An intorduction to Jewelry Making

 Start making jewelry?

              When we talk about hand made jewlry many options we have in front of us like terracotta, polymer clay, crochet, macramé, beads, yarn, felt etc etc. Decide what suits most with your taste.

Image courtesy: Google(Works of different media n  artists)

Frequently asked questions for Beginners:

-What material to buy?

- What models are the most popular?

- Where to buy the materials?

- Does it give any income by selling jewelry?

- Where to sell my jewelry?

So, let's start with the materials. What to buy?

Assume  that you will work with at least one type of jewelry in the beginning. Its better not to go for all at once.

In the case of polymer clay (these pre requisites may change as per your option)

1      Tools :

Pasta machine / roller pin to roll and condition clay 

Acrylic Roller

A tile/ marble / glass as a surface to roll

Oven (not micro wave) to cure

Knives n blades

Shape cutters

Sculpting tools

Needle (even tooth prick will work instead)

Molds

Pliers viz round nose, Flat nose, wire cutter (common to all type of hand made jewelry)

Texture sheets (optional to begin)

2)      Raw materials: 

Bake n bond

Different colors of clay 

Bake n bond

Glaze

 Painting brushes

 Jewelry making supplies ( viz eye pin, headpin, jump rings,
clasps, stringing materials, crimps,bails, ear wires etc) 

Clays

All the techniques require study and patience. Our ultimate motto should be quality assurance. (For experiments n study you can buy cheap things but not to sell )

       Purchase several different colors of polymer clay. You'll want to choose colors with projects in mind. Polymer clay blends very well, so keep in mind that you can mix colors. There are several different brands. You may wish to purchase more than one brand to see which one you like best. Some are softer than others.

Jewellery making findings

Choose some jewelry making accessories. You will need to plan what type of jewelry you will make. For earrings, you will need to purchase oven-proof earring studs. For a necklace, you will need to purchase an oven-proof band holder and a necklace band. For a bracelet, you will need to purchase a strong string, such as soft flex, for stringing beads. You can find a wide variety of jewelry making tools at a craft store.

Sculpt your jewelry pieces. Using your hands, you can sculpt pendants and figurines. You can sculpt a wide variety of beads. Mix and blend colors. Be creative. If you need ideas, try looking online.

Make holes in any jewelry pieces before baking. Even you can poke holes with a hand drill after

Make holes for beading

baking. A good way to make holes in beads is to stick a pin through the middle almost to the other side. Then, push the pin through from the other end to meet the place you stopped before. This keeps from making a rough spot where the pin comes out. You can also try baking beads on a skewer.

Add any metal accessory pieces to your sculpted items before baking. There are some accessories that need to be baked into the piece. Be sure anything you put in the oven is oven-proof.

Place your sculpted items on a covered cookie sheet. Cover the cookie sheet first with foil or mat board to protect the back of the jewelry pieces.
Bake the polymer clay items according to the package directions. Most clays are baked at 275 degrees F (135 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes. The bigger the items, the better give more time to cure. Allow sculpted items to cool. You can lightly sand with extra fine paper if needed. You can either paint the baked clay with acrylic paints. But I would not prefer it personally.

(You may be wondering why this page loaded with pictures because pictures talks faster than anything :) :) Is n't it??

Most wanted items in society ?

Buy / sell online

Unique, beautiful, perfect pieces loved by people. The importance of hand made jewelry is that can not be found any where with the same pattern, size, color etc. There must be some difference though we try to reproduce. In India traditional designs are most popular.

Galz… Proud to wear a piece that no one has possessioned… Owner’s pride , let others envy on you :D ;)

Where to buy the materials?

There are many online stores available for the purchase of materials, and stores. One tip is to bid internationally sites like amazon.com, E-bay etc.
In India, you can buy from :

1. ITSY BITSY,

AEC OFFSHORE TRADING PVT LTD
NO. 1, 3RD CROSS, KASHI NAGAR,
YELACHENAHALLI, KANAKAPURA RD
BANGALORE 560 078
Tel: 09945133342
Email: info@itsybitsy.in
Web: http://www.itsybitsy.in

     2. DESIGN SKILLSET

#49 LAKSHMINARAYANPURA,
AECS LAYOUT ‘D’ BLOCK
KUNDANHALLI GATE
BANGALORE
KARNATAKA 560037
Tel: +91 80 4093 7671
Email: sales@designskillset.com
Web: http://www.skillsupplies.com

    3. http://www.craftadda.com

Income from making jewelry

Of course it will give you income.. but be patient enough, You will not get many orders or huge
income over night.. Wait until you get reach n demand. If you alone run your business and you do it at your own home hence you can save rent , wages etc. In that case left over amount after deducting all your expenses related to making a particular item ie, making + assembling fee and the margin becomes your income. 

Where to sell?

                            Jewelry accessories are always desired by most women, some parts can completely change the look of a simple outfit for an extremely charming clothes.For beginners, you need to find the best places to buy your materials or to create them yourself. Many people know how to count with wood or seeds, beach shells, mirror shards, fabric ... just be creative!

To sell your pieces you can either offer them in beauty clinics, beauty salons, in college, at work and any other environment that you frequent. Now, a very hot tip for those who do not take the best way to sales, let consignment in your city stores . But what is consignment? You will offer your jewelry to sell the stores, tell your price and the store sells at the price you see fit taking a profit on top. At the end of every month you back and renew the stock received by the shops that already sold. It is not necessary to establish a contract for this relationship, what matters is the jewelry are well-defined batch. ) Tell you in detail...

Stay tuned for my coming posts..... :-)

(image courtesy : Google)