"Kalera Stratton" wrote in message
...



Yep, kilnforming and lampworking too... mark his words, these passing
fads are sure to die out in another 5-10 years.
--

How was that constructive or beneficial to the conversation?

You complain about others until you find out it can be venting, then you DO
what you complain about.

Just to make this interesting, do you realize that the making of beads is
just as cyclical as anything else. Hell, those beads go back a long way in
time and they have not always been popular. People "rediscover", that is
the buying public rediscovers, and in this age, the video media sure goes a
long way toward helping them.

What would you do if everyone, rephrase that, make it "nearly" everyone,
stopped buying beads made by you, but kept buying the stuff in the local
college bead shop, you know , the places stocked with the cheap imports.
Now imagine the passing fancy of the public has attached itself to something
else, like polymer clay. Enough so that even the cheap bead shop can't stay
open, (happened not far from me, for real) what are you going to do?

You are a bead artist, how do you pay your bills? Sure there is some
interest, but not enough to justify your expense. What do you do?

I made my first bead in 1984, fused my first plate in 1984, bent lamp panels
starting in 1982, don't be snide in your remarks, fusing and lampworking is
subject to the same cycles as anything else. It isn't that there will be
"no one " interested, just not enough to keep the doors open.

AND while we are at it, do you have a storefront that you are paying the tab
for with your beads? Or are you a basement bandit? Working out of your
home? only have one "set" of bills to pay? I would keep the snide remarks
to myself unless you can step up to the plate in the same "even playing
field".

And if I had a line of giftware boats were doing all that great, I wouldn't
spin my wheels selling supplies and teaching classes unless it were to
supplement my income.

I just know the profit margin is really big on glass and supplies.

That last line was a joke.