Jewelry Making

• How do you feel jewelry making stacks up against other “made-at-home” craft careers, such as knitting, card-making, and crocheting?

Although there are many decorative arts, the kind of skills and knowledge involved in jewelry making are unique. For that reason, and I’m kind of biased here, I think it has higher status. Advancing in the jewelry arts is difficult. You have to know about the properties of gemstones, metals and other materials. You have to know about fabrication, including soldering and other kinds of “connections.”

What is also unique about jewelry making is the “cross-over” phenomenon. It’s very common for someone to start out with an interest in one area of the field, like mineral collecting, and then cross over to a related area, like gem cutting. Gem cutters often become jewelry makers, and many jewelry makers who originally bought cut gems to use in their jewelry cross over to gem cutting because they’re interested in creating their own faceted gems. I think Lapidary Journal as a magazine is the embodiment of that cross over, because it covers all of the arts and sciences related to gems and jewelry.

• Do you feel there are any particular trends in the overall market for jewelry right now, as far as what stones, styles and materials are “hot”?

It’s interesting to try to figure out what the market is right now. And there are a lot of people trying to do it! For example, there are trend forecasting companies that try to predict what colors will be popular in the coming year. Fashion designers try to use those colors in their designs. And, of course, that impacts jewelry trends, because designers are trying to create product that will “fit” with the predicted clothing trends.

As you can probably guess, the public doesn’t always behave the way the trend forecasters predict they will. For example, several years ago, a lot of retailers banked on selling tons of tie-dyed ‘60s-style shirts, which forecasters said were going to be hot. And then almost no one bought them. On the other hand, there are “accidents” that turn into style booms.

Here’s an example of that “accident” phenomenon: Designer Isaac Mizrahi, according to Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point, single-handedly jump-started the sales of Hush Puppy shoes. They had been on the decline for years. He saw some kids wearing them in New York and thought they would look interesting on the models in a runway show. What happened next? People who saw the show (or photos of it) were fascinated by the shoes (which were not the point of the fashion show!) and suddenly it was “cool” to wear Hush Puppies. It started a boom in the sales of Hush Puppies, a brand that was on death’s door. So, you never know what will fuel the next trend.

What’s important, I think, is to keep your finger on the pulse of fashion and style by reading consumer and trade magazines on jewelry and fashion. Although Lapidary Journal isn’t a fashion magazine, they uncover a lot of interesting, cutting edge work, and they have a Jewelry Arts Award for the best in jewelry design each year. So you can look for trends there, too. Also, don’t discount the Hush Puppy phenomenon … an idea that a jewelry maker has might be the next trendsetter!

This interview with Dr. David Weiman was done over email November 3-4, 2005. For more information or to contact him, visit his Jewelry Marketing site at www.marketingjewelry.com, where there is also a free weekly newsletter about selling jewelry.

Do you know of a jewelry making professional or other individual involved with the jewelry making industry who you would like to see interviewed on Bloglander Jewelry Making? If so please let us know about them…