Bling sells jewelry by IU students

Sitting at a jewelry-filled table tucked in a corner of Pygmalions Art Supplies, Bling representatives Kimberly Jackson and Katie Hayden chatted with a potential customer about the many pieces for sale.

Bling, a newly created brand from the IU Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design Guild, launched this year.

“We basically wanted to create a brand for ourselves, so we called it Bling,” Jackson said.

Hayden described working with the brand as a learning experience. 

“It’s really great for us, because it’s giving us a lot of practice with marketing, getting things out there and figuring out how to price things,” she said. “So, it’s giving us real hands-on jewelry-selling marketing skills as well as the skills of just making the jewelry itself.”

Bling’s pieces range in value from $12 to $280. The average is between $30 and $60, Jackson said.

Many of Bling’s products are hand made by students studying in the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts, Jackson said, but some are crafted by students in other schools.

Hayden gestured toward the intricate wire wrapped jewelry on the table. She said some of the most expensive pieces on the table were made by a student studying cognitive science.

“Some of then aren’t even studio majors,” Hayden said. “They just have been really involved with the metalsmithing classes.”

Despite the real world experience the brand offers, both Jackson and Hayden agree that one of the purposes of the sale was to help jump start a symposium next year.
 
“It’s our line of jewelry that we’re using as a fundraiser for the symposium that we are planning on holding next year in October of 2013,” Jackson said.

Acquiring the funds will be a difficult task, Hayden said. They need to raise $10,000.
Sales from Bling will bring them closer to their goal. 

The symposium will be called Zoom: Examining the Future of Craft.

It will include a lecture series, workshops from artists in the field and an exhibition of work Jackson and Hayden think will be the future of jewelry design.

“(The) jewelry... is very future-focused,” Hayden said, “Not just what is going on now, but what we think will be going on later.”