How to Make Jewelry on Budget

In these tougher economic times, past times such as learning how to make jewelry can seem like an unlikely and unreasonable one due to the cost. However, do not fret because with a little smart and economical planning you can have plenty of jewelry making supplies and still not break the bank. There are plenty of inexpensive beads and tactics to take that will still allow you a wide range of creativity in your jewelry designs and you jewellery making will not be impacted.

Today I'm going to talk about just a few things that you can do with a small budget and create beautiful handcrafted jewelry.

Smaller Projects are Better

The first and probably most obvious suggestion is to simply design and create smaller jewelry designs. No, I'm not suggesting you create children's handmade jewelry; only that you scale down the types of projects you're doing. For example, you can create a beautiful pair of earrings that can compliment any outfit that you have in your closet.

The amount of supplies that you would need to create an ornate pair of earrings is significantly less than you would use for any bracelet or necklace piece you would create.

Mix up the Precious Metals

Any time the conversation of how to make jewelry that will stand out the most, inevitably the debate over which type of chain is better to create new jewelry designs with will begin. It should come as no surprise that silver and gold chains are the top two in the list of chains, however you should know that there is a myriad of other metal chains that are just as beautiful when complementing the handmade jewellery AND are significantly cheaper.

Some of the other types of metals that can be put to good use in your jewelry designs are:

1. Gunmetal - Gunmetal is a type of bronze, essentially a mix of copper and tin. It is a relatively inexpensive metal and can be perfect for some jewelry design.

2. Copper - Copper has been used for countless centuries as a staple of jewelry and decorative design. It is a unique metal since a lot of alloys are typically grayish or silver in color. What better way to add color to handcrafted jewelry?

3. Brass - Brass is yet another alloy that is a mix of copper and zinc. The unique properties of this metal vary depending on the ratio of zinc and copper, creating a fabulous metal for jewelry design.

4. Plated Gold - If you truly MUST have gold in your handcrafted jewelry, then perhaps a plated gold chain will help to ease the pain of an expensive gold chain. Plated gold is an item that is primarily a chain that is made from another metal typically copper or sometimes silver; but is then given a small deposit of gold on its exterior.

Draw Attention Using the Central Pieces

Another simple tip to creating budget friendly jewelry designs is to create your handmade jewellery with beautiful central pieces complementing them with the less dramatic beads or pieces such as seed beads in beaded jewelry. One really cool example that I can give is that of lampwork beads which are very beautiful and dominant beads.

Use the Expensive Jewelry Making Supplies, Only Less

Sometimes a jewelry design just needs to utilize pure silver or gold. In situations like this its dependant on your creativity to find a way to minimize how much needs to be used. As someone who likes solving problems and working on sudoku, I find it a fun challenge to try and make a piece work without having to use too much of the precious metals and to date have had great success at doing so.

Sead Beads - The Little Engine That Could in Beaded Jewelry

In learning how to make jewelry with beads, you will find out that the seed bead is a tremendously versatile jewelry making supply that is also very friendly on the budget conscious beader. In a project, you may choose to just use nothing but one color to minimize the extra beads in small amounts; or simply use different colors to add a depth and personality to a piece of beaded jewelry.

Jewellery making is a wonderful past time that can bring years of joy and visual pleasure in your life. Since almost no one can escape hard economic times it becomes important to begin integrating a bit of economic savvy in your jewelry design habits. Learning how to make jewelry on a budget can be done with great success and have jewelry pieces that are fabulous and beautiful as well and not break the bank.

How to Make Jewelry - Selecting Your Wire Tools

Adding to the last two posts on general beading tools and how to make jewelry, this post will focus specifically on tools that are useful when your beading projects are dealing with making jewelry with wire. As skill progresses a beader will eventually try new techniques and variations and that includes the incorporate of wire into jewelry pieces. Jewelry design that incorporates perfected wiring techniques are truly beautiful to behold and display to others.

These tools are ones that I specifically utilize in my wiring projects -- you may even see some tools that you recognize from the previous post on basic beading tools.

I will discuss in this post how they specifically relate to the wiring process since your first introduction was their basic use for all general jewellery making creations.

Awl

The awl is a handy tool to have for whenever a project requires holes to be made in metal wire or any other metal pieces in the project. An awl is basically a steel spike with its tip sharpened to a fine point. The awl is a simple tool with which holes can be punctured in a variety of materials, or existing holes can be enlarged.

It is a staple of a lot of crafts including beaded jewelry, which you're reading here, as well as leather working, shoe making and just sewing heavy materials such as canvas.

For beading purposes, its simply used for punching holes in metal materials or any other object that requires a precise hole placed into it.

Bench Block

Since you will be dealing with a very tough opponent, the metal and wiring, it is always good to have a bench block that will help protect your workspace as well as providing a solid space where you can pound out the metal objects and apply the force that is required to manipulate metal.

Think of the bench block to wiring jewelry as a cutting board is to a chef.

There are many different types and varieties of bench blocks but there is no need to go to extravagant to begin with. For example, jewelrysupply.com has a very basic block that I have used before with great success.

Round nose pliers

The round nose pliers have now made their second appearance! You will recall the the design of the round nose pliers are perfect for manipulating the shapes of the wire for handcrafted jewelry. They can be used to create loops or rings.

Purchasing a pair of these pliers will open up the opportunities of what you can create from wiring jewelry.

Flush cutters

The flush cutters are a tool that are specifically designed for jewelry wiring and have already been mentioned as an essential tool to have, but their use will not be fully realized until you begin wiring.

Probably the one point I'd like to make is consider having two different flush cutters, one for the smaller gauge wires and another for the heavier gauges. The reason for this recommendation is that using the same flush cutter with heavy and small gauges can damage the cutter and make its effectiveness in clean cutting on the smaller gauges very poor.

Ball-peen hammer

Ball-peen hammers are divided into two classes: hard-faced and soft-faced. The head of a hard-faced hammer is made of heat treated forged high-carbon steel or alloy steel.

They are used when there is the danger of damaging a striking surface. More specifically, the ball-peen is used to flatten out metal objects and for the creation of textured designs of the metal pieces for the jewelry designs.

Metal file

The metal file is a tool that will come into use whenever your other cutting tools have begun to lose their edge and create jagged cuts and you need to file the edge down to something smoother.

Chain nose pliers

In the last couple of posts I've mentioned how the chain nose pliers are a versatile tool for use in beading. This still holds true even when your beading projects begin to include wiring in them. The basic uses for them on are for closing various clasps you've added to your jewelry piece or closing loops.

Fortunately, a few of these tools are simply a repeat from the basic tool kit you would want to have as an amateur beader. On top of that the additional tools should not put too much of a financial hit to your budget as you're building your tools. 

Any one of these items can be purchased relatively affordable; there is no need to spend money on expensive tools when a more economical one is available, which is the key when learning how to make jewelry and still have money in the bank.

Wire jewelry always adds a sophisticated look to your work. 

How to Make Jewelry - Essential Tools Pt 2

Ok we're back with part two of the how to make jewelry essentials toolkit list. In the last post, the bulk of the tools were various specialty pliers that any self-respecting beader should have with them. Since the bulk of the beading tools were listed in the other post, today’s post will be a little light reading. Following is a list of the last few tools that one should have:

Flush cutter

Now you may be asking yourself what is a flush cutter and why would I ever need one because you already have 11 different types of pliers that you went out and bought from the last post. A "flush cut", as you may or may not be aware, is one where the wire, after cut, is not left burred.

You need a good flush cut for making proper jump rings, or for making any kind of chain from rings for your jewelry designs. The flush cutter is commonly V-shaped on one side and flat on one the other. Once again it all comes down to how professional you want the piece to be.

Wire cutter

While you may ultimately have specialty cutters for specific wiring types such as metal, it is never a bad idea to have some plain old wire cutters for your handmade jewellery projects. You can use them for the more pliable beading wire –basically none of the metal wiring.

Ultimate Craft Scissors

In the last post I mentioned how the chain nose pliers are the most versatile of pliers; well the next versatile tool in the bunch would be some sturdy utility scissors. These can be used for a myriad of tasks related to your beading projects. You can use the utility scissors for things like cutting plastic, elastic items or even beading thread.

Beading Needles

Beading needles may be pointed or ballpoint and straight or curved and are perfect for beaded jewelry designs. The size of the beads and the thread will help determine the needle size, which, as with tapestry needles, is lower when the needle is thicker and higher when it is thinner. They are longer than standard sewing needles, enabling you to string multiple seed beads and other beads.

Twisted wire needles come five to a packet. Beading needles are very thin, flexible needles most often used for seed bead work. The advantage to using this type (rather than regular sewing needles) is that their eyes are the same width as the rest of the needle, so there's no added metal width to get in the way as you pass through seed and other small-holed beads. Beading needles are long, thin and flexible.

Now to find a tool box for your beading tools!! At this point, you have setup your room to be organized with all of your beading materials and you have now added to the storage an effective arsenal of beading tools with which to create beautifully designed jewellery for yourself to enjoy or sell making the learning process on how to make jewelry fun.

Starting a new hobby can be intimidating so if you're still not ready to start, you can still save money with your jewelry purchases.