Monday, August 16, 2010

Monday Meet and Greet

Name:
http://hilobeads.etsy.com
Maren Purves, aka HiloBeadss

Where you live/grew up:
I live in Hilo, which is on the Big Island of Hawaii.
I moved here in 1987 from the town I grew up in, Hamburg, Germany.

Family:
I'm married with one grown up daughter. We also have 3 cats.

How did you get started selling beads?
I started selling Job's Tears in the mid 1990s. Somebody wanted
some and I knew where to find them. I started selling other beads
in 2008 when I found that I couldn't find locally what I was
looking for. Specifically, round malachite beads to make earrings
to match my then new fleece jacket

Where do you see your bead selling business going?
I'd like to get and sell more different botanical beads, but the
export restrictions are making this harder by the year. I'd like
to have and sell more of my own lampwork, but that doesn't only
require making the lampwork but also taking pictures each time.
Listing (reselling) seed beads is much easier because each hank
of seed beads of the same color looks the same.

Are there any new things you'd like to make?
More lampwork :)
Share a special set of beads story of one that you sold/gave away:
I have for the past year, and still am, sold mixed color Job's Tears
for a fund raiser for the Artisan and Glassworker Legal Fund (AGLF).
While the original lawsuit was dropped, for lack of funds, unfortunately
a counter suit was filed by the person who was the one originally
accused of defamation. I'm still trying to help out with the fund
raising, and I have a few more pounds of mixed color Job's Tears
that I'm willing to contribute.

Give one reason why someone should buy your beads over a beads purchased
in a store.
That's hard, because in a way I see myself as a store. On the other
hand, I will not knowingly sell you e.g. a chipped Job's Tear. My
lampwork beads are all hand made by me and properly annealed and
cleaned. The things I resell are the same quality as you would get
them from elsewhere, only in a lot of cases less expensive.


How did you get started making jewelry?
Funny thing, really. I had already been selling Job's Tears for a few
years before I started making jewelry.
One year the Job's Tears weren't selling very well and somebody planted
the phrase "added value" in my head. So, I started making Job's Tears
bracelets on memory wire. I still have some of the ones I made then.
Then I added seed beads and the rest followed from there.

Where do you see your jewelry business going?
Currently I'm not sure.

Are there any new things you'd like to make?
I'm inspired by the rosaries our team members make. I'd like to make
a few myself.

Share a special piece of jewelry story of one that you sold/gave away:
This happened at a craft fair during which I didn't even sell a whole lot:
Rather early in the day I sold a pair of malachite hoop earrings.
I decided to make another pair. That got sold too, so I made another
one. Maybe I should list those on Etsy because they never sold yet.

Give one reason why someone should buy your handmade jewelry over a jewelry
purchased in a store:
While not all of my jewelry is one of a kind, most of it is. It is
highly unlikely to impossible that you will ever see somebody who
has the same piece or set of jewelry.


Thanks,
Maren

No comments:

Post a Comment