Advice PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE I NEED IT D: : Lovely Bones

Hey guys, I've been working on a thing recently and I want to know what price I should put on them!

(And by that I mean what price will people actually frigging buy them for, not just 'OH YOU SHOULDN'T DOWNPRICE YOURSELF' yeah I didn't and now I literally have half a wall of jewellery that is going exactly nowhere. I've sold exactly three pieces in the last two years it's glubbin discouraging and I like doing this new thing I don't want to give the brain-demons another excuse as to why not to do it.)

(It's really really hard to keep doing a thing when your brain-demons keep telling you 'why are you bothering, nobody likes this shit' and you have very few examples to prove them wrong)

Anyway, here they are (I set up my lightbox and then realised a) my camera battery was dead and b) I couldn't find the black velvet drapery I usually use for this kind of thing, so here they are modelled by my Bast statue and taken on my new phone ^^;;;)





Those are real deer jawbones sourced from fellow Vultures and specimens that have died of natural causes, fully boiled and dried long before being painted with acryllic paint and varnished. Then I hotglue real semi-precious gemstones into the gaps left by teeth and tendons and wrap the ends in waxed cotton string. The whole process (not including the bone stuff) takes me between 1-3 days depending on how fast the varnish and paint decide to dry.

Any con-crit is accepted, IF it's something I can easily change. (Like for example I thought of using epoxy rather than hot glue, but I can't do that in the small work area I have without fuming up the place and I have a hamster and a lizard in this room - not to mention I have pretty delicate lungs myself XD)

Tell me what you guys think!

 

those are so hecking cool

I'm sorry, I don't have more skilled crit to give, or any idea what pricing should be in the jewelry industry because I almost never buy and don't sell jewelry, but those are literally the coolest things, and I hope saying that helps at least!

(Uh, attempts at crit... the color balance on the green one is unexpected and yet awesome. The black color balance is already really cool, although it looks the tiniest bit less visually balanced with the distribution of crystals.)

 

Ehehe once I figure out pricing on these motherfuckers you can have first choice, then <3

 

Pricing is hard. I'm seeing a range between $25 and $60 on Etsy for similar pieces, for example, and that rings true to my general sense of how much they commonly cost.

As you said, hot glue is not a super durable choice on bone. It's a common glue to use when packaging skulls for shipment, for instance, (keeping the halves of the lower jaw together + keeping the skull and jaw together at the hinge) so that it stays together well, but can rather easily be separated if the buyer wants to do so. It's strong enough for moderate use, but I'd be a bit worried about long-term durability. Wood glue and superglue can both work well.

I feel like you might already know this, but boiling is also not the recommended way of cleaning bones. It weakens them somewhat. The varnish and lacquer probably make up for some of that, and it's not a huge issue, but ideally it's best to macerate them in warm water, bury them, or use dermestid beetles (not an option for most people), and then do a diluted peroxide bath for whitening (not bleach!).

 

going off of what i personally would pay something like this ....... maybe $40?

 

What I meant as far as cleaning was I did them a slow 20-hour simmer with some bio washing powder, since they were already airdried and naturally defleshed. Sorry, I didn't realise there were other vultures on here so I was simplifying my terms ^^;;;

Thanks for the price ranges though, guys! I'll translate those to pounds when I'm more awake then get back to with listings <3

 

LISTINGS ARE UP FOR THE ONES THAT I FINISHED :D

Please note that a) these photos are just placeholders until I find an area of wall in my house with decent lighting and a hook, and b) the prices are negotiable, because I really really really need the money atm like seriously I need it for groceries at this point.

@Kit , you wanted first pick? :3

 

Holy shit @PotteryWalrus Kit just poked me over here and I am lusting after the shinies @_@

The composition (is that the right word for it when it's jewelry? idfk) of the pieces is really cool- I love the way you contrast colors and materials so that it's eye-catching without being discordant.

 

I ordered my favorite!!!!!! I'm so glad I can own one of these pretty things... and Kai maaaaay be ordering some of the jewelry next paycheck, based on her reaction to browsing your Etsy store with me.

 

@Kit Your jawbone is packaged and will be dispatched tomorrow! ^_^

@Anomal(eee) ehehe, thankyou! I also have a gdocs folder full of jewellery pics, some of which haven't yet made it to etsy. PM me or email me if any of them interest you and we can talk pricing :D

 

im looking thru that gdocs folder and ohhhh my goshhhhhhhhhh i might pm you abt some of those because *____*

 

tell me about that necklace (? i think its a necklace and not a charm bracelet) with "in the darkest night let the lightning guide you" bc theres gotta be a story there

 

ALSO THE DROWNED PHOENICIAN IS LOVELY OMG

 

The line itself is from this song, which I found via some very excellent fanvids, not the movie it was apparently made for ^^;;;

It was also inspired by what that song reminds me of; when I spent some weeks in Florida during a very hard time in my life with depression. I went to stay with my girlfriend at the time, and one of my best memories from that trip are finding lightning glass on the beach - including that piece that makes up the main pendant of the necklace - as well as sitting in her car cuddling while looking out over the Everglades to lightning on the horizon.

Also, the Drowned Phoenician was one of my first pieces because I am and always will be a TS Eliot fan and a giant poetry nerd XDDD

 

@Anomal(eee) ehehe, thankyou! I also have a gdocs folder full of jewellery pics, some of which haven't yet made it to etsy. PM me or email me if any of them interest you and we can talk pricing :D[/QUOTE]

Way late responding, but thanks for the link, and I will definitely be getting in touch once the money fairy has visited again. :D

... I have no idea how I managed to disappear the first part of that quote bracket, so ETA wtf and i'm leaving it :/

 

Okay so by "getting in touch" I apparently meant revisiting the store and deciding that, yep, still in love with the Shark Wrecked set (and I love the descriptions you're putting up with each of the pieces)

/absconds with shark teeth, cackling madly

 

You're quite welcome :D They should be sent off on Tuesday at absolute latest :)

(Also I'm so glad someone else likes that set, I made it while feeling bitter and in a lot of pain. I'm glad something good came of it :p)

 

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, excitement! :D

And yes, "seriously contemplating cutting a motherfucker" is kinda my desired aesthetic, and I don't have many things to match it as of yet that I can also wear at work. But! Operation corporate stealthpunk has achieved an objective!

 

Heh, you should buy Arsenic (the piece I mean) I designed that one to work with most afab workplace fashion :P

 

I saw that one! It is really pretty, and I'll admit I was eyeballing it. Wearing a reference to murderous old biddies would be sorta fun. :)