Handcrafted Silver Jewelry – Trade Secrets Of Top Designers

By Author: Mike Nielson
Total Articles: 162
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When you purchase a piece of handcrafted silver jewelry, you’re purchasing a unique work that is the culmination of inspiration, time and effort. The designer probably started out with an idea, then progressed to sketches with a pencil and paper and then carefully crafted the piece. But what exactly goes into getting your piece of jewelry from an idea in a designer’s head to your collection? Perhaps a lot more than you might think.

The ideas for the designs have to come from some kind of inspiration. This could come from anywhere – simply looking out the window for something that catches the eye or things in nature. Inspiration can come from people, from museums, art galleries, and the supermarket. The best designers know when to recognize good sources of inspiration and how to turn them into beautiful jewelry.

Designing and making handcrafted silver jewelry is a learned craft, so taking as many classes as possible is important. Not just for the sake of learning different techniques, but also to learn from different teachers who can offer a variety of perspectives. The more education the better! Just as ...
... importantly, the more practice the better. Designers will go through plenty of failures and mishaps before fine-tuning their jewelry-making skills.

What it takes to be a silver jewelry designer

In order to make handmade silver jewelry, the designer needs to be well trained as a silversmith. Even the basics of silversmithing can seem dizzying to the average person. Anytime you’re working with hot metal, it’s a process that has to be done with the utmost care and knowing how make beautiful pieces of jewelry in spite of those seemingly intimidating conditions takes real skill. Silver also has certain tendencies, depending on which kind is used and knowing how to work with fine silver and sterling silver is the difference between creating wearable art and ending up with a big mess.

Once a designer creates enough pieces, it’s just like any other product. The jewelry needs to be marketed and sold! It can start as simply as designers wearing their own pieces, but in order to move that product, designers need exposure. Jewelry parties among friends and friends of friends can be a good way to sell pieces. However, the internet is a huge marketplace and there are some very well known ecommerce sites that sell jewelry. Some designers even choose to create their own site or take representation by a specific company to lend credibility to their craft of designing silver jewelry.

One of the great things about selling online is that there’s no rent to pay or overhead of a brick-and-mortar store like there would be if the designer had their own retail location. There are so many ways for a designer to get their jewelry out there to be sold. It’s just a matter of finding the right one and sharing their work with as many people as possible.

Mike Nielson, For more information on handcrafted silver jewelry, handmade silver jewelry and unique handcrafted jewelry. Please: http://www.galerina.com/