Wot a shame

In my last post I was really excited about the idea of a wholesale order. I've spent time trying to work out wether it is something I can do for the money that I was being offered. We had agreed that I would do some sample beads for this week.

What became obvious really quickly was that for the price being offered I would need to make the beads in 1.5 mins... they were taking me 4-6 mins. That is such a big differnce that there is no way I can do that. It also measn that onee all the costs are take out I would be working at below the minium wage.

I feel really sad about it but I know that declining is the right thing to do. After all I'm the one who often talks on forums about charging a fair amount for your beads. I also strongly believe that yoiu offer a worker a fair wage... wether that be in this country or abroad.

This experience has reminded me of thoughts I had last summer about fair trade goods and just how wrong it is for workers to be paid so little in India and China when they make beads. Not only are the beads of a poor quality, and possilby not annealed so they are not strong, but the workers work in really hot environments.

Thanks for reading

Julie