Environmentally friendly, or “Green”, products are popular these days because a lot of consumers are beginning to realize just how much harmful material is contained and thrown away in the things we use just about every day. Cleaning supplies, food packaging and even furniture is now advertised as being “eco friendly” or at least marketed as being less harmful to the environment as previous versions.
This desire to be green and to create something beautiful without harming the planet is the driving force of the eco friendly jewelry movement. Given two pieces of similar handmade jewelry that cost the same the piece that can most the most environmentally friendly creation process will probably sell better.
But you don’t have to be some big company or even invest a lot of time or energy into buying new tools and supplies to make your own environmentally friendly jewelry. If you already have a jewelry business or if you’re thinking about making your own jewelry at home then you probably just need to change a few things you do now to help decrease your impact on the planet and create jewelry with a wider audience appeal. Here are some things you can do:
Use Renewable Jewelry Supplies and Beads: The easiest and most obvious way you can make greener jewelry is by choosing your jewelry supplies carefully. Using natural or plant-based jewely beads and strings is almost always going to be more environmentally friendly than using anything made of plastic or metal. Typical materials might be beads made out of wood or bamboo, stone materials of all types and even clay or glass beads. These are all things which will, given time, break down in the environment and they are things which done require a lot of toxic chemicals to manufacture. Instead of using a metal chain or jewelry wire you can try substituting hemp or a cotton cord. Instead of plastic seed beads you can try using small stones. Yes, you may have to slightly change your jewelry style to accommodate some materials but you’d be surprised what is available these days when you look.
Use Environmentally Friendly Chemicals: We all use a lot more toxic chemicals than we think and becoming aware of common things around you is the first step to becoming more green. One of the things I recently replaced in my crafter’s box was the glue I was using. I switched from the normal smelly white glue to EcoGlue which has practically no odor and works about as well as the regular stuff. You can also make the way you display and sell your jewelry more green by turning to Fair Trade eco friendly jewelry stands
. I’ve also moved away from the more toxic jewelry cleaners (for my more expensive jewelry) to much more natural ones. I’ve used natural toothpaste to clean some of my metallic jewelry and several different natural and non-toxic cleaners on other jewelry pieces. And though I haven’t read it yet, my sister highly recommends the book Clean House, Clean Planet
by Karen Logan as a good introduction to making my own natural cleaning supplies at home.
Recycle Jewelry Making Materials: You can find recycled materials used in almost everything these days, including jewelry! Why buy new materials when you can make jewelry out of all sorts of things that may otherwise end up in a landfill? You can make jewelry out of candy wrappers, newspapers, bicycle parts and just about anything else you can think of, including other pieces of jewelry. I know people who purposely go to yard sales and garage sales to buy up old jewelry pieces (costume and otherwise) just to have plenty of extra beads, stringing materials and even clasps on hand. Why buy a new jewelry clasp for $5 when you can often buy an entire box of old jewelry and pieces for $10? Over the years I’ve written a lot about some of the other ways can make your own recycled jewelry.
Donate Some of Your Jewelry Profits to an Environmental Charity: This isn’t really a way to make more environmentally friendly jewelry, but it is a way to help the environment with your jewelry sales. If you’ve never donated a portion of your proceeds to a non-profit, then you might want to read up on how to donate your jewelry profits to chartiy. Many customers who are on the fence about buying a piece of jewelry from you may be swayed when they consider the charitable donation.
Obviously, you don’t have to immediately throw out all your old jewelry supplies and buy new. That would be wasteful and it would only contribute to more materials going to the landfill sooner. If you really want to make environmentally friendly jewelry then begin with small steps, slowly using up older plastic and non-natural supplies and replacing them with greener alternatives. It may take some getting used to natural materials if you haven’t worked with them before, but learning how to do something new is half the fun! If you’re new to eco friendly jewelry, don’t worry. You still have plenty of time to make some pieces for any Earth Day or springtime craft shows you’ll be attending. Soon you’ll be creating beautiful jewelry and helping to keep the environment beautiful at the same time!
Jewelry and Beading Magazine Subscription
There are lots of great jewelry and beading magazines out there, but here are some of the most popular magazines for any sort of beading or jewelry artist:
