diy: dannijo necklace

i have found another jewelry line that is selling overpriced flea market necklaces without changing anything at all, so naturally i decided to re-create the necklace.



dannijo's zula trade necklace consists of three strands of glass beads strung on raffia ribbon, and the ends are knotted together to create the necklace. this is how the beads are sold from the beginning, which means that dannijo isn't doing anything - oh wait, sorry each set of three strands are handpicked by the designers. their time must be extremely valuable, because they are selling these necklaces for $595. yes, $595 for some strands of beads that were purchsed, and then put into sets of three. that's it. how much did i spend on four strands? $32 ($8/strand).

how is this even legal? how can someone get away with it? the necklace is gorgeous, but really you would have to be completely stupid to pay that much. i guess dannijo is marketing the necklaces as something historical and rare (read the description) but they are def. not rare. there are tons of them, and there are even two booths at the flea market that are selling the beads. compare the necklaces that my friend anjelica & i put together with the dannijo strands you would get if you paid $595:

my selection. i need more!

anjelica's selection. so much better than spending $600!

dannijo's 3 strands that were hand selected... not impressed

personally, i think that anjelica's necklace is 100 times better than the dannijo, and way cheaper. the guy who we bought the beads from gave me his card, and it turns out he has a store in hollywood. looks like i won't have to wait a month for the next flea market to buy beads!

question.

do you count as a designer if you buy strands of beads from the flea market for $5 and then jack up the price to $50 and re-sell as you purchased the strands (on the same string)? just wondering if you can claim it as your creations.

"jewelry designer" vanessa mooney thinks yes. while searching shopbop today i came across a ring that i thought was not only pretty, but pretty over priced considering i could make the same thing for less than half the price:

sooo i decided to check out what other jewelry this girl "makes" and i quickly realized that shes not really making everything shes selling. one of her necklaces, the mixed metal african necklace, which is priced at $176 required almost no work on her part. i actually bought some of the beads that she is selling and i know the most expensive strand in the necklace is no more than $13. so i suppose that wholesale this necklace is around $50, but is it really fair to mark it up soo much for the retail price? i mean this girl probably spent about 1 minute putting these necklaces all together and maybe another shipping it out. she didn't even put a real clasp on the necklaces or transfer the beads on to a nicer string. shes just selling the beads as is!

in my opinion this is totally ridic!! i'm not even putting a link to the "designers" website. maybe i wouldn't be so annoyed if she put some actual creative thought into the jewelry and then charged over $100.

anyway, if you like the stuff, just go to the flea market yourself (remember, PCC is free to enter!) and save your self a bunch of cash.

images from shopbop.com