A couple more things...

Leaderofmen has set up a flickr group for us at http://www.flickr.com/groups/cagey/ and will be sending convos to team members inviting all of you to join the group.

I have sent the official application to start the team to etsy - hopefully we should be official before long.

Here's a lovely team graphic for members to use if they wish:

Materials and Components in CAGEY Shops

As I look through more and more shops belonging to potential team members, the more I have seen the need to clarify, for myself and other jury members and applicants, what we will and won't accept in the way of materials and components.

Here are things we shouldn't find in a CAGEY member's shop:

• Plated metals
• Plastic (unless it's handmade polymer clay components)
• Elastic and other stretchy materials prone to deterioration
• Dyed stones, unless said dye is fully disclosed in the listing
• Mislabled or misrepresented materials
• Jewelry items that cannot be exposed to water
• Mass-produced lampwork beads and other low-quality glass beads
• Earrings modeled by a person, UNLESS there is a clear and obvious statement within the listing that the customer will receive a brand new and unworn pair of earrings.
• Gemstones set in flimsy snap-in settings
• Plastic or cheap glass pearls

The following are acceptable:

• Lab grown and created gemstones, provided this is made clear in the listing
• Dyed stones and pearls are marginal - they should be fully disclosed and should not make up the bulk of a shop's listings. You won't be turned down for incorporating dyed stones here and there but their use shouldn't negatively affect the overall quality of your products and must be disclosed.
• Swarovski pearls, provided the fact that they are not genuine pearls is made clear.
• Polymer clay componenents handmade by the artist or purchased from the artist who made them.
• Furnace and cane glass
• Genuine Murano art glass
• Lampwork and fused glass handmade, not mass produced, by a skilled glass artist
• Base metals such as copper and brass, providing they are solid and not plated

On the subject of fused glass and bails

I’d like to start off by saying I understand if this position seems unreasonable or offensive to those of you who work with fused glass, as it amounts to saying, “change your industry standard if you want to be part of this team.” I have enormous admiration and respect for those of you who create fused glass – I love it, I buy it.

With that said, a major goal of this team is to create a pool of jewelry artists that buyers can purchase from with confidence that the items they are buying are of excellent quality and will stand the test of time. If as a team we don’t have a specific appeal to buyers that will lead them to trust and purchase from our team, we’ll just be a club of jewelry buddies – which is fun, but doesn’t help sell jewelry!

A large number of fused glass artists use silver or gold plated bails. Plated metals simply do not meet that standard, so we will not be adding fused metal artists who use plated bails and other plated components in their work.

We realize that there are cost and availability barriers to using solid silver or gold bails. As far as cost is concerned – the glass you work with is already quite costly, and if I were a glassworker I would gladly pay extra for solid metals in order to bring the bail up to the overall cost and quality of the rest of the piece. I’d also look at it as a rare opportunity to set my work apart from the crowd.

As a buyer of fused glass, I have seen many, many stunning pendants I would have purchased had the bail been made of solid metal. Perhaps I am not the only buyer making that choice?

My understanding is that solid metal bails suitable for fused glass are very difficult to find, so here are a few ideas. First of all, Rio Grande does sell them. They are not the easiest company to purchase from, not are they the cheapest, but they do sell them. They also sell Attack, a product which can be used to remove the plated bails in order to replace them with sterling.

Second, the bails are something that would be very simple for most metalworkers to make. I’ll be suggesting that the well regarded handmade supply store Prolifique here on etsy begin making them. CAGEY team member onegarnetgirl has offered to make them on request.

And of course, you can always convo your favorite metalworker and ask them to create something for you…how about your own, exclusive signature solid sterling bail design as a way to stand out from the crowd?

Brass might be a good, affordable metal to use in lieu of gold; talk to your metalworker about finding some nice yellow brass to create bails for your gold-toned pieces if your budget doesn’t quite run to solid gold!

Hi members! Could I get your opinion on something?

I am a little torn on one issue, and I'm hoping for some fresh opinions. I'd really like to have our members steer completely away from plated metals, for the same of building a reputation of quality with customers. I'd like this team to become known as a pool of artists that buyers can trust to provide durable, quality, and truthfully represented jewelry that won't deteriorate over time.

With that in mind, the issue of fused glass artists arises. I am a big fan of fused glass, I look at and buy a fair amount of it, and I would adore having some of the many incredible fused glass artists on the team. The only problem is, the use of silver and gold PLATED bails seems to be nearly industry standard. There are a number of artists I personally would have purchased from if only their pendants had utilized solid metal bails.

I think the reason for the prevelence of the plated bails is the fact that the only readily available commercial bails are plated, not that many of these artists are not passionate about quality. To hold true to the direction I'd like this team to go in, we'd decline members using plated bails. My dilemma is that making that decision would wipe out most of these artists from being able to join, regardless of their skills.

Should one of our first projects be to find sources of workable sterling and perhaps gold bails for fused glass artists and seeing if said artists would be receptive to switching over? Or is the notion incredibly arrogant on my part?

Should we accept or decline quality fused glass artists who use plated bails?

Please weigh in! :)

A few more details :)

• The awesome LeaderofMen is setting up a flickr group for us.
• I selected the first group of members and have some more in mind, but to make the jurying a more impartial process in the future I'd like to add some more "deciders." Onegarnetgirl has graciously agreed to be one of our team's jurors - thank you!
• I need the group banner before I send the official team application to etsy. As soon as the completed banner is emailed to me I'll get that in. There will also be a "member of" image for our team if anyone wishes to use it.
• So far, metalworkers are the most robustly represented group in the team. That's very cool, as I have a special fondess for metalwork, but I'd love to see some really skilled artists from other areas like seed beading and wire wrapping join us too.
• The team email address is cageymail@gmail.com - if you are a team member please send an email to that address so that I can add you to the group contact list. I promise not to spam you.
• I would like to give anyone who is interested authorship priviliges on this blog - I think the group members should all have the ability to contribute information, ideas, and a modicum of self-promotion. ;)
• If you posted an interest in being on the team on the original thread last night and I didn't convo you about being a member, that means one of two things; either I decided something about your shop didn't meet team criteria, or I added your name to a list of shops I was having a hard time deciding on. Feel free to email cageymail@gmail.com for details about your shop if you wish.
• If I was having a hard time deciding, that means I am going to let the expanded pool of jurors have the final say. If you didn't meet the team criteria but would like to, there will soon be a mentoring thread set up where team members can offer suggestions for improvements in photography and other common snags. A major focus of this team is helping each other improve in our trade and that is part of it. I can tell you I saw some spectacularly skilled people who just needed to work on photography......
• At some point, all of you will be able to post ads for your shops on this blog (for free) and hopefully profiles as well.
• That's it for tonight! :P

A warm welcome to our first batch of team members!

I'm quite certain this list will grow, but for the moment here's a list of spectacularly talented jewelers who are starting us off with a bang.

Distinction Jewelry (me!),
khmetalwork,
leaderofmen,
damselflystudio,
tinyshinytreasures,
citydetails,
bellabijoujewellery,
onegarnetgirl,
abdesigns,
barrondesignstudio,
panicmama,
mareastudiodesigns,
iacua,
2bellesbeads

~

Knowledge and ethics

Our members will be knowledgeable about the materials they use, especially gemstones, and constantly strive to increase their knowledge. We will never knowingly mis-represent the materials used in our creations, and will disclose any gemstone treatments to the best of our ability.

Conduct: Some people have an attitude of competition and secrecy, others delight in sharing information and stories with other jewelry artists. This team is for the latter. We all have different, unique styles. We are not in competition, and I will moderate the team to make sure that we are a diverse group. By helping each other learn we all become stronger and more successful.

Members should not directly copy one another. However, members of the team are also expected to be knowledgeable and mature enough to realize that advanced artists with their own developed style are not likely to be the least bit interested in copying one another, and it is just such a group of artists I hope to bring together here.

There are no membership fees, time requirements, or meetings. Our members are busy professionals and this team recognizes that.

While this team will never require people to spend time they don’t have in mandatory team activities, I would love to see our members help and mentor newer artists who may not currently qualify for membership. I would also love to see us sharing useful information with each other and with potential customers through forum threads and the team blog.

Requirements and guiding principles

Members need to have a professional-looking shop with excellent photography, accurate and well written product descriptions, and responsible shop policies. Your shop should have more than a page of items for sale, and should not under-price or undervalue your work.
Your items should stand apart from the crowd; we are looking for artists with their own well-developed, distinct styles.

We serve the discerning buyer who seeks lasting quality. To that end, we only accept artists who work primarily in solid metals such as silver, gold, copper, and brass. “Disposable” materials such as plated metals and plastic beads are not encouraged. Lampwork beads used should be high-quality, individually crafted and kiln annealed, not mass-produced. Glues and adhesives should never be used unless such use is the accepted standard within the fine jewelry industry (for example, the use of epoxy to secure half-drilled pears to posts is acceptable). With rare exception, your products need to be able to handle exposure to water. Your products need to be designed to stand the test of time.

This team is intended primarily for makers of finished jewelry, not components or supplies. However, it could be open to, for example, lampwork artists who sell a substantial number of ready to wear pendants and earrings in addition to loose beads.

We strongly encourage members of our team to ship internationally.

Why does CAGEY exist?

The purpose of this team is twofold:

For jewelry buyers:

To provide a varied pool of jewelry artists together in one place that have been selected based on their originality, quality, ethics, knowledge, and presentation. Our goal is for the shops in our team to provide an above-average browsing and buying experience for the discerning jewelry purchaser – a best-of guide to etsy jewelry.

For jewelry sellers:

To gather a friendly, professional, and non-competitive group of jewelry artists with the goal of sharing and enhancing our mutual knowledge and success.