Interview with Szarka of Magpie Gemstone

by Shannon Williams of Vixens Natural Jewelry

When I first started making jewelry I had so many questions. How do you price your items? Where is a good place to get materials? How do you wire wrap jewelry? Lucky for me, I found the Magpie. She has been a shining light helping jewelry makers everywhere. I was thrilled when she agreed to an interview.
  

Tell us about yourself-

My name is Szarka. I am a jewelry designer gone bead slinger. I have been making and selling jewelry for a few decades, and dealing in gemstones for over a decade. I use to sell jewelry to make a living after I burnt out working with children in the care of Social Services. I presently live in the Hill Country of Central Texas but originally I am from Canada. Alberta to be exact, and then I lived on Vancouver Island for many years. After that, I traveled the Western United States doing every venure you can imagine selling jewelry and then beads.
  
What is your creative process?

My creative process now is much different than when I was selling jewelry for a living. Then I would get into modes of production work and replicate a style of earring, bracelet, or necklace over and over. I would make a hundred earrings or 50 bracelets in a day. When I would reach my quota I would reward myself by making things that were artsy and creative. Those pieces would also allow me to expand my styles so I could discover the next new hot seller.

Out of that came a way of making jewelry that might be different than other peoples. I learned to wire wrap out of necessity. Rocks don’t like to just stick to strings. I would see something I would want to use in jewelry and I would have to find a way to structurally apply it. Crystals, cabochons, what have you. I started with stove wire and hardware store needle nose pliers. There were no forums to go to, no yahoo groups, and I didn’t have a computer. I also learned to wire wrap because it added an element of interest to pieces, and we all know only unique pieces really sell.

Now I work with what ever excites me at that moment. If a focal piece really catches my eye then I get lost in a land of matching colors, shapes, textures and then decide what can I do to this that will be outside of the box to make it unique, exceptional, something someone will just have to “need”.
                                     

Don't forget to check out Szarka's helpful links on Pricing Jewelry, Nailing your Niche, and Jewelry shows. She also has lots of other articles that can help you succeed in marketing, show you how to take good photos of your products, SEO help, and much more can be found here.

What mistakes have you made, and what advice would you give jewelry makers?
   
The mistakes I have made over the last 20 years are far to many to list. The last one was just this morning. The two pieces of advice I can give that resulted from mistakes I have made is:

1. Don’t copy others. It never works out and it kills your creativity. Just because it looks like that style or this thing sells doesn’t mean it will sell for you. If you make things worrying about selling.... they won’t.
2. Don’t sweat it when you see someone copies you, see number 1.

For free jewelry making techniques check out these tutorials.  Prefer to watch jewelry making videos? Watch Szarka in action on YouTube.

Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?

In the next 10 years I see myself walking into any venue with one display bag of gemstones and jewelry and selling out no matter where I go. How’s that for a vision!

Sounds good to us!