Posts Tagged ‘jewelry making’
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.
Should You Create Your Own Jewelry Business?
Jewelry making is growing in popularity because the slowing economy has forced many women to look at inexpensive jewelry to buy while others are looking for ways of supplementing their income. If you’re thinking about creating you may be considering if you have “what it takes” to be a successful jewelry designer. While there is no mystical formula for being successful at making jewelry, there are some traits you should possess and be ready to nurture.
You Should Be Enamored With Jewelry: It’s difficult to get into making jewelry if you don’t enjoy shopping for jewelry of all types. It also helps to understand that there are many kinds of jewelry and not every jewelry piece will appeal to everyone. Sure, you may have a preference for making bead jewelry, but having an appreciate of other types of adornments will help broaden your horizons and creativity. Which leads to the next skill…
You Need Creativity: If you’re going to make handcrafted jewelry on your own then you’ll need to realize that you’re starting your own business and things won’t always be easy. You need to not only be able to come up with new jewelry ideas, but you also will need to think of marketing ideas, unique methods of marketing your jewelry and you may need to design your own website. If you’re having a difficult time coming up with new jewelry designs, you can get the creative juices flowing by looking over some of the many free jewelry making tutorials available online. Making your own jewelry requires a lot of creativity almost every day. That’s where the next trait comes in handy…
You Need To Be Persistent: Beginning your own jewelry business and creating your own jewelry isn’t always enjoyable and simple. You’ll probably begin slowly, picking up some of the basic skills at first and then expanding on to more challenging jewelry making methods. You’ll also have to pick up some entrepreneurial skills and training if you hope to succeed. Starting your home jewelry business can be challenging even if you have some basic business skills or have worked from home before. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to make your own jewelry all the time without ever having to worry about selling, marketing or just plain old bookkeeping. There are many good jewelry business books available that can help get you started.
There are lots of normal people who have turned their part-time jewelry making hobby into a full-time business. Jewelry making is a wonderful way to pass the time and make some extra cash on the side. Making jewelry isn’t always without challenges but it can be a fulfilling way to increase your income and have fun at the same time!
Want to learn more about making your own jewelry? Visit our site to learn more about making jewelry and to pick up tips and tricks for beginning your own home based jewelry business.
How To Purchase Jewelry Wholesale

There has a differentiation between Internet jewelry stores and online wholesale companies. Online jewelry stores sell jewelry at retail prices, even though the price may be slightly low-priced. Wholesale companies sell jewelry at wholesale prices – which of course are cheaper than retail prices.
On that point, you can find many sites where you can purchase Directories of wholesale companies, but this really isn’t necessary. Just use a search engine like Google to find what you are looking for. If you are anticipating a crystal bracelet at a wholesale price, for instance, simply type crystal bracelet wholesale into the search box – a whole slew of wholesalers who carry crystal bracelets will pop up in the search results.
Be on alert that some wholesaler’s will only sell in bulk. Naturally, if you just prefer to buy one engagement ring, you do not prefer to buy in bulk. But there are many companies that will sell just one item – you just have to look for them.
If purchasing online is not what you are interested in, consider joining a discount club, such that as Costco. At the present you will find jewelry at low cost retail prices, which is the next best thing to jewelry wholesale prices – but again, the wholesale prices will be lower.
Upon getting by with an online wholesale company, you need to do several things. First, you want to be sure that you are buying the authentic thing. There are many companies out there that will advertise that their jewelry is ‘authentic.’ Read the sales copy very carefully, and educate yourself quickly. For example, beware of words like gold plated or realistic. This is an indication that the jewelry isn’t gold, or that stones are fake.
It is assertive to find out if the company has a refund or exchange policy, as well as a 100% money back guarantee. This is important, and it will protect you if you find that you are not happy with the pieces you have bought, or if they are of lesser quality than you anticipated.
You would like to consider using eBay to find jewelry wholesale prices. Once again, use caution. Check out the seller’s feedback and ratings, and make certain that you are dealing with a reputable person or company. If the jewelry is an important piece, use the escrow service that eBay recommends – even if you have to pay the escrow fees yourself!
Leather expert and knowledgeable Ethan O. Tanner explains the various selections of wholesale jewelry companies the determining factors in wholesale jewelry distributors for your crystal bracelet at a wholesale price.
Unexpected Places to Find Discount Beads
I know people who make and sell a lot of their own jewelry but they are barely breaking even because they are spending a lot of money on materials and not pricing their jewelry correctly. To make beautiful bead jewelry you don’t have to spend a lot of money on your beads and beading supplies.
But you don’t have to just buy the clearance beads that are offered up at your local bead store. There are lots of unexpected places you can go to buy discount beads.
Discount and warehouse stores: Lots of larger stores are now stocking craft supplies, scrap booking materials and even bead jewelry making supplies. These stores sometimes have rotating product stocks and may not always have the beads or supplies you’re looking for, so if you find something you’d better buy it right then and there because there’s no guarantee you’ll see them again.
Large chain art stores: Art and Craft stores are finally learning that beaded jewelry is big business and now most have at least three aisles full of beads and beading supplies, often at very low prices. And if you’re just starting out with bead jewelry making, you can almost always find a friendly salesperson who can help you locate the beads you’re looking for.
Home Improvement stores: Yes, I know this sounds crazy, but if you’re looking to add some fun and unique pieces to your jewelry then you really have to think about going to a home improvement store and looking over their sections of fasteners, screws and even grommets. You just need to have some creativity to create some truly unique and amazingly affordable pieces of jewelry.
All these types of stores are great places for finding amazing deals on unique beads and jewelry supplies. These are not the sort of places you would visit if you were searching for a very specific type of bead or jewelry item, but I find that my imagination sometimes runs wild when I visit non-traditional stores while thinking about making jewelry.
So keep an eye out wherever you shop and always be ready to look for and buy some affordable beading supplies. Every time you shop you may be just moments away from finding some amazing deals on beads for making jewelry.
Want to make more money from your bead jewelry business?? Consider investing in some software to run your bead jewelry business to help track your bead inventory and price your jewelry correctly.
Beading & Jewelry Stringing Choices
There are many issues about the choice of stringing material for beading. Here is an interesting article on the different stringing materials and their usage. One very important lesson I learned is that there is no one, all-purpose (Universal) stringing material. Here are the major stringing materials along with how and when to use each of them.
Silk bears a fantastic “hand” (a fragile, flexible feel). This string comes in numerous sizes and colours. It comes prepacked on reels, and “carded” with a needle. This is a normal stringing material and forms beautiful knots between ivories and beads. Alone, silk tends to be relatively frail. It may stretch out, be cut by unsmooth beads, disintegrate when damp, and ivories threaded on silk should to be re strung up every few yrs. It is better to utilize silk when threading ivories and lighter, smooth-holed pearls. A needle is a requirement.
Nylon string as well comes in numerous sizings and colorings. It comes prepackaged upon spools, upon bobbins, and “carded” with a needle attached. Nylon may be employed where-ever silk can and isn’t as delicate. This textile knots attractively and can be employed for pearl threading, in a few strung up jewelry, seed beading, loom weaving, for Peyote and additional special stitches, and coral beads.
Nylon stretches much less than silk, and it won’t rot when wet. Like silk, you shouldn’t use beads with sharp edged holes or that are heavy. When you use nylon thread, I would recommend you coat your thread with bee’s wax or “Thread Heaven TM “before use to prevent it from fraying. A needle is necessary.
Bonded nylon is a good deal stronger form of nylon strand. The strands are physically bound together for improved strength and abrasion protection. While it knots well, it doesn’t have the “feel” of silk.
Bonded nylon comes in an assortment of colorations and more small-scale spools. Due to its abrasion resistance, you will be able to employ it with “hard”, more abrasive gemstone beads; as a matter of fact this approximates to being an “Universal Thread”. Trade name* include: “Stringth” or “Silkon”. A needle is essential, although you can put “Super Glue” upon the end to make a “Self-needle”. This is a preferred beading textile of mine.
Fishing Line is a tough, semi-rigid, single string of plastic. It does not knot easily, and eventually sunlight or UV may cause it to break and come apart. Fishing line is bought on littler spools and is sold in sports equipment stores.
Personally, I employ fishing line for two reasons. I employ it to do my preliminary threading while I’m designing a necklace (I change the beads to a better textile for the final product), and to string together “raw” strings of beads. There’s no needle requirement. I would never employ this textile for a final beaded piece.
Writer Ethan O. Tanner shares his knowledge regarding the different types of Lacing choices forBeads and Jewelryfor your beading plan.