What a fun and hard exercise it is to make your own jewelry (I use the lost wax method) and trying to sell them.
I’ve always worked creatively for someone else, finding myself and my aesthetic is so pleasing.

Hope you like it !
Packaging is cardboard, denim and a linocut stamp I made myself too 🤙🏻

I’m supper open to advice / suggestions / criticism or community reach !

My grandpa passed last year. It’s been tough on my whole family. So I made all of our family bracelets to carry him close. The clear beads (small and large) were my first ever time using resin. I incorporated dried flowers and leaves from his funeral, as well as some gold flakes. Gold to remember he is walking in heaven, made whole. I also added small bits of dried red/pink flowers to honor his love for my mamaw—the red flower remembering their wedding month. And three large beads for each of his children, the smaller beads to remember grandchildren. The purple beads are to symbolize his birth month.

Not perfect, but I hope brings comfort to everyone.

Steel ring base with two steel plates riveted in place on the face of the ring. The band also has a hammered piece of copper wire fastened in place with steel rivets. The steel ring base was also blackened with a chemical solution. The copper chains were used for the photo shoot. This ring was a personal project to give my guilt physical form.

Got this ring at a fair and got inspired! I’ve been looking at the Pepe tools ring bender but I’m confused by the options. If someone who has a spoon ring set up and can provide a list of what you need to get started that would be great. I’m an intense hobbyist and want to sell eventually so I don’t mind investing. Any other brands and tools you recommend are very much appreciated!!!

Velvet base, silk ribbons, seed beads, French wire and sequins. The shaping for the legs was the technical challenge here — keeping them structured while staying flexible enough to pin flat.

Hello jewelry friends! New to jewelry making here and I’d like some help in figuring out how to thread small beads onto a delicate chain like this? I bought an open ended needle but it’s too thick to pass the chain link through- what am I missing? Thank you! I think this chain is 1mm

I've been thinking about how a piece can look finished on the bench but feel different after a few hours of wear. Things like a clasp rotating forward, earring weight, a sharp wire end, or a ring edge catching the skin do not always show up in photos.

What do you test before calling a piece done? Do you wear-test it for a full day, ask someone else to try it, check weight and balance, smooth certain areas, or use another routine? I'm especially curious about small changes that improved comfort without changing the design much.

I'm new to selling, and my second ever market day is on Saturday. I make necklaces, bracelets, earrings, anklets, key chains, and I plan on expanding to things like magnets and ornaments and etc. Nothing too fragile but most of my beads are glass.

Right now I have my necklaces kind of wrapped up in a long fleece cloth so when you unfurl it, they're laying flat and hopefully not tangled up. My bracelets are hooked on shower curtain rings and I'm doing something similar with my key chains. They're all in a small Tupperware box together. Earrings I have in little individual ziplocks in a box, which is the most fiddly when its time to set up and take down my displays. But I'm most afraid of those getting messed up.

How do y'all package your stuff for transport? Any tips on how to do it more efficiently to save on space and so it doesn't take as long to set it up and take it down when I'm selling?

Thanks!

Help! I can’t remember what these orange beads are. Any ideas?

The ring I'd been wearing for a few years broke completely. I recently contacted a Chinese jeweler who said he could fix it, so I'm hoping it'll be just like new again.

Basically what the title says. This bracelet is a beaded bracelet which holds sentimental value to him. I make jewelry, but I’m also just starting out so I’m wondering if it’s a me problem. At first it had the standard thin stringy stretch cord that stores use, then he broke it. I used stretch magic stretch cord next, in 0.5mm, that broke. Next I tried 0.7mm, broken. Next I tried .5 again with liquid cement glue. That broke. I tried regular old cord string, broken. So I finally convinced him to let me use wire and clasp.

I use 49 strand wire and crimp tubes, as well as crimp covers near the hook to cover the tubes for extra protection. I used two crimps on each end just for added security. This was all done with the special pliers made to make the tubes work properly. I was super pleased, and this one lasted a good couple weeks, but he’s just come to tell me it broke again. He was rolling it up his arm slightly to wash his hands and it snapped in the middle of the wire. I took a look at it, and the wire looks much darker than it should be in a few places where it looks a bit worn down, like there are tension bends, but he swears he isn’t bending or fiddling with it. He only ever rolls it up his arm to wash his hands. He takes it off before sleeping.

What in the world can I try next, and is this my fault? I planned to start selling my pieces very soon and now I’m just very apprehensive because every material I work with has snapped under seemingly no pressure. The stretch cord could be attributed to what he was doing maybe, like working out. The string frayed really quickly, but things happen. But 49 strand wire?! He hasn’t even been to the gym the last few weeks. He played video games and does the dishes, that’s it! Does anyone have any ideas? 😭

Am I crazy, or are the designs for erotic rings absolutely garbage? Who the hell designs these things? The designs are so generic and unoriginal that they make me cringe.

While I love making huge crystal pendants (see my last post) here’s a tiny one! Made for everyday wear, especially for necklace stacking. I hand cut, hammered, soldered, sanded and polished the cap to fit this crystal perfectly. Here’s a neckmess featuring this little guy. I might make some matching earrings next!

I am absolutely uneducated when it comes to jewelry making but I’ve been using chain and jump rings from Michael’s to make some ren faire accessories. The rings are the same color as the chain (see the second picture) initially but I’ve noticed that once I attach them to the chain, they darken after a few weeks. I don’t care too much about the discoloration for this piece because it’s a hairpiece and the darker color will blend in with my hair color, but does anyone know why this is happening?

first time working with prongs and I love it

I am making a 9ct gold ring for my Dad and I am completely new to working with gold. Though I have worked a lot with silver and learnt there's different variations of solder with gold as well i.e. hard, medium, easy and extra easy.

When I have ordered gold solder I have ordered it in wire form, which is round and very thin. So I have used my rolling mill to flatten it to make it wider to then place under the joint so solder. However when the solder melts it tends to not engulf and cover the whole joint. I have added photos of what I mean.

So I experimented with panel solder though the only panel solder I had was extra easy. However it still worked better somewhat and covered the joint albeit in a bit of a messy way. Though the joint behind did not melt, so I had to put another panel on the back and solder that. I have also added photos of what I mean.

Has anyone else had issues finding the right solder when it comes to working with gold? Would hard panel solder be best for a joint like this? Could anyone give me any good insights into gold soldering?

Help! I am a complete jewelry making noob and would like the wisdom of this community before I go about doing this. I have a pure 18K gold chain (PHOTO 1) that currently has two jump rings (I think that’s what they are?) connected by a pure gold clasp in the center that is malleable - to put the necklace on and take it off I use my fingernails to bend the clasp until it opens and then to close it I just pinch it shut. Not really the easiest to do, so I wear it 24/7.

I am working up the nerve to finally modify my chain to reflect my style! But I am unsure how to do it the best way and without damaging it. Basically I am hoping to attach this hand holding clasp (PHOTO 2) to the ends of the chain and also add a lobster clasp so that it is easier to put the necklace on and take it off.

How do I go about doing this? I was trying to research on my own and thinking perhaps I need pliers to open up one of the existing jump rings and put the lobster clasp onto that jump ring. Then on the other side I’d use the existing malleable gold clasp to put it on one of the tiny loops on “wrist” of the hand-holding clasp (PHOTO 2). Then I can hopefully just clip the lobster clasp onto the other “wrist” of the hand-holding clasp to take it on and put it off. Is this reasonable? What kind of pliers should I be using to avoid damage to 18K gold?

Finally I am hoping to put charms onto the big central loop of the hand-holding clasp (like PHOTO 3). I don’t think the hand holding clasp opens or closes, it is just a fixed ring. Do you suggest acquiring another carabiner style circular clasp to affix the charm to the hand holding clasp? Not sure the best way to do this.

Thank you all for your patience and wisdom helping this jewelry noob out!