Finding Work in the Beading Industry

From the mailbag : How can one could involve themselves with bead shows and be paid for it?

Answer:I did a lot of beading as a child tapering down to almost none at present. While you are working with gorgeous raw materials, beading can be very tedious, especially if you are working with tiny 3mm or 2mm beads. Some beads will have holes too narrow to string, which involves the extra step of using a bead reamer. Beads have a tendency to jump around all over the place. And sometimes it's hard to match up the right bead with the desired wire or stringing material. Overall, it can be quite a frustrating experience.

If boredom with beading is your main concern, many beaders make their own beads and pay others to string the beads for them. For example, check out Felice Designs located in downtown Charleston, SC. Making glass beads, Felice began working full time from her apartment. Since then she has been in a few studio spaces before opening her own shop in April 2004. She is also a past winner of the Saul Bell award in - you guessed it - beading.

Working at Bead Shows

Getting in the business end of the beading industry is one way to stay in the loop without fabricating the jewelry yourself. Now, most bead shows I have attended have been wholesale only with the lapidary or their rep working the booth at the show. This is because buyers will often have questions that only a trained professional can answer.

However, some bead shows are retail too. You may want to check out the American Bead and Jewelry Show schedule and if one is being held in your area, go down to talk to the show's promoters to see if any positions are available. You might also want to check out the JustBeads website for their list of bead show and contact those promoters too.

Being a Beading or Jewelry Representative

You could also consider representing other beading and jewelry artists at retail and wholesale craft shows. Contact beaders and jewelry artists whose work you admire and ask them if they need a rep in a certain area of the country. You can do this by searching online or checking out craft shows at which they are exhibiting. However, don't do your sales pitch at the show - that will only annoy the artist or crafter. Get contact info so you can follow up by email or phone call after the show.

The normal payment arrangement for this type of work is based on a percentage of sales. So you'd have to pay for your expenses upfront hoping to sell enough at each show to make the trip worthwhile.