My Business | Eileen Moylan

Time flies when you’re busy!

10.15.2012 by Eileen Moylan //

I’ve neglected the blog recently as I’ve been so busy working on a jewellery commissions including with some really exciting and unique engagement ring designs I hope ot share with you very soon. So I’ve missed out on covering lots of major events in the jewellers calendar here in Ireland and the UK.

One noteworthy event that’s always fascinating to follow is the Goldsmiths Fair which takes place in London each year. The show runs for two weeks with different goldsmith exhibiting new designs each week.

So I thought I’d share a few pictures from one of the prestigious award winners from the two week show this year.

The first week the “Best New Design Award” was awarded to Max Warren. Peter Ting presented the award. It was lovely to see his name involved with Goldsmiths Fair as Peter was a guest lecturer in the art college I attended. He was the person that introduced me to the work of many great makers that still influence my designs to this day.

I’ve tried to find images of Max’s work. Unfortunately, none of the photos I could find fully captured his breathtaking pieces. Which, I think you’ll agree is understandable given the nature of the approach to his designs. His pieces are created using traditional silversmithing techniques. He uses hand engraving to amazing effect creating an extraordinary play on light and shade. Using different cuts, he engraves an image into the silver which alters as the light catches it from different angles. Now you’ll see why it doesn’t lend itself to being photographed!

Jacqueline Gestetner judged the award for week two and presented the prize to Adi Toch. I discussed Adi work last year. She creates these amazing forms which work are not only beautiful but very functional.

The bulbous vessels are just calling to be picked up and used. I also love her salt pots because they are so brilliantly practical. If they are knocked over none of the salt will spill out!

About

Crafts Council Photography Workshop

07.13.2012 by Eileen Moylan //

Last month I attended a one day product photography workshop which was organised by the Crafts Council of Ireland. As a maker it’s extremely important to document your work, I am guilty of letting pieces leave the workshop without taking any photographs of the finished piece.

Working with metal which is highly reflective also has it’s disadvantages when it comes to photography. I have so many photographs of my jewellery which could be mistaken as self portraits as my face pops up in the reflection of the piece. I have tried everything from photoshopping to sneaking up on the piece with my camera hoping it won’t see me! I’ve found from plenty of attempts that I get my best results from a light tent I bought on Amazon last year. It’s the best €10 I’ve spent! I wrote a post about how I use it to reduces reflections photographing jewellery. While I get good results from the light tent I wanted to explore other techniques of how best to avoid reflections.

I went along to the Vienna Woods hotel in Cork armed with my camera and a few of my silver hand raised bowls. The great thing about the day was how practical it was. We didn’t sit around all day talking about shutter speeds and apertures, we went through a few techniques and then got stuck into photographing our work.

It was great to be able to explore what we had learnt by taking photographs of our own work using our own equipment. Here are some of my photos from the day. You’ll be delighted to see I don’t feature in any of them! Maybe I’ve finally cracked the art of photographing reflective surfaces 🙂

Craft Master

05.21.2012 by Eileen Moylan //

After the success of the tv series last year, RTÉ have begun the search for the new Craft Master! The disciplines last year didn’t include jewellery or silversmithing but I’m delighted to announce that they have rectified this omission!

There are five categories under which you can apply: Millinery, Knitting, Basketry, Furniture and Jewellery. The rules state that you must be an amateur (not making a living from your craft) and must have foundation skills in one of the above crafts. If you are successful in your application you are awarded a week long residence with a master craftsperson to further develop and refine your skills. From what I remember of last year there were three people selected from each craft to attend the week long master class. Each week one of these is chosen to go on to the final and hopefully be crowned Craft Master. The winner is given an exhibition space at Showcase Ireland Creative Expo 2013. After exhibiting at Showcase last year I can highly recommend it as a great opportunity to further your business.

If you are involved in any of the above disciplines and want to bring your skill to the next level have a look at the Craft Master application but hurry the closing date is 6th June… Good luck!

Exhibiting at Showcase Ireland

01.30.2012 by Eileen Moylan //

I was in Dublin last week where I exhibited at Showcase Ireland in the Rds. It was a really enjoyable four days, I made lots of business contacts and also caught up with other craftspeople and makers.

Being my first time exhibiting at this trade show I really didn’t know what to expect. Now that I’ve “been there, done that” I thought it might be helpful to write about it and give some tips and hints for anyone considering exhibiting next year.

Firstly, applying for your stand. There are a number of ways you can go about this, the two familiar to me are applying to the crafts council or your local enterprise board. The Crafts Council have stands available in an area known as Creative Island. This space is for Irish makers only and I think only members of the crafts council are eligible to apply. The closing date was in April, I hadn’t realised it was this early so missed the deadline.

The other route is through your local enterprise board. I applied to the South Cork Enterprise Board, who were extremely friendly and helpful. I was successful in my application for one of their stands in the balcony area. They pay a percentage of the stand cost which was great as it would have been a big investment to come up with the full stand price.

As well as this they provided workshops to help us prepare for Showcase. These were invaluable and I learnt so much about what to expect and how to prepare. We did lots of work on our price lists and point of sale material for potential buyers. Having never done a trade show before I wasn’t familiar with how to lay out a comprehensive buyer friendly price list.

It’s also important to plan how you will dress your stand before you make the trip to Dublin. I decided on putting up wallpaper to cover the bare white partition walls. I also got some glass display cases to show my jewellery. The stand I had was 2 metres x 2 metres which made it quite deep. I wanted to draw people into the stand so decided to position one of the cabinets at the entrance and the other at the back corner.

The hall is open from 8am Saturday morning to set up, I would advise getting there early! You would be surprised how long it takes to unload the car, prepare the stand and then display your products. Also the earlier you arrive the quieter the hall. We were able to take up space outside the stand to assemble cabinets and sort stock. Had we left it later we would have been confined to the 2 metre stand as we would be in the way of everyone else setting up.

Once you have your stand set up on Saturday be sure to get some rest, you’re in for a very busy four days! I hadn’t realised how tiring it is to be on your feet meeting and talking to people. Also bring plenty of water, I could feel my voice going by Wednesday!

I’m making it sound like a tough few days but really once you’re prepared you can relax and enjoy the buzz of the show. As well as meeting buyers be sure to talk to other makers. One of the most valuable things for me was chatting to other people in the trade. Working on your own can be isolating so it’s great to meet with other jewellers and exchanged ideas and swop contacts.

I hope that gives you an idea of what to expect at Showcase and all going well maybe I’ll see you there next year!

Business Update: November 2011

11.22.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

This September I started a monthly update on the different aspects of my online business. As well as sharing all the things I’ve learned it gives me an opportunity to look over the developments of each month.

It has been a busy month for Eileen Moylan.com. As well as keeping up with orders, I was featured on the Radio 1 series ‘Made In Ireland’. It was great being interviewed by someone as enthusiastic as Ella McSweeney. She has a real appreciation for handmade pieces and the tools and processes behind each piece. It gave me an opportunity to discuss the work of a silversmith and different aspects of the workshop.

Outside of the workshop, I’ve been working on my business skills! I was lucky enough to be offered a place on the Macroom E, Greenshoots programme. This programme acts as an incubation for new businesses and guides them through the early stage of development.

Every week we have a workshop on a different aspect of our business. I never thought I’d get excited about these areas of business but when you can see their practical application in your own company it’s hard not to be enthusiastic. I’ve always loved the making side of the business and would happily spend all day in the studio making jewellery. Unfortunately when you have your own business you need to balance the nice parts with the not so nice parts. Thankfully I’ve been lucky enough to have lots of great support in Greenshoots. So at least now when I’m doing the less exciting parts of the job, I know I’m doing them correctly!

As there are ten participants on the course it’s a great opportunity to get feedback and suggestions from other businesses in a similar situation. We have fortnightly meetings where we discuss our progress on different projects and also showcase new ideas and designs.

Apart from my participation in Greenshoots I’ve been kept busy in the workshop. Christmas is the busiest time of year for jewellers and thankfully this year is no different.

I’ve just sent off what I hope will be my second last package to the assay office for hallmarking. With the international postal deadlines finishing on the 6th December I have to carefully plan out my making and finishing schedule.

So there you have it, my business update for this month. If you have any questions or areas for discussion be sure to drop me an email.

Made in Ireland

11.08.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

This week I was featured in the Radio 1 series ‘Made in Ireland’. Each week Ella McSweeney looks at a different craft or skill in Ireland. So this week was the turn of the silversmiths!

As well as calling to Dublin based silversmith Seamus Gill, Ella came down to my workshop in Cork. We discussed the different tools used by silversmiths, the properties of silver and women in the history of silversmithing.

If you want to have a listen to it click on the link below.

Made in Ireland, Silversmiths

The business

09.27.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

Since this is my 100th blog post I decided to share some ideas I have for my future work and future posts.

I’m planning to do a monthly update on my business and how I sell my jewelry online. I intend to do one of these posts every month so I can share handy tips and tricks with any of you out there interested in selling your artwork. As well as sharing all the things I’ve learned it will give me an opportunity to look over the developments of each month.

I’ve included some photos of the workshop and the images I have over my bench that influences new pieces that I’m working on at the moment.

I’ve done this for two reasons.. firstly since this is number 100 I thought I keep it light on text, I think after this many articles my keyboard deserves a slow day!

Secondly now that I’ve shown you what inspires me and told you that I’m working on new pieces I’ll have no where to hide! I’ll have to just set aside the time from all the other work and make time to develop this range.

If you have any suggestions for the next hundred posts be sure to email me at eileen@eileenmoylan.com

NEW GALLERY PAGE

08.17.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

In my previous post I discussed how I photograph my jewellery. Now that I have some pictures of my current work I’ve decided to create a new gallery page on the website. I plan to use this to show some recent commissions and orders I receive. I’ll be adding to this regularly, now that I know how!

If you want to take a look at the new gallery page click here.

Photographing jewellery

08.09.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

Since setting up my website I’ve come to realize the importance of having good photographs of my work. In the past I would have used my camera just to document interesting pieces I had made or ideas I might have. Now that I’m selling work online I appreciate how much the customer relies on a good quality image.

Jewellery is notoriously difficult to photography as it is not only small but reflective. For ages now I’ve had the problem that most of my jewellery photographs have my face and camera reflected in the piece. I’ve done a lot of reading up on how to combat this problem and the best solution I found was a light tent. I got this one on Amazon for €10. I don’t have any lighting I just put it beside a window and use natural light. This might not be the most professional approach but it works fine for me.!

I’ve tried to play around with the way I photograph my work, and not just snap it on a piece of card. I’ve recently started to incorporate some props so the jewellery can be seen clearly. A perfect example of this is when photographing earrings. They never sit correctly so I had the idea of hanging them from something and I didn’t want to use a model. So here is what I came up with.

The added bonus about using props is that I can promote other peoples work. Like the angel vase I put the earrings on which was made by Mary Neeson who has a gallery in Killarney. Have a look at her work at www.maryneesonceramics.com

So there you have my photography tips. I’m sure there are lots of professional photographers with better advice but these a just a few little tricks that have worked for me. Now that I’m photographing my work I’m hoping to add a gallery page to the website.Showing recent commissions and other work that I might not have included in the blog.

Selling my wares: How to…

05.24.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

You might have noticed I wrote about the new online shop and then disappeared for a few days! I was kept busy in Dublin at an online marketing seminar held by Damien Mulley. The day was organised for anyone who had entered a twitter competition that Damien was running giving away a day marketing to a business. There was a huge response to the competition so for those of us who didn’t win he kindly organised a day in Dublin where he could impart his knowledge to us ‘en masse’.

As well as going to the marketing day at the Academy Plaza Hotel I decided to spend a few days in Dublin so I would have time to get things hallmarked and go shopping for some new tools.

There were two speakers. Alan Coleman from Online Advertising.ie who gave a great talk on marketing and advertising. He gave brilliant and practical advice on how best to find your customers and advertise your product. I picked his brains during the coffee break and, fair play to him, he answered all my questions, not even the amazing cupcakes supplied by Curious Cupcakes could distract him.

Damien Mulley spoke about how to add content to your website and facebook. And showed us so many clever ways to interact with our customers online. He talked a lot about Google keywords and although I have used it a few times I’m now looking at it with fresh eyes!

Both Alan and Damien spoke about facebook and the ways you can let the people who need your product, know that you exist… Invaluable information.

As well as all this I got to meet other people in the same situation as me. Some working in established companies that were looking to develop the social media side of the business like Claire at Mrs2be.ie. Others were setting up their own companies and were on as steep a learning curve as me.

Thanks to Damien for all the brilliant advice and organising a great day. And to everyone who I met there… Good luck with all the new ventures. Be sure to keep me informed, I’d be delighted to write an update post when we are all millionaires.

It was well worth downing my tools and making the trip to Dublin!