Homemade jewelry mistakes to avoid as a jewelry artist is by far too many. Right from not investing wisely to purchasing low-quality jewelry materials and not taking proper care of your jewelry.
Whether you’re a DIY jewelry blogger or planning to sell your jewelry pieces online, the first step is to do strenuous research and find your niche, investing in the right materials, and then experiment with crafting new pieces.
I’m a self-taught jewelry designer and a huge fan of devising beautiful jewelry out of recycled stuff. And, I urge all jewelry artists to learn the art of making designer pieces that not only save cost but also give good returns.
17 Homemade Jewelry Mistakes to Avoid As a Jewelry Artist
You know when I started learning jewelry, I knew nothing and didn’t opt for any jewelry designing course. In fact, I strongly insist you start learning on your own instead of opting for any course. Just a suggestion from me.
Start making a simple beaded bracelet then slowly move on to moderately intricate jewelry pieces and then scale up your skills to making complex designs. That’s the best way to progress as a jewelry designer.
Do not spoil your creativity by jumping into designing slightly difficult jewelry pieces that aren’t easy to craft at home. So, let me give you clarity on the blunders of making homemade jewelry. Read carefully.
1. Don’t Start without Research
Lack of market research, customer needs, and jewelry trends is another common mistake by jewelry designers. That is why they don’t get expected results.
What kind of jewelry you will make and sell? Is it silver, wooden, resin, or any other jewelry that involves upcycling? Do you want to start your online teaching platform or an eCommerce store? Ask these questions to yourself.
Your purpose should be clear and then you can proceed into researching materials, tools, and the entire process of jewelry making. Don’t start anything out of fascination, start only if you’re super interested and willing to learn.
2. Not Investing time in Choosing the Right Niche
Determine your strength and interests before you start learning jewelry designing. Invest plenty of your time in choosing your niche. Niche means the area of interest and skills you will choose to make in the field of the jewelry industry.
Dig into the kind of jewelry you wish to learn and are confident about – Is it learning silversmithing or making unusual pieces from recycled stuff? Brainstorming ideas becomes paramount.
Once you are absolutely sure about your key strengths, interests, then you can proceed with learning jewelry designing.
3. Not Investing Wisely
One of the common homemade jewelry mistakes you should avoid if you’re a beginner is starting out of excitement and spending extra dollars in buying precious stones and materials in the initial stage without even thinking about your strengths, interest, and expertise- It should be a perfect match!
Lack of brainstorming ideas, wrongly purchased materials will give you disappointments. You can’t afford to have frustrations when you doing creative work. Right?
You must be determined and confident before making any investment in tools and supplies. Think wisely, research, and create long-term plans.
4. Purchasing Low-Quality Jewelry Findings
Low-quality jewelry findings like jump rings, clasps, sliding locks deteriorate faster. Nobody wants to wear cheap-quality jewelry pieces that get tarnished easily.
Also, Do you know wearing rustic metals could harm your skin? This is why we should be always striving for choosing top-notch quality findings and tools.
Customers are our greatest asset in business. We can’t afford to compromise on quality that would affect our reputation and our valuable customers. So, always choose top-quality materials.
5. Lack of Innovation
The common homemade jewelry mistake you must strictly avoid is “imitating designs”. Don’t ever copy other designs and ideas, you will never be able to stand out – Mark my words! Always stay original in your approach.
Innovation is a key aspect of creativity when it comes to jewelry designing. Your audience is looking for refreshing jewelry creations and they will never consider a common design.
Take inspiration from experts and make your own unique creations that stand out and meet the expectations of your customers. Your imagination will do wonders and inspire millions.
6. Wrong Sized Jewelry Materials
Beads, eye pins, headpins, jump rings are the jewelry findings that come in different sizes. Hence, choosing the wrong sizes will spoil your crafting experience and leave you frustrated. You must be acquainted with the right sizes.
Suppose you are making a simple beaded bracelet and you bought 8mm beads that have bigger holes. It’s a big blunder because the size of the bead hole is big and the cord is thin.
Well, I did this mistake when I was learning and I bought some wrong-sized wood beads which have bigger holes then I came to know about the sizes (5mm, 8mm,12mm).
7. Not acquainted with Process
Another common homemade jewelry mistake to avoid as a jewelry artist is not learning the complete process. Lack of process knowledge may affect your business when you sell in the market.
You must have adequate knowledge of the process. Right from crafting, connecting the components to polishing homemade jewelry. Make sure you learn the entire process of making any kind of jewelry.
For instance, you made a wooden pendant but that’s not enough. You must learn to polish it and give it a perfect finish. Be patient and you’ll get to see fruitful results.
8. Not Cleaning Jewelry
It is critical to forget to clean your jewelry. Do you know that your jewelry piece kept for a long time stores a lot of dirt that will harm your skin?
I mean, besides creating a stunning jewelry piece you should be able to maintain your jewelry to retain its glory. Every jewelry type you wear has a different cleaning process.
Whether you are making jewelry out of silver, gold, resin, brass, or wood material, it is important to clean your jewelry and keep it hygienic.
9. Not Educating Enough to the Audience
People in the digital world are looking up for information. If you are not educating them enough, you are losing a big chance to win your customers.
Share informative articles about the trends, interesting DIY tutorials to make your customers fall in love with your brand. Hence, always share content that gives value to your audience.
10. Not Making Proper Wire Loops and Finishes
Do you know why jewelry pieces don’t look professional? Well, it is because of unfinished pieces and not making correct wire loops for making jewelry.
I have tried making loops from headpins, eye pins, and pliers to make a lovely bracelet and even practiced bending and looping several times from pliers and it worked out well for me.
Therefore, as a jewelry artist, you must learn the art of twisting and twirling from pliers. Each plier has different functionality and we need to master this art.
11. Incorrect Knotting
Another critical homemade jewelry mistakes nobody is talking about is – Improper knotting of the nylon cord while making a necklace, pendant, or bracelet. This should be avoided to prevent the beads from dropping out.
Knotting is a crucial part of the jewelry-making process. Make sure the knotting is done correctly and should be completely tightened.
12. You Forget to Glue the Knot
Another critical homemade jewelry mistake to avoid as a beginner jewelry artist is not gluing the knot while making a bracelet or a pendant.
Well, this is a super important step because glue fixes the knotting part to avoid getting unravel. Always apply a few drops of glue into the knotting part.
13. Not Taking Proper care of Jewelry
Another common homemade jewelry mistakes to avoid is not taking proper care while wearing precious stones or even artistic jewelry pieces in certain places.
Well, let me tell you to avoid wearing them while dishwashing, swimming, or even while using perfume as it will spoil your jewelry pieces completely. So, Make sure you take proper care of your homemade jewelry.
On the contrary, if you are a designer, you must not forget to properly store jewelry to prevent it from moisture.
14. You Forget to Make it Water Resistant
This simply implies making wooden jewelry pieces water-resistant which is quite a common mistake by jewelry designers. It is important to be aware that wooden jewelry deteriorates due to moisture.
Apply regular varnish to wooden jewelry pieces and let them dry overnight to see the glossy effect. Varnish will prevent your wooden jewelry from getting tarnished. Don’t ever forget to make it water-resistant.
15. Mixing Wrong proportions of Epoxy and Hardener
Another critical homemade jewelry mistakes to avoid especially if you are making resin jewelry is mixing the wrong proportions of epoxy and hardener. It should be a 50:50 ratio otherwise epoxy resin will not cure.
There are two key aspects while working with epoxy resin – correct proportions and appropriate temperature to allow the resin to cure properly. Make sure you have patience and consider these two significant factors seriously.
16. No Out of the Box Thinking
Creativity starts when you think outside of the box and if you’re not consistently trying out new ideas, you will end up giving up. Don’t ever let it happen. Don’t be afraid to try new ideas.
My advice is to try upcycling, recycling, and even the most popular craft – Repurposing old jewelry. I mean, just look around and pick daily items that can be incredibly turn out into a beautiful piece.
17. Starting out with Complex Machines
Do you think buying complex drilling machines will always make your DIY project easier? Well, That’s a myth, my friends. You can easily try your hand with simple tools without spending even a single penny on machines.
Let’s say you’re making a square-shaped wooden from scrap wood, you don’t have to purchase expensive Dremel. You can do the wood cutting procedure all by yourself. But make sure you don’t rush, stay super alert while cutting wood.
Well, this brings us to the end of this blog, before I sign off I’m eager to know what are the important lessons you’ve learned as a jewelry artist? Share your valuable inputs with me, I would love to see them. Let’s discuss this in the comment section and learn from each other. Thank you!