Jewelry Making

Happy Hearts Day! Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I’m especially trying to get up to speed on featuring well-deserved DIY jewelry makers but it takes awhile to write these up. Anyhow, I realized I hadn’t changed out our Jewelry poll in quite awhile so here are the results of the last one which asked “Where Do You Buy Your Jewelry Supplies”?

I am actually quite surprised at these numbers… I had thought that they might be pretty equal across the board with perhaps some favoritism toward Jo-Ann’s stores. Also, I belatedly realized that it might be more interesting as a poll to lump Jo-Ann and Michaels together and call them “retail” and to add “wholesale jewelry suppliers” as a choice in the poll. I personally have not really bought “wholesale” jewelry in large bulk amounts from a bricks and mortar type place, but I think that quite a few online jewelry supply places have very similar pricing schemes.

And speaking of online jewelry supply stores, this was by far the highest vote getter in the polls with 170 votes. The internet has completed changed the rules of supply and demand and the need for a “real” store has been tossed out the window. I often think what it must have been like to have to buy ALL of your supplies in actual stores or through a print catalog. This must have been extremely time consuming and discouraging for part time jewelry makers.

Continue reading “Poll: Buying Jewelry Supplies” …

For our second interview we got a chance to interview Tammy Powley who is perhaps best known for being the Jewelry Making Guide on About.com since 1998. She is also a writer and the author of many jewelry books such as Making Designer Bead and Wire Jewelry and runs several jewelry making web logs.

Our interview with her was not only fun but educational as we spoke of her career change from technical writing to being involved with the jewelry making business. We also touched upon some of the tips for jewelry makers just starting out.

This interview was done over email and is recommended reading for the beginning jewelry maker and seasoned pros alike.

Interview with Tammy Powley, About.com’s Jewelry Making

I haven’t really written up a DIY jewelry making project article in so long. I finally had the time to put this one together on Making Simple Beaded Rings which I’ve been meaning to write about forever.

These beaded rings use tiny seed beads and monofilament line to create simple but very pretty looking jewelry. One nice thing about this project is that it only requires a few supplies, both of which are readily available:

Tutorial on How To Make Beaded Rings

Our latest poll involved the type of metal that jewelry makers utilize in their designs. Although many beginning jewelry makers start out with simple bead stringing projects, eventually the time comes when they make a foray into using either base metal or precious metal in their designs. Some designers even use metal exclusively or as the focal point of their jewelry.

Here are the results from the poll, which turned out pretty much how you would have expected:

The majority of designers polled used Silver Metal in their designs. This is no surprise since the wire of choice for wirewrapping is often silver. It is easily workable, and comes in various malleabilities (half-hard, completely soft, etc.). It is also readily available everywhere, and though not extremely cheap it won’t break the bank to get started.

While silver is very popular for wire projects, when you start to get to silver findings and other smaller objects, people start to take a look at either silver-plated or silver-colored findings. Because wire is so thin and relatively easy for companies to draw out, the cost isn’t as great. When you get to findings which contain more silver metal and may also be partially handmade, the price starts to go up quite a bit. It can be a bit disconcerting to buy these tiny findings that cost more than a dollar a piece! With silver charms and larger silver pendants, the price truly starts to skyrocket unless you buy in bulk.

For that reason, many people turn to base metals such as nickel, brass, or pewter when it comes to anything that requires bigger pieces of silver. And actually, base metal wire is a great way for beginners to start off, or even for more advanced jewelry makers to practice a new design or technique. We keep a few spools of base metal wire at various gauges from 20 to 30 around the house for this reason. I am a bit surprised that more people didn’t say they were using base metal in the poll, but that’s perhaps chalked up to the fact that they use BOTH base metal and silver in designs, so they just picked silver since there wasn’t a choice that included both.

Continue reading “Poll: Jewelry Metal” …

If you’re a jewelry designer you surely know about the costs associated with buying silver findings such as jump rings and connectors. The other day, after running out of Figure 8 type connectors, I decided to try and make a few unsoldered ones just for kicks. It turns out that they’re really easy to make. Granted, this is not jewelry rocket science but you might be interested in this beginner’s tutorial if you wanted to try making your own silver jewelry findings.

Homemade Figure 8 Jump Rings

We’re starting up a new section of the site that will focus on interviews with jewelry professionals and other people connected to the business of making jewelry. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile, since Jewelry at Bloglander focuses on the beginning jewelry maker who will definitely benefit from the opinions and knowledge of the more experienced members of the craft.

For our inaugural feature, I got a chance to interview Dr. David Weiman, who is the Marketing Director for the well known magazine Lapidary Journal. Being a licensed psychologist, he knows a thing or two about the psychology of selling jewelry! He also contributes articles and commentary for Colored Stone, Step by Step Beads, and Step by Step Wire Jewelry. Check out the interview for an in depth look at how to market and sell your jewelry:

Interview with David Weiman of Lapidary Journal

I have to apologize for how long this Beading Wire Usage poll took to come to completion. Awhile back, I discovered that the polling software that I had been running had completely gone kaput. It wasn’t crashing, but it wasn’t recording any votes just the same. And I wasn’t actually aware it was malfunctioning. So I had to dig around and find another polling plugin that would work, and lost most of the votes for this one.

Anyhow, the results were pretty much similar to what I remember the original polling software recording before it crashed:

It was no surprise that Softflex Beading Wire ran away with the votes. This is one of the most popular and respected jewelry wire makers, and it’s our wire of choice when stringing most necklaces and bracelets.

By the way, for those who don’t know what jewelry beading wire is (I didn’t when I started), it is basically tightly woven strands of stainless steel that have been coated in nylon. I think there are some variations in the materials used, but that is pretty much the formula. It is very strong stuff and when used correctly (i.e. it is crimped properly) can stand up to the hardest tugging or pulling.

Continue reading “Poll: Beading Wire Usage” …

I always find a lot of interesting articles and different entry points into techniques at the Jewelry Making About.com (Tammy Powley runs this). Many times, the articles aren’t about jewelry making techniques that I can use immediately, but nevertheless get me interested and I always file them away to look at later.

This time on the site, she talked a little bit about Using A Soldering Torch for making jewelry. Specifically, about what kinds of torches you might use in order to try this technique out for putting together metal jewelry. I’ve always been interested in perhaps taking a class someday on soldering jewerly. I’ve actually used a propane powered torch many times before, but with a standard tip rather than one meant more exclusively for jewelry. You’re going to laugh, but I actually use a propane torch frequently to take out my broken hockey blades from the metal shaft of the stick. (The torch heats up the glue which enables you to pull out the blade. Yes, hockey and jewelry can coexist…)

One of the main points she tries to make is why you DON’T want to try to use a soldering gun or iron for this type of work. The reason for this is because these type of soldering devices cannot provide the intense heat requirements (over 1000 deg F) required for soldering jewelry.

Continue reading “Soldering Torches For Jewelry Making” …

I held a little poll the past couple months that asked where people sell their jewelry. Here are the results that came in:

This actually seems to be pretty much on the mark. A majority of people sell their jewelry through some sort of online shop or perhaps through an online jewelry consignment site. I’d assume that a number also sell their jewelry through Ebay as well. It is just much easier in the beginning to “get your feet wet” by putting your handmade jewelry online, than hitting up boutiques locally around the area.

Continue reading “Poll - Selling Jewelry” …

The other day, I read with interest a tidbit on Tammy Powley’s Jewelry Making About.com site about a technique for cleaning up metal jewelry. Cleaning up metal can be a huge issue for jewelry designers, especially those that specialize in metal jewelry that involve chain or chain mail links, or those who make their own jump rings.

This method seems a bit unorthodox and I never would have thought of it myself. Basically, it involves using a Rock Tumbler of all things! Rock tumblers have traditionally been used by hobbyists and jewelry people to smooth the surface of rough cut stones. The basic idea is to use a rock tumbler along with stainless steel shot in order to really shine up jewelry. Pretty interesting, and since there’s probably quite a few jewelry designers out there who already have access to a tumbler, this might be a cost effective way to clean up metal. Apparently, the tumbler also tends to harden the metal as well as cleaning it which I guess would be an added bonus for a lot of people.

Continue reading “Cleaning Jewelry with Tumblers?” …