Ring Survey Results

33 people completed this survey:

1. Which size would you prefer?

• The 1 1/4" pom (tan)- 30.3% (10)
• The 1" pom (gold)- 60.6% (20)
• Neither- 9.1% (3)
• Other: "I prefer the smaller one, but like them both... very cute."

2. Which ring base would you prefer? (This question was added later, so there are only 19 responses)

• An adjustable metal base- 63.2% (12)
• Elastic- 15.8% (3)
• Either- 21.2% (4)

3. Which metal ring base would you prefer? (Select all the apply)

• Antique silver- 24.2% (8)
• Gold- 12.1% (4)
• Antique bronze- 27.3% (9)
• Silver- 30.3% (10)
• Any, depending on the color of the pom- 42.4% (14)

4. Solids or prints? Cool or warm colors? Etc.

• Answers for this question were pretty much all over the place, as was expected. There was a good mix of responses for just about all colors and prints/solids. A couple of people brought up some questions/suggestions in this section, which I will address later.

5.  Min/max price range that you would pay for this ring:

• The majority of the responders agreed with the $6-$8 price range that similar rings are being listed for on Etsy. (I say similar rings because I have yet to find any listings on Etsy for a fabric pom ring like this one. The closest that I can find are either cabochons or yarn poms). A few people suggested $5-$7, while others went as high as $10-$15! The lowest suggestion was $2! (Which I'm hoping was a typo, because that is less than it costs me to make these!). 

Someone mentioned to me that they would have liked to have seen an "Additional Comments" on the surveys, which I agree would have been great, however, I was limited to a certain number of questions, and that included the photos. Fortunately, a few responders took advantage of the "other" answer options, or the places where you could type in your response, and used that to voice a few concerns and suggestions.

A couple of responders mentioned "full" vs. "less full" poms. The poms that I intend to make for these rings will be fuller than the two shown. I just whipped up those two in a hurry so I could have photos for the surveys. Another responder wanted to know how I would keep the rings from fraying, which is a legitimate concern. The poms will be sealed around the edges to help prevent fraying, I just didn't waste the time to do that with my sample rings. A third person suggested that I make fabric button rings, using leftover buttons from the bracelets. While this is a great suggestion, if I do make some, then I will probably limit them to craft fairs, as the fabric button rings are everywhere on Etsy!

My bases for the rings arrived last week, so I will probably get started making some soon. I am delighted to say that I have already received an order for a ring! Someone saw a similar ring on a television show recently, fell in love with it, and has asked me to make her one. I will be picking up the fabric on Saturday, (as she has requested a color that I didn't have on hand), and will let you all know how it turns out! (Thanks again, L!)

Feel free to contact me (via email or Facebook) if you would also like to put in a request for a custom order, or if you have any other questions about them. I am headed to the fabric store on Saturday to restock a few supplies, so if anyone wants one in a color that I don't have, I will have to pick it up then. (I don't get to the store often, so I have to get everything at once).

Thank you again to everyone who responded to the survey! All feedback was appreciated.

Earring Survey Results

30 people responded to the earring survey, (and one silly goose who inadvertently skipped it).

Photo/Project Credit: Happy Together

1. Who do you think that earrings like these would be more appropriately targeted toward (Select all that apply)

• Women- 30%- (9)
• Teens- 50%- (15)
• Young girls- 50% (15)
• Other (6): "i would think high school, college, young adults would wear there, very cute!"; "tweens"; "Seniors, too."; "Young women-early 20's"; "Depending on the fabric color it could be for young girls too."; "While I think they would be most appropriate looking on younger girls, they also might not hold up on them."

2. If you were to wear these, or buy them for someone else, would you prefer solid, prints, pearls, beads, cool, warm, or neutrals? (FYI, I had to use this format for the question because I was only allowed to have 10 questions per survey and this one was part of the bracelet survey).

• Answers for this question were all over the place, but the general consensus was that anything would go. Winner of the best feedback response was: "both solid and prints would work for me. again, if it is something like this that is a little out of the box for earrings-i think the women that would wear these would like fun colors and prints rather than neutrals. Pearls are beautiful, but if you had a sparkly tiny button that would be gorgeous too! Love sparkles."

3. The average min/max price range that people said that they would pay for these is $7.50-$10.30. $5 was the lowest price suggested and $15 the highest. Three people claimed that they would not buy them at all.

My MPW suggested the following: wholesale price- $6.54; "safe" price- $11.54; retail price: $13.08, which seems to have underestimated a bit? Originally, I was thinking of pricing these for a craft fair at $4.00 a pair! Seems as though I was underestimating what people would pay, too!

I would like to reply to a couple of feedback comments/concerns that I received regarding these earrings. Actually, I think it's only one comment. One responder who said that they would not buy these, explained, "The fabric looks [like] it will fray, and they look a little gaudy." To which my response is, to each his own. I would personally never wear these either, as I prefer my earrings to dangle a bit, but I know that there are some women out there who would.

The main reason that I was considering making these earrings when I came across them was because there were so many women at my last craft fair who were excited about my pom hair clips, thinking that they were actually earrings. They were disappointed to find out that they were in fact hair clips. I couldn't help thinking first, that the poms were much too large to be mistaken for earrings, (they are 1.5"-2" in diameter!) and secondly, how gaudy that would look, but again, to each his own. But then I started thinking, well what about a smaller version of the pom....

As far as fraying goes, I think that the natural fraying of the earrings in the photo from Happy Together, actually added to the charm of them, except maybe that long bit hanging out on the left side of the photo:

Photo/Project Credit: Happy Together

 However, I believe in selling a product that is going to hold up and not fall apart on my customer, so I was planning to seal the edges of the fabric before constructing the earrings. Which I did, with the second pair that I made:

I actually wasn't very crazy about how these turned out, nor was I satisfied with the whole process in general. Hand-sewing the tiny fabric pieces together was a pain in my tushy, and I am too much of a perfectionist to have them appear sporadically arranged and messy as they did in the original tutorial, (as seen in the blue earring on the far right):

Photo/Project Credit: Happy Together

So, all things considered, I concluded that I will not be making these earrings. I didn't really enjoy doing it, nor did I like the end result enough to want to make more. If I'm going to spend valuable time on an item, then I want to be able to be proud of it, regardless of whether or not I would wear it myself.

Thank you again to everyone for the wonderful feedback! Expect to see the ring and headband holder survey results within the next week, and if you haven't checked out the results for the bracelets yet, check them out here.

Bracelet Survey Results

Thank you again to everyone who participated in my marketing surveys. I really appreciate it! Overall, the feedback has been great, with maybe one or two questionable comments thrown in here and there.

I really wish I knew who responded with which answers, because a few of you went above what I expected to receive as far as feedback goes. Unfortunately, the survey results only tell me the city the responders are located near, so unless you are from somewhere other than NY (Ohio, Virginia, Maine, Maryland, Connecticut, etc...), then I have no way of knowing who you were. So please don't be offended if I don't offer up a personal thank you for replying!

But on to the results!

For the bracelet survey, 31 people responded:

Photo/Project Credit: The Mother Huddle

1. If you were to wear one of these bracelets, would you wear it in antique copper (shown), silver, or gold/brass? (Select all that apply).

• Antique copper - 67.7% (21)
• Silver - 67.7% (21)
• Gold/Brass - 38.7% (12)

2. Which colors, (in print fabrics) would you prefer? (Select all the apply)

• Blues -67.7% (21)
• Purples- 58.1% (18)
• Greens - 67.7% (21)
• Reds- 45.2 % (14)
• Oranges- 51.6% (16)
• Yellows - 48.4 % (15)
• Browns - 58.1% (18)
• Pinks- 41.9% (13)
• Other: "all colors"; "black and white (together)"; "mixed up palette"; "All"; "prints are cute"; "any fun color combos you come up with!"

(Note about this question: I have no idea why I didn't include blacks and grays, or neutral colors in with the responses. I meant to....)

3. What min/max price range would you pay for one of these?

• The average range of responses ended up being $14-$17.42, with $15-$20 actually being the price range given the most . The lowest suggestion was $9 (which no offense to the person who made that one, but it made me laugh because that wouldn't even earn me back my total cost to make the bracelets!), and the highest price given was $25.

Someone brought up the issue of our county (St. Lawrence) being the poorest in New York, indicating that prices should be on the lower end of the price range to be able to sell in this area. As I stated in my previous post, I do agree with this, as far as selling at craft fairs goes. You really should consider your average customer when selling locally. However, when it comes to selling on Etsy, I do believe that I could sell these for prices at the higher end of the range without any problems.

My "Magic Pricing Worksheet" (see previous post) is actually pretty spot on with what the feedback has been, (although I just realized that the price I entered did not include how much it would cost to ship the supplies to me). The suggested wholesale price is $20, "safe" price is $25, and the retail price is $40. (If you read my previous post about pricing, then you will understand what those mean. If you have not read my previous post, which based on the stats, most of you haven't, then shame on you. Go read it now).

Overall, the response to these bracelets was all positive. There were a few very enthusiastic responses to this item, ("LOVE THIS BRACELET!!!! SO FUN!"), which was very encouraging. I am definitely going to be making this in the very near future, so watch out for them! The only thing that I am waiting on is my seller.

I have not been able to find any of the bases that I will need for this bracelet locally, so I am ordering them online through Etsy. This specific design of bracelet base has been difficult to track down, and of the three (?) places that I have found it, the ones on Etsy have been the cheapest, and it's only available in the antique copper. Thankfully, I found them early, before anyone else did, because they are the only listing for these bases on Etsy. Unfortunately, the listing was only for two bracelets, and I definitely want more than that. Fortunately, this Etsy seller was kind enough to place the bracelets on reserve for me while he/she collected a few more on his/her restock days. I am assuming that he/she buys these locally at a supply store and then resells them, which is fine by me, because the price is still cheaper than anything I have been able to find elsewhere for them. These bracelets may be in limited supply because of this though, so when I do start making them, if you see one that you love, then you had better act fast! :-)

How's that for a promotion strategy?

New Headband Design

In my mad dash to build up a stock for my bomb of a craft fair this past weekend, I came up with this new design for a headband and whipped up four of them:

They are made using fabric, felt, ribbon, and embroidery thread. This design takes a little more time than my others because the fabric is hand-stitched together. It didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned it to (do they ever?), but the headbands did receive some good "reviews" at the craft fair. Many women and girls commented on how cute they were, and how they haven't seen headbands like these before. Would you believe that one woman, after looking at these headbands, turned to the other one next to her and said, "These are so cute. I need to figure out how to make these myself. So and so would love this." Right in front of me. Seriously?!

Unfortunately, I had no sales with these items and I'm questioning whether I have them priced too high. I priced them at $12, mainly because they require different supplies than the others, and more time. What do you think? Is the pricing off?

Prices are Here!

I finally bit the bullet and decided on prices for all of my current items in stock. I really had no choice in the matter since I was preparing to send them with my mom for the craft fair, and had to label them with prices. This was difficult for me to do because I only have boys and I had no idea what items like these sell for, or what a reasonable price is. Luckily, I have many friends, family members, and acquaintances who have daughters and was able to ask them for ideas. What I ended up doing was taking the average of the suggested prices, looking at comparables on Etsy.com and figuring out my prices based on that. I have heard suggestions that perhaps my items are underpriced, but I did have to consider my location, sale venues, and target customers. If I were to list these items on a site such as Etsy, which has a worldwide customer base, then I would be more likely to price them higher to cover the fees that come along with it. As it is, based on discussions with several people, I think that these are reasonable prices.

Price ranges are pretty standard for each item, however, they will vary depending on how much fabric was used, time spent on a particular item, if any embellishments were used and how many items are included in a set. Here's a rundown of what to expect:

Pom necklaces: $16.00-$18.00
Pins: $3.00-$5.00
Headbands: $6.00-$10.00
Hair clips: $2.50-$4.50
Hair ties: $2.00-$4.50

I will be listing prices on individual items soon.