Handmade Beaded Jewelry | Recycled Beaded Jewelry Ideas | Bead Jewelry Business

Jewelry making is growing in popularity as a wider selection of jewelry making materials become available and the slow economy has forced many women to look at affordable jewelry to buy while others are looking for ways of increasing their income. If you’re thinking about buying handmade jewelry you may be also thinking about if you have what it takes to actually make and sell your own jewelry. While there is no magic formula for being successful at jewelry making, there are some traits you should possess and be ready to nurture.

Enjoy Spending Time With People - Some people just aren’t cut out to make and sell jewelry because they enjoy the interaction of talking with others, sharing ideas and generally “putting themselves out there.” You don’t have to be the life of the party, but it’s helpful to be someone who enjoys working with others (even customers) and exchanging ideas and even standing up for what you believe in when it comes to any number of possible situations. I’ve learned a lot about myself in the years that I’ve been making jewelry, and though I used to think of myself as “shy” I now realize I’m rather talkative (ask my husband!) when I’m around people I’m comfortable with. So I now consider myself quiet but… confident! And, of course, I feel good about making my own jewelry and exploring the jewelry of others. That’s good because to make and sell your own jewelry…

You Should Be Interested In Jewelry of All Types: It’s difficult to get into jewelry making if you don’t enjoy looking at jewelry of all price ranges. It also helps to acknowledge that there are many kinds of jewelry and not every jewelry piece will appeal to every single person. Sure, you may have a preference for making glass jewelry, but having an appreciate of other types of adornments will help broaden your horizons and creativity. That leads to the next skill…

You Need To Be Creative: You need to not only be able to design new jewelry ideas, but you also will need to put together marketing ideas, unique methods of marketing your jewelry and you may need to design your own website. Making your own jewelry requires a lot of creativity almost every day. You’ll need to think up lots of interesting jewelry making ideas to really reach a broad audience. If you’re going to make handmade jewelry on your own then you’ll need to realize that you’re putting together your own business and things won’t always be easy. That’s where the next trait comes in handy…

You Need Persistence: Starting your home based jewelry business can be challenging even if you have some basic business skills or have worked from home before. You’ll probably begin slowly, learning some of the basic skills at first and then expanding on to more challenging jewelry making techniques. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to make your own jewelry all the time without ever having to worry about selling, marketing or just plain old bookkeeping. You’ll also have to pick up some small business skills and training if you hope to succeed.

If you get good enough at making jewelry you can definitely make a good living at while enjoying your days. There are lots of normal people who have transformed their part-time jewelry making hobby into a full-time business. Jewelry making isn’t always simple but it can be a fulfilling way to increase your income and have fun at the same time!

With Father’s Day coming up I’ve been turning my attention to something to make or buy for my husband and I keep finding myself drawn to stores and websites which feature jewelry made for men. My husband doesn’t wear much jewelry, but he does have a few different rings and even he’s noticed how popular jewelry is becoming for men.

Making jewelry for men is really not much different than making jewelry for women, though the styles may differ quite a bit, depending upon what you’re used to making. You can use most of your traditional jewelry making and bead jewelry design skills to make jewelry for men or women, but again, there are some general differences in what sort of jewelry most men like to wear.

Materials You Can Use to Make Men’s Jewelry

Yes, you can use traditional beading wire, beads, silk cords and other sorts of materials to make men’s jewelry, but you’ll also want to consider venturing out into a lot of the more alternative and non-traditional jewelry making materials that we’ve seen. When we think of “manly” jewelry most of us think of heavy jewelry making supplies like leather, rubber, carbon fiber, dark stones, strong woods and lots of metals other than just gold and silver. Platinum, tungsten, titanium and even stainless steel are all popular materials to incorporate when you’re making men’s jewelry. A lot of men are still getting used to the idea of wearing jewelry, so sometimes making jewelry out of non-traditional but familiar materials can be an attention-grabber. Consider making jewelry out of bike chains or even making necklaces and bracelets out of hardware and washers.

A lot of women’s jewelry tends to stick with a single material theme, but men’s jewelry tends to mix jewelry making materials more often. Think of using leather and metal together to maybe make men’s bracelet or possibly attaching a wood pendant to a thick silk cord for a sort of men’s necklace.

Types of Men’s Jewelry

When it comes to making jewelry for men you almost have more types of jewelry you can make then you do for women. For most women the big sellers of handmade jewelry are earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings and then you can move into beaded bookmarks, beaded eyeglass holders, cell phone charms and lots of other little beaded jewelry type accessories.

Men’s jewelry can be a little more variable including the traditional rings, bracelets, and necklaces. Yes, plenty of men wear earrings but most men’s earrings are relatively plain and there are not a lot of custom made earrings for men on the market yet. Other types of specialized men’s jewelry include cuff links, tie tacks, tie chains and money clips. Women tend to wear more brooches and pins than men, but I’ve seen some custom designed jewelry pins for men, though they are usually promoting a specific cause or sports franchises.

When men wear jewelry around the neck it’s sometimes referred to as a “neck chain” instead of a necklace and they often are designed to store or convey a message. Dog tags are a popular type of neck jewelry for men, and ID bracelets are a popular jewelry item for men’s wrists. Either of these can have any sort of message imprinted on them, from a name to a date to a favorite saying or quote.

Men’s Jewelry Styles

Just as with women’s jewelry, there are lots of different styles of men’s jewelry you can make. When you’re making men’s jewelry you may want to think about making jewelry that’s can be worn in formal and informal settings equally as comfortably. The exception to this is cuff links, which can almost only be worn with French shirt cuffs and obviously tie tacks and tie chains.

The most common style for men’s jewelry these days can probably be described as a modern style that embodies smooth and simply lines that conveys sophistication without a lot of detail or ornateness. Most men’s jewelry you find in jewelry stores falls into this category. It’s often made out of polished metals like platinum, titatium or tungsten and it is often darker in color. Men’s jewelry can have some “bling” and shiny metal and stones, but it’s usually tempered by more muted colors.

Industrial looking men’s jewelry is also popular and this is where you can often see the alternative metals and materials being used to make men’s jewelry. A lot of men like jewelry made from bicycle parts or even jewelry accessories made from various computer parts and pieces of junk. This is also where you might want to try using other alternative materials like steel mesh, rivets or other metal objects that have a unique shape, color or texture.

Other the other extreme from industrial and modern jewelry is rustic men’s jewelry. Rustic men’s jewelry invokes images of the American West, Native Americans and the great outdoors. You can use natural materials like bone, wooden beads, leather and other natural jewelry making materials to make men’s jewelry that’s natural in style. This is where you might be able to bring in some color with stone jewelry beads of various sizes and types.

An often overlooked style of men’s jewelry is religious jewelry. I wouldn’t get too flashy here, but crosses and other religious symbols and pendants hung from a black satin cord, hemp line or even chain can make for a simple piece of men’s jewelry with wide appeal, depending upon where you’re selling your items.

Skills Needed to Make Men’s Jewelry

The only skills you really need to make most men’s jewelry are not much different from those skills that you need to make women’s jewelry. Really, the skills involved with making a particular jewelry piece will vary according to the design and materials you are using.

Since many men’s jewelry designs involve materials other than beads on wires you may want to expand your skillset a little bet. Having any sort of skills or experience with leather and hemp cord tying would be helpful and possessing welding and metallurgy skills would be completely invaluable. Even having some basic power tool skills can be helpful when you’re making men’s jewelry because many of the materials are thicker and stronger than what most women’s jewelry is made with.

Special Considerations When Making Jewelry for Men

Remember, the jewelry you make for men has to be worn, so you want to be sure that it’s something that looks good and conveys traditional values that many men associate with, even if they do sound a little cliche. You want your jewelry to convey strength, power, sophistication and even be a little flashy if appropriate. Men don’t necessarily want to feel “pretty” but they do want to feel good about their appearance so you should make jewelry that conveys a sense of success and purpose.

Don’t forget to change up your jewelry packaging, too. You don’t want to sell someone a leather and steel men’s bracelet and then give it to them in a pink jewelry bag with Swarovski crystals dangling off of it! Consider making special men’s jewelry boxes that are designed to appeal to men. If you’re going for funky you could look into using plain cardboard boxes (or maybe old boxes that were used for hardware) and “wrap” your jewelry in newspaper (make sure the ink doesn’t stain the jewelry). Or instead of a men’s jewelry box maybe you could include a little leather drawstring bag or some other clever way for a man to store a piece of jewelry.

You’ll also want to watch your sizing when it comes to men’s jewelry. Men are typically built a little larger than women, especially when it comes to wrist and neck sizes, so be sure to add a few inches into your jewelry patterns.

You also don’t want to underestimate the popularity of men’s jewelry with women. I know a lot of men and women who actually have rings and necklaces that match or compliment each other and they can be worn together so that husband and wife have coordinating jewelry.

If you start finding that women are buying your men’s jewelry for themselves then you might start making a wider variety of sizes and marketing it less as men’s jewelry and more as “unisex” jewelry.

Good luck with your men’s jewelry making ventures! If you make custom men’s jewelry I’d love to see your work and share it with others here!

One of the most difficult and most important decisions you’ll make when you start making your own jewelry is what to name your jewelry business. There are lots of different ways to go about this, and no one method is completely correct for everyone. Naming your jewelry business can be a deeply personal decision and one which you may have to live with for many years. Yes, you can change or modify your jewelry business name after you’re established, but by doing so you’ll risk losing some customers and fans simply because they will go looking for your old name and not be able to find you.

Talking with others about your jewelry business name is great, but you may want to be careful about posting all your ideas to public message forums for internet search engines to find.

So how do you go about thinking up a jewelry business name? Here are some of the steps you can take:

1. Brainstorm For Jewelry Business Names: Go crazy, write down every single name you can come up with, no matter how silly, how outrageous, or how nutty the name sounds. Use adjectives, get descriptive, and do your best to keep your jewelry name wide open and don’t stick with any one theme. Think about qualities in jewelry and people you admire. Think about your favorite colors. Pull out a thesaurus and write away. Write them down even if you immediately hate a few of the business names you come up with. You want to fill a page and maybe have 50 to 100 or even more possible names.

2. Let Your List Sit: Ignore your list for a day or so. Really. You will need some “temporal distance” when you look it over again.

3. First Review: Go back and review your list, marking the ones you like and crossing out the ones you definitely don’t. Try to get it down to 10 or less names.

4. Google Away: With your good list of potential jewelry names, start plugging them into Google. You’ll want to do this for a couple reasons. First, you’ll want to see if your name is similar to another jewelry business name out there. You’ll also want to see if your creative jewelry names pull up any really off the wall (or off color) results, meaning your name has the potential for being misinterpreted. While you’re searching, also think of domain names you might want to use in the future. No, you don’t have to sell your jewelry online, but you might want to. Come away with as many names as you can.

5. Trademark Checking: If you’re serious about starting a jewelry business and you want to make sure your name is protected, you can search for any possible US Trademarks. Ultimately you may want to register your name so that no one else can use it and you will probably want to register your jewelry business name with your state and local agencies (sometimes called a “DBA” or “doing business as”).

6. Feedback Time: Okay, now that you have a few names (if you don’t, go back to step 1) you can start running them past friends, relatives and maybe even a few people who are past clients. Take survey, conduct polls, do whatever it takes to get constructive feedback. If everyone likes every name you come up with, then they’re being too polite! One word of caution: be careful about writing about your possible jewelry names on public message board forums, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter or any other form of online “mass media.” Remember: your business name isn’t finalized yet and by listing all your favorites for all the world to see there’s always the chance that someone you don’t know will see it, love it, and take it before you get a chance to properly register it.

7. Second Review: Okay, do you like it? Do you love it? Does it get you excited? Does it “feel” right?

8. Congratulations, you have your jewelry business name! Or do you? Sometimes it takes a while, some it takes several tries and even some outright solicitation of advice from other people to really come up with a good business name. Sometimes you need to brainstorm again and sometimes you need to go in another direction entirely. If you’re having trouble consider looking into some “sales” oriented books that specialize in product and company naming and copywriting like the popular and affordable “Words That Sell“.

Here are some important things to consider when it comes to naming your jewelry business:

Leave Your Ego Out of It: Sure, you can have some fun and think of a jewelry business name that plays on your own name. And of course, it’s tempting to name the business after yourself, but there are some very good reasons you might not want to simply settle on “Jane’s Jewelry” and never consider anything else. For one, there could be a dozen other women who are named Jane and making their own jewelry. Secondly, you may want to consider something more flashy and more recognizable. If your jewelry business name isn’t specifically tied to your name then you may actually be able to sell your business or partner with someone else without too much trouble.

Consider Keeping It “Open Ended”: I know, you are making these amazing wire rings right now and you really want to name your jewelry business “Wanda’s Wonderful Wire Rings” but sit back and consider if you’re going to be making nothing but wire rings for the rest of your jewelry making career. You may want to use some more general business name so that you can expand into other areas of jewelry making, such as beaded necklaces, gemstone earrings or whatever other type of jewelry you enjoy making. Of course, you can always create specific names for style or piece of jewelry you make if your jewelry business name is not specific enough for you!

Avoid Strange Spellings and Pronunciations: You will have to publish your jewelry business name and tell people about it all the time, so you don’t want to have people ask, “What?” every time you announce your business name. A name that uses odd spellings is hard to remember and can often be mispronounced.

When you’re finally done take a deep breath and relax… and then start making some jewelry that lives up to your new name!