Internet Artisan Interview - The Beaded Lily

Sarah, owner and operator of thebeadedlily, uses a variety of techniques in her jewelry design. Many of her current pieces are complicated and minimalist at the same time. I started following Sarah's work in the Etsy Beadweavers challenges, about a year ago. If your love beadweaving like I do, the Etsy Beadweavers are something to see. After watching Sarah's shop on Etsy, I noticed her at other selling venues, many the same I belong to. There's lots of opportunity to see her work; I suggest taking a look at her blog first, and go from there.

• What's the name of your business/shop?

thebeadedlily

• Do you have a registered domain name and/or a blog?

http://thebeadedlily.blogspot.com/

• What type of handmade products do you sell?

Pieces by thebeadedlily generally fall into three categories.

Stringing: bold, colorful, texture laden designs, often influenced by the artists and artisans who create the beads I work with.

Wirework: simple, clean, and highly primitive. I use ancient wire-working techniques and aim for what the earliest jewelry must have looked like, to create something timeless, like what you'd find in a museum's antiquities exhibit.


Beadwork: totally unique and original one of a kind art pieces.

• Show us a piece you recently finished

• What are you working on right now? Any sketches?

A collection of pieces inspired by the colors of Alphonse Mucha, my favorite artist. I don't sketch too much and I didn't sketch these at all-- but I am beading with my Mucha calendar right next to me!

• If you have a website or blog, what do you use for advertising? What do your avatars look like?

The graphics are my current ads and the face shot is my current avatar for most of my accounts.

• If you have a website or blog, tell us about your favorite widget.

I'm not too into them. I make sure that my Etsy mini, ArtFire kiosk and 1000Market shopfront are up and running! I worry that too many cool widgets will get distracting.

• Which online selling vendors do you use? What do you like best about each one?

Love Etsy's built in traffic!
ArtFire has some cool cutting edge features and is so reasonably priced!
1000Markets has such a gorgeous look and really upscale professional feel.

• Are you involved in social networking? What's your favorite and why? If you're not involved, you must have a good reason!

Does Flickr count? If not, facebook! I just like knowing what everyone is up to. I'm not very skilled at leveraging social contacts.
Keep up with me:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/thebeadedlily/70612550008?ref=ts

http://twitter.com/thebeadedlily

• All of us can use a helpful business hint once a week. What's yours?

Grab yourbusinessname.com and hold on to it!

• Do you have a "modus operandi" for computing the price of a handmade object? Tell us your formula?

It depends on the item. For earrings and wirework I'm mainly concerned with what the market will bear. For beadweaving the key factor is how long the piece takes to create. With my strung pieces the biggest factor is the price of the materials that go into the piece.

• We'd love to see your little corner of the world, where you create.

Two shots -- the fairly organized wall and absolutely unorganized table!

• Where do you see your artwork in one year? Any plans in the works?

That's something I've been contemplating myself for a week or so as I've been thinking about tightening up some things. I really haven't decided on a firm direction.

OK, it's the storybeader's turn to pick one piece by thebeadedlily.
I just adore beadweaving, but guess I don't have the patience, or stamina, to stay with it. Maybe some day, when I have more time! Sarah's beaded cuffs are amazing; her "Hands Against Time" is one of my favorites: