Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Danger! Danger Will Robinson

So I've been thinking, always dangerous.

Over the years, I've made many seed beaded earrings.
For many I've written patterns.
I've sold a few as stand-alone earring kits.
Some have been part of a necklace or bracelet kit.
Some never made it off my ears.

After spending a week with fiber freaks of one kind or another, and hearing about this or that dyer or sock pattern maker or fiber blender and all their kit/fiber of the month clubs, it occurred to me:

What about an Earring of the Month Club?

Why not?

Great present for the seed-beader who likes relatively small but not instantaneous projects, is interested in trying a variety of seed beading techniques, and wants the goodness to keep on coming. Someone who enjoys kits. Someone like yourself, for instance.

Some months every project sent out would be the same colourway, but some months I might have more than one available - and I'd encourage people to specify their preferred colour palettes so that where possible, I could tailor the colours. Not making any promises, but I'd try.

Some earrings might have more expensive components (say, rivolis) than others, but each month would cost subscribers the same - the actual received value would even out over the three-, six- or twelve-month period. I'd be inclined to offer price breaks to those who subscribe for a longer period of time, since a year is a bigger commitment than three months.
I probably would ship First Class rather than Priority to keep costs down for subscribers.

I don't think it would be too dreadfully much work, unless it was so incredibly popular that I had to limit numbers to something manageable, but this is not a problem over which I'm inclined to lose sleep at this point, given that right now I'm just noodling around with the idea.

On the other hand, I do believe that we are barrelling into a season during which I've heard tell of a frenzy of gift-buying, so this might be something of interest.

6 comments:

Jill Wiseman said...

Brilliant! What a smashing idea! I've had a bunch of students requesting earring patterns lately,and I'd be happy to refer their husbands to you for a Christmas gift subscription, maybe?

Charlene said...

That'd be great thanks! - stay tuned though, as it's not quite concrete yet.

Anonymous said...

Sounds as genius as your designs! A club could be almost as good as getting to take a class from you in person (if I could ever do that).

Amy said...

Stop noodling. Do.

(and sign me up, of course!)

Elizabeth said...

That would be a club I would seriously consider!

Lynn R said...

Earring club sounds fabulous. Might get me back into beading. Button club would be cool too. Everytime I see you at SOAR I think I will be inspired to get back into beading, but time goes by and nothing happens. A small quick project every month or every other month would get me moving.

Great to see you again!