Posts Tagged ‘handmade jewelry’

Repairing Handcrafted Jewelry For Profit

A lot of beaded jewelry designers work throughout the day putting together unique jewelry pieces and buying jewelry supplies for that next necklace or pair of earrings. One good way to avoid that jewelry making burn out while still using your jewelry making talents is to begin to repair jewelry on the side! Making jewelry is a challenging hobby and it can be very rewarding, but it can also drain your creativity if you’re making a lot of unique jewelry designs and then spending lots of time putting together the materials for each piece over and over.

Instead of making a anklet from your own ideas, you usually need to take an existing jewelry pattern and find beads to replace missing or broken jewelry pieces that either look similar to the rest of the jewelry piece or at least compliment it. Fixing jewelry requires a slightly different approach to buying jewelry supplies because you’ll want to have lots of connectors, seed beads and stringing materials available. You’ll also need think about using a professional jewelry management program to track what jewelry supplies you have on hand, what you’ll need to purchase soon and where you can get them for the best price. Repairing handmade jewelry uses your jewelry making talents and will often present some fun challenges. Here are some other tricks to remember when you start fixing jewelry for clients:

Matching jewelry supplies to older jewelry is often very difficult. You have a better chance of locating replacement beads or pieces that are complimentary, though sometimes matching the color of certain gemstones can be very frustrating.

Keep an eye out for structural aging in older jewelry pieces. Even though a clasp isn’t broken, you may want to suggest replacing it before it does fall apart.

Remember to price yourself fairly. Often times you will be fixing a piece of jewelry that holds a special meaning or is particularly liked by your client. You are providing a service of not just fixing a piece of jewelry, but often you’re helping restore a memory or feeling!

Finally, remember to have fun with it! Both fixing custom jewelry and designing your own jewelry are enjoyable ways to make some extra money, but it’s up to you to find the right balance to keep you smiling and profitable at the same time. You can usually charge just as much to fix a piece of jewelry as you would to create it. But because are often working with existing jewelry materials fixing a piece of jewelry may be much more profitable.

Want to pick up more tips and tricks? You can visit our site to read more about handcrafted jewelry making and get some great jewelry ideas while you’re there.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

Purchase Handmade Jewelry Online

Don’t buy mass produced earrings and necklaces you can find at K-Mart. Order Handmade Jewelry and you will be getting yourself something truly precious while supporting a real jewelry artist. This is my please to the entire world!

When you buy yourself handmade jewelry (or certainly when you purchase it as a present) you are purchasing something with true value and you are buying something that is unlike anything else in the world. I think that is rather awesome! Why would you want the same necklace or earrings that thousands of other people are wearing?

When you purchase handmade jewelry you are setting yourself apart from the no imagination crowd and you become a true trendsetter. Your friends will want to know all about your new interesting jewelry.

This advice really goes for just about anything. Stop buying mass produced junk and start buying handcrafted items that may cost a little bit more but are certainly worth every penny.

This same basic mentality should also apply to buying food. You can eat much more healthily if you stop shopping at the supermarket and start shopping at farmer’s markets. The key with buying food is about “local” instead of “organic.” I don’t really have space in this article to really get very specific as to why this is true, but it’s suffice to say that the big corporations have taken over the “organic” food market who have done anything and everything they can do to make “organic” have less meaning so they can make bigger profits.

Forget about brands. Whether it is food or jewelry or almost anything else, brand names are not something to respect. It’s important to understanding that famous brands are not of high quality because of their huge name, all that means is that they have spent a load of money on TV commercials. Branding has nothing to do with the quality of the product itself and everything to do with advertising.

Shop on Etsy for Handmade Jewelry and check out the “Beautiful Layers” Blog for some background and updates.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

Handmade Jewelry: Make A Human Connection

If you are planning on buying some jewelry for a loved one or for yourself then you should definitely think about bypassing the mass produced stuff for sale at most stores and think about buying some beautiful handmade jewelry instead!

Think about it for awhile. What is really special about having the exact same bracelet, necklace, or earrings as thousands of other women? Mass produced jewelry may be expensive but that doesn’t mean it’s truly valuable. I don’t care what type of “precious stones” it’s made out of. I do not care about how many diamonds it has. It is not really unique or truly valuable in any real way unless it’s handmade.

When you purchase some handmade jewelry you are connecting with a true person who has made that jewelry for you. I believe this connection is worth much more than diamonds and gold. On the other hand, when you purchase an expensive diamond ring you are really just buying the exact same ring that many others have bought. There’s nothing truly special about a ring like this.

One thing you can do if you want something that is truly made just for you from scratch is to buy a custom made necklace.

Such a necklace can have a pendant with custom text on it for an example. You tell the jewelry artist what name (or phrase) you want on the pendant so you will know that it was made especially for you. Custom jewelry like this makes for a perfect present for a Birthday. Your significant other will definitely love such a personalized gift.

And when you buy handmade you are supporting a real artist and not some huge brand. That’s something to feel good about doing. Certainly our world needs more artists and we need much less corporate control. Artists make our world more “human” while corporations are only concerned with greater profits at any cost.

Buy Handmade Necklaces instead of purchasing the same old necklaces from department stores and Become a “Fan” of Handmade Jewelry on Facebook.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

Are You Scared To Shop For Jewelry Online

We are lucky to have this thing called the World Wide Web. Because of the World Wide Web we are able to do a lot of shopping from home. It makes it a lot more convenient to shop for out of the ordinary purchases like jewelry. You no longer have to drive many miles in order to find a decent deal on something that you have been waiting to buy for yourself.

A lot of people are afraid to buy jewelry on the internet though. You can’t blame them though. After all, it is really hard to trust the quality of a diamond without seeing it up close with your own eyes or touching it with your hands. Those days are starting to change now. Most of the bigger internet retailers will offer written appraisals from independent gemological inspectors. And, some of these jewels are now engraved with serial numbers for verification.

As a result, there should be less of a concern about buying goods on the internet. Due to measures like this, it is far more likely that you are actually getting a decent value for the cost. Otherwise, it would be extremely easy to pay way too much for a precious gem. Thieves could really fool with shoppers. Every year it seems that the internet stores are getting more and more reliable.

Wouldn’t it be terrific if you could have hundreds of jewelry stores all in one location so you could save time shopping? That is what the internet does for you. Because of the internet, we now have the ability to buy directly from smaller stores or directly from the manufacturer. You can buy designer handmade jewelry from places like ArtisanGemstoneJewelrySite.com. There are many of these little individually run stores that can offer you great selections of unique jewelry at prices that the big name jewelry stores could not even compete with.

When you get personally made pieces right from the manufacturer, it is hard for other stores to compete. There is less markup on the product. You would probably be surprised if you were told how much of a markup from manufacturer to retail that there is in the typical store.

Competition is always good for the end user. If the small retailers compete directly against the big ones online, the consumer always comes out ahead. Whether you are in the market for a new neck chain, arm band, ring or earrings, the extra competition you will find online will help you to get more value for your dollar. You won’t have to haggle as much as you would at one of those mall jewelry stores. You may not get the same one on one service, but if you are dealing with one of the small stores you are bound to still get well taken care of.

People’s fear about buying these types of things online should be diminishing. The majority of the people operating small retail shops on the internet are honest people trying to earn money. If you are careful then you are not likely to come across somebody who is going to steal from you.

Tyler is a freelance writer who has published many articles about shopping on the internet. One of the great deals you can find online is designer handmade jewelry. Look for a place where you can buy directly from the designer. You will save the most money that way.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace