chrismartin 0 Report post Posted October 12, 2011 Help me out friends. i'm wrestling with something here. So my wife and I are both creative people (my outlet if tying, hers is decorating), and this year we decided to give some tasteful hand made gifts for Christmas. After we decided on this direction, I immediately knew what to give to my wife's sister... I would make her 3 pairs of feather earrings; I made one pair with long Whiting hackle, one pair with grizzly shclappen and a third pair with turkey and guinea feathers. They were easy to make. The earring hardware was cheap and easy to find (Michael's) and they turned out really good. This has lead me to realize something... I can make a heck of a lot more money making earrings than I can tying flies. I tie trout streamers for a shop and I gross about $200 an order (6 dozen) and it takes me about 6 hours to produce and the materials cost about $25. That works out to about $30 an hour. Not bad, but when you have 2 kids under 2 years old it's hard to find the time to get the work done. When it comes to earrings, some investigation has revealed that I could gross about $10-25 a pair, depending on the style. They take no time to make and cost around $2 a pair. In an hour I can easily make 15 pairs and sell them for an average of $20 a pair. After materials I'm looking at about $270 an hour. My goal is to purchase a Pontoon boat ($850) trolling motor ($250) and fish finder ($250)... Am I the worst kind of scum if I'm considering using my fly tying materials to make women's jewellery in order to buy a boat or am I a genius for taking advantage of a current fashion trend in order to facilitate more fly fishing? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gpd4 0 Report post Posted October 12, 2011 If it would make you feel better, you could use your materials to make jewelry and buy ME a boat, motor, and fish finder...I wouldn't tell a soul where the money came from! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flytire 0 Report post Posted October 12, 2011 i wouldnt use my quality tying feathers but would use the craft quality stuff at the big box craft store but you can use whatever floats your boat! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oatka 0 Report post Posted October 12, 2011 What you are doing is fine. What's wrong, is when people think you shouldn't do it. It's your materials, it's your choice. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Report post Posted October 12, 2011 You do whatever you want, but hopefully the feather fad dies out and you take advantage of it while you can. The jobs you do for the fly shop, are they increasing what they're paying you considering the feathers cost more?? You're $30 might be less with the material cost. But heck do it for a bit get your boat and stuff then go back to the flies. Just my 2 cents. Fatman Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
morfrost 0 Report post Posted October 12, 2011 Go for it, man! Fight back against those using our good fly tying saddles to adorn the hairstyles of the easily persuaded. Use the lesser quality( for flies ) hackles and go to town. Use high quality earring findings; i.e. sterling silver , gold plated or stainless, so you are producing a top notch product. Save the best hackles for your prize flies. Seriously, I do the same thing, except I tie wet fly patterns from the Bergman TROUT book (colour plates) using Alex Jackson silver and gold salmon hooks, size 7 & 9. I epoxy glass beads over the hook points to cover them and sell them at my local market along with my trout and salmon flies. The ladies like 'em. I only have 1 each of a particular pattern on display to emphasize the "uniqueness" of these earrings. There's over 100 such patterns in Bergman's book, TROUT so that's easy to do. I get $ 15.00/pr. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
poksal 0 Report post Posted October 12, 2011 I'm thinking your culls with too much taper or out of your size range for hackles will make really nice earings. Why let them go to waste when they can buy you a boat so you can fish more "better".. Yes you are a lousy scum....So sit down and chat with all of us other scums.... shhhhhh....we all have our things we do we don't want everyone to know about. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mybadhabit 0 Report post Posted October 12, 2011 I see it as a great activity, you're using a gift and a talent at the same time and making money doing it, what more could one ask for? As stated before, if you're using stuff that would usually go to waste also, bonus!! I can't personally find anything wrong with what you're doing, more power to you, get the gifts you want for yourself and make others happy, can't beat that. Blane Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Capt Bob LeMay 0 Report post Posted October 12, 2011 As a guy that's been tying commercially for more than thirty years... I say go for it, but double the price of those earrings... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Al Beatty 0 Report post Posted October 13, 2011 Help me out friends. i'm wrestling with something here. So my wife and I are both creative people (my outlet if tying, hers is decorating), and this year we decided to give some tasteful hand made gifts for Christmas. After we decided on this direction, I immediately knew what to give to my wife's sister... I would make her 3 pairs of feather earrings; I made one pair with long Whiting hackle, one pair with grizzly shclappen and a third pair with turkey and guinea feathers. They were easy to make. The earring hardware was cheap and easy to find (Michael's) and they turned out really good. This has lead me to realize something... I can make a heck of a lot more money making earrings than I can tying flies. I tie trout streamers for a shop and I gross about $200 an order (6 dozen) and it takes me about 6 hours to produce and the materials cost about $25. That works out to about $30 an hour. Not bad, but when you have 2 kids under 2 years old it's hard to find the time to get the work done. When it comes to earrings, some investigation has revealed that I could gross about $10-25 a pair, depending on the style. They take no time to make and cost around $2 a pair. In an hour I can easily make 15 pairs and sell them for an average of $20 a pair. After materials I'm looking at about $270 an hour. My goal is to purchase a Pontoon boat ($850) trolling motor ($250) and fish finder ($250)... Am I the worst kind of scum if I'm considering using my fly tying materials to make women's jewellery in order to buy a boat or am I a genius for taking advantage of a current fashion trend in order to facilitate more fly fishing? Hi chrismartin, Go for the boat. Take care & ... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Foosis 0 Report post Posted October 13, 2011 What you are doing is fine. What's wrong, is when people think you shouldn't do it. It's your materials, it's your choice. Amen oatka! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fredaevans 0 Report post Posted October 14, 2011 Possibly a little late in the year but 'crafter/street/Sat-Sunday Morning growers 'street fairs.' Don't think so .... go to a few and walk around. All those folks (selling Veggies or ear rings) are there for a very good reason. fae Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dreamcaster4639 0 Report post Posted October 17, 2011 That's sounds like a good plan. do u have any pics of some completed would like to see em Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KPitt 0 Report post Posted October 21, 2011 Why would you be scum? There is no puritanical rule that says you can't do both and nobody should tell you otherwise. If you can get your equipment tying up earings then do it. I tied commercially for two years and it was pretty thankless as well as not very profitable where I was. I think tying earings is a great idea, good luck!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Markbob 0 Report post Posted October 21, 2011 Go for it, it would be even better if you could sell them through your local mom and pop fly shop so that they can get a cut of the profit. I don't know about where you guys live but down here, most fly shops have to sell lost of apparel and art and stuff like that to be able to support selling fly gear and tying stuff. In this economy, if I can do something to help my local fly shops stay open, even if it just means ordering stuff through them that I could buy on line I'll do it. Besides, wives and mothers are more likely to be more tolerant of us spending time hemming and hawing over fly tying materials if there is something for them in the shop too. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
