice in a picture on an iPhone…..
Feb
02
2010
Tucson Day 2
Very busy day. Replenished our pearl inventory with more to go today. Finally found some nice Keishi pearls after much searching. Also bought a lot of economy gemstone and some more focal beads.
The crowds are still pretty small, but today things will pick up as one of the high end shows called GJX starts today. I’m hoping to find time to go there, though buying will be limited as it’s mostly very expensive calibrated precious and rare gemstones. We haven’t figured out a good way to sell those online yet!
Here’s a couple pictures from yesterday’s wanderings. The first is a single table in the booth of one of our pearl vendors. There are another 30+ tables just as full of pearls as this one is.
The second picture is for those of you who haven’t experienced very large gemstone (rock) art! Took this at one of the retails shows at the Tucson Electric Park.
Jan
31
2010
Sunday - Arrived in Tucson for Gem Show
Got up way too early this morning, but arrived at the Gem Mall by mid-morning. the Gem Mall is probably the largest wholesale show for jewelry supplies in Tucson, at least in square footage.
Getting there early gave us a almost a full day to buy many different types of gemstones! Picked up many of the gemstone pendants you’ve been asking us for as well as many other desparately needed replacements for faceted items we’ve run out of. We think you’ll love some of the unusual stones we selected today.
Tomorrow, its back to the same local to do more gemstone, pearl and findings shopping.
Here’s a picture of the outside of the 2 large tents at the Gem Mall. Not sure how big they are, but I think several football fields would easily fit inside both tents. I’m guessing about 100 different vendors in the two tents.
The picture below is about midway down one of the isles in the smaller, but taller tent. Basic booths are about 10x10, but most of the vendors have at least 2 or 3. The largest booths are actually about 20x80 or larger. Gemstones, pearls, whatever are just stacked on top of tables with backstock boxes loaded up under the tables.
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