If you’re a beaded jewelry maker who likes to maximize your sales throughout different seasons, then you should learn to adjust your jewelry styles and looks to meet upcoming fashion and jewelry trends. While no one can guarantee what will be the “hot” new jewelry trend in the coming years, there are some definite designs, colors and overall themes in the fashion and jewelry world that are becoming more popular every day!

Here’s a great example of a pendant that tells a story and has a theme..

In general, the economic downturn has affected the fashion and jewelry industry by trimming back some of the frills and over-the-top gaudiness and colors of the past and this upcoming fall and winter’s trends seem to be moving back into a more subdued mode than you generally see during the spring and summer months. Here are some of the fashion and jewelry trends you can expect to see in the 2010/2011 season:

Themes, Stories and Words: Having a story to tell is a big part of the fashion and jewelry business at the moment. One way to accomplish this is to tie different pieces together with an overriding theme so that they aren’t necessarily matching, but more like complimenting each other. If you’re making a coordinated jewelry set of earrings, a necklace and a bracelet then you’ll want to use a similar beads and colors in each piece, but maybe not use the same materials for all three. Many jewelry pieces are even being coordinated with clothing in order to tell a story or convey some sort of hidden or double meaning in some cases. Granted, it isn’t always easy to make bead jewelry with a story involved, though I have seen more and more jewelry makers including a little “story” card with their jewelry. The story card can be as simple as explaining the inspiration for the piece and how it was made or it can include a fictional account of the jewelry piece or just include a poem or short story that vaguely references the jewelry.

Examples of jewelry based around poems and stories can be found in at the CND Jewelry Tales blog and even Rose Klampman’s Bead and Wire Wrap Poetry. One obvious way to tell a story or tie in a theme is with charms and other “trinket” type jewelry pieces and accessories which are still popular.

Generally, you’ll want to stay away from themes that could be construed as being gaudy or overblown. Some other themes that are big this year are animals, “period” and historical replicated jewelry pieces from the 1930′s and 1940′s and jewelry that tells a tale of survival, strength or hope. nimals are big, as are “period” piece reproductions from the 1930′s and 1940′s. For some examples of how stories and words are being used you can look no further than Amazon.com’s story pendants.

Natural Materials and Metals: Long gone are the days of making jewelry only out of gold and silver. These days the value of gold is so high that many traditional and handcrafted jewelry makers are completely avoiding it. Gold is almost exclusively reserved for upscale audiences and jewelry pieces because of the rising price. That leaves room for a lot of other metals to be used for jewelry, including silver, copper, bronze and steel. More and more metal jewelry is foregoing the polished metal look and instead moving towards the hammered, aged, scuffed and generally worn look. Men are still buying and, more importantly, wearing jewelry themselves and they tend to gravitate towards the less flashy and more inexpensive metals with a masculine feel.

Natural materials such as stone, wood, and colorful but not precious gems and stones are still highly desireable and sell well. A lot of fashion and jewelry designers are dialing down in brightness and loudness due to the economic hard times that many people are going through. Bright plastics, artificially colored stones and shiny or glitzy materials are not even being worn by wealthy people or most celebrities these days.

Recycled and Local Materials: Call it Frugal Chic, but fashion and jewelry have been taking a cue from the “local foods” movement and many jewelry makers and designers are looking to make beautiful pieces of jewelry with materials and supplies that are made and sourced locally instead of buying beads from someone halfway across the world. Show respect for limited resources is a hot topic and will be for quite some time. Along those same lines, more and more people are buying and wearing jewelry and other fashion accessories made out of recycled or repurposed materials. I’ve featured lots of examples of recycled jewelry in the past. Of course, you can even combine the metal and recycled feel if you’re been making steampunk jewelry for your customers.

Jewelry Trends That Are Over: Asian and Indian influences were seen in the past, but not so much now. Though jewelry made from charity beads are still popular, you will generally see less world culture influence in handmade jewelry. Jewelry that’s over-the-top glitzy or too bold to be practical is also not as popular as it once was.

Trends aside, almost any sort of affordable handcrafted or handmade jewelry is still selling well. If you have a jewelry business of your own, then you know the importance of being able to sell jewelry in a down economy. Pawn shops and gold buyers have been reporting that record numbers of people are getting ride of their gold and gemstone jewelry, pocketing the cash and then using some of that money to buy smaller and less expensive pieces. Many people are, essentially, downsizing their formal gold and diamond jewelry collections of the past for more personal and more practical beaded and handmade jewelry.

Now I have a quick question for all you jewelry makers out there: Do any of you regularly change your style or make different jewelry based on national or local trends? Or do you simply stick to your own unique style and make jewelry that pleases your tastes first?

Okay, so you’ve mastered the arts of making your own bead jewelry. You’ve sold some pieces, you have your business established, you visit the local craft shows and flea markets and you might even have your own jewelry website (or Etsy site) and maybe even a few regular customers. Formal advertising can be expensive and the effectiveness can obviously vary. What you need to kick start your jewelry business may be some public relations tricks that don’t cost you very much at all. What your jewelry business may need the most is some free publicity.

There are lots of great publicity and marketing books available.

There are plenty of ways to get free publicity (in fact, there are entire books written about getting free marketing for your business) but if you’re a struggling jewelry maker or designer who is just starting out then you probably want to try some local methods without spending a lot of money. Here are a few marketing ideas that I’ve actually seen results from:

Local Newspapers: I have at least three local community newspapers that are delivered to my home over the course of any given month. Some are a little better than others, but they all love to feature stories about local artists and business people. Ideally you’ll want to write up a one or two page bio about you and your jewelry business and then submit it to the newspaper with a cover letter and maybe some photos of your jewelry. Depending on the general reading audience of the local paper you can give your biography a business tilt or a local flavor tilt.

Local TV Newscasters: If you have a local (or even not so local) television news station, you can consider two different ways of getting free publicity. First, you can do the same as with a local newspaper by sending them a letter and photos of your jewelry. But what you may also want to do is make or two jewelry pieces that you think one of your local newscasters might wear on TV and send that along as well. I had a friend whose jewelry was mentioned by the hostess for just a few seconds on a local morning show and she said that within a week she had three calls from shop owners to sell her jewelry in their stores! You may want to have a website up and ready before you do this because most TV people will be more open to tossing out a website on the air than actually giving out a phone number or address.

Donate Your Jewelry To Charity Auctions: This is one tried and true method that I’ve seen work with handmade jewelry, photographs and just about anything else that an artist can make. Ideally you should donate a jewelry set like a matching necklace, bracelet and earrings and provide it all with presentation in mind, so you may want to include a jewelry box or satin back or even a small jewelry display stand. Most charity auctions will display your items for a period of time and lots of people will walk past your item and see it. By displaying your business card (and website address) prominently you stand a good chance of getting some good exposure and maybe even some new customers!

There are, of course, plenty of other great ways to promote your home run jewelry business for almost no costs at all. If you’re a little unsure about how to start, you might want to check out some home-business marketing books as well. Heck, even wearing your jewelry around town and simply mentioning that you make jewelry are both good conversation starters and excellent ways to make friends while building a customer base!

Summer is here and it has me thinking about all sorts of beach jewelry! One of the most popular types of “summer” jewelry that jewelry maker thinks about at one time or another is seashell jewelry. Making jewelry out of seashells is some that’s so natural that some scientists think the first jewelry ever made was created out of seashells!

Almost any type of seashell can be used for jewelry.

If you’re lucky enough to live near a beach that’s clean and easily accessible then you may be able to get most, if not all, of the seashells you use for your jewelry for free. If not, then you can actually buy seashells online without spending much money. By buying your own shells you will most likely end up with some really nice shells as well as a few shells that are simply not suitable for jewelry.

Making jewelry out of seashells can be challenging because most shells are fragile and often sharp, which means that you sometimes have to be selective in exactly what shells you decide to use. You’re really only limited by your imagination when it comes to making jewelry with seashells and there are actually some jewelry makers out there who specialize in making nothing but seashell and beach-oriented jewelry. I’ve made a few pieces of seashell jewelry in the past, but a few recent trips to the beach with my toddler has yielded me a lot more seashells then I ever thought I’d have at home, so I’ve begun working with them again. Here are some of the tips I’ve learned for making seashell jewelry:

Drilling Holes in Seashells

This is by far one of the most challenging parts of making seashell jewelry. First, you’ll want to be sure that your shell is strong enough to be used for jewelry. Different shells warrant different testing methods, but I first visually inspect a shell and then I do a sort of “drop” test where I drop the shell from about a foot in the air to my desktop. If it doesn’t completely shatter or crack, then I figure it’s at least worth trying to drill a hole.

Now comes the cleaning. You can soak your shells for a few minutes in cold water and then use an old toothbrush to clean off any dirt or sand that might be caked on them. After your shell is clean you can pat it dry with a towel and then mark with a pencil or fine tip marker where you’re going to drill your hole.

You’ll want to stabilize your shell as your drilling and there are a few different ways to do this. Larger, flatter shells may sit fine on a table, but one good trick is to use a large, stiff piece of modeling clay. Stick the shell into the clay and push on it a little bit until it’s secure. Some people suggest drilling shells when they are filled with water or underwater because the claim is they won’t crack when they’re in water.

A small jewelry drill like this might work well for seashell jewelry.

Now you can drill one or two holes, depending upon what you need. Again, there are lots of different tools you can use to drill holes, but many jewelry makers prefer manual methods over mechanical methods. I have a little manual hand drill that I use for a variety of things, but it works pretty well with drilling holes in seashells because I can vary the speed, angle and pressure that I use on the shell. I also picked up a small set of jewelry drill bits a while ago that I use to create some remarkably small holes. The size of the holes you need to drill will obviously depend upon your stringing material and the shell you’re using, but we’ll get to that.

Drill slowly and carefully. When you drill something you’re not “pushing” the bit into the shell. Instead, you’re actually using that sharp point to grind away at the shell, leaving a hole. You should apply very little pressure and be patient. This won’t be like punching holes in paper.

Once you’ve drilled a whole in your shell you still want to inspect the shell with a jewelry magnifier for any cracks or sharp edges you may have introduced. You can use a little bead hole bore or even a little metal file to smooth out any rough edges.

If you have a Dremel tool then you could also use that, though I’ve found that Dremels are often too fast and too powerful for drilling tiny holes in fragile shells. If you use a Dremel or a power drill then you might want to try to find a tiny drill bit that’s meant for drilling through stone or ceremics such a tiny diamond tipped bit. Depending on your application, you may also want to start out drilling a small hole and then use a slightly larger bit each time, slowly increasing the size of your hole until it’s the size you need. Any sort of mechanical drill will make your drill bits very hot very quickly, so you may want to drill for a moment, pull back and let things cool and then drill again for a few seconds.

You’ll also want to be very careful not to breath in the dust from drilling seashells. This is where drilling holes in shells under water could definitely help: you won’t breathe in any toxic dust and if you happen to break something pieces won’t go flying all over the room.

If you want to make the holes you drill into shells a little stronger for your jewelry, you can glue or epoxy down seed beads with the same diamater hole on either side of the holes on your seashell. This will give your hole a little more surface area for the string and may prevent it from rubbing against a sharp edge.

Coating Seashells

While some seashell jewelry is composed of seashells without any sort of protective coating or paint at all, you should remember that shells are fragile and can chip or break if you’re not careful. Likewise, seashells are porous and can stain if they happen to have something spilled on them and the shells absorb it. Again, this is largely dependent on the type of seashell you’re using.

Some people like to paint the seashells they use in jewelry. I’m not a big fan of putting artifical colors on seashells, but I’m also not a very good painter! LOL! If you paint your shells then you’ll almost definitely want to coat them as well to be sure the paint doesn’t get chipped or crack over time.

I personally feel better coating seashells with a clear coat of an acrylic or resin craft spray. Whatever you use, you’ll want to be sure it’s approved for porous materials like tile or ceramics. If it’s okay to use on those things, then it’s probably okay for seashells (just test on a similar type of shell if you’re not sure). Others have suggested using clear nail polish, which I’m sure would work, but it seems that it might be easier to spray on a sealant coat instead of painting it on with a little nail polish brush.

Attaching and Stringing Seashells Together

The easiest part of making jewelry from seashsells is stringing them together, though there are some things you need to watch out for when you’re doing this.

First, you’ll want to pick out a good stringing material, but just about anything will work as long as the holes you drilled in your shells are large enough. I’ve seen seashell jewelry strung together with fishing line (invisible and strong), Beadalong bead stringing wire, black silk rope and even ribbons. If you’re good at wirework (which I’m not) you could wrap wire around smaller shells and make a pendant, essentially hanging and wearing the seashell in the same way one might wrap a gemstone in wire.

Second, you’ll want to be sure the holes in your seashells don’t wear at the stringing material excessively, which could cause your jewelry to break rather quickly. Again, you can round the edges of your drilled holes or you can glue on some seed beads or, if you’re really worried about it and you have a steady hand you can glue little couplings in the holes you drilled, but this takes some planning ahead to make sure everything fits together well.

Lastly, you’ll need to check your jewelry to make sure there is some play, but not too much, between your seashells. Too much movement could cause your seashells to smash together and crack or break if they are fragile, while not enough could make the jewelry piece too rigid for any sort of flexing or turning.

Conclusion

Attach some clasps, double-check everything to make sure it looks and feels good and that’s it! Now you can show off your jewelry at the beach, on vacation or wherever you’re going this summer.

I began making bead jewelry years ago because at the time it was the most approachable and easiest way to begin making jewelry. While it takes plenty of practice to actually get good at making beautiful jewelry with beads, the basic idea of stringing beads together and attaching clasps is a fairly easy one to grasp. Many accomplished jewelry artists will tell you the same thing: they began with bead jewelry because it was the easiest type of jewelry to begin making.

But lately I’ve been wanting to expand my skills into other areas and I keep gravitating towards metal work and, especially, making silver jewelry! I actually have a fair number of silver jewelry pieces that I’ve bought over the years and I almost never wear gold anymore… I guess I’m just a silver jewelry gal!

And while I’m not yet making my own silver jewelry (I’m going to try to find a class) I have been looking to other jewelry artists who specialize in silver to get some inspiration. I can’t list everything I’ve been finding, but here are two great silver jewelry makers I’ve run across who all have a great sense of style and cool websites:

Beth Millner Silversmith and Jewelry Artist – Michigan-based Beth Millner’s handmade silver jewelry has fascinated me for a while. She works with silver a lot, but she also uses mixes of copper and brass in earrings, pendants and rings. I love the simplistic beauty of silver silhouettes and I’m always astounded by the detail and precision she’s able to squeeze into a tiny handmade silver pendant or ring! Her jewelry blog is filled with great information about making silver jewelry and the projects she’s working on from one week to the next and she has a link to her Etsy jewelry store.

TinyShiny – I think the quirkiness of the design of the TinyShiny website is what first caught my eye, but they have some wonderful silver earrings, rings, pendants and bracelets. They TinyShiny site is fun to visit and they a few different types of crafts and jewelry on their site, including origami jewelry!

I’ve been having a difficult time finding a jewelry silver making class that’s local and will fit my admittedly cramped schedule, but when I do I’ll let you know how I’m doing with it. I’ll even show you my first attempts at making silver jewelry if I get a chance to try it out myself!

Sherri Haab has a new book out called Sherri Haab Jewelry Inspirations: Techniques and Designs from the Artist’s Studio and it looks to be a winner!

Sherri Haab Jewelry Inspirations: Techniques and Designs from the Artist’s Studio

This isn’t your typical “how-to” or “instruction” book for how to build certain jewelry pieces step-by-step, though it does walk you through most of what you need to do. Instead, Sherri Haab’s book tries to look at the entire process of making jewelry, from the very beginnings of inspiration right through to the finished piece of art. She has a great section in her book about how she organizes her studio, her beading and jewelry making supplies and even her inspirational ideas. For example, she keeps a large file box filled with “craft idea” clippings from various magazines and newspaper articles she’s found over the past 30 years. When she needs some inspiration she’ll sometimes go browsing through her clippings!

She also covers a lot of the basic techniques of jewelry making including a quick rundown of working with wire, resin clay, metal clay and image transfers. There are lots of photos and the writing is as clear as can be, which actually makes this a pretty good book for the beginner who is looking to make jewelry for the first time or the more advanced beader who is simply searching for better ways to do things. This is not a comprehensive book of every single jewelry making technique, but it’s not trying to be. She simply gives you a working overview of how to do certain things with jewelry in case the reader isn’t familiar with some of these techniques. A complete beginner could almost definitely pick up this book and create some pretty darn good jewelry with just a few hours of practice.

There are over 20 different jewelry projects in this book and it doesn’t stick to one specific theme or even material. Again, this isn’t a strict “how-to” book but rather a “how-I-do-it-and-you-can-too” sort of book She actually wants you to take her ideas and her techniques, mix them up, and make something new of your own! In a way this book serves as a personal tour through Sherri’s studio, her thought process when creating jewelry and her life.

For those of you unfamiliar with Sherri Haab she’s a very talented craft instructor who has written over 20 different craft and jewelry books over the years and has released her own instructional DVDs. She’s also appeared on HGTV, the DIY Network and Martha Stewart Living Radio! Oh and she blogs and cooks and has all sorts of great ideas on her website over at http://www.sherrihaab.com/. She’s written a lot of books, and Sherri Haab Jewelry Inspirations: Techniques and Designs from the Artist’s Studio is already looking to be one of her best!