de Cor's Handmades - Malaysia Handmade Jewelry: By Offering Wired Chinese Knot Jewelry Tutorial, I got this in return

Sunday, June 13, 2010

By Offering Wired Chinese Knot Jewelry Tutorial, I got this in return

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I have got an E-mail three days ago, and suddenly realized I have been useful to the wire jewelry making community.
Jude found me in Flickr. *Yay Internet!!!*
With Jude’s permission, I hereby posting the content of the E-mail:
Corra, I've been an ardent fan of your work for a number of years ever since I first saw your pieces on Flickr (which I belong to). I joined JL a while back but was sidelined for a long time with pneumonia resulting from that H1N1 virus.
At one time, I could never imagine how anyone could do Chinese knotting with wire since it's a skill to do it well with cord, let alone trying wire!! But I've been playing with wire wrapping & weaving a little & while still very much a beginner, I feel that with time & practice, I'll be able to improve & make some nice pieces. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so will keep at it till my work looks even, neat & at least semi-professional.
I was looking through your gallery at JL & had read before of some others using some of your tutorials. Imagine my disappointment when I saw none offered at JL. But by doing some checking & following some of your links, I found where I can buy then now. Oh, joy!! Admittedly, it will be a while (I hope not a long time) till I've become skilled enough to be able to do any of them. Trust me to always love the most complicated ones & to strive for the hardest first. But I'm practical & will start with easier ones even if it's not quite what I want at first.
This message is simply to thank you for still offering your tutorials so others can strive to make beautiful jewelry too. All too often, an artisan jealously guards their work & doesn't wish to share. I suppose it also makes more sense to share since not all can afford to buy the lovely pieces they see so a teacher may make more money selling tutorials. But it still shows a generous heart to share your knowledge & skill with others. And for that, a very sincere thank you goes to you!!
P.S. I can't think of what your poor fingers must go through doing all that wire work!!
kind regards,
Jude
Realized I’ve highlighted a few sentences? I’ve got something to say too:
In reply to the first highlighted sentence – Yes I was once doubted myself too, and I must admit it takes ALOT to convert one Chinese Knot into wire form, I am glad that I have found a few, and I am glad that I have contributed this new “slang” into wire jewelry community. :) *peace*

In reply to the second highlighted sentence – Yes you are right, I do not sell through Jewelry Lessons. I used to sell through my blog by placing PayPal buttons on the blog, trust me, if you have already build a reader-base because you write sincere blog-post, your blog can fetch you money. I sell my tutorials via my blog just as much as I sell them through Etsy or ArtFire. I made the effort to take away all the PayPal buttons on my blog when JL changed their policy, under their new policies, whoever that sell through their blogs and websites are automatically known as “competitor" to JL, and if the condition is true you are not allow to mention your blogs/websites URL – and JL is not satisfied with me removing PayPal buttons, they perceived my blog is still their competitors because I have mini-Etsy and mini-ArtFire on my blog, aside from this, the 50% of commission upon each tutorial sold is way too much for me to take, I sincerely think the contributors are worth more than that, If I were to sell through Kindle they will pay me more than that, and I don’t have to worry about promoting my book, I am basically paying to ride on their existing market-base. So, please tell your friends about me and get them straight to me alright? :)

In reply to the third highlighted sentence – There are many tutorials out there right now in the market, if you observe, people are encouraged to write a tutorial to share their knowledge, which is good! BUT PLEASE CHOOSE YOUR MENTOR CAREFULLY AND LEARN THE RIGHT SKILL! If you have learned something incorrectly, It is often very hard for you to unlearn it, so, BE CORRECT right from the beginning, if you are learning to make Wire Jewelry so that you can sell your creations for a living, make sure you do not compromise, and therefore your customers do not need to compromise too.

Last but not least, thanks Jude, for writing in. I am forever grateful for receiving a thank you note like this, this motivates me heaps and I promise to continue to be useful to the community.

And here’s my handpick items for father’s day gift that’s available in Amazon – for your reference. :)
God bless you all!
Corra @ Malaysia

1 comment :

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on the great letter! I too think your work and your tutorials are great....I'm always amazed when you create yet another one for everyone!

Teri
sandtcreations.etsy.com