What materials do you need to make jewelry at home that is relevant for beginners? I am going to make things easy for you and skip the non-essentials at the initial stage of learning.
You don’t need a huge bunch of materials, all just the basic findings that are crucial to connect the jewelry components. Find out the extensive list along with cost-effective ideas with this constructive guide.
Before I talk about materials, I would strongly recommend you have a jewelry box with you. Stay organized with clutter-free materials.
What Materials Do you Need to Make Jewelry at Home?
With my own experiences, I am gonna present essential materials to make jewelry at home. But before that, I insist you decide the kind of jewelry and prime material you’re going to start with.
Are you going to make jewelry out of paper, wood, or silver? This should be absolutely clear and then you can proceed with the first stage of jewelry making – Ideation.
| 1. Stretch Cord |
| 2. Jump rings |
| 3. Lobster Clasp |
| 4. Earring Hooks |
| 5. Stud Pins |
| 6. Push Locks |
| 7. Nylon Cord |
| 8. Clasps |
| 9. Bead Caps |
| 10. Ring Base (Optional) |
| 11. Chain |
| 12. Needle Set |
| 13. Head Pins |
| 14. Eye Pins |
| 15. Strong Adhesive |
| 16. Epoxy or Art Resin |
| 17. Variety of Glass Beads |
| 18. Wooden Beads |
| 19. Seed Beads |
| 20. Skewers |
| 21. Tweezer |
| 22. Hand Gloves |
| 23. Paint Brush |
23 Must-have’s Materials for your Jewelry Making Kit
The following list is a perfect guide for first-timers who have no idea about the tools. Take a look and start making a list with me.
1. Stretch Cord
Commonly known as the stretch cord which is an extremely essential material for making stretchable bracelets. Stretch cords are basically used for making handmade bracelets. They are basic and must-have jewelry finding for designers.
Size: 10 Mtr Elastic Cord 0.7mm Spool
2. Jump Rings
A jump ring is a small ring shape finding used to connect jewelry components. Round in shape comes in distinct sizes.
Two crucial aspects you need to remember – Diameter which means how small or big the size of the jump ring you have. Secondly, Gauge means the thickness of the wire. You can explore more details on jump rings with The Spruce Crafts.
3. Sliding Hook Lock
A must-have material in your jewelry kit. A sliding hook lock is used for locking necklaces, bracelets, and pendants at the end. It comes in two colors – golden and silver and sizes. I would recommend adding both colors to your kit.
Size: 6mm Silver and Gold Lobster Clasp
4. Earring Hooks or Ear wires
One of the common and popular earring findings is the Shepherd Ear hook. They are easily available online in fact I have them handy with me. Shepherd ear hooks are slightly curved with a small loop at the bottom so you attach your earring easily.
Suggested Earring Hooks: Earring Hoops, Kidney Ear wires, or Ear threads.
5. Stud Pins
Stud pins are used for making earrings attached at the back of the design. Well, I’m very fond of stud earrings and I highly recommend considering this to your bucket list.
Recommended Quantity and Color: 20-25 silver or gold-colored stud pins
6. Push Locks
Push locks are inserted to the backside of stud pins. when you wear them. It is an essential material for locking purposes you must have in your jewelry-making box.
7. Nylon Cord
I would recommend a bunch of nylon cord which is required to make pendants, necklaces, and even bracelets. You can choose any color black, white, yellow of your choice.
8. Clasps
Clasps come in different varieties, but I would recommend lobster clasp with a sliding lock and hook clasps for a beginner.
9. Bead Caps
If you want to learn to make beaded necklaces or earrings you must purchase bead caps. It gives beautiful look covering the upper part of the bead to make stunning patterns. Make sure you choose the correct size of the bead cap.
10. Ring Base
A ring base is an extremely crucial material if you are making a ring. It comes in golden and silver colors. By the way, you can avoid the hassle of buying this material and make your own ring base using a paper clip.
11. Silver and Golden Chain
This is a super important material for making magnificent pendants, bracelets, and necklaces. Make sure to choose a top-notch quality chain you’ll wear around your neck to prevent skin allergies.
12. Needle set
You will need a needle set for sewing purposes. Also, go in for needles for beading purposes which are easily available online.
13. Head Pins
Headpins should be available in good quantity with you. We can make lovely danglers, bracelets, beautiful hangings which I have recently taught in one of my youtube videos. I am sure you’ll like it.
Size: 2 Inch 50mm length finding
14. Eye Pins
Eye pins have one-sided loop pins used to attach jewelry components. You can craft gorgeous pieces like pom-pom bracelets, necklaces, anklets, and whatnot.
15. Strong Adhesive (Preferably E6000 glue)
My favorite is E6000 glue which I have been using for so long and I personally loved working with E8000 glue
.
16. Epoxy or Art Resin
If you are learning to make resin jewelry at home, add epoxy resin and art resin to your bucket list but make sure you buy quality epoxy resin else it won’t cure properly.
17. Variety of glass beads
You must-have a bright colors of glass beads with you for making jewelry at home. It comes in different sizes such as 5mm,8mm, and so on. Make sure you choose the correct size for beading.
Recommended Size: 5mm and 8mm of glass beads
18. Wooden Beads (5mm size)
Being a huge fan of eco-friendly jewelry, I love wood beads. So, If you want to make wooden jewelry, go in for wooden beads of 5mm size.
19. Seed beads
Seed beads are used for embroidered fiber crafts embellishments and simple stringing you’ll fall in love working with. It comes in lovely colorful seed beads like crystal, black, pink, blue, etc. can be added to your bucket list.
20. Skewers
Skewers will be required if you want to set aside wooden beads for drying or knitting purposes while making handmade jewelry. Make sure these are available with you.
21. Tweezer
Tweezer is one of the important materials for making jewelry at home because you may need it while holding small pieces for decorating or even working with resin jewelry making.
22. Hand Gloves
Hand Gloves should be a part of your jewelry-making kit as they are needed to avoid your hands getting messed up. Most importantly, you will need it as preventive clothing when working with resin as it may harm your hand.
23. Paint Brush
Top-notch quality paintbrush comes in different sizes you can easily buy online or at any craft store. This should be a must-have to your jewelry-making kit.
Budget-Friendly DIY Jewelry Ideas During The Lockdown | Recycle and Inspire the World
Amidst the disrupted times and uncertainties of pandemics, we had to face sudden lockdowns across the globe. That doesn’t mean to drop the idea of jewelry making. With crisis comes another opportunity to think out of the box for us as artists.
Do you know I have learned woodcutting for making jewelry during the lockdown? If a person like me who is a beginner can take this plunge so can you? Let me list out the daily materials along with their purpose that can be used to make jewelry at home.
Materials |
Jewelry Making Ideas |
| Paper Clips | Ring Base and Hoops |
| Scrap Wood Pieces | Wooden Jewelry like Pendant, Rings, earrings, etc |
| Pulses and dried fruits | Encapsulate with epoxy resin to make jewelry |
| Old Tissues | Paper earrings, pendants, and necklace |
| CardStock | Any kind of jewelry using cardstock |
| Metal wires, wire cutter, and Pencil/pen | You can make jump rings and other findings |
| Fabric | Wrap fabric around the material to make jewelry |
There are endless ideas. Don’t trash things, use them for crafting purposes that are the true essence of creativity especially when you don’t have requisite resources during the lockdown.
I hope you got a fair idea on “What materials do you need to make jewelry at home?” I have entailed down a complete list and ideas for you. Do share your experiences and ideas with me. I would love to see them.