Jewelry Making Tips with Metalsmith Society

Production & Wholesale Tips With Special Guest Emilie Shapiro

• Corkie Bolton • Season 1 • Episode 25

Share episode

In this episode, I’m joined by jeweler Emilie Shapiro—owner of a brick-and-mortar shop, wholesale pro, author, and educator. We dive into inventory management, production planning, and selling wholesale.

Follow Emilie on Instagram at Emile Shapiro Jewelry and Emily Shapiro Studio for updates on classes and workshops. She offers in-person workshops at her Long Island studio and a full online library covering design, production, pricing, wax carving, and stone setting. Listeners get 20% off online classes and memberships with code SOCIETY.

Check out Emilie’s Books!

Join our community and follow  Metalsmith Society for all the jewelry tips.

Support the show become a Patreon Supporter!

Heatless wheels mentioned in the episode, available from Gesswein.

Music attribution: Stock Music provided by RomanSenykMusic, from Pond5



Support the show

Corkie Bolton:

Welcome to Jewelry Making Tips with Metalsmith Society, the podcast for anyone passionate about jewelry making. I'm your host, Corkie Bolton. And on this podcast, I will discuss jewelry making tips, social media, marketing, running a jewelry business, along with insights from special guests in the jewelry industry who share their expertise and stories. Whether you've been making jewelry for a while or just starting your journey, this podcast is your go-to resource. So grab your tools, dust off your workbench, and join me. All right, on today's episode, I'm joined by special guest Emilie Shapiro to dive into the world of inventory management, production planning, and selling wholesale. Whether you're just starting out or looking to streamline your jewelry business, we're sharing practical tips and real-world insights to help you build a more sustainable and profitable studio practice. Emilie is a New York-based jewelry artist who combines ancient lost wax casting techniques with rough gemstones to create handmade sculptural pieces that celebrate natural imperfection. She runs a vibrant studio and showroom in Long Island, New York. Emilie teaches classes in person and online. Her online offerings focus on wax carving techniques and jewelry business classes. She offers individual classes as well as a studio membership for access to all of her online classes, and there's a vibrant community as well. Emilie is also the author of several jewelry-making books, which I love, including How to Create Your Own Jewelry Line and Fundamentals of Wax Carving and Lost Wax Casting, which is now available as an ebook. Emilie, welcome to the podcast.

Emilie Shapiro:

Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to chat with you today.

Corkie Bolton:

Being able to connect with you in the course of running Metalsmith Society over the years has been truly amazing because you're a name that I've known of for many, many years.

Emilie Shapiro:

Oh, thank you so much. That that means a lot. And it's been awesome connecting with you and building relationships all these years as a maker, a mom, you know, all the all the things.

Corkie Bolton:

Yes, definitely. Yeah, you know, it is it is really a beautiful thing to connect with other caretakers, parents, pet parents, but people that, you know, obviously have other responsibilities in addition to running a business, you know, entrepreneurs. Yeah, sure. As I mentioned, you've been in the game a long time. Do you want to tell our listeners a little bit about you, your business, all that good stuff?

Emilie Shapiro:

Uh, sure. So I have been in business for about 15 years. I've been making jewelry actually since I was in high school. You know, kind of typical stories started with beating, taking things apart, putting it back together. But, you know, I think we're kind of focusing on my business. But, you know, my work has definitely grown and evolved a lot over the last 15 years I've I've been in business. I, you know, post college, I went to college for jewelry and metalsmithing. Post-college, I worked in the industry for several several years for different designers. And that really I learned so much actually being in the industry, specifically about business, but also about wholesale. You know, that's kind of something that certainly was not even talked about in school. So that has, you know, really helped build my foundation for my business. Like I said, it's definitely evolved over the last 15 years. Currently, I would say about 50% of my business is wholesale and 50% is retail. It definitely wasn't always that ratio. You know, when I first started out, it was kind of all retail. And then when I launched wholesale, it was mostly wholesale. And now I'd say it's 50-50. You know, over the last several years, I've definitely seen the landscape change. And so I think that's a big part of probably being in any business is, you know, always kind of checking in with yourself and the industry, you know, your friends and whatnot, kind of zooming out and doing a pulse check to seeing, you know, what's working, what's not, where to pivot, and just being flexible. Because I think it's not one size fits all, and your business isn't gonna look the same every year as it shouldn't.

Corkie Bolton:

So you you also somewhat recently opened a showroom in Long Island where you were previously in Brooklyn, right? Yes. So I actually was in Astoria, which is Queens. Oh, that's right. I lived in Astoria and my brother lived there for I know it well. Yeah, I lived there last like year I was in New York City. I lived there. I love Astoria.

Emilie Shapiro:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, we lived there for 10 years. So my my last studio, I mean, you know, kind of being a maker for all this time, I've I've had like several locations. Originally was in Brooklyn, so you didn't totally make that up. But um we my family and I relocated from Astoria to Long Island almost three years ago. And so my studio was in Astoria, you know, it was just too much to move at once. And so I moved almost a year ago. I found a space that I, you know, I wasn't looking to open a retail store. I had kind of always thought about it, but I found a really special place that so I have my studio in the back and a small showroom retail space. Sometimes I don't even like know what to call it yet. I feel like I'm still figuring that out. But it's been really, really great. And also I'm in the town that we live in. Um, so this has been like a completely new experience for me. Really being able to like welcome people into a physical space. It's been really fun and also feeling like I'm becoming part of our community, like our town, and not just, you know, I've I have such a strong sense of community within the jewelry industry, especially with teaching and connecting with other people. But it's been really nice and like also a little humbling figuring out something new. You know, when you've been in business for a while, you know, not that like you get jaded, but you get used to doing things. It's been, it's been like kind of wild, like figuring out this like completely new side of the business. It's been nice.

Corkie Bolton:

I want to already put you on the spot and say episode two with you, like telling us all about opening a retail store. I'd just be so fascinating. But on the calendar. We'll definitely, yeah, we're gonna do that part two. Stay tuned for that. So I guess this kind of leads into my next question, which is you're saying that sort of the retail store, it wasn't something you were planning, but it's sort of an opportunity came. But essentially, like when did you know for yourself that it was time to sort of expand in that way into opening a retail store?

Emilie Shapiro:

Yeah, I mean, I almost wouldn't even consider it an expansion as more as like a natural evolution. So just like a little bit about my business. So we do focus a lot on wholesale. I have a full set of studio samples, you know, because I do shows twice a year, wholesale trade shows. You know, previously I always had a studio where people were welcome in, but you know, it was private and people didn't come in that much, uh, honestly. And so when I sell retail on direct on my website, you know, we have this basically set of samples that I and we can go further into this more, but you know, we kind of pull from that and then remake. So I already had all this stuff that was physically able to sell. So it's it's not like it wasn't really an investment. It just was like a natural thing. It's like, well, I have all this stuff, why not just let people come look at it? And you know, I had always loved the idea of being able to like curate a space and you know, I always had my things on display as much as I could in my old studio, but you know, I found this really unique spot in our town. It's actually second floor, so I you know, rent is so crazy. So it kind of allowed me to be able to have a really visible footprint in our town. I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, like when I started to look at spaces because honestly, I really dragged my feet moving from the city to the suburbs. And you know, I'm like, I'm never gonna move my studio. So it just it's kind of just all happened, and I found this space and like I just I had the stuff for sale already. Right. So it was kind of like a natural, just a natural thing that happened. It's again something I always dreamed about, but right now it's just carrying my it's just my work. Um, we actually just put one other collection on display of non-jewelry, but so yeah, it it really was, I think it's a typical thing for jewelers to to do, to have like their studio behind and their own work for sale.

Corkie Bolton:

Yeah, and you're already there and you're a people person, it totally makes sense. You know, wonderful hearing about your store. Today, you know, we're focusing a lot on wholesale. And I know a lot of people have this question of like, you know, you were coming from a background and working for a jeweler that did wholesale. Pamela Love, I think I recall you worked for her. But when I was the production manager there. Right. So you saw kind of how it all worked, but when did you feel you were ready? And I know it was a long time ago at this point, but like, how did you first take those steps in branching out into wholesale? How did you know you were ready?

Emilie Shapiro:

So that's a really good question. My answer is I wasn't ready. So I'd love for your listeners to learn from my mistakes. I was young and naive. And, you know, I think that if I were doing this now, I don't think that I would have the just be so brazen about it and just the blinded confidence that, okay, I'm ready. You know, I was a production manager at Pamela Love. I also had worked for several, several other designers. And at that time, you know, I graduated in 2009. That's when I entered the industry. That's really what the model was. It really was wholesale. Like when I was at Pamela Love, they had a website. They didn't even have direct-to-consumer. Like you couldn't purchase anything on their website yet. Like we set that up. That's wild. Isn't that isn't that insane to tell you? That is insane. And like you, and you know, you needed like a web developer to do that. So, you know, it's it's what I knew. That was the only model that I saw. I was doing retail like craft shows, I was doing artists and fleas, and you know, being in New York, there's all these amazing things. And I so I was connecting with customers and learning all of this stuff. And, you know, I had seen other people do trade shows. So, and again, being in New York, it made it a lot easier for me to experiment. And you know, honestly, I was living at home with my parents still. Um, I I was able to invest in my business. So I I know how lucky I was to be in that position. So it's really, it's really what I knew. So I I had a collection that I put together and I actually applied to at the time. It was still called the International The Gift Show. You know, now it's rebranded as New York Now. It was very juried, it was very hard to get in. And I I got in like I I couldn't believe I did, and I showed up and I honestly really wasn't very prepared. I had never watched the show before. You know, I was very micro-focused on certain things that didn't matter. My display was, it looked very crafty. It wasn't elevated. You know, when you're at a trade show, you want to make someone feel like they're in a store and can envision it there. I got very, very lucky. That's that's really the truth of it, is that even though I felt like I wasn't prepared, my collection, I had a lot of cool pieces, but when I look at it now, like it was not a cohesive collection. I had a lot of like different points, and I got very lucky that one of still my biggest customers, Uncommon Goods, found me at that first show. And you know, it's a big company. And at the time it was like the biggest orders I had ever seen. I had already had some wholesale, obviously. I had some things before I just jumped in and did a trade show, but that really helps carry me over to be able to do the next show because other if I if they didn't find me, it would have just been like the biggest bust ever.

Corkie Bolton:

Oh, was it just the one client you got?

Emilie Shapiro:

I had gotten like maybe one or two other shows, but I mean Uncommon Goods is those are much larger orders. It's not like a $500 or this. It's you know, that really all of a sudden like I am just so beyond lucky that they found me when I did, when they did. So, you know, I don't want to, I don't want anyone to think that like I was like fully prepared because I wasn't. And again, I if I could go back in time, I would say, Emilie, you are an idiot. Like, what are you doing?

Corkie Bolton:

Well, I I'm gonna I have to challenge you on that to say that some people like perfection gets in the way of just getting it done.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Corkie Bolton:

How excited you were, and that you did have that confidence. Because honestly, I do think that having met a lot of people in the industry, sometimes they just see a work and they see the artist's potential. It's like a gallery owner seeing an early painter and being like, there is something here.

Emilie Shapiro:

You know, no, you're right. You know, you're right, you're right. And I think that I'm probably being a little hard on myself. And I agree with you. I think a lot, like a lot of times we can you can get in your own way. I'm definitely like the type of person who just like sets my mind and I'm just like, yep, I'm doing this now. So that's what I did. And again, I I had a lot of really interesting pieces. I learned a lot of that first show. Like, if if it's not, I used to make everything to fit me. I have like a size five finger. You know, no one could fit a size five ring on. And then, yeah. Yeah. Or, you know, I actually remember this amazing gallery who still carries my work was like, honey, these bracelets don't fit on people in the Midwest. And so, you know, it was something to think about. You know, I had cool designs, but I think that it just wasn't fully fleshed out. So I learned a lot at that first show. I came, I mean, I came back probably with like a 300% improvement and really just in display and cohesiveness in, you know, my line sheets looking better and just learning a lot. I also think that honestly, now there's a lot more information that you can find. You know, there's a lot more just things being shared on the internet. Like I obviously was still around then, but it just was different.

Corkie Bolton:

I just want to drop for people listening because like I feel like there's so much I want to jump in on that. Like, honestly. I know I'm sorry, I feel like I'm being really scattered. No, no, you're not at all. It's more like I think if someone's listening and they're like, oh, I'm interested in like that, definitely pick up your book, How to Start a Jewelry Line, because honestly, like I have that book, I've had it for years, and it really does lay it out like how to get an LLC, how to create a line G. And I think that is a good start point. I think something that I'm sort of, I don't even want to say it because it's it's such a rabbit hole. But, you know, let me ask like first, like how many wholesale accounts do you have now?

Emilie Shapiro:

We we probably have at least a hundred. Oh my God. Yeah.

Corkie Bolton:

That's awesome. You know, I think one thing like I don't want to bring us down a rabbit hole too, but it's like I hear a lot from people like, I wonder if those wholesale shows are still working in the same way that they did back then. And a lot of people are saying no. You know, a lot of people are saying that people walk the shows and they kind of reorder with arts that they already carry. And yeah, yeah, I I do sense that changing landscape. And, you know, I wish that we could just be like, okay, but here's our advice. And I think what you said in the opener of this podcast is just like that. You always kind of have to be looking for ways to kind of like pivot ways that you can kind of, you know, like look for opportunities. Like, so I mean, we'll move on in a second and don't want to make it about me, but I generated at the same time and it was that landscape. I wanted to do New York now, I wanted to wholesale. I even remember a museum store was interested in my work right out of Pratt. But when I went back to them, I remember like I worked with one of my professors professors a little bit on like a line sheet, but they my pieces were too expensive. Right. Like I and I I hadn't had the experience to figure out a more like tacit, marketable, maybe base metal way of doing it. And I lost that opportunity. And you know, it's like it happens, right? But yeah, so this year though, like I'd always wanted to do that. That didn't work out for me, but it was meant to be because now I'm sitting in this seat talking to you. It's like I can share your experience, even though it wasn't my experience, and my place has definitely been to help others in education. But this year I did get my first wholesale account, and I think it's my first because I have had in the past different consignment opportunities. But this is the first time that a store's invested in a collection of my work. I can say now I have a collection, you know, of work. Like I definitely I'm like really in the thick of it. But all that to say that that doesn't mean now that I'm just like a wholesaler, but it's like there's sort of this, it's a little bit of a path I'm going down in addition to direct to consumer, in addition to try to do like trunk sales and in-person stuff. So I guess what I'm saying for those out there, we won't go down the trade trade show rabbit hole. Maybe that's episode three, my goodness, with just you.

Emilie Shapiro:

Come on as much as you want.

Corkie Bolton:

I know I'm like, we should just do a weekly chit chat. Like, let's talk about trade shows, right? But anyway, so just for people listening, it's like, don't get discouraged, you know, and be like Emilie in your her early days, just have bold confidence.

Emilie Shapiro:

Yeah, no, so bold confidence was what I was looking for and I couldn't figure it out. So I also kind of want to reiterate it's this isn't a one-size fits all. When I first started, because I had worked for those other places, like I said, I was doing craft shows, you know, whatever. I in my young brain, in my not fully developed, you know, cortex or however one says that, frontal cortex, I I thought that wholesale was the way to L. I thought that that was the only way to have a successful business was to be like, oh, look at me, I sell in all of these stores. I am here to tell you that that is not true. That is not true. And not only has it changed so much, I I really think that's an older way of doing business and an older way of thinking because you don't know in a second what can change. So I I'll give you an example of my own business during COVID. Something I never thought that I would do, I started doing some private label. So, meaning it was me designing with another company, it was a kind of a collaboration, but it was not my name on it, and we were producing for them. This was something I would have stuck my nose up at before, no way. But hey, there was a pandemic and I needed to pivot. So I figured why not? I have this full studio, I have all these amazing people working for me, and it was business changing because these the volume of orders. I mean, we were creating thousands of pieces.

Speaker 2:

Wow.

Emilie Shapiro:

I was very, very proud of that. But you know what happened a few years later? It stopped. It stopped. And it's been really challenging pivoting to not having that as a client anymore. You know, and so you can't put all of your eggs in one basket. You can't just say wholesale is the way, or I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. You have to be constantly investing in yourself and reassessing what's working, what's not, and just kind of reinventing, you know, and it that was amazing, and maybe it will happen again, but maybe it won't.

Corkie Bolton:

You know, it's you this this feels like so appropriate to say on that same note, which is that for like one of the ads on this podcast, it's just me talking about my merch that I have at metalsmithsociety.com. During COVID, I was getting hundreds of sales a month. Now right now I might get like one or two t-shirt orders a month, which I'm not on here to complain about.

Emilie Shapiro:

But yeah, well, by the way, side note, I need I need the sweatshirt. So you'll be getting one for me today, the support local jewelers sweatshirt. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Well, no, and I love that. I want that.

Corkie Bolton:

I love the support local jewelers merch. That's actually on my like jewelry website for people. But like with that merch, right? Like, I spend like thousands of dollars on an average year hiring a designer for a new design every year. And like this is the first year where I'm kind of like, maybe it's a break-even. Like, and I'm not saying it's a complaint, but at all. What I'm using the example of is it was gangbusters during COVID. Like, I was that was where most of my was coming from. But if COVID now at this point, that was what, 2019, 2020? Doesn't it feel like yesterday? I it's it's like before and after in my brain now.

Emilie Shapiro:

I feel like especially with like the trauma's still there. Yeah, well, it's true. I just think you you constantly have to be able to reassess yourself. And you know, maybe like a business expert would disagree with me on this point because I'm a big like go by the feelings girl. And so I have to sit down and look at the numbers. You have to reassess and and evaluate what's working and what's not. And you know, maybe and I, you know, maybe you look at that merch or I look at this thing that I'm really trying to do, and it's just not working. You're spending more money doing it, and you got to figure out sometimes. You need to like look where the money's coming from and see how you can expand. And I know some people will be like, oh my God, she's so selling out. She just said that. But you know what? I am in this for this is a business. Yeah, it is this is a business. I am I'm an artist. I'm so privileged. It is such an honor to be able to share my work with other people. I wake up every day, I really do, I think about this. I can't believe that people pay money for that and they want to cherish this. And it it's it really is such a privilege, but this is also a business, and it only makes sense if it makes money and that I can pay my employees and I can pay the bills and I can support my family.

Corkie Bolton:

So you really have to see what's working, and it's okay to read your society merch while you can. All right. We have so many things to cover here. Oh my god, I know about how to structure your production schedule to keep up with both wholesale and your custom and retail demand. And we'll just rapid fire through some of these. Yeah, yeah.

Emilie Shapiro:

And by the way, like no worries, I have plenty of time. All right. Um two-hour long episode with Emilie Shapiro. Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, quick run to the bathroom now. So something, something that I do now, and I'm I have a feeling this will be like a later question, is I do have a production management system, which is really just project management that I've implemented. Probably, I think I started maybe in 2021. I don't know how I did this before because so everything in my business is made to order. We basically have one set of samples. When someone orders something retail on my website or in the shop, they can buy that and then essentially I'll replace it if needed. When someone, and it says very clear on my website, it's either in stock or it's made to order. And with wholesale, it's depending on what it is, it's about a four to six week production timeline. You know, I can always expand that if I need, if we're extra busy or if we're not that busy, I can make things a little faster. So everything is made on demand. I really, we don't have, or the idea is to not have much inventory, but obviously, you know, sometimes it ends up that we have, we end up with things, but that's a an another thing. So I have a production management system that I actually built on something called Airtable. I am like so passionate about Airtable, like pull up my soapbox, let me talk about it.

Corkie Bolton:

I'm like like it changed my life. I'm like hanging on to your papers.

Emilie Shapiro:

It changed my life, it changed my business. It so it's it's a free platform. It's basically like Excel on steroids. So it's it's a project management system. There are other things that are like it. Like I think Asana is one of them. I at the time was working with a marketing firm, which I I don't anymore, but you know, we it it was something that they used to kind of easily be able to like pass tasks back and forth to each other and have multiple people have eyes on it. So essentially what it is, it's it's like an Excel spreadsheet. So you put all of your data in, and then there's all these different functionalities that you can connect them together. So essentially I can have a they don't call it a spreadsheet. I can have a spreadsheet of all of my products, and then I can have a spreadsheet of all of my orders, and they all link together, and I can filter it in a million ways, and I could basically open the system and it could tell me, you know, what needs to get made in date order, and then I can click into a product, it gives me all the information. It has really streamlined my entire life. Easy life meaning.

Corkie Bolton:

Sorry to interrupt. Um, no, no. Like, also, like this is the first year I'm I hate to confess this, but I'm really trying to like I have an Excel spreadsheet for my inventory, but I've also started an inventory for raw materials because we're really supposed to have our cost of goods sold, right? Because those act against us, they're sort of asset of our company and business, but they're also, you know, like I would just order and order and order, and then it's like there's no like like okay.

Emilie Shapiro:

So I know, so I already know your question, so I'm gonna answer it. So you could in one place, you could have your spreadsheet of inventory, you could have your spreadsheet of raw materials. You basically could have all of the information and then you can connect it together. And so I know you guys can't see Quirky's like happy crying, but also sad crying because it is a lot of work up front. I don't I don't know how I did that. I used to also just work off of an Excel spreadsheet that honestly my husband helps me with. You know, he went to business school, is really I know he's like really good at Excel and who knew there was like more features than just filling cells in. So that so this is something that I use. And again, I so so basically I can open my Airtable, I can connect it with my team members, so I can tag people in what what their tasks are for the week, and then they can click in basically to a product, and you can see all that information when needed, and you can filter all that information. So you can see what raw materials need to go into it, you can see chains, you can see findings, molds, this, this, and that, what needs to get done. So it's basically just a way of digesting a lot of information and being able to view it in like a million different ways. So, like you can see, you know, what needs to get produced in these specific dates, and then you can have a certain view that says, Oh, well, these pieces need to have castings ordered, and here are the molds, and here are here are the mold numbers, and here are the number of pieces, and here's the metal, and here's the location, and here's the link or whatever.

Speaker 2:

Wow.

Emilie Shapiro:

So it's it's just a really smart way of it's essentially digesting all the information. So back to your original question every single order that we get, whether it's wholesale, retail, it's a one-of-a-kind piece, someone's walking in, it's a repair, maybe someone's sending something back for a resize, it gets entered in this system. And so, you know, I'm able to kind of filter it by date, by you know, whatever, and that is how we organize everything. And I can't express my love for Airtable enough not to get like too salesy, but I do teach online classes. And this winter I made a production management class where basically it's just me teaching you how to use Airtable, and then it's a you get to download a basically like a blank copy that I made. Obviously, you know, everyone's a little different, but I just it's definitely the thing I'm most proud of in recent years within my business, just because it was so life-changing for me. Yes. And it's something I wish I could have implemented sooner. And also, you know, I was learning how to do this on the so every day I'm like, oh, okay, I should try to, I should try to configure this a little different or that. So it's it's hard kind of to do to kind of change it when we have the system already. Um, it's hard to all of a sudden stop in your tracks and be like, we need this other thing. So it's something that's really, really, really helped me stay organized. And even if you're just starting out and you're just making 12 pieces, you know, having 12 different styles right now, be organized, like build a good foundation. I didn't have that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Emilie Shapiro:

Um, and it made things, you know, I remember a time when like everything was on post-its and having a breakdown and crying because I didn't know what to do next. And you know, it's organization is not always my strong point. Like, I'm a Virgo, but I'm like a messy Virgo. So it's like when given systems, I thrive. Yeah, I you know, I definitely have like undiagnosed ADHD, which I'm sure a lot of people do. So to make my life easier, I need boundaries, I need systems because otherwise, like I'm coming in here and I'm looking around and I'm like, ooh, that's an episode for me to do that.

Corkie Bolton:

AD managing ADHD. Oh my God, I have this pretty much later. But like this year, because my son was diagnosed and he's seven, it was like watching him and his struggles and him getting like help and support, and then me being like, it's kind of like looking in the mirror. And then like I go to my doctor who like delivered both my babies. She's an amazing physician. I'm so lucky and privileged to have her because she really takes the time during our annual to talk to me. And I I think, you know, I think I might have ADHD. And she was like, well, I've known you for 10 years. And of course you do, but you've never complained about it. You have really good coping mechanisms. And it's so interesting because I look back at my life and I did have undiagnosed, like standard. I'm like one of those women adding to the that stack, that data of like, I'm 240 this summer. I just got diagnosed at 39. Like, and what I do is so incredibly creative. At any given point, I'm like making jewelry. I'm doing all the sponsored posts for all these different, you know, tool companies, doing the podcasts and getting back to email and sharing the tips.

Emilie Shapiro:

And so also like caring for your children, making sure you have time. Like, I mean, that's that's a whole other part of this. I mean, it's not even just mental load, like physical load. And I also have to praise you. I think about this all the time. I forget we were doing some interview together for something, and I remember you held up this piece of paper, and you're like, this is how I stay organized. And it was like this daily and even weekly thing that you fill out. And I'm just like, oh my God, I need this. By the way, I think about it all the time. I still haven't. I've been meaning to be like, can you just share it with me? And it, but it's like we really you really do need to figure out like coping mechanisms, like you said, but what's gonna help you thrive?

Corkie Bolton:

Because you know, I'm gonna share one game-changing tip and then we're gonna move on. Okay. So I have the reminders app on my iPhone. It's like a built-in app. Have you ever used it? Yeah, okay. I literally use it 7,000 times a day for everything. Okay, so literally, have you ever done this? Oh my god, shoving. Hey Siri, set a reminder for 1 p.m. today to follow up with Emilie Shapiro in an email.

unknown:

Okay.

Corkie Bolton:

And then people that can't see it, oh yeah, they're listening, it adds a clickable to do in my calendar app. Literally in my calendar app.

Emilie Shapiro:

We I need to look at and so I do what exactly what you did, like probably 75 times a day.

Corkie Bolton:

I mean, whether it's like reordering, it becomes an actual like checkoff. Actually, today I had like preparing for this podcast. And anyways, though, we digress with ADHD. And I mean, isn't that classic? Honestly, this podcast kind of classic. We're both like looking at our calendars right now.

Emilie Shapiro:

I'm like, okay, I'll do that.

Corkie Bolton:

Don't get don't get dragged in. But you know, I think one thing for my listeners, my podcast is a little ADHD at times, and I apologize, but you're either here for it or you're not, you know. I think you needed to apologize. No, it's uh we're unapologetically, you know, passionate and doing our thing. This episode is brought to you by Metalsmith Society merch. If you want to rep your love for jewelry making and support the community, head over to MetalsmithSociety.com and check out the full collection. I've got everything from enamel pins and t-shirts to beanies and tool-inspired goodies, designed with makers in mind. Every purchase helps support the educational content I create and keeps the Metalsmith Society community going strong. So whether you're shopping for yourself or a fellow jeweler, go take a peek at MetalsmithSociety.com and grab something fun from the shop. Now let's get back to the episode. So I'm really excited to I'm I have an annual membership to your classes. There have been so many that have been just aspirational, inspirational. And I love your business classes for sure. You have so much to offer a hundred wholesale girls and I've been doing this for so long. So I'm extremely excited. Like later today, I'm going to watch that on Airtable because it is hard, especially as someone with ADHD, because sometimes I'll start something and then I don't keep up with it. And I feel like things are everywhere. And so I'm really excited to check that out for sure. Which also using this, another question I had for you is like, how often do you do your inventory counts? Who handles it? And yeah. Yeah.

Emilie Shapiro:

So that's that's something that you know we're supposed to do once a month. We don't always do it. But basically in Airtable, or you could just have a spreadsheet of every single thing that gets used in your studio. And I have another column for how many I'd like to have on hand. And so let's say we're talking about tools. Let's say, you know, maybe you use like separating discs, which is like something I use in my flexhaft to help clean castings and stuff. You know, maybe you want one box always on hand. So if you realize your last box is opened, I have a little check mark. And even with Airtable, I have it set so I get a notification of what I need to order. And then so I do find that that you know helps stay on top of what we need on hand, like in terms of supplies. Yeah, yeah. So we're doing that once a month, and then because everything is it goes fast though, because a lot of it is like, you know, I know we haven't touched this, or it it goes pretty fast. You know, and then for other things, because we uh because everything's made to order, I'm basically ordering like specifically castings, like on demand.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Emilie Shapiro:

So I I mean, of course I do have stock of things, but yeah, I try to do it on demand. So I'll try to place an order like once a week for you know orders that that came in. My caster doesn't have like a minimum, so it's not a big deal if I'm emailing them an order, you know, and I just ordered I could order two days later, it's not a big deal. But that's just specifically how I do that with castings because of how my work is made.

Corkie Bolton:

Could you describe briefly how you actually store your inventory for jewelry and materials? Sure.

Emilie Shapiro:

Um, so I have a for all of my castings that we may have some stock of, or like, you know, we have bigger batches that are gonna be used for things. I have it's like this box that has these like I'm like staring at it. These like long, skinny, they're like little drawers. It's like a plastic drawer, and then on the outside it has the name and mold number, and you know, it's just in it it's in like numerical order, although I still feel like I can never find the one I'm looking for. So for stuff like that, and then I have for like all of my supplies, I have this really nice, it's like a big steel drawer. It's like this high. It has like three drawers, so everything is like each drawer, like I have one drawer for sheet, I have one drawer for wire, I have one thing that I have like you know, like bits for the flex birds for the flex shaft, wax injections have different things. So it's kind of nice because it's like just all in one place. I had actually bought that used a million years ago at Metalliferous when it was I I'm not sure if they're even really around anymore.

Corkie Bolton:

But I think we went to an online shop, but Metaliferous, if you know, you know. Yeah, can we like share some video clips of this storage and share it on its promote the podcast? So when people are listening, head over to Instagram and we'll have shared. You can find and if you're ever looking for a post on Metal Son Society, you can go to tips.metelsonsociety.com and you can just type for the words Emilie E M I L I E is how Emilie spells it, and you would be able to find any tips or mention of Emilie there. So that'll be a way that we can do that. All right. So I'm very excited to see images of that. Let's see. We had so many different things that we talked about. Are there any other business tools besides Airtable that you use? Whether and whether that's like we just talked about a physical storage system, we talked about Airtable for inventory. Are there any other just in general business tools or systems that have made a big difference for you? Yes.

Emilie Shapiro:

I mean, this might be an obvious one, but so my website is run on Shopify. I feel like it's pretty common these days. I used to be on Squarespace for many years, although honestly, I think I made the switch in 2009. I just felt like I was kind of hitting some roadblocks. Although I do think Squarespace has probably improved a lot and become more powerful. But um, I don't know if you run on Shopify.

Corkie Bolton:

I'm on Shopify for both my websites, so okay.

Emilie Shapiro:

I mean, it's amazing. And like I have like the app is really great, and just even being able to keep track of all the like physically made inventory, you know, that's that's something we use.

Corkie Bolton:

Are you saying you use it like within so you're saying like with the product you're able to list how many you have, like selling them, obviously? Yeah.

Emilie Shapiro:

Yep, yep. You can do that. I don't do this, but I do know like if you are having like let's say you did have more stock and it was all everything is up to date in Shopify, like you could like if you're someone who sells on fair, which I do, you could actually connect your Shopify with Fair. And so it can like all of your inventory can be there if like you were keeping stock of stuff. Fair. Um I don't do you don't know what fair is? A wholesale website. Uh F-A-I-R-E. It is a wholesale website that people can place orders on. It's something I never thought I would get on because I kind of thought I'm totally can, I kind of thought it would cheapen my brand a little bit. But COVID happened and they reached out to me and I sort of thought, why not? And it's great because it's basically like it's just a wholesale platform. So stores can find you. What's great is a lot of my stores that I had existing accounts on, I, you know, when I email them, I you know, give my whole spiel, I link to my line sheets, which we are like PDF copies, and then I also say, or you can order directly on Fair. And so they can have that link and it's like a whole they're able to just shop on there. And the the annoying thing, I can rant on Fair, you know, if and I know like a lot of people have these up these same opinions, if it's if they're already my customer or if they're like in the system, or if I'd e if I'd reached out to them directly, it's zero percent commission. I don't actually pay anything to be on it monthly. But if it's a new customer who found you through fare, it's 15% in perpetuity. Meaning that every time they order, you know, yeah for through fare, basically for the rest of time, they take the 15% cut, which is huge. At wholesale, that's a big cut, but at the same time, I still do it because a lot of these stores aren't finding me elsewhere, or at least hadn't yet. I try to be really good about like uploading people and making sure when I email them I keep that that fair thing. And you know, like I said, going back to how I felt, it was like maybe cheapening my brand a little bit. I don't think it has. I think a lot of stores really like to order on there, and a lot of the orders we get are like people that I've known for years, and I just think there's just been a big shift, and it it honestly it makes it easy. Cause I don't know exactly how it works from the customer side, but they handle all the like collecting of payments. So, like I'm getting paid in that 30 no matter what, I don't have to chase anybody down. Yeah, that's a big part of wholesale. Yeah, it's annoying.

Corkie Bolton:

This is so interesting too, because when you think about it, like back in our day when we graduated, me 2007, like there was a lot more jewelry reps, and jewelry reps, it was the same thing. They would get you into a boutique, but they would keep and purposefully you still have to pay any jewelry reps from when I actually never had a I never worked with any reps. Lucky, I mean I worked together, but it never went anywhere.

Emilie Shapiro:

But I yeah, I did work with a rep, but it like never went anywhere. That that's really and it was like yeah, so fair is a I mean that's like a big portion of my business now. And it's it's not that I wasn't a lot of these places, not even like I wasn't getting orders. A lot of my existing accounts, like they just want to order. Also, from a store's point of view, a lot of times they get terms, like they get net 30, net 60, depending on their account, which means if someone doesn't know, like they get the the store get doesn't have to pay until 30 or 60 days after they receive the goods. I'm not giving those terms out. But they can get it through fair. And I don't care because I'm getting paid. Right. So it it is it is good. There are other, I know there's like indie me. I owe I'm only on Fair, and then wholesale trade show that I do is called Shop Object. They have their own like wholesale platform called Shop On, which honestly I don't really get a lot of orders, but you kind of have to be on there because you know, people search it for the show. Yeah, that's my fair tangent.

Corkie Bolton:

That's so, so interesting.

Emilie Shapiro:

It's worth checking out. I mean, I might. I might. I have I mean, if if nothing else, they're very good at like helping you organize like what information you need. And it's I mean, it's basically it's a way to have online line sheets.

Corkie Bolton:

Well, and I also think too, just like as a quick note, like the more easy you make it for a wholesaler because you're organized, because it's easy to order, you're reliable, the terms, etc. Yeah, they want to work with you more. Whereas like a lot of artists can be kind of like, oh, you know, and in my dealings, wholesale account, I mean, I'm incredibly on point, like in my communication.

Emilie Shapiro:

Of course you are, you know. I also going back to a point you made a while ago about the changing landscape of trade shows, what's also annoying is I think a lot of stores, why would you place an order there in person if if you know that I'm on fair? Or if that like, so it's it's tricky because a lot of I'll be there and a lot of people ask me, like, oh, are you on fair? Oh, okay, I'll just find you there. And it's it is annoying, but I think if I were a buyer, I would probably be the same way. I mean, to go drop tens of thousands of dollars like in person at a show, like I'm just I don't think I have that organizational level. So, you know, it is it's something to think about for sure.

Corkie Bolton:

One last thing for everyone, and then we're gonna exit out here. For our jewelers, for people that are like, oh, I'm nowhere near close to any of this, but they do create production pieces. Can you give us your top tips on how you maximize your time when you have to make some inventory? Do you often, I mean, it would make sense probably for your business model. I'll let you answer, but I mean, it probably makes sense that you might make more than one of something just because it's more efficient for your time. Give us some tips for that, and then we're gonna close it out.

Emilie Shapiro:

Sure. So basically, I work on like a on a weekly basis, essentially, in the studio. And we have like different phases of the production. So instead of working at, and this might be obvious, instead of working one piece at a time, start to finish, I'm batching things together. So I actually am like most likely working on like a hundred pieces at a time and doing the same steps. So, you know, for example, I'm will sit down on a Monday morning, and the first thing that I do while I'm drinking my coffee and listening to Corky's podcast now is soldering all the earrings posts on. And then, you know, I'm cleaning them all up after they come out of the pickle with a radial disc because it's really fast and efficient, all at the same time. And then I'm putting them all in the tumbler at the same time and tumbling it for several several hours, which work hardens those posts but also polishes them. So it's yeah, constant, or while you're assembling, maybe cutting all the chain at the same time. And I make this easy because of my air table system that I'm able to see what batch we're working on this week. So it's not just like one person's order, it's just kind of where in the production it is, and I'm able to see all the chain lengths and all the type of chain at one time. So all the things are getting cut. You work a lot faster, it's definitely not as fun, you know, when you're doing repetitive things, but that's what production is, you know. And then there's that besides working in batches, which I think is kind of obvious, there's definitely things that I do in the studio that just like make me go faster. I'm trying to think of some good racks, like something that I actually started to do because we do a lot of casting. So, you know, I'll cut screws off, I'll grind things. My favorite tool right now, they're called separating discs. They're quick, they're amazing. Wear masks. Don't let your flex shaft fall against your bench, they'll break. Oh, yeah, they like shatter so easily. And I do have to change them a lot, which is annoying, but it's worth it because they're so fast and it's not that loud where other things in the past that have been super loud. Have you used a heatless wheel too?

Corkie Bolton:

A heatless wheel? No, what's that? Oh, I'm gonna change your life. I'll link you to that too. Okay, oh my god, I'm so excited. They're these heatless wheels that grind down a spur or sprue in like five seconds. It helps to kind of like it's so aggressive, your piece doesn't essentially build up heat that fast. I mean, I'll still keep a but like a little bowl of water, but oh, they're phenomenal. They're like blue and you can see all the abrasive in it. But those for sprues, that's like my number one go-to. So oh my god, I'm going to order directly when they don't they don't break like separate, but separating disc too, but they can break more easily. So okay, interesting.

Emilie Shapiro:

So uh, you know, and then at what I use, I use a radial disc to deco radial disc. I use like the white one, I forget what grid it is, just to go over what like where the screw was. And then I actually right after that, we tumble everything with like a medium blue grit, and I do it overnight. And then the next day, so instead of like finishing, you know, hand like sanding everything, obviously I don't do this for my gold collection, but for my brass pieces, I do. So I'm it it's it's taken out a lot of just like the you like I used to like sand every single piece like through all the different sandpapers. Also, I feel like my studio is a lot cleaner, which is nice, it's not as dusty.

Corkie Bolton:

Well, and just for those listening, blue medium, like there are, I want to say a few things because this comes up a lot. Plastic tumbler media is really great for almost kind of like you're saying it like polishes and smooths rough edges, it's actually more abrasive. We're not talking about still shots, still shots is not furnished and just the surface level, but it's plastic abrasives. Now, everyone is always immediately like, the microplastics and this and that. Anytime I use any tumbler, any pickle, any ultrasonic, any of it, I have, and I'm gonna make a tip on this this summer because this is like the perfect time of year. You can quite literally get a small bucket, you pour the liquid into it, and you let it sit out in the sun and all the water and let it evaporate and all the microplastics, all the copper, and then you can send that to your hazardous waste collector. And it's a really, really, really good tip. But also, or what I recommend actually, it depends on what metals you're working in. Like if you only work in copper, you only work in brass, I would send that to hazardous waste. But if you are working in silver or anything else, I'll refinery in my refining bin. Yep. My most recent bucket was $1,500. Hell yeah. And I had it, I had them send me gold casting grain instead of a check. Sure, why not? Anyways, we're so off on a tangent, but that was good because for purposes, it's like these materials just transferred into another form versus me getting paid what looks like income for me. Yep. Yep, yep, yep. Really, really quick though.

Emilie Shapiro:

I just want to complete that after no, no, no, no, no. I I just after the blue, I switched to half green, which is the fine plastic shot, and half stainless steel.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Emilie Shapiro:

I just I kind of like a semi-polished look.

Corkie Bolton:

That's just so you know, there is like a final step. Yeah, love that. And other people also use there's like vibratory tumblers, like when I'm yeah, there's lots of different types. Like we use plastic media, but it was in a vibratory tumbler, and that can work really well too, too. So I think those are great ideas. Emilie, where can people find you?

Emilie Shapiro:

So you can find me. My website is Emilie Shapiro.com. It's E-M-I-L-I-E, like M L I S H A P I R O. You can find me at Emilie Shapiro Jewelry on Instagram and Emilie Shapiro Studio, which is kind of like a little bit more behind the scenes, a little more related to my classes, but it's really just me on all those accounts.

Corkie Bolton:

Love that. And in the show notes, I'm gonna link both of Emilie's books, How to Create Your Own Jewelry Line, and also the ebook of the fundamentals of wax carving. Your wax carving book is phenomenal. Sadly, no longer in print, but available as an ebook. And ebooks are perfect, especially if you have a Kindle Ad, whatever.

Emilie Shapiro:

Also, all the projects in my creative wax carving book, the one that's out of print, are now classes. They're all now online classes.

Corkie Bolton:

Oh, I love some of those projects. I actually had a high schooler that I mentored last year. I remember studio and I helped them with their senior project. And we worked through your book for to create because she had no jewelry experience, but she wanted her senior project because she's interested in it to be about like creating a you know a small collection of work. And so for me, wax carving is always a great way to go because you don't need to invest in a lot of jewelry tools. You can have a caster make it for you. And so that's I want people to check out those classes. Emilie also offers in-person workshops if you're out near Long Island. And again, mentioning her full library of online wax carving and the jewelry business classes, I want everyone to check out that production class where you can learn more about Airtable. She also has an annual membership, which is all the classes. It's so worth it. And we have an exclusive promo for my podcast listeners. You can save 20% on individual classes or that whole entire membership when you use my affiliate link and enter the code Society at checkout. So yeah, I'm gonna, you know, link all that. Emilie, thank you so much. This was so much fun. I could honestly talk to you for eight more hours. I know we could just keep going. We actually are gonna continue the conversation for my Patreon supporters. So if you are a Patreon supporter, head over there and you'll see some exclusive content. Thanks, Emilie. Thanks, Quirky. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. I love chatting with Emilie about all things inventory, production, and wholesale. And I hope her experience gave you some inspiration and practical tools to apply to your own jewelry business. If you enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share the episode with your fellow jewelers. Like, go ahead, send them a link. It really helps the podcast grow and reach more makers. If you'd like to support the show, you can head over to patreon.com/slash metalsmithsociety. You can also buy merch at metalsmithsociety.com. Share your love of jewelry making and support not only the podcast, but our jewelry making community on Instagram. If you want to keep learning, be sure to listen to all the other podcast episodes. And as always, keep creating, keep experimenting, and remember, every great jewelry business starts with passion and persistence. Until next time.

Head Shot

Corkie Bolton

Host