Jewelry Making

Another jewelry site that I came across recently through indieshopping is Stones on String. Melissa specializes in making handcrafted one-of-a-kind jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets, earrings, anklets and even men’s jewelry.

I like her focus on “natural” looking pieces. While she does make good use of crystals such as Swarovskis as accents, the focus of many of her pieces are earth-toned gemstones and silver single-word “message” beads. A lot of her jewelry is also complemented by leather cord which extends the rustic yet beautiful nature of the designs.

Here’s a little bit about Melissa’s design philosophy from her website:

My style has evolved and I create the type of jewelry that I myself am drawn to. Earthy, natural pieces designed with gemstones and crystals, sterling and gold. Jewelry that is stylish to wear, yet also feeds the soul with beauty as well.

Continue reading “Stones on String” …

Just a quick note that if you want to get involved in the Happily Handmade Giveaway as a sponsor, you only have two more days to apply. And then after that you’ve got until Feb 7 to get your sponsor donations in.

What is HHG? It’s a promotional event for indie craft, jewelry, and clothes designers to help get the word out about their wares. The promos, which come from the indieshops in question, are boxed up into prize packages that go to the winners of the drawings. These drawings can only be entered through special pages created by each indie shop. This helps encourage traffic and awareness of the indie businesses.

So their Winter 2007 event is coming up pretty soon like I said. After the sponsor deadlines, people can enter the drawings from February 12 through March 31, and then the winners are announced on April 2.

I know there are several other giveaways like this, but if you’re looking for further exposure for the jewelry you make, then this might be a good and cost-effective way to get some eyes to your website.

Visit: Happily Handmade Giveaway for more info.

Wrote up a short article today which deals with a jewelry making tip for those times when you just HAVE to make duplicates of a particular item. I know that many out there are going for the “all-unique” jewelry making aesthetic - but you’d be surprised how many times you’re going to have to settle down and crank out a few pieces that are similar or the same. It’s certainly happened to us more than once!

Tip For Mass Producing Your Jewelry

Hello and Happy New Year! Whew, it’s been very slow getting back into jewelry making after the longish holiday. We’re still getting cleaned up and organized after the great Felt Club XL show. But I realized our Gemstone Shape poll has been up for ages - nearly 5 months!

Anyhow, this is how the results shaped up. I expected Teardrop / Briolette to win handily since these are great stone shapes for necklace pendants. It held 198 votes, so a good chunk of people do like these shapes.

I was a bit surprised that the “odd shapes” category did so well with 160 votes. One of the bad things with these polls is that I can only allow 4 choices, at least as long as the poll remains at the top of the page - there’s just no more room! Anyhow, so we had to lump all the other shapes together, which is perhaps the reason that it had so many votes. I know that roughly shaped and odd- shaped stones are extremely popular with many jewelry makers who want to have a unique product.

Bringing up the rear were circular / disc / oval shapes, with 97 votes and square / rectangle with 70 votes. We’re actually a big fan of rectagular shaped gemstones and glass and try to use them in designs whenever we get a chance.

Okay-dok. I’m a bit out of ideas for new polls, so I just made one up about what kind of Jewelry Pliers you use the most for making jewelry. I suspect it would be helpful to have pics, but once again, there’s no room. So if you’re wondering what the different pliers are, just search for them online…

Cherry Quartz is a very popular manufactured type of glass that we’ve been using in our designs for a few years now. It is characterized by clear to light pink transparent glass with lots of red swirled inclusions inside of it. (Sorry about the picture, which looks more opaque than transparent). It is manufactured in many different shapes including all manner of standard spheres, ovals, nuggets, drops and briolettes.

Unlike pressed glass, these pieces are not made in molds which is the reason they look so much like actual gemstones. Instead, the glass is actually cut and faceted and polished like normal precious stones. And because the manufacturing process involves swirling different color combinations within the glass first and allowing it to cool, each piece is different. This seems to be what attracts so many jewelry makers - the fact that it’s synthetic but it retains individual characteristics.

Continue reading “Cherry Quartz Beads” …

Thank you to everyone who came to visit us at the Felt Club this past weekend. We had a great time and sold quite a few pieces… earrings seemed to be a bigger seller this year.

A few questions from the Bloglander Jewelry Making Mailbag that I hadn’t gotten to yet:

Jennifer writes: “I am just beginning in the whole jewelry making/beading process. I am interested in finding out the best way to produce bracelets using jewelry wire, esp. when it comes to attaching the clasps so it doesn’t look so … amateur. Thanks.”

Bloglander Jewelry Making says: Well, I know that it will take some time to get the technique down. I’m assuming you’re talking about using crimp beads or something similar to tie off the end of a bracelet. You might find this article about creating folded crimp beads helpful. You will need a special bead crimping tool, available at joann.com or other craft stores.

Some people also like to add something called “French Wire” (sometimes known as “bullion” or “gimp”) to cover up the bare jewelry cable/wire that shows where it connects to the clasp. It’s basically very thin silver wire that comes spooled like a slinky, and you insert the beading cable through the middle of it. See this About.com tutorial for an example of what it looks like.

Continue reading “Mailbag: Bracelets and Clasps” …

Boy, I had meant to post this show much earlier but just forgot about it. The reason - we are actually participating in this for Bellaceti so nearly every waking hour has been devoted to increasing inventory for the show!

This is Felt Club (a play upon the popular “Fight Club” movie) and is a new monthly indie mini-craft fair of 20-25 revolving diy artisans making handmade goods, jewelry, paper products and clothing. It usually takes place at The Echo, but the upcoming one is going to be a larger show of 70 crafters and is taking place at the Ukranain Culture Center on Melrose Ave in L.A.

If you happen to be in the Los Angeles area, stop by and say hi… we’ll be there from 12-7pm under our Bellaceti store name. More information at:

www.feltclub.com/

FELT CLUB: XL Holiday Edition
Saturday, DECEMBER 9, 12pm-7pm
@ THE UKRAINIAN CULTURAL CENTER
4315 Melrose Ave. @ Heliotro

Just a quick note that Master Wire Sculptor, Inc. (Preston Reuther’s famous rags-to-riches wire sculpting company) is holding a Bead and Wire Bracelet Contest. The entry deadline is the end of the year, which is coming up rather quickly. They also are going to announce the winners on January 14, 2007 which is rather quick too!

They’ve been holding various contests like these since about 2000. Up for grabs for this one is over $1000 in wire jewelry supplies along with various certificates and awards. The best thing about it, in my opinion, is that there is no fee to enter. That’s right, it’s free - something you can’t say about a lot of the jewelry making competitions.

More info can be found on their contest page at:

wire-sculpture.com/braceletcontest06/

Barrel Clasps are a particular type of jewelry clasp that is sometimes used for necklaces. They are two part cylindrical screw clasps that look like barrels (hence the name), each with an eyehook or connector loop. They usually feature some sort of ridges around the barrel for easier grasping when trying to fasten - you simply rotate one part into the other.

We use these clasps quite frequently for necklaces. They provide greater security than magnetic or hook type clasps, though they are a bit more difficult to attach around the back of your neck. Barrel clasps do seem to be easier than lobster claw clasps to open up which is why we often prefer them for necklaces.

Continue reading “What are Barrel Clasps?” …

Hi there Jewelry Makers! Just wanted to let you know about a few upcoming changes in the next couple of months. In the past, I’ve often delayed posting until I had time to write up a truly informative (and sometimes rather long) article, product review or DIY jewelry shop review.

I’m going to start mixing in some shorter posts in the future that will just give a really brief overview of the topic or product, hopefully with links so that you can get delve into it more if you choose. But hopefully, this will mean more frequent posts as well since right now there is usually about 1-2 weeks between new material. I’m still going to attempt to put up tutorials and those WILL be very in-depth as usual. Those have been extremely popular so they aren’t going away. The Mailbag is also going to continue to be addressed, so keep sending in your questions.

In addition, you might notice some design changes in the next few weeks. Hopefully, we won’t have to take the website down for very long, if at all. But if you try and access pages (especially late at night) and you get errors or “updating” messages, then rest assured it’ll soon be corrected in the morning.

Thanks and Happy Holidays,
Jewelry Making @ Bloglander