Making Bead Jewelry For Older People

My town has a lot of retirement communities in it and many of them have yearly craft shows and annual bazaars for vendors to come in and sell any sort of art or craft. The senior citizen residents are given free spaces to sell items, while vendors have to pay a small fee. If you have any retirement communities in your area I suggest you call them up and see if they have anything like a craft fair or time to sell jewelry. It’s fun to meet and talk to people you may not normally meet with and many of them have amazing stories and have lived some very full lives!

However, if you are going to make and sell bead jewelry for older people, especially senior citizens, then you may need to make some physical changes to your jewelry to make sure it suits them and their needs. Here are a few ways you can modify your bead jewelry to appeal more for your older clients:

Use Easy To Open Clasps: You’ll quickly learn that arthritis and reduced hand dexterity makes opening and closing typical small clasps difficult for older people. Some senior citizens avoid wearing jewelry altogether because it is simply too difficult to put on and take off. You’ll want to use easy to open larger clasps on your necklaces and bracelets. You may want to consider using magnetic clasps of some sort. These are not as secure as more traditional clasps but they can be opened and closed much more easily by older people.

Consider Making Jewelry Without Clasps: You may want to skip the entire clasp issue entirely by making over sized necklaces and bracelets that can easily slip over the head and wrist. You will want to bring your jewelry tools with you so that you can shorten pieces for customers right at your table if your bracelets are simply too large for thinner wrists.

Choose Your Bead Textures Carefully: You may want to try to choose non-allergenic materials and stick with beads that are more rounded than chunky and sharp. A bracelet of sharp square Swarovski beads may look great, but if the rubbing of the bracelet against the wrist all day is going to cause a skin irritation then someone may not want to buy it.

Offer Clip-On Earrings as well as Traditional Earrings: Some older people move away from using pierced earrings for the same reason they shun small tight jewelry clasps: earrings are simply too small and difficult to wear and remove. Consider making to clip on earrings that are slightly larger than the norm but don’t dangle too much. You may need to test out several clip on kits until you can find one that you think most older people will want to use. And, if you’ve ever looked for clip-on jewelry yourself you’ll know there’s not much out there, so custom bead jewelry clip-on earrings might be quite popular!

Try Beaded Eyeglass Holders and Bookmarks: Sure, beaded necklaces, bracelets and earrings will still sell, but consider making more non-traditional jewelry items such as beaded bookmarks or beaded eyeglass holders. You’ll be amazed at how popular they can be!

Selling jewelry to older people is usually a lot of fun and can be a very rewarding experience. You’ll learn a lot about life just by talking and watching your older customers. If you really want to please them then you’ll definitely want to take their needs into consideration and offer them something unique and made especially for them.

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