Weekend

[catscradle]

Slept from after dinner on Friday till Saturday afternoon. Back meds had me out. But I think I needed the sleep as I averaged about 5 hours a night during the week with a low and high of 3/6.

Finally built up enough steam to go out for dinner Saturday night. Actually, it was more like I didn't have enough steam to actually cook. You've got to weigh these things. . . anyway - had sushi. Very good sushi. I'm going to have to go there more often. Also went to the Bali store and bought WAY too much. Lots of silver, some wood carvings and a cool pair of shorts on mega sale.

Sunday I went to a bead bazar. Very fun. Bought some cool beads there and got some ideas on things to do with them. Then I leafed through a wholesale bead magazine. Wow. Lots o' beads - good semi-precious stones & metals, along with glass and crystal beads, beading tools, and selling displays - pretty cheap prices.

I'm thinking about making rosaries and chaplets. As I was looking through rosary websites, I was pretty appalled to see how expensive they were in relation to how much it cost them to make. So, I'm gonna try my hand at it. Purchase the materials for one or two rosaries and if it doesn't look like complete crap or something that requires so much time it becomes a full time job, maybe I'll try my hand at making and selling them at prices which aren't a total rip off.

Comments

Re: ETA

[catscradle.livejournal.com]

I was thinking overhead as well. I'm hoping it's overhead. I can get that there's a niche and craft people tend to markup to sell themselves and make a good profit, and I'm all fine with that but. . . there just seems to be something very wrong with that when it comes to religious items. I guess if someone wants to pay $500 for something that's worth about $50, then that's their outlook - and if the market will bear it then cool - but I still get this uneasy queasy feeling that there's something wrong with hyper inflating the cost of a rosary, or Buddhist prayer beads, or water from the ganges, or whatever the holy product is.

As for the book - I'd love to check into it, as while I can make the craft, not sure how to get the word out or market it. If you can remember the woman and the title, I'd appreciate the reference =)

Re: ETA

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

I'm so there with you. Esp since they're giving that heaping helping of "If you really loved the Lord, you'd spend the extra money" to go along with it. Because frankly even if every cent then immediately gets given to blind, legless orphans it still squicks me that they are literally putting a price on your faith. Didn't some weirdo tack up a manifesto to a church door because of crap like that?

And I'm home now so I can give you the book info. Apparently in a fit of precognition I bought it =)

It's Make it Profitable by Barbara Brabec, ISBN 0-87131-903-9. According to the bullet points on the back cover it talks about:

Business planning and goal setting
Time Management and Organization
Finding a New or Additional Workplace
Design and Packaging
The Problem of Pricing
Supplies and Shipping
Sharpening your marketing skills
Production methods and strategies
Keeping everything in perspective

It's been a while since I've read it but I remember it as being very helpful. Heck, I may reread the chapter on pricing tonight just to see what it says ;)

I believe she's got other books too but I can't find a list inside of it. But it's a very easy read. It's thick but I wouldn't be surprised if you plowed right through it in a weekend tops.

Re: ETA

[catscradle.livejournal.com]

Thank you muchly! I'll go check that out of the library =)

Re: ETA

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

I'"m happy to lend a hand! =)

I skimmed my copy last night and it's still good. The only thing I can think to say against it is that it's very geared towards those who want to make a living off of their crafts, so it may have more business-oriented stuff than you need, but OTOH it's uber-helpful with things like packaging, selling and whatnot so I'd still recommend it even if you're just doing the rosaries for pin money.