This post is dedicated to Joy, a representative from a jewelry company that contacted me with a "great paid offer". I thought this would be a great opportunity to show you all the jewelry creators I do support! And if you're here for a writeup of the company's offer and why it's so insulting, stick around after seeing all the art and read my post below.
Resin
Remember the 90s and early 00s- jelly sandals, when jewelry took the turn from 80s loud and funky to bright and pastel? Me too, and that aesthetic never left me. Every time I see colorful resin jewelry it reminds me of the fun, flowery, bubbly fashion I grew up with and I am so happy that it didn't go away. I love all the directions you can go with resin as well! You can use resin to sculpt, to seal in paintings, and to preserve dried flowers!
where to buy:
@meownikaa on Twitter, shop palaceofglitter.com
@ForagedNature on Twitter, shop etsy.com/shop/ForagedNature
@echoesofetheria on Twitter, shop etsy.com/shop/EchoesofEtheria
Beaded
Beaded jewelry takes patience I don't have at all, which is why I'm extra amazed when I see all the combinations of pieces artists put together to make one bit of jewelry. It takes a fantastically creative mind to see the little beads and findings and be able to visualize what to make with it, especially to make a set, which requires different findings that still complement one another.
I'm the kind of person that likes to wear about 6 different bracelets on the same arm all summer, are you? Colors and textures just make me so happy, and wearing bracelets made with beads of different colors and materials makes me feel more colorful and happy inside.
where to buy, left to right:
@sunnshineart on Twitter
@RoyalTgifts on Twitter, shop etsy.com/shop/royaltgifts
Wire Wrapped
(Special shoutout to artist @wrappedeggroll on Twitter for this piece I got for my birthday!)
This is basically my favorite type of jewelry to get lost in. I love everything in it, the intricate twists and turns of the wire to not only hold in the beads and stones but to do that in a way that creates another design on top of an already beautiful stone.. that's skill I never stop being impressed by.
Something I really appreciate in wire wrapping is the range of intricate designs- minimal design that lets the stone speak for itself to heavily worked design that turn the stone into a larger piece.
where to buy, left to right:
@floatinggrizzly on Twitter
@artbyjacstudio on Twitter, shop etsy.com/shop/ArtByJacStudio
The Offer:
Not unused to these emails, I usually rely on the handy spam filter to take care of things like this, but this one came in through my primary mail box because they'd done enough to make it seem like it wasn't a scummy offer.
(To clarify, it's probably not a scummy offer for the type of blogger they should be contacting for ambassadors. Lord knows there will always be people with money privileged enough to be unaware of the effects of what they do with it.)
The kicker: this company claims to care about charity and has a program to donate very small portions of their sales to a charity of the customer's choosing- a great way to feel like you're making an effort while donating less than $1 through a middle man.
They also claim to be reaching out to ambassadors that will be "a great fit", meaning they believe the blogger is the right fit for their style, and has reach to the type of audiences they want to get money from. They emailed me, someone who never quits being vocal about my disability, being on disability, and featuring topics of disability. My audience and mutuals include many in the disabled community.
So, where they're trying to get money from bothered me. The obvious lie that they did any research to find "great fits" for their ambassadors bothered me. But just as much as them feeling like it's okay to monetize the disabled community bothered me, it insulted me that they think I'd ever advertise a company's jewelry on my page.
Why's that? Well, let's consider the life of an artist that uses social media to network & stay immersed in art. My feed is bloggers and artists working hard to make their success happen, it's a huge priority of mine to share art from artists so that the right person to buy it can see it and support that artist directly. Sometimes I'm the right person! I've bought some amazing art from artists on Twitter & Instagram. (so, if they did do even the smallest bit of research browsing my Insta photos and seeing that I've bought jewelry, they completely skipped over that it's bought from the artist)
On top of running a blog, I'm in the same struggle. I haven't made any sales online yet, so the grind of posting, sharing, creating inventory, affording shipping supplies, all of that is very real to me.
So to take money specifically to advertise a company's art on my feed instead, to just spit in the faces of the artists I usually support, for them to even think I'd be willing to do that is an insult to me and to art.
To sum up- there's nothing wrong with studios or companies that consist of artists working together to share capital in order to have more success in selling art. I see them as artist unions. There's no denying we need one another to survive.
What's wrong is running one of these companies in the kind of inconsiderate way I've written about- if you're going to find ambassadors, do the bare minimum of seeing who they are before you contact them. Be aware of your audience, be aware of the effects your sales will have on sales of artists who don't have the opportunity or are unwilling to sell out to larger companies.
Hell, this company specifically could be doing some good with the small amount they claim to be sending to charity from each order. Unfortunately, the complete disregard for their ambassadors and their audience put me off ever wanting to work with, promote, or even think of them in good standing. It's so unnecessary for them to lie that they care about their ambassadors, as they clearly didn't do enough research about my blog and Instagram before trying to monetize them.
That's all for this week! Thanks for reading :)
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