What's New and Selling to the Florist & Bridal Market

To see the full HTML color version with photos click http://www.mrbead.com/midjune12.htm

Click a picture below to see one of this month's new beads. For Free Shipping enter "bridalbeads" (without the commas) in the box at checkout, and click "Redeem Coupon". Use NOW - as expires Friday 22nd June 2012.

Follow Nigel at his new site at NigelHayMckay.com

Click a link below to see one of this month's new beads:

New Beads:
Pink or Lavender Aluminium Flower Petal Beads
Arabian Night-Red Garnet Nuggets
Mystical Turquoise Half-Moon Bracelet
Silver Rhombus Pillow Bead Spacers
Gunpowder 8mm Spacer Beads
Powerful Plum Shamball Bead Caslilica
Deep Violet Shamballa Bead
Russian Doll Beads Heishi Discs
Graduated Lime-Green Gaspeite Teardrop Beads
Lime-Green Gaspeite Square Pillow Rhombus
Deep-Blue & Green Calsilica Rondell Beads Beads
Large 22mm Dramatic Color Fimo Beads

To see all What's New in our US store click MrBead.com or UK MrBead.co.uk

How to sell your Jewelry in Florist Shops

Jewelry and flowers go well together - they both attract similar buyers and make attractive harmonizing ladies gifts.
Cross Promotions
Write a personal business-like letter and mail to your local florists, with a sample of your craft and suggestions of cross promotions. Mention you’ll call in person to discuss the idea or collect the sample if they’re not interested. Follow up by telephone to arrange an appointment a week later. Some ideas for cross promotion are:

Offer their customers a 15% discount voucher off custom jewelry for flower orders over a certain amount.
Offer your customers a 10% discount off flowers on orders over a certain amount.
Leave your jewelry at the florist with a leaflet or voucher selling the item at 25% off if they spend a certain amount on flowers.
Valentine’s Day promotions can be very effective. Like the chance to buy a matching pearl necklace and earrings at a discount, if they spend over $50 on flowers

Make sure you give the florist a clear list of whatever jewelry you leave with them, with a collection date of unsold items.

How to get Orders from Bridal Shops

Every bride wants to look her best, irrespective of cost. I know, I used to photograph thousands of weddings.

The bridal market is huge, with the average wedding costing over US$20,000. Don’t miss out - get in now!

Visit your local bridal store and agree to supply them with custom made tiaras and beads for the gown. Many brides-to-be stitch small white or lavender pearls, swarorski crystals and multi-colored rhinestones, on the back of their wedding dresses. Moonstone is good too. These look stunning when the gown is laid out for the photographs, catching the light in bright sunlight, but need to be subtle.

View online different styles, and make a few simple tiaras to take to the bridal shop as samples. Bring along pearl necklaces and bracelets, and all the other beads that a bride uses on her grown. You can either leave these at the store to sell as sale or return, or get them to take orders for you to make up custom designs. Familiarize yourself with the problems of bridal design and styles.

Bridal Tiara Designs
Match details of the dress and tiara. If the dress has pearls or crystals, select a tiara with pearls or crystals. However, a tiara with only crystals or rhinestones will match any gown. Pearl tiaras go well with off-white or ivory gowns, and should compliment a pearl necklace or earrings.

Make sure all the pieces of the bridal ensemble work together and that no one piece overwhelms another. Brides with short hair look fabulous wearing a tiara too – but choose a lighter one that needs only a few pins to hold it in place. Like a headband style or a more petite shape.

A tiara should draw attention to the bride’s face by framing it. The wrong shape tiara can make the face look too long and thin, or too short and full.

Matching the face:

Round/full face: to make the face appear longer, a tiara with height or a peak is needed.
Long face: needs headbands or a tiara with little or no height that extend over the head from
one side to the other at an even height.
Oval face: avoid peaks at the top which make the face appear longer.
Choose a headband, side hair comb, or hair pins.

Matching the gown:

White gowns: need a tiara that is silver-tone, rhinestone, or white pearl.
Ivory gowns: choose a tiara that has gold-tone or ivory pearls.
Champagne or dark ivory gown: choose a gold tone tiara or dark ivory pearls.
Diamond white gowns: this is a modern shade of gown, lighter than off-white, but not start white.
Choose either gold, silver tone, or white pearl.

Beading for Gowns

Tiny 3mm Swarovski crystals with or without an aurora borealis, shiny, light-reflecting coating, and silver-lined seed beads are the favorites for beading gowns. They add interest to the dress and show up great on the photographs, especially as the wedding photographer will feature the bride’s and bridesmaid’s gowns. You can sew subtle little shapes, like flowers or butterflies, onto the gown using tiny seed beads - and longer patterns running right down the length of the dress look effective too. Keep the bead color the same or similar to the gown, so as not to take away the dress’s elegance.

NigelHayMckay.com

On Monday 18th June, MiMi and I go back to Hong Kong from a few weeks in the UK. Read about me (Nigel Mckay) at my new site at NigelHayMckay.com. Much I have written from these newsletters on beads is already on the site + a lot more with photos - but I'm still working on the site and there will be a lot more to add in the future.

Plus, by the summer, it will be interactive so you can add your own content. However, the blog is now fully functional - so please join in!

From our new book How to Make a Killing Selling Bead Jewelry - to buy at a 33% discount to quoted price click: US Version or UK Version

To go to the US MrBead store click MrBead.com. Or our UK shop at MrBead.co.uk
To see all old newsletters click here