Jewelry Making

I came across some really beautiful jewelry through Stylebakery’s Designers on the Rise yesterday. The company in question is called Indulgems Jewelry and from their name you might be able to guess a little bit about what their philosophy regarding jewelry is. From their site:

At Indulgems we believe in something very simple: Indulgence should happen often, in small dosage or large, to add that necessary warmth and pizzazz to life.

Our one-of-a-kind jewelry creations are hand-made with this idea in mind. We want you to pamper yourself, to wear exquisitely crafted jewelry with confidence and joy. We also believe that indulgence does not need to come with a shocking price tag…

If you believe that indulgence is a necessity and pampering is a must; if you have the confidence to stand out from the crowd, to express your inner poise with outer beauty; if you aspire to adorn yourself with jewelry that makes heads turn, and to never shy away from compliments, then you have come to the right place.

I think that’s a pretty wise way to go… for while the pieces at Indulgems are not exactly your everyday affordable item, everyone needs a little something special once in awhile. As long as you don’t go overboard, these types of gifts to yourself are important!

Indulgems main jewelry designer is Grace C, who like quite a few designers is self taught and sort of fell into the profession through business school. She creates one of a kind necklaces, earrings, and bracelets that feature luxurious precious stones often wrapped with silver, gold and gold filled wire. Her pieces can be very ornate but for some reason I was really drawn to them especialy in their frequent usage of vibrant, multicolored stones (something I don’t tend to gravitate to usually) and twisted wire work sort of in the style of “French Beaded Flowers” that I mentioned in my previous entry.

Continue reading “Indulgems Jewelry” …

I’ve found my way to the Beaded Flowers site more than once so I decided to give it its own entry finally. Although, this isn’t technically jewelry making, I’d been investigating some of the interesting ideas and techniques to see how they might apply to making wirewrap beaded jewelry.

The technique of French Beaded Flowers involves wrapping beads and wire around central rows of beads in order to create the likeness of flowers and plants of various types. When performed correctly the results can be astonishingly lifelike and in fact from a distance or in a smaller photo they appear to be the plant in question!

I looked online and it seems this has actually been around for a long time, perhaps the 14th or 15th century in Europe but didn’t come to the United States until the 1800s. Recently, French Beaded Flowers have experienced a renewal of interest, particularly with the advent of the internet making the techniques and materials widely available.

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You may just want to join the Naughty Secretary Club, but not because there’s anything particular naughty about it! I always maintain that a catchy or unusual name for a DIY jewelry company can make all the difference in the world and this is a good example.

Not that they’re hiding at all behind their slightly flamboyant name. Jennifer Perkins from NSC (as we shall abbreviate hereafter for this review), creates funky jewelry that emphasizes one of my favorite aspects about DIY jewelry making - reused and renewed items from the past. Along with her mom and sister, she has created a myriad of unique necklaces, bracelets, earrings and brooches that are very colorful and creative. She also features a large selection of non-jewelry items that are just as cool including home accessoires, purses, and fashion accessories like hair clips and belt buckles.

NSC has three basic lines for each jewelry category which include Revamped Vintage (creative pieces made from older, antique jewelry bits), Nostalgic Notions (older antique jewelry stock that have not been worn or used before) and Nouveau (tasteful newer reproductions of vintage costume jewelry).

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One of the most difficult things for the beginning jewelry designer is figuring out how to sell items online. Sure, you could just open up an Ebay account and sell items on there and many jewelry makers have been successful at that.

However, there is a huge amount of undercutting competition on Ebay… people want bargains and unless you’ve already made a name for yourself it can be tough to attract buyers unless your prices are perilously cheap.

So maybe you are interested in doing some sort of consignment. This can be tough for pricing too, because many consigners take 30-40% of the sale price. Plus, many want to see some sort of track record already and of course there are the dreaded “returns” if your items don’t sell.

Enter Etsy.com which was launched just month or so ago but already has a pretty large following. You can think of Etsy as a sort of “mini-Ebay” that lets you have your own “shop” site. Everyone gets their own shop that is customizable, along with a subdomain url (yourname.etsy.com). Here’s a screenshot of a sample shop:

They charge a $0.20 commission in order to list an item no matter the quantity or price. This is nice to be able to have the same item listed without getting hit with the listing fee again. For every sale they take a 3.5% commission fee which is pretty reasonable, in the range of a fee that is charged by credit card companies. Like Ebay they are merely a “connection” site between buyers and sellers. So it’s a buyer’s responsibility to pay and a seller’s responsibility to handle shipping, etc.

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I surfed into the Twigs and Heather website completely by accident, but decided to post about their designs here because they were so unusual. I’ve said before that I dig unusual jewelry, in particular interesting metal cast jewelry. And the work here certainly fits the “unusual” tag!

This is also pretty cool: Heather and Kerry Collins, who run Twigs and Heather, are TWIN silversmiths who create mysterious but beautiful silver castings out of the natural items around their home in New England. Their casting methods mix a bit of old school (wax and natural burn out casting) with some newer innovations. Here’s some information from the about page of their site:

Based in Kittery, Maine, Twigs and Heather uses twigs and plant life native to Atlantic Northeast. Born and raised in Nahant, on the North Shore of Massachusetts, Heather & Kerry’s profound love of the ocean, and the trees that grow around it, first fueled the inspirations for their work.

They are super imaginative in the type of materials they use. The resulting jewelry ranges from cuffs and rings cast from rolled Birch Bark to handcrafted Maple Seed necklaces that look almost like silver insect wings! They also make jewelry utilizing beach glass as well as more traditional looking silver charms.

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I actually found Jill Italiano’s jewelry work through the Stylebakery Designers on the Rise section. I had seen the little blurb but had forgotten to click through earlier.

Using semi-precious stones and silver and gold, Jill creates playful yet elegant necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings and brooches utilizing a wide palette of colors. I notice a good amount of pearls used in her bracelets and necklaces. One of her signature themes that appears in much of her work is a vibrant flower motif that uses faceted semi-precious stones. The effect is a delicate one rather than overly vibrant which is rather nice.

Continue reading “Jill Italiano Designs” …

Amazingly enough, you will often find me (a guy) looking at women’s magazines in order to get ideas for jewelry making and to see what’s currently in fashion. I’ve come across Peggy Li Creations in Audrey Magazine no less than three times so it’s about time that she’s being mentioned here!

On her website you’ll find a large array of beautiful handmade jewelry including earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. (She even has a little section for the guys, which is much appreciated even though I’ve never found the occasion to wear jewelry myself!) What I like about her style is that it is a bit more reserved and understated in the color usage department which allows room for these clean, artistic pieces to really shine through. What is most interesting to me is that her color scheme is often elegant blues and browns, with hints of orange and yellow only an occasional splash of red. Almost no pink, which is a bit different than a lot of other DIY jewelry places.

Like many jewelry designers, she started off in a completely different field (Chemical Engineering major at Berkley!) before really getting into jewelry design as a profession. Over these past four years, she’s made quite a name for herself, and has had her work cross over into the world of television. In particular, I note that Alyson Hannigan has worn a few of her pieces which is very cool since I’m a pretty big fan of hers!

Here are a few words ‘o wisdom from her website:

“I truly enjoy designing jewelry, making things that make women feel beautiful. When women feel beautiful, they feel powerful, and I love empowering people to achieve a new outlook on themselves and on life. I hope my passion is reflected in my designs and is passed on to the wearer.”

Continue reading “Peggy Li Creations” …

Some really cool inscribed metal jewelry can be found at Amy Peters’ Studio which is located in Avila Beach, California. Amy designs and inscribes both large and small metal charms and uses them in necklaces, bracelets, and even rings. She is no stranger to designing jewelry, having started at the ripe old age of 8 years old. Although she was always involved with beading and jewelry making and even went on to receive a degree in Metal Arts and Jewelry Design, she never thought about actually making jewelry design her main profession until moving back to the West Coast. Here’s a little bit about her philosophy on jewelry design from her website:

It is important for Peters’ that her jewelry be affordable and accessible to everyone. “I want the designs to be inspirational and to be keepsakes and talismans for everyday life” states Peters. “I especially love the time in a girl’s life when she is just finding her voice, My hope is that my designs can help them along their voyage”

She credits her love of inscribed jewelry to a good luck token machine at the local Woolworth’s store during her childhood. It was called the Harvard Metal Stamper and for 25 cents you could put your own special message on a good luck coin that you could put on a keyring or wear on a necklace chain. Peters’ chain of choice was always ball chain. After searching antique stores all over the United States for over 2 decades Peters’ finally has one of the rare arcade machines in her home game room. Thanks to Ebay!

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I came across some really cool looking jewelry from Vintage Faerie the other day. Amanda Kane utilizes antique vintage photos to create unique handcrafted jewelry such as pendants and charms. She also creates hand-stamped “wish” bracelets along with more traditional items like necklaces and earrings. But it’s her photo charms and pendants that really make her work stand out from the pack. Rather than trying to explain exactly how they are made, here is Amanda’s description of the process from her website:

Vintage Photo Charms and Pendants are art, or photographs, behind glass and framed to be worn as jewelry, or perhaps, placed in a special spot to be admired. The purpose of each charm or pendant is to invoke feelings to the wearer, or admirer. Feelings of dreams, creativity, imagination; endless possibilities… or feelings of special moments in one’s lifetime.

Uniquely handcrafted, each charm and pendant goes through a number of processes before it is completed. We begin with a high-quality photographic print of the original. All image designs are from our extensive personal collection of antique or vintage images, text and documents dating as early as the late 1800s. We then cut glass by hand to insure quality and size accuracy. Next we expertly frame the glass encased print by melting a silver metal over high heat to create smooth and thick frames. Lastly sterling bails are added to make the designated piece into a charm or pendant.

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Here is a necklace we created for Bellaceti using material from our latest buying extravaganza at the Rings & Things wholesale bead show. This Pink Candy Jade used in the necklace that we found at the show is actually jade that is dyed a bright pink… it looks just like candy! We had been wanting to use some larger briolettes for awhile in designs, so we stocked up at the show.

Along with the jade drop we used up some pink crystal that are non-Swarovski to form the rest of this simple necklace. I know a lot of people swear by Swarovski bicone crystals because of their shape regularity and sparkle, but if you’re on a budget then they sell similar crystals for a lot cheaper in bulk. Just don’t expect the crystals to be perfect in shape… you will come across the odd crystal that is misshaped every so often.

We wirewrapped this briolette using 22 gauge wire… it’s been awhile since I wrapped briolettes that are top drilled instead of center drilled, so I had some trouble. I’ve been meaning to put up a tutorial for wirewrapping these things; right now there’s only the tutorial for wire wrapping briolettes that are drilled straight through.

The Candy Jade Necklace features a pink jade briolette as the focal point, paired with pale pink bicone crystal and white pearlescent Japanese seed beads. The briolette drop is about 3/4″ wide and wrapped with sterling silver wire. SoftFlex™ beading wire is used to string the crystals and it is finished with a antique silver toggle clasp and is about 16 inches long.

[Full disclosure: I personally help make some of the pieces at Bellaceti.com]