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Posts Tagged ‘craft’

So You Want To Be A Jewelry Designer… Getting Started / Cultivating Your Practice

Posted by learntobead on April 20, 2020

GETTING STARTED:
CULTIVATING YOUR PRACTICE

Abstract: What you do as an artist and designer may involve several different kinds of tasks. Your Practice, and how you define and live it depends on gaining some clarity in terms of (1) Having a definition of what success as a designer means to you, (2) Developing a production (and marketing) routine, (3) Creating a consistent and coherent body of work, (4) Being very organized, (5) If selling or exhibiting, taking a multi-venue approach, (6) Developing a Criticality where you are reflecting, evaluating, validating, legitimizing, being very metacognitive, (7) Self-Care and finding balance in your life

GETTING STARTED:
CULTIVATING YOUR PRACTICE
Building that relevance into your work

What Is Your Practice?

What do you (or will you) say to people who ask you what you do for a living? When you say, “Jewelry Designer”, you probably get a “That’s nice” or “Oh, you make jewelry,” and perhaps a far-away look. Most people can’t imagine exactly what you do. Their images and experiences with jewelry and what it can look like, the materials available to use, the techniques applied are somewhat limited. Not everyone knows you can craft jewelry by hand, not just by machine.

It can be difficult to define jewelry design. What you do as an artist and designer may involve several different kinds of tasks. Your process may be conventional or unconventional. And it’s not just the “What do you do” aspect of the question, but the concurrently implied “Can you make a living at this” aspect of the question, as well. It’s almost as if they are about to say, “What do you really do?”

The response you want to come up with is your personal understanding and recognition about your passion for design, and all the things that drive this passion. Your excitement in telling your story will become infectious, and, while they still might not comprehend everything you do or the how and why you do it, they will certainly see that you are a jewelry designer, one who is intent on achieving some level of success within the profession.

Your Practice, and how you define and live and succeed in it depends on gaining some clarity in terms of1…,

(1) Having a definition of what success as a designer means to you

(2) Developing a production (and marketing) routine

(3) Creating a consistent and coherent body of work

(4) Being very organized

(5) If selling or exhibiting, taking a multi-venue approach

(6) Developing a Criticality where you are reflecting, evaluating, validating, legitimizing, being very metacognitive

(7) Self-Care and finding balance in your life

(1) Defining Success

Not every designer is going to define success in the same way. In fact, there will be dramatic differences. Some people may want to focus on applying their creative skills. They search for artistic excellence. Others may want to make money. They want monetary gain and, perhaps, financial stability. Still others may want to be a part of a social network of other creative types. They might want a support network, seek collaboration, or find recognition.

Some people want to do this full time, and others part time. Some want to earn enough money to pay for their habit; others want to make money to supplement their income; still others want to make enough money to be self-supporting.

Success is all about you. What do you want? How much effort and organization will it take to match your ambition and goals? How much time and money do you want to invest in your education and development? Are you aiming to be a crafter, an artist, or a designer?

Success depends on many factors. But key to all, and foremost, is that you brainstorm with yourself, be brutally honest, and list the goals you prefer and want to achieve. Prioritize these. More successful designers find some balance among creativity, business, and recognition. But your ambitions may be different, and just as legitimate in finding success.

Know that achieving any level or definition of success will take time and effort, often sacrifices. The jewelry designer should set expectations and work strategies accordingly.

(2) The Day-To-Day Routine

While everyone has their own process and their own flow, more successful designers establish some kind of work routine. They allocate a specific work space within which to create. They keep their inventory of parts and finished pieces very organized. And, key here, they set up a schedule for (a) researching ideas and inspirations, (b) working in a production mode, © presenting or marketing their work to others, (d) reflecting on their practice.

Periodically, evaluate your process. Are there things you can do to improve your efficiency or effectiveness? Can you better manage your productivity? Do you work better at a certain time of day, or day of the week? Have you programmed in breaks? Is there a comfortable balance between work time and break time? Would it be helpful to take the last 15 minutes of your day to set up for tomorrow?

Plot out your weekly schedule on a calendar or spreadsheet. Set some objectives about how many pieces you want to finish per week or per month. If interruptions, say from friends or family, get too annoying, make them aware of your schedule and ask them to help you protect your creative time and space.

It is important to note here that there is a fundamental tension between productivity and creativity. The former tries to put you in a box. The latter tries to keep you from getting stuck in a box. This can be frustrating.

Yet artists and designers, overall, who are able to provide some structure to their creative time tend to be more successful in their practice. These artists and designers set a routine and schedule for both making jewelry time as well as thinking about designing time. They also structure in time for introducing their ideas publicly as well as reflecting on the efficiency and effectiveness of everything they do — tangible and otherwise.

(3) Creating A Consistent and Coherent Body Of Work

Jewelry designers are free to create whatever they want. And usually, novices would be wise to try out a lot of different techniques, and use a lot of different materials, and create a lot of different designs. Think of this as play and experimentation. It’s how you learn to be a designer.

But as you develop more as a designer, it makes more sense to set some limits and begin to define a personal style, coherency and brand identity.

Your style reflects what you are passionate about. It may focus on a particular technique, material or design. Or it may focus on integrating and combining several things. But with all the things you do, there is some coherence to it. It becomes more associated and identified with you and you become more recognized with it. The consistency ties you to your work.

This doesn’t limit variation and creativity in your work. It primarily means that wearers and buyers and collectors of your jewelry can sense the artist’s hand, that is you, reflected by the pieces you create.

Coherency has several dimensions to it. The designer achieves a level of coherency in how the majority of these dimensions, not necessarily all dimensions, are reflected in any one piece. Thus, the designer still has a lot of room for variation in their work and style.

These dimensions of coherency about which designers are selective include,

– The choice of materials

– The choice of techniques

– How pieces are presented, displayed, organized, situated with other pieces

– How pieces and collections are named

– Packaging

– Color palettes

– The use of forms and themes

– Personalization, differentiation and originality

– The use of negative vs. positive space

– The use of point, line, plane and shape

– Arrangements, placements, distributions of design elements within the piece

– Control over light, shadow, bright, dull

– The marriage and resulting tradeoffs between aesthetics and functionality

– Silhouettes

– Quality in materials, quality in craftsmanship, quality in finish, quality in presentation

(4) Organization

Good organization involves

(a) Inventory (how you organize, track and replenish it)

(b) Work space (how you create productive areas for work, business and creative reflection)

(d) Business logistics, such as researching venues, getting to venues, tracking your pieces, shipping, marketing, web-presence and social media management (how you manage the other business aspects of what you do)

Good organization will help you avoid a lot of frustration and disarray. Learn to use spreadsheets and apps. These will save you a lot of time and minimize a lot of grief and worry. You’ll have more time to create, and need less time to keep things organized and up-to-date.

Think of and treat your inventory of materials, and all that it takes to achieve a satisfactory level of quality in your pieces, as investments, rather than costs. It gets more productive to reflect on What Is Your Return On Investment (ROI)?, rather than on What Does This Cost? This will go a long way in clarifying for you what is important, and what is less so, and how to prioritize things in the face of limits on time and other resources.

Your workspace might be a part of a room, it might be an entire room in your home, or even a complete studio space outside your home.

Divide your “work space” into three distinct areas: where you create, where you handle all the business things, and where you relax, think and reflect.

As you develop your work and related spaces, you should try to anticipate what it will take to scale each of these up, as you get more established as a jewelry designer. Are your spreadsheets and computer apps robust enough to grow with your developing career and business, as well?

(5) A Multi-Venue Approach
Towards The Creative Marketplace

Successful jewelry designers are able to get the visibility and legitimacy they want and deserve. They know what to expect when exposing their work publicly within the creative marketplace.

They are good at communicating their ideas and their value, when approaching art and craft show vendors, stores and boutiques, galleries, and buyers and collectors, or applying for art grants or doing demonstrations. They are able to get articles written about them in blogs, newspapers, magazines and jewelry editorials. And, very importantly, they use a multi-venue approach (diversification) when introducing their jewelry into the marketplace. At a minimum, this multi-venue approach will include both an on-line strategy and a bricks-and-mortar strategy.

Legitimacy as an artist requires massive exposure, most often in diverse locations and venues. It is unusual for a single venue or location, whether you are looking for exhibitions or for sales, to be sufficient for a designer to become successful. You will need to have your jewelry pieces in many venues.

There are many online directories and other resources to help you find the wide variety of venues useful to the further development of your jewelry design career.

What To Expect When Exposing Your Work Publicly

No jewelry designer works in a vacuum, and no piece of jewelry is complete until it has been shared with an audience.

No wearer or purchaser of jewelry is going to see the piece as merely an object of adornment. They will interact with the piece in a much more intimate way, and very much so influenced by the jewelry creator and all the choices made in design.

Part of the jewelry designer’s development as a professional involves an ability to anticipate and understand how various audiences express desire and how various audiences judge a piece of jewelry to be finished and successful. Jewelry is here to amaze and intrigue. It is here to entice someone to wear it, purchase it, show it around. It is here to share the inspiration and prowess of the designer with those who see, feel, touch and inhabit it.

The more successful designer takes the time to explore how an audience is engaged with the piece. The designer learns insights in how any piece of jewelry evokes emotions and resonates with others. The designer is very sensitive to the experience people have at the point of purchase or gifting. Finish and presentation are very important. Acquiring jewelry is special and unique a process. Jewelry is not something we must have to meet some innate need; rather, it is something we desire because it stirs something in us.

Approaching Stores and Galleries

Although some jewelry designers may feel uneasy mixing art with business, for most it is a necessity. You do not have to sacrifice wonder for reality. Most designers sell their pieces, so recognizing the things about coordinating art with business become very important.

Typically small stores and boutiques, websites and online sales platforms, and galleries will sell your jewelry, either outright, or on consignment. Their goal is to turn a profit, and they are at greater risk than the artist. It is the venue that displays, promotes, prices, trains employees to talk about your jewelry to customers, and keeps the pieces clean. Available selling-space is always limited. When your jewelry takes up space in these venues, it is an opportunity cost to the business — they lose the opportunity to carry someone else’s work which might be more appropriate to the setting, or might sell better.

There are different types of stores, websites and galleries. Each satisfies a different market niche for jewelry. Each has a different level of understanding about what jewelry really is, and all the choices the jewelry designer has made to design and create each piece.

When approaching stores or galleries to display and sell your pieces, it is critical that the artist understand how these venues function, who their audiences are, and what the attendant risks to them are, should they decide to exhibit and/or sell your pieces.

The first step is to be your authentic, passionate self. Your jewelry will not speak for itself. So, in spite of any feelings of vulnerability you might have when approaching stores and galleries, you will need to talk about yourself and your jewelry. You do not want to feel “salesy” when speaking with business or gallery owners and representatives. You do not want to feel pushy. Or desperate. But you want them to get to Yes.

You speak to them on their terms. They want to know the real you. What excites you. The history behind the design choices you make. Your understanding of yourself as an artist, and your understanding of your virtual client, her desires, wants and motivations. How do you connect to your audience through your jewelry?

o Who are your best customers likely to be?
o How would you describe them: demographics, shopping behaviors, wants and desires?
o Why are they attracted to your work?
o How and where do they find out about you and your work?
o What is your Getting Started story?
o How would you go about persuading someone to buy a piece of jewelry you made — what’s in it for them? How does it connect with them emotionally? How would it make their lives better?

Do some research ahead of time. The internet has a wealth of information you can pull up. Before you meet with them, get an understanding of the types of jewelry artists and their materials they carry in their venues. These venues are always on the lookout for new talent. They are most likely to say Yes to a jewelry designer whose style and materials fit in, but do not duplicate, what they already are showing.

Also research who their customer base is. They are most likely to say Yes to a jewelry designer whose audience either mirrors their existing customer base, or incrementally adds to and expands it at the margin. They most likely will not want to spend resources (and add risk) by going after a completely new and different customer base.

One more thing. You can either push your way in, or use pull to get in. For most of us, particularly when we are getting started, have only push at our disposal. We might cold call, or set up a formal interview, or initiate a conversation with someone at a gallery opening or art show.

But pull always works better. Here we leverage something or someone to get to the right place or person at the right time. An established designer or academic might set up an appointment for you with one of their contacts, for example.

Influencers

In today’s world, there is a manic competition for attention. Then, also, a frenetic effort to retain and manipulate that attention. Attention creates value. Often, it is difficult for the individual jewelry artist to get a leg up in this world without some significant help. Again, as mentioned above, if you can use pull, you’ll go farther, faster than if you have to rely on push.

Influencers are one of the backbones of internet culture and one way to use pull. Their business model centers on ways to shape everything we do in our lives from how we shop to how we learn to how we dress. Influencers are part micro-celebrity and part entrepreneur. They are opinion leaders and have been able to garner a large audience. They have proven themselves to be able to exploit how people distribute their time and attention.

Influencers typically work on a quid-pro-quo basis. In exchange for some products you give them, they promote them. Sometimes a fee may be involved. They take photos, they interact with audiences, they get your message out on different platforms, they sponsor content.

The Value of Collaboration

It can be so easy for any jewelry designer to get so wrapped up in creating things that they isolate themselves. But this is not the ideal situation.

At a minimum, it is very helpful, and very healthy, to have a support group. People you can talk to and talk things out with. People who can give you good feedback.

It is also very invigorating to collaborate on a project with someone else — A2A, that is, artist to artist. You can get an infusion of new ideas, sensibilities and strategies. You can get challenged. You become more self-aware of your own styles and preferences. You come up with new ideas about coordinating your own authentic, creative self with that of someone else.

Maintaining A Client Base

Much of any jewelry designer’s success comes down to maintaining a high level of visibility. Regularly keeping in touch with your client base is extremely important here.

Keep good documentation about who bought your pieces, when, why, for how much, and their address, email, phone numbers.

Maintain a web presence, either as a unique website, and/or a presence on social media platforms.

Create a mailing/emailing list, and use it frequently.

Have business cards handy at all times.

Do promotions to expand your mailing/emailing lists. Call to actions are very effective, such as offering a ‘discount coupon good for the next 7 days’. Or directing them to see your new pieces online by clicking a link.

Keep them up-to-date about where your pieces may be found, and what you are working on now.

(6) Criticality

Criticality is something you want to build into your Practice. It is not something to avoid or minimize.

Criticality is about making choices. It is about separating and confronting and going beyond your piece in order to build in that relevance jewelry needs as it gets exposed to the public.

Criticality helps you close the distance between the jewelry you create and the person it has been created for.

Criticality aids you in revealing the implications and consequences of all your choices. About materials. About techniques. About colors and patterns and textures and forms. Each form of jewelry requires endless and constant adjustments, and you should be very critically aware of what, why and how.

Criticality is necessary for you to continue to grow and develop as a professional jewelry designer.

Criticality is not a put-down of the artist. Rather it is a way of reflecting, evaluating and being very metacognitive of all the choices made in design and construction, and a lot of what-if envisioning and analysis of possible alternative choices. It is an exploratory thing. It adds understanding and comprehension.

Criticality assists in creating a dialog between artist and all the various audiences with whom the artist interacts. Towards that end, it is helpful to actively bring others into that criticality discussion, where we now have the prospects of many voices merging into a form. It can be difficult to be objective about your own work. And you may not be aware of how the quality of your work stacks up with others, and where it needs to be.

Legitimacy

Your legitimacy as a jewelry designer, your reputation, your visibility, your opportunities, to some degree, flow from this process of criticality. Legitimacy comes from both local and more general validation. Validation results from these processes of critical observation and analysis of your work and of how you conduct yourself within your practice.

Your various audiences that view your work critically, in turn, bring your work in contact with the external world. They look for a high level of coherence within the design and its execution. They describe it critically as to its qualifications for matching desire, establishing appeal, having personal or general value and meaning. For successful jewelry designers, this contagion continues, diffuses, and grows.

Legitimacy engenders a deeper level of confidence among artist, wearer and viewer. The relationships are stimulated, enriched, given more and more value. Jewelry is more than a simple object; it is a catalyst for interaction, for relationships, for engagement, for emotion. Legitimacy results in trust and validation.

With globalization and rapid technological changes, the jewelry designer is confronted with additional burdens, making the effort to achieve legitimacy ever more difficult. That is because these larger forces bring about more and more standardization of jewelry. They rapidly bring fashions and styles to the fore, only to scrap them, in the seemingly blink of an eye, for the next hot thing. They channel images of jewelry pieces around and around the world taking on a sameness, and lowering people’s expectations to what jewelry could be about.

If the products around the world are essentially the same, then the only thing the customer will care about is price. They won’t care who made it. They won’t care about quality.

Innovation begins to disappear. With its disappearance, the role of the jewelry designer diminishes. The jewelry designer becomes more a technician with no professional identity or concerns. The jewelry simply becomes the sum of its parts — the market value of the beads, metals and other components. There are few, if any, pathways to legitimacy.

That’s not what we want. And that makes it ever more important that jewelry designers see themselves as professionals, and develop their disciplinary literacy — fluency, flexibility and originality in design. Aspects of design which cannot be globalized. Or standardized. Or accomplished without the work, knowledge, skills, understandings and insights of a professional jewelry designer.

(7) Finding Balance — Self Care

Making jewelry and living a creative life can wear and tear on both your physical, as well as mental, health. It’s important that you have a plan of self-care and balance that you have thought about and structured ahead of time.

Take breaks. Play. Experiment. Take walks. Don’t isolate yourself. Develop a support system.

Exercise. Take good care of your hands, finger nails, wrists, arms, neck, back and eyes. If you need to read with glasses, then you need to make jewelry with glasses. There are lots of different tools specific to different situations — use them all. Elastic wrist bands, thumb-support gloves, elbow bands do great to preserve your fingers, wrists and elbows. There are lots of ergonomic tools and chairs and lighting. With a lot of metalsmithing and lampworking, you’ll need goggles, perhaps special lenses to filter out the glare of torch flames. Make these your friends.

There will be creative aspects to what you do, and administrative aspects to what you do. Find some balance between your right brain and your left brain.

Spend a lot of time feeding your creative well with ideas, inspirations, motivations and a deep appreciation for what artists do well.

Take some time to explore new materials, techniques and technologies.

There will be slow times and seasonal ups and downs. Plan ahead of time how you will occupy yourself during slow periods.

There will be times you will have designer’s block. You will be stuck, usually difficulty getting started, or if your piece is getting developed over a long period of time, some difficulty staying motivated. Develop strategies you can refer to on how to stay motivated, and on how to stop yourself from sabotaging your progress. It is important to know what you can and cannot control.

Train yourself with a mindset for rejection. Not everyone will like what you do. Not everyone will want to wear or buy the pieces you’ve invested your heart and soul in. That’s not your problem. It’s their problem. Don’t make it yours.

Get involved with your profession.

Finding A Job Which Utilizes Your Jewelry Making Experience

There are actually many career pathways for people who have backgrounds in jewelry making and bead working. Besides the obvious pathways of making jewelry to sell, or teaching jewelry making, there are still many job and career opportunities for you.

You may have to do a little more leg work, and a little more tree-shaking. Don’t assume, however, when the linear pathway is blocked, that all pathways are blocked. They are not.

Some types of jobs/careers which might use your talents….

There are a lot of private companies, nonprofit agencies, government agencies, and foundations and philanthropic agencies that work with disadvantaged groups, and need people to provide technical assistance to these groups. These groups might be inner city. They might be rural. They might be overseas.

Very often, projects these businesses and organizations work on have a craft-angle to them. They may need people to teach crafts, to teach people to transfer their craft skills into marketable skills, or to assist people in applying for loans to start up businesses, usually small loans and usually things associated with selling crafts.

Banks have found it profitable to make “micro-loans”. These loans are very small amounts, and usually given to women in developing countries, to help them leverage their skills — often craft skills — to make a business out of them. Banks need personnel to
— develop loan forms, documentation and procedures
— find opportunities for making these loans
— working with people to teach them how to apply for these loans
— working with people to teach them how to be more accountable with loan moneys
— working with people to teach them how to translate their craft skills into marketable skills (called transfer of technology). Often this means helping them find resources to get materials, make choices about materials and what would be most cost-effective, and how to market their products
— working with people to find markets for, and otherwise promote, their products
— helping people form cooperatives so that they can buy materials more cheaply, and sell and market their products cooperatively

Government and International Agencies need people to….
— determine where — what communities, what demographics — they can most likely leverage local talents to better people’s lives. Crafts, particularly beading, provide very useful talents around which to leverage
— evaluate local technologies — and these include all craft technologies — in terms of readiness and/or capability for cost-effective technology transfer
— do some community organizing to make local people aware of governmental assistance (or other assistance), and to help them complete applications for this assistance
— evaluate these kinds of programs to determine success, and make recommendations about how to increase these successes
— document craft technologies, particularly among native, tribal, or isolated groups that are in danger of becoming extinct
— similarly, to create ways to preserve craft technologies which are in danger of becoming extinct, or which became extinct a long time ago, and which be restored. A good example is how South Korea restored the art of celadon pottery making, or China’s work at preserving Yixing Tea Pot making.

Military Agencies do similar things as governmental ones, except from a slightly different perspective. They want to know, in an anthropological sense, how people value different local technologies — including craft technologies –, and which ones can military and related civilian advisors assist the locals with, to improve their economy and security.

Philanthropic Foundations have many missions. One mission is to improve and secure the health, welfare, and social economy of particular areas or population groups. Crafts are one way of accomplishing this, particularly if working with disadvantaged populations or areas.

Crafts are things people do all the time, that are attractive as products (and services if you are teaching), improve the quality of life, and form the roots of good businesses — especially start-ups.

Another mission of Philanthropic organizations is to pre-test different strategies for social and economic development. Again crafts, and beads especially, can form the basis of many strategies for business development, empowerment of minorities and women, assistance for the elderly, technology transfer, and the like.

Philanthropic organizations need people who can…
— develop grants, rules and applications
— find community organizations to apply for these grants
— evaluate the success of grants
— work with academics and consultant experts to generate experimental ideas to be tested through grants
— work with local, state and national government agencies to find cost-sharing ways of testing out these “ideas”
— in similar way, find and negotiate public-private partnerships towards this end

Information technology and website development companies, with Google a prime example, are in the business of translating reality into tables of data that can easily be accessed and assessed. These types of companies need people who can
— translate craft terms and activities into categories for which data can be consistently collected, organized, stored and analyzed
— work with museums and galleries which buy, own, exhibit, store or display crafts, to develop ways to collect and categorize routine data on these collections and their importance to different types of people and groups
— sell the use of these craft-specific databases to companies or individuals that will use them
— work with craft magazines, museums, schools, galleries and the like to help standardize some of the terminologies and valuations associated with various crafts, to make it easier to collect and sort data about them
— assist craft artists in development of websites
— assist craft artists in marketing their websites, especially through social media sites
— develop blogs
— develop advertising and marketing materials
— develop packaging and branding materials
— digitize images of craft items

Museums, Galleries and Libraries employ craft artists to…
— catalog and digitize collections
— document quality of items
— restore aged or otherwise damaged pieces
— write brochures and promotional materials
— organize exhibits
— raise funds for exhibits
— advocate for funds among government agencies and philanthropic groups
— organize a “crafts” section where none has existed before
— promote fine crafts
— organize a craft show to raise money and/or awareness

Many museums, galleries and libraries have tons of things in storage that have only loosely been documented, and need much more documentation and organization.

Non-Profit Groups employ all kinds of people with all kinds of backgrounds. They always need help with many fund-raising or program-targeting things. Your craft knowledge can play a very useful role here.

For example, take your local breast cancer society. Think of all the kinds of craft-type things you can make, and for which they can sell, to raise money. You could organize a craft brain trust among your friends, and turn out item after item with breast cancer awareness themes and colors. Or you could scour the internet for breast cancer awareness craft items, and make them work for you. And you could repeat this success for many other local nonprofit groups.

One of my friends went to the Atlanta Gift Show, and identified vendors that had products that could easily be adapted for breast cancer awareness. She worked out with each one what the minimum orders would be, how much lead time would be needed between placing an order and receiving the merchandise, and price. Then she went to local breast cancer groups and presented them with the options. She added 15% to the prices as her commission. These organizations fund raise all the time, and are in major need of new things to sell and promote. My friend had to lay out very little money — basically the cost of a trip to Atlanta, some phone calls and paperwork — and generated a very lucrative business for herself.

I remember spending some time in Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital in New York City. This hospital specializes in cancer treatment. I was observing patient activities. One of these activities involved volunteers pushing a cart around with various craft activities for patients to do.

Most of the patients in the rooms in the Ward I was on could barely move their bodies, arms and hands. They were very medicated, and had many needles and IV’s stuck into them during their stay. All the craft projects on these carts required considerable manual dexterity — knitting, beading with seed beads, crocheting. The volunteers would cheerily come into the room, announce themselves, and ask if the patient wanted any of these fun crafts to do. The patients would shake their heads No, and grunt. The patients could barely move. And the volunteers left the room, unconcerned.

I took a trip to FAO Schwartz — the toy store — and came back with sets of interlocking building blocks. The blocks were made from different colors of plastic. They were different shapes. A patient could easily hold one or two pieces in their hands without requiring much manual dexterity. The pieces fit together easily by interlocking two pieces, where a slot had been cut out in each. These were a big hit on the Ward. They allowed creativity, without much manual dexterity. The pieces were large enough, that the patient could manipulate them with their hands, and not worry about losing any, if they dropped to the floor.

In hospitals and health care settings, I’ve helped create programs to assist occupational therapists with improving manual dexterity with the elderly, therapists with improving attention spans with children, conducting memory agility tests with patients, and many more programs, utilizing crafts materials and technics.

There are plenty of social and community problems to solve, many different kinds of businesses and organizations responsible for solving these problems, and many solutions which require crafts — materials or technologies which are workable, do-able, saleable, and implementable. There most likely won’t be advertised positions for these kinds of things. But you would be surprised how easy it can be to create your own job opportunities and ones which utilize your craft experiences and knowledge.

When Approaching These Potential Employers and Consultants, Be Sure To…

1. Be able to clearly define how your craft knowledge/experience can help your prospective employer solve some of her/his (NOT YOUR) problematic situations.

2. Research prospective employers, their websites and marketing materials. Identify the key words and buzz words in their materials. Be sure to include these in your written and oral presentations to them.

3. Approach the prospective employer by phone or in person first. Then follow-up with a resume and cover letter. Don’t assume that, because you can make the intellectual link between job and solution, that the employer will see this link when reading a resume. You’ll probably have to educate the employer a bit. This really doesn’t take much effort.

4. Cite examples of what kinds of things you can do. If you can identify other programs or individuals with success stories, do so.

5. If you make your “job search” also a “mission to educate people about crafts”, you’ll be surprised how much energy and excitement you bring to the job interview situation.

_______________________________________

FOOTNOTES

(1) Horejs, Jason. “5 Strategies Successful Artists Follow to Thrive in Their Careers,” RedDotBlog, 2/21/19.

As referenced,
https://reddotblog.com/5-strategies-successful-artists-follow-to-thrive-in-their-careers/

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

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So You Want To Be A Jewelry Designer… Getting Started / Developing Your Passion

Posted by learntobead on April 20, 2020

GETTING STARTED:
DEVELOPING YOUR PASSION

Abstract: While you may be passionate about making jewelry, you are not born with the knowledge, skill and understandings necessary for jewelry design. These must be learned and developed over time. It is through this process of investment in self that the designer’s passions emerge and expand. It is important to know the kinds of things you need to learn, and how you need to guide your education.

GETTING STARTED:
DEVELOPING YOUR PASSION
Passions Aren’t Found, They Are Developed!

Design is about knowledge, skill and understanding. Knowledge requires time and preciseness. Skill requires care and attention. Understanding requires empathy and insight.

You are not born with the knowledge, skill and understandings necessary for jewelry design. These must be learned and developed over time. Anyone and everyone can learn these. Everyone has a creative capacity within them. There are many different ways to express things creatively. But one has to learn

to express their thoughts and feelings creatively, step by step, developmentally over a period of time. It is through this process of investment in self that the designer’s passions emerge and expand.

It is important not to give up too easily, if designing and making jewelry seems too difficult at first. Difficulty does not equate to a lack of passion. It does not equate to a lack of ability. It does not equate to a lack of creativity. Many things will be difficult, particularly at first.

Nor does any waxing and waning of motivation imply that jewelry design is not for you. It’s natural that jewelry design does not provide an endless, infinite, always-there motivation. This does not mean you have lost your passion for it.

Passions must be cultivated. As do technical abilities and creative thinking. These all must be developed.

HOW DO YOU LEARN?

Many people who begin to bead and make jewelry want to rush to the finish line. They want to learn everything at once. They buy beads and parts indiscriminately. They try to use stringing and other materials insufficient to meet their design goals. They fail to anticipate how to finish off the clasp assembly. Their choices of colors often less than appealing. They don’t have the right tools. They purchase every book they can find. They take classes and view video tutorials on anything that interests them or catches their eye, no matter what the skill levels involved. They want to create those perfect, elaborate pieces Now. Not later. Now.

Beading and jewelry making are not things to rush into, however. These are not things to learn haphazardly. Not everything is something you can easily pick up without having someone else show you.

This is a hobby and avocation that requires you to know a lot of things. You need to know a lot about materials. You need to know a lot about quality issues underlying these materials, and what happens to these materials over time. You need to be mechanical and comfortable using tools to construct things. You need to learn many basic techniques. You need to understand physical mechanics and what happens to all these materials and pieces, when jewelry is worn. You need to be familiar with art theories and design theories and their applications. You must be aware of some architectural basics and physical mechanics which inform you how things keep their shape and how things move, drape and flow. You need to understand people, their psychology, the dynamics of the groups they find themselves in, and their cultural rules which get them through the day.

There is so much to learn, that you can’t learn it all at once. And there is so much to bring to bear, when making a piece of jewelry, that it is difficult to access all this information, if you haven’t learned how everything is interrelated and interdependent.

It’s important to learn in an organized, developmental way. You want to be always asking how things are interrelated. What depends on what? You want to pose what-if questions so that you can train yourself to anticipate the implications and consequences of making one choice over another. What happens If? What happens When? What enhances? What impedes? Why synergizes? What can be leveraged, and toward what objective? You want to reflect on your outcomes.

Towards this end, you learn a core set of integrated and inter-dependent skills. Then learn another set of integrated and inter-dependent skills, perhaps at a slightly higher skill level, and how these link back to the core. Then learn yet another set of skills, again, increasing the skill level, how they link back to the first set, and then link back to the core. And so forth. Only in this way will you begin to know if you are learning the right way, and learning the right things.

There Are Many Ways To Learn

People apply different learning styles, when developing their beading and jewelry-making knowledge, skills and understandings. Each has pros and cons. Different people come to learn with different strategies or combinations of strategies. These learning styles and strategies include:

(1) Rote Memory

(2) Analogously

(3) Contradictions

(4) Assimilation

(5) Constructing Meanings

Most people learn by Rote Memory. They follow a set of steps, and they end up with something. They memorize all the steps. In this approach, all the choices have been made for them. So they never get a chance to learn the implications of their choices. Why one bead over another? Why one stringing material over another? How would you use the same technique in a different situation? You pick up a lot of techniques, but not necessarily many skills.

Other people learn Analogously. They have experiences with other crafts, such as sewing or knitting or other craft, and they draw analogies. Such and Such is similar to Whatnot, so I do Whatnot the same way I do Such and Such. This can work to a point. However, beading and jewelry making can often be much more involved, requiring making many more types of choices, than in other crafts. And there are still the issues of understanding the quality of the pieces you use, and what happens to them, both when jewelry is worn, as well as when jewelry is worn over time.

Yet another way people learn is through Contradictions. They see cheap jewelry and expensive jewelry, and analyze the differences. They see jewelry people are happy with, and jewelry people are not happy with, and analyze the differences. They see fashion jewelry looked down upon by artists, and art jewelry looked down upon by fashionistas, and they analyze the differences.

Assimilation is a learning approach that combines Analogous Learning and Learning Through Contradictions. People pursue more than one craft, keeping one foot in one arena, and another foot in the other. They teach themselves by analogy and contradiction. This assumes that multiple media and multiple techniques mix, and mix easily. Often, however, this is not true. Philosophies of design and technique differ. That means, the thinking about how a media and technique assert needs for shape and drape will have a different basis, not necessarily compatible. Usually one medium (or technique) has to predominate for any one project to be successful. So assimilative learning can lead to confusion and poor products, trying to meet the special concerns and structures of each craft simultaneously. It is challenging to mix media and/or techniques. Often the fundamentals of each particular craft need to be learned and understood in and of themselves.

The last approach to learning a craft is called Constructing Meanings. In this approach, you learn groups of things, and how to apply an active or thematic label to that grouping. For example, you might learn about beading threads, such as Nymo, C-Lon and FireLine, and, at the same time, learn to evaluate each one’s strengths and weaknesses in terms of Managing Thread Tension or allowing movement, drape and flow. You might learn about crystal beads, Czech glass beads, and lampwork beads, and then, again concurrently and in comparison, learn the pros and cons of each, in terms of achieving good color blending strategies. You might learn peyote stitch and Ndebele stitch, and how to combine them within the same project.

In reality, you learn a little in each of these different learning styles and strategies. The Constructing Meanings approach, what is often referred to as the Art & Design Tradition, usually is associated with more successful and satisfying learning. This approach provides you with the tools for making sense of a whole lot of information — all the information you need to bring to bear to make a successful piece of jewelry, one that is both aesthetically pleasing and optimally functioning.

The Types of Things You Need To Learn

There is so much to know, and so many types of choices to make. Which clasp? Which stringing material? Which technique? Which beads? Which strategy of construction? What aesthetic you want to achieve? How you want to achieve it? Drape, movement, context, durability.

Lots to know. One mistake most people make is that they learn everything randomly. Some things on their own. Some from books. Some from friends. In no special order. Without any plan.

And because there are so many things that you need to bring to bear, when creating a piece of jewelry, that it is difficult to see how everything links up. How everything is inter-related and mutually dependent. And how to make the best, most strategic and most satisfying series of inter-related choices.

And this is the essence of this series of articles — a way to learn all the kinds of things you need to bring to bear, in order to create a wonderful and functional piece of jewelry. When you are just beginning your beading or jewelry making avocation, or have been beading and making jewelry awhile — time spent with the material in these segments will be very useful. You’ll learn the critical skills and ideas. You’ll learn how these inter-relate and are mutually inter-dependent. And you’ll learn how to make better choices — fluent, flexible and original.

Progress in our education program is conceptualized in this Learning Rubric we use, and might provide you with a way to steer your learning process:

On My Own, Through Books and Video Tutorials, Or Through Classes?

I always tell people it is easier to start by having someone show you what to do, either with a friend, or in a class, than trying to teach yourself out of a book or video tutorial. Books and videos are good at teaching you basic mechanics. But they are poor in teaching you the artistry and design skills you will need as a jewelry artist and designer. After working with a person, then go back to the books and online tutorials. You’ll get more out of them this way.

Particularly important to learn, and what you pick up best from another human being, include:

– how to hold the piece while working it
— how to manage when you need to have firmer tension, and when you need to relax your tension, as you hold the piece
— what about the technique allows your project to maintain its shape, and what about the technique allows your project to move, drape and flow
— how to attach a clasp assembly or otherwise finish off your project
— what materials are most suited to the project, and which are not
— whether this, or another technique, is best suited to the project goals
— how to prepare your materials, if necessary, before you use them
— which tools you should be using, and how to hold them and use them
— how to size things
— how to read instructions, diagrams, and figures

Try to learn things in a developmental order. Start with beginner projects, graduate to advanced beginner and intermediate, then finally, to advanced. Take your time. Don’t rush to the finish line. You will learn more and be a better designer for it.

Reading Patterns and Instructions

Infuriating! That’s how many people, beginners and advanced alike, feel when they try to understand patterns and instructions.

Know up-front that most diagrams and figures are poorly drawn, and most instructions are poorly written. The instructors who write these often leave out critical steps — especially for new beaders and jewelry makers who are unfamiliar with many of the things these instructors assume that you know. Most often, they leave out critical information showing you the pathway, and how to negotiate that pathway, from where you are to where you are going next. It’s obvious to the instructor. But not so obvious to you.

In patterns, this “where-am-I, where-am-I-going-next” information is frequently unclear or omitted. You did Step 1 OK. You understand what Step 2 is about. But you don’t know how to get from Step 1 to Step 2. Othertimes, the patterns are overly complex, often, in the editorial interest of reducing the number of printed pages. Instead of showing a separate pattern or diagram for each step, the editors frequently try to show you three, four, five or more steps in the same diagram. So you have a bird’s nest of lines, and a spider-web’s road map — and you’re nowhere.

I tell people, that you need to re-write the instructions and re-draw the patterns or diagrams in a way you personally understand. This is very helpful.

Self Esteem — Making Choices

Crafts enhance people’s self esteem. This is good.

You make a piece of jewelry. People like it, and express this to you.

However, sometimes people let the craft substitute for their personal identities. Friends and family praise the jewelry, thus praise the jewelry maker. It’s nice to have your ego stroked. But you need to remember that there is more to you than the pieces you have made.

And you don’t want to put yourself into a tightly bounded box, where you shy away from risks. You don’t want to find yourself making the same piece over and over again, afraid to try something else, should someone not like it. You also don’t want to find yourself making kit after kit after kit, without any personalizing of someone else’s creativity, or better yet, without venturing off to create your own patterns and ideas.

The primary source of “self-esteem” should come from within you. Not external to you. When someone says they don’t like your design, or they don’t like your choice of colors, they are not saying they don’t like you. They like you, or they wouldn’t express an honest opinion about your work.

The true Artist and Designer come from this inner place. They are able to bring their integral sense of self-esteem, a part of their very being, to the fore, when designing and constructing a piece of jewelry as art.

Their choices are informed by a sense of self. And that sense of self is self-validated within each piece of jewelry they create. No matter what anyone else thinks — good, bad or indifferent.

Selling vs. Keeping

It is so difficult to part with pieces you have made. There is a natural attraction. You have poured time, money, and effort towards completing them. You put off other things you could have done, in order to finish them.

I remember submitting an entry to a Swarovski Create Your Own Style contest. First, all I had to send was a picture and a write-up. This was exciting — the anticipation of winning, connecting on some level to Swarovski — like connecting to a celebrity.

And I waited and waited to hear from them. And I did. One day an email popped up on my computer, indicating that I had made the semi-finals. The next step was to send in the actual piece.

My initial elation soon deteriorated into a type of grief. I had spent over 150 hours and over $1500.00 creating this piece. I did not want to let it go. Once sent, Swarovski kept them. I knew I wouldn’t get it back.

Although I could have wrapped and packaged my piece in a part of a day, it took me a week. I’d wrap and unwrap. Put it in one display box, then decide that wasn’t good enough. Another display box, and didn’t like how it sat in the box. Some reconfiguring the positioning, and then I had to close the box. Wanted to see it one more time, then closed the lid again.

I put the display box into the shipping box, but couldn’t seal it up. I left the shipping box open and sitting on a table in my studio. Had to see the piece several more times.

Then, I didn’t like the way the display box sat in the shipping box. Changed shipping boxes. Tried setting the display box several different ways.

Finally closed the shipping box. Labeled it clearly. Ran the shipping on UPS. Felt I needed more documentation and insurance, should the box get lost.

Took a deep breath. Drove the box to the UPS office. Dropped it off.

And felt like I had lost my best friend. I was scared. Empty. Totally disconnected from the excitement of getting selected as a semi-finalist by Swarovski.

Finding Compatriots

While you bead and make jewelry alone a good part of the time, it’s no fun to always bead and make jewelry alone. It’s good to become part of a support network — even build your own.

Some people form informal beading groups and hold meetings once or twice a week at their homes. Others join more formal local bead societies and clubs and collaborations. People take classes and workshops. They find like-minded people in social networks and forums and message groups online, and share images and stories with them.

You will also find compatriots by attending bead and jewelry shows. Some are local. Some are geared to a national audience, like a convention.

There are national societies and guilds for jewelry and beading, which you can join. You can find these listed online.

You learn a lot from compatriots. Everyone does things just a little differently. Everyone’s interests take you places you never thought of before.

_____________________

FOOTNOTES

(1) Olga Khazan, Find Your Passion’ Is Awful Advice, The Atlantic, 7/12/18
As referenced in:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/07/find-your-passion-is-terrible-advice/564932/ 7/12/18

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft video tutorials online.

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Posted in Stitch 'n Bitch | Tagged: craft, creativity, jewelry design, learning, Passion | Leave a Comment »

So You Want To Become a Jewelry Designer… Getting Started / Channeling Your Excitement

Posted by learntobead on April 20, 2020

GETTING STARTED:
CHANNELING YOUR EXCITEMENT

Abstract: Why are you, or why do you, want to become, a jewelry artist? What drives you? How do you channel your excitement? Is it something to do with what type of person you are? How you view the world? How you want to fill your time? It turns out there are many types of people who become jewelry designers. Although they may have different aspirations and ambitions underlying their excitement about jewelry design, they find common ground and a common way of thinking about making and designing jewelry. But because jewelry design has not yet become a full-fledged, recognizable discipline all its own, it sometimes becomes difficult to get clarity on how to channel your excitement into an avocation or career. Your support group is often made up of a polyglot of crafters and artists, some who do not fully understand jewelry making and design. Advice can be diffuse. Clients have difficulty evaluating the value of your work, frequently expressing misunderstandings about what is good. This can lead to self-doubt, which better designers learn to manage and overcome.

GETTING STARTED:
CHANNELING YOUR EXCITEMENT
What drives you to pursue your passion for jewelry?

“Why Are You A Jewelry Artist?”

As if you had a choice…

It often is difficult for others to understand why you consider yourself a jewelry artist. How did this come to be? How did you get started? Were you always artistic? Is your family crafty? How did you learn these things? Why jewelry? Why do you get so excited about all this? Do you want to make a living out of it? Can you really sell things?

They don’t really feel these things like you do. They don’t feel this pulsing heart, this urge to create, and this passion to make jewelry. When you get started making jewelry, it’s hard to stop. It becomes ingrained in you. What may have begun as a hobby evolves into something you cannot live without. Applying your creative self becomes habit, almost addicting, often relaxing and self-affirming … and painful to do without.

As a jewelry artist, you have a purpose in life. It is something you do because you must do it. It is what helps you function in life. You make new amazing pieces, share these, and make some more new amazing pieces. You have those little conversations with yourself about the various choices you are making, when designing a piece of jewelry, and this can be therapeutic, informative, reaffirming. And, you are ever in search of developing those insightful, smart strategies for merging voice with form, aesthetics with function, your intent with the desires of others.

Jewelry designers are extraordinarily blessed to do what they love for a living. For many, they have turned a hobby into an avocation into a lifestyle.

But it’s not like a regular job. There are many intangibles. Such as, what exactly is creativity, and how do you apply it? What are all the things which have to come together to recognize that creative spark when it hits you in your heart, gut or head, and how to translate that into something real, with beauty, with function, and with purpose? How do you mesh your view of aesthetics and functionality with those of your many audiences — wearer, viewer, buyer, seller, exhibiter, collector, teacher and student?

What exactly does it mean to design jewelry, and how do you know it is the right path for you? This is a tough question. You may love jewelry, but not know how to make it. You may get off on creative problem solving or be a color addict but not know what specific techniques and skills you need to learn, in what organized way, with what direction, leading you towards becoming that better jewelry designer. You may feel the motivation, but not know what the jewelry designer really has to do each day.

You may be taking classes and getting some training, but how do you know when you have arrived? How do you know when you have emerged as a successful professional jewelry designer? How do you know you have mastered the necessary disciplinary literacy — fluency, flexibility, originality? And what are your responsibilities and obligations, once you get there?

Surviving and thriving as a jewelry designer requires an understanding of the way things work and how you will fit into all this — making, presenting, selling, reflecting and critiquing.

Not Just One Type Of Person

There is not just one type of person who becomes a jewelry designer. There are many, many types of people who find jewelry design a common passion. They may have different ambitions. They may prefer to use different techniques and materials. They may have different levels of financial success. They may have different compulsions for creating jewelry. But the excitement is there for each of them.

We can differentiate people who become jewelry designers by their aspirations (1 Neuendorf, 2016) — why they became jewelry designers. Some jewelry designers fit one type of aspiration; others, more than one. But the contour of their lives brings them to similar places within jewelry and its design.

There are 5 basic types of Creatives:
o Social Interactants
o Compulsive Creators
o Lifestyle of Freedom Seekers
o Financial Success Achievers
o Happenstance and Chance

Social Interactants

This type of Creative often seeks out other creatives and forms a social network. Social Interactants may be makers. They may be sellers or exhibiters or collectors. But their excitement comes, in part, by looking for ways to interact and meet and share close-knit social ties. Part of the reason is to learn new ideas. Another part is to get feedback and critique. The social group and network will offer support, advice, career and business opportunities and direction. These are people you can lean on when times get tough. There might even be some shared glamour and celebrity, depending on the artists and their group.

Social Interactants typically seek recognition for their efforts and their works. The success of any piece of jewelry depends on the judgements of the various audiences which interact with it. Social interactants allocate a good deal of their time anticipating how others will understand and react to any piece of jewelry. They spend time seeking out opportunities to display their works publicly.

Compulsive Creators

There is this innate, compulsive, don’t-fight-it desire that some jewelry designers have for creating jewelry. This is the Compulsive Creator. Applying creative thinking is at the core of their excitement. Composing, constructing and manipulating design elements is intrinsically rewarding. There is a strong, profound commitment to jewelry design, and this directed energy is often associated with productivity and success.

Compulsive Creators love what they do. It allows them to think creatively. They allocate a lot of their time towards achieving a high level of quality and sophistication.

Lifestyle of Freedom Seekers

These Freedom Seeker designers like to set their own pace, establish their own routines, work when the spirit moves them. A regular 9 to 5 job is not for them. They like to make their own rules and be self-directed. Any financial insecurity and uncertainty that comes with this is worth the price to pay for a lifestyle of freedom.

Excitement equals freedom and the strategies for incorporating whatever comes. These designers believe that this freedom allows them to experience the world around them in a greater depth and to a greater degree. In turn, they have more understandings for how to find and then turn inspirations into finished jewelry designs.

Financial Success Achievers

Financially Successful jewelry designers can do quite well for themselves, but it takes a lot of drive, organization and business and marketing sense. Jewelry design can be a lucrative career with such determination, gaining visibility, and a little bit of being in the right place at the right time. Accumulating money or wealth is a big part of the excitement.

Some designers seek to make jewelry design a self-supporting career. However, many designers primarily look for money to supplement their income or retirement. Some look to make enough money to pay for their supplies.

Sometimes, designers make jewelry to seek wealth, rather than income. They accumulate many pieces of jewelry and many unusual supplies and components to achieve wealth as success.

Financial Success Achievers typically try to create a business around their jewelry.

Happenstance and Chance

Not everyone who becomes a jewelry designer aspired to be one. Sometimes people fall into it. They need a piece of jewelry to match an outfit and decide to make something themselves, then get hooked. They watch someone make jewelry, then get intrigued. They try to repair a broken piece of jewelry by themselves. They accompany a friend to a jewelry making class, then want to try it out. Their excitement evolves over time.

A Myriad of Aspirations and Ambitions

Aspirations and ambitions vary. There is no best way or right way. It becomes a matter of the designer finding that balance of design, self, and other-life which works for them, and drives their passion.

Jewelry designers are motivated to become designers for many different reasons. But motivations are only a start at channeling one’s excitement. These make up only a small part of what it truly takes to be a successful designer. Designers need to develop skills and techniques, creative thinking, design process management, and disciplinary literacy, to continue on their pathway to success.

BECOMING THE BEAD ARTIST AND JEWELRY DESIGNER:
Your Getting Started Story

When did you first realize you had a passion for designing jewelry?

[While you are thinking about this, now is a good time to get out your pen and paper and jot down some thoughts.]

Everyone has a “Getting Started” story. This is a story you tell over and over again. In it, you express your wonderment and passion. You talk about your excitement, and how you decided to channel it. You go over the steps you went through to discover what it is that drives you to create. You recall who influenced you, when and why. You remember different pathways and crossroads, where you decided to pursue your interests in one direction or another. You reflect on your expectations before you got started, and how these evolved or changed as you began to make and design jewelry.

Sometimes your story begins by touching some beads. Or running a strand of pearls through your hand. Or the sight of something perfectly worn around the wrist, upon the breast, or up near the neck. Othertimes, it may begin by taking a class, or deciding to make a special pair of earrings to match a particular outfit. Or thinking you want to make a piece of jewelry you saw someone wearing on TV or in a photospread in some magazine.

Your Getting Started story is a measure of what you have discovered, and what you need to discover still. It is a foil against which to measure your successes, and some not-so-successful things. It represents your insight and foresight when making both personal development and jewelry design choices.

And, it is very important to be cognizant and aware of how your Getting Started story follows you throughout your career in your marketing and exhibiting. It is part of your business name, your brochures, your advertising. It is part of your description, your elevator pitch, your tag line. It underlies how you talk about yourself and your jewelry. It becomes one of the major ways other people get to know you, get interested in you, and want to wear or display things made by you. You will always need to have a Getting Started story, and you will always come to rely on this story to further your literacy development in design, as well as your creative and business ambitions.

Better designers are very metacognitive of what they do. That is, they are very aware of all the choices they’ve made, and their implications and consequences. This means reflection. It means evaluation. It means critiquing.

Writing your Getting Started story is a necessary, early first step towards developing your metacognitive abilities as a designer.

Doubt / Self-doubt

For the novice, all that excitement at the beginning, when thinking about making jewelry and making some pieces, sometimes collides with a wall of developing self-doubt. It’s not easy to quiet a doubt.

The jewelry artist organizes their life around an inspiration. There is some fuzziness here. That inspiration has some elements of ideas, but not necessarily crystal clear ones. That inspiration has some elements of emotions — it makes you feel something — but not necessarily something you can put into words or images or fully explain. You then need to translate this fuzzy inspiration into materials, into techniques, into color, into arrangements, into a coherent whole.

You start to make something, but realize you don’t know how to do it. But you want to do it, and do it now. However, to pick up the needed skills, you realize you can’t learn things all at once. You can’t do everything you want to do all at once. That initial excitement often hits a wall. Things take time to learn. There are a lot of trial and error moments, with a lot of errors. Pieces break. Combining colors and other design elements feels very awkward. Silhouettes are confusing. You might get the right shape for your piece, but it is difficult to get the right movement, drape and flow, without compromising that shape.

To add to this stress and strain, you need to show your jewelry off. You might want someone to like it. To want it. To need it. To buy it. To wear it. To wear it more than once. To wear it often. To exhibit it. To collect it. And how will all these other people recognize your creative spark, and your abilities to translate that spark into a wonderful, beautiful, functional piece of jewelry, appropriate for the wearer and appropriate for the situation?

Frequently, because of all this, the artist experiences some sense of doubt and self-doubt. Some paralysis. Can’t get started. Can’t finish something. Wondering why they became a jewelry designer in the first place.

Doubt holds you back from seizing your opportunities.

It makes getting started or finishing things harder than they need to be.

It adds uncertainty.

It makes you question yourself.

It blocks your excitement, perhaps diminishing it.

While sometimes doubt and self-doubt can be useful in forcing you to think about and question your choices, it mostly holds you back.

Having doubt and self-doubt is common among all artistic types. What becomes important is how to manage and overcome it, hence, my idea of Channeling Your Excitement, so that doubts do not get in the way of your creative process and disciplinary development.

There are 8 major ways in which jewelry artists get caught beginning to fall into that abyss we call self-doubt:

1) What If I’m Not Creative Enough or Original Enough or Cannot Learn or Master or Don’t Know a Particular Technique?

2) What If No One Likes What I Make?

3) What If No One Takes Me Seriously As An Artist And Designer?

4) I Overthink Things and Am A Bit of a Perfectionist.

5) How Can I Stay Inspired?

6) Won’t People Steal My Work?

7) Being Over Confident or Under Confident

8) Role Confusion

1.What If I’m Not Creative Enough or Original Enough or Cannot Learn or Master or Don’t Know a Particular Technique?

Everyone has some creativity baked into their being. It is a matter of developing your way of thinking and doing so that you can apply it. This takes time.

So does originality. At first, you’ll try different ways of personalizing projects. There are always things you can do to bring some aspects of originality to your pieces. This might be the choice of colors, or using a special clasp, or rearranging some elements in your composition. Again, as with creativity, the ability to be more and more original will evolve over time. It is helpful to think of originality, not necessarily as coming up with something completely new, but rather as differentiation — how you differentiate yourself from other jewelry designers.

For almost everyone, you don’t begin your design career at the height of your levels of creativity and originality. Yes, if you look around you, other people are more creative and original than you or have more skills than you. Don’t let these observations be a barrier to your own development as a jewelry designer. You get there through persistence and hard work. You handle your inner critic. You may not be there, yet — the key word here is yet. But you will be.

2. What If No One Likes What I Make?

We all have fears about how our creativity and originality are going to be evaluated and judged. We project our self-doubts to the doubts we think we see and feel from others. What if no one wants to wear my pieces, or buy my works?

We can’t let these outsider reactions dictate our lives and creative selves. A key part of successful jewelry design is learning how to introduce what we do publicly. At the least, it is the core nature of the things we create that they are to be worn on the body. Jewelry is a very public thing.

Turn negative comments into positive ideas, motivators, insights, explorations. Allow yourself some give and take, some needs to step back awhile, some needs to tweak. Jewelry design and jewelry making are iterative processes. They in no way are linear. Your outcomes and their success are more evolutionary, than guaranteed.

Distressing about what others may think of your work can be very damaging to your self-esteem. It can amplify your worries. Don’t go there.

Don’t become your worst critic.

3. What If No One Takes Me Seriously As An Artist And Designer?

Jewelry design is an occupation in search of a profession. You will find that a lot of people won’t recognize your passion and commitment. They may think anyone can design jewelry. They may think of jewelry making as a craft or some subset of art, not as something unique and important in and of itself. They may wonder how you can make a living at this.

The bottom line: if you don’t take yourself seriously as a jewelry designer, no one else will.

People will take you seriously as they see all the steps you are taking to master your craft and develop yourself as a professional.

4. I Over Think Things And Am A Bit Of A Perfectionist

Some designers let a sense that their work is not as good as imagined get in the way. They never finish anything. They let doubt eat away at them.

Perfectionism is the enemy of the good. It’s great to be meticulous, but emotionally, we get wrecked when anything goes astray, or any little thing is missing, or you don’t have that exact color or part you originally wanted.

Go ahead and plan. Planning is good. It’s insightful. It can be strategic. But also be sure to be adaptable and realistic. Each piece is a stepping stone to something that will come next.

The better jewelry designer develops a Designer’s Toolbox — a collection of fix-it strategies to deal with the unfamiliar or the problematic.

Overthinking can be very detrimental. You can’t keep changing your mind, trying out every option, thinking that somewhere, someplace there exists a better option. Make a choice and get on with it. You can tweak things later.

Yes, attention to detail is important. But so is the value of your time. You do not want to waste too much time on trivial details.

Be aware when you begin over-analyzing things. Stop, take a breath, make a decision, and move on.

5. How Can I Stay Inspired?

Designing a piece of jewelry takes time, sometimes a long time. That initial inspirational spark might feel like it’s a dying ember.

Don’t let that happen.

Translate that inspiration into images, colors, words, sample designs, and surround your work space with these.

Talk about your inspiration in detail with family and friends.

6. Won’t People Steal My Work?

Many jewelry designers fear that if they show their work publicly, people will steal their ideas. So they stop designing.

Yet jewelry design is a very communicative process which requires introducing your work publicly. If you are not doing this, then you are creating simple sculptures, not jewelry.

Yes, other people may copy your work. See this source of doubt as an excuse. It is a self-imposed, but unnecessary, barrier we might impose to prevent us from experiencing that excitement as a jewelry designer. Other people will never be able to copy your design prowess — how you translate inspiration into a finished piece. That is unique and special to you, and why the general public responds positively to you and your work.

7. Over Confidence can blind you to the things you need to be doing and learning, and Under Confidence can hinder your development as a designer.

Too often, we allow under confidence to deter us from the jewelry design and making tasks at hand. We always question our lack of ability and technical prowess for accomplishing the necessary tasks at hand. It is important, however, to believe in yourself. To believe that you can work things out when confronted with unfamiliar or problematic situations. It is important to develop your skills for thinking like a designer. Fluency. Flexibility. Originality. There is a vocabulary to learn. Techniques to learn. Strategies to learn. These develop over time with practice and experience. You need to believe in your abilities to develop as a designer over time.

With over confidence comes a naivete. You close off the wisdom to listen to what others have to say or offer. You stunt your development as an artist. You overlook important factors about materials and techniques to the detriment of your final designs and products. You close yourself off to doubt and self-doubt, which is unfortunate. Doubt and self-doubt are tools for asking questions and questioning things. These help you grow and develop as an artist and designer. These influence your ability to make good, professional choices in your career.

8. Role Confusion

Jewelry artists play many roles and wear different hats. Each has its own set of opportunities, requirements, and pressures that the artist must cope with. It’s a balancing act extraordinaire.

First, people who make jewelry wear different hats: Artist and Designer, Manufacturer, Distributor, Retailer, and Exhibitor.

Second, people who make jewelry have different needs: Artistic Excellence, Recognition, Monetary Gain, or Financial Stability.

Third, the artist needs to please and satisfy themselves, as well as other various clients.

Fourth, the artist constructs pieces which need to function in different settings: Situational, Cultural, Sociological, Psychological.

Last, the artist must negotiate a betwixt and between situation — a rite of passage — as they relinquish control over the piece and its underlying inspirations to the wearer and the viewer, who have their own needs, desires and expectations.

This gets confusing. It affects how you pick materials and supplies. Which techniques you use. What marketing strategies you employ. How you value and price things. And the list goes on.

It is important to be aware (metacognitive) of what role(s) you play when, and why. Given the role, it is important to understand the types of choices you need to make, when constructing a piece of jewelry. It is critical to understand the tradeoffs you will invariably end up making, and their consequences for the aesthetic, emotional and functional success of your pieces.

Some Advice

While doubt and self-doubt can hinder our development as jewelry designers, some degree of these may be helpful, as well.

To develop yourself as a jewelry designer, and to continue to grow and expand in your profession, you must have a balanced amount of both doubt and self-doubt. Uncertainty leads to questioning. A search for knowledge. Some acceptance of trial and error and experimentation. A yearning for more reliable information and feedback.

Jewelry design uses a great deal of emotion as a Way of Knowing. Emotions cloud or distort how we perceive things. They may lead to more doubt and worry and lack of confidence. But they also enhance our excitement when translating inspirations into designs.

· Don’t let your inner doubts spin out of control. Be aware and suppress them.

· Be real with yourself and your abilities.

· Keep a journal. Detail what your doubts are and the things you are doing to overcome them.

· Create a developmental plan for yourself. Identify the knowledge, skills and understandings you want to develop and grow into.

· Remember what happened in the past the last time doubt got in your way. Remember what you did to overcome this doubt. Remember that probably nothing negative actually happened.

· Talk to people. These can be friends, relatives and colleagues. Don’t keep

doubts unto yourself.

· Don’t compare yourself to others. This is a trap. Self-reflect and self-evaluate you on your own terms.

· Worrying about what others think? The truth is that people don’t really care that much about what you do or not do.

· Don’t beat yourself up.

· Get re-inspired. This might mean surrounding yourself with images and photos of things. It might mean a walk in nature. It might me letting someone else’s excitement flow over to you.

· Take breaks.

· See setbacks as temporary.

· Celebrate small steps.

· Keep developing your skills.

· Set goals for yourself.

Surviving As A Jewelry Designer

Designers focus their attention inward, looking, listening, sensing and searching themselves at length, only later to redirect their findings outward, creating jewelry to be displayed publicly or worn by others or sold. Doing this well often requires having several coping strategies.

Designers have to bridge the gap between inspiration and execution. This requires a lot of thought, understanding and skill.

Having both right- (creative) and left- (administrative) brain skills is a good place to be.

Don’t let the craft substitute for your personal identity. It’s always great to get compliments on what you make. This bolsters your self-esteem. But you should have good self-esteem based on who you are as a person, not on the pieces of jewelry you make. Self-esteem should come from within you, not external to you. Related to all this is that you do not want to take negative comments about your work personally. Evaluate and use the feedback objectively.

Take risks. Play. Experiment. Don’t be afraid to try new colors, new arrangements, new techniques, or place yourself in new settings with new people. Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t get stuck in a rut making the same things over and over again. You may find yourself not growing as an artist and as a person.

As best as you can, avoid comparing yourself to others.

Learn to recognize when enough is enough. You can’t be all things to all people for all designs for all situations for all contingencies. You need to set some limits and boundaries for yourself so you don’t get too frustrated or burnt out. You will never have enough parts or enough time or enough creative energy to make everything people ask you to make.

Successful artists are able to define what “success” means to them. They don’t get caught up with what other people might define as “success”.

Successful artists typically dedicate a specific time and place for creating. They develop a routine. They don’t work all hours of the day, or in a disorganized environment.

Create a consistent, coherent body of design work. Encapsulate this in a PORTFOLIO, Artist Resume, and Artist Statement.

Keep some kind of journal documenting your thoughts, design ideas, problems and solutions. This can be something very formal, or something loosely organized.

Usually, if you want to make a living at jewelry design, you’ll need a multi-method, multi-venue approach.

Merging Voice and Inspiration With Form

Jewelry design is an ongoing process of finding how to merge your artistic voice and inspiration with form. As you become more fluent and comfortable with all the vocabulary and materials and techniques, you take on more and more challenges.

Jewelry design is a conversation. It is a quiet conversation between what you come to feel and understand as inspiration, and what logical options you might bring to bear on translating that inspiration into a design. It is a conversation between you the designer and someone else as the wearer. It might also be a conversation between you the maker with someone else as the viewer, buyer, seller, exhibiter or collector.

The conversation is never done. It is a dialog. It is a back-and-forth process of refining, questioning and translating your feelings, impressions, ideas, influences into a visual grammar, forms and arrangements, and content, intent and meanings. Everything comes into play, and everything matters.

Some of the conversation is inward, and some of the conversation is very interactional. Part of the conversation focuses on generating a lot of possibilities. Another part concentrates on narrowing down those possibilities. During all this iteration, your artistic voice gets closer and closer to merging with that final jewelry form.

As your fluency in jewelry design grows, you find that all this conversation and all divergence and convergence of ideas and feelings and choices, gets reflected and sensed within your jewelry designs. This is how you develop and channel your excitement and passion.

This is how your jewelry begins to resonate.

__________________________________________

Footnotes

(1) Henri Neuendorf, A Young Artist’s Brief Guide to Art World
Ambition, Art World, November 18, 2016
As referenced: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/4-motivations-that-make-
artists-successful-752957

(2) Drew Kimble, Five Fears That Can Destroy An Artist, Skinny Artist,
As referenced: https://skinnyartist.com/5-fears-that-can-destroy-an-artist/

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft video tutorials online.

Add your name to my email list.

Posted in Stitch 'n Bitch | Tagged: art theory, craft, Getting Started, jewelry artist, Jewelry Designer | Leave a Comment »

So You Want To Be A Jewelry Designer… 5 Essential Questions Every Jewelry Designer Should Have An…

Posted by learntobead on April 20, 2020

5 Essential Questions Every Jewelry Designer
Should Have An Answer For

Interested in trying your hand at jewelry design?

Before you begin, consider the following 5 questions I pose for you…

Is what you do Art, Craft or Design?
How do you decide what you want to create?
What materials (or techniques) work well together, and which do not?
What things do you do so that your finished piece evokes an emotional response?
How do you know when your piece is done?

Many people begin to explore jewelry designing as a hobby, avocation, business or career. This requires, not only strong creativity skills, but also persistence and perseverance. It means understanding that jewelry can only be judged as finished and successful as the piece is worn. Jewelry design is more than the application of a set of techniques; it is a mind-set, as well. It is a way of thinking like a designer.

A lot of the achievement and accomplishment in this pursuit of jewelry design comes down to ability to make and follow through on many artistic and design decisions. Some have to do with managing a process, which can take an extended period of time. It also comes down to being fluent, flexible and original in your thinking through design. The greater your disciplinary literacy, the more empowered and confident you become in your design work.

Susan is one example of what happens when uncertainty — that paralysis or deer-in-the-headlights feeling that we so often face — sets in. Susan felt very unsure of herself. And unsure of her jewelry. Would people like it? Was the color mix appropriate? Was the construction secure? Was the price smart and fair? She allowed all this uncertainty to affect her design work — she had difficulty finishing pieces she was working on, starting new projects, and getting her work out there.

Like many of my jewelry design and beadwork students, Susan needed to be fluent as a designer. With fluency comes empowerment, confidence and success.

Fluency and Empowerment

The fluent jewelry designer is able to think like a designer. The jewelry designer is more than a craftsperson and more than an artist. The jewelry designer must learn a specialized language, and specialized way of balancing the needs for appeal with the needs for functionality. The jewelry designer must intimately recognize and understand the roles jewelry plays for individuals as well as the society as a whole. The designer must learn how art, architecture, physical mechanics, engineering, sociology, psychology, context, even party planning, all must come together and get expressed at the point where jewelry meets the boundary of the person.

And to gain that fluency, the designer must commit to learning a lot of vocabulary, ideas and terms, and how these imply content and meaning through expression. The designer will need to be very aware of personal thoughts and thinking as these get reflected in all the choices made in design. The designer will have to be good at anticipating the understandings and judgements of many different audiences, including the wearer, viewer, seller, exhibitor, client, and collector.

With fluency comes empowerment. The empowered designer has a confidence that whatever needs to be done, or whatever must come next, the designer can get through it. Empowerment is about making and managing choices. These choices could be as simple as whether to finish a piece or not. Or whether to begin a second piece. The designer will make choices about how to draw someone’s attention to the piece, or present the piece to a larger audience. She or he may decide to submit the piece to a magazine or contest. She or he may want to sell the piece and market it. The designer will make choices about how a piece might be worn, or who might wear it, or when it might be worn, in what context.

And for all these choices, the jewelry designer might need to overcome a sense of fear, boredom, or resistance. The designer might need to overcome anxiety, a sense of giving up, having designer’s block, feeling unchallenged, and even laziness.

In order to make better artistic and design choices, the Fluent and Empowered Jewelry Designer should have answers to these 5 critical questions:

Question 1: Should BEADWORK and JEWELRY MAKING be considered ART or CRAFT or DESIGN?

The jewelry designer confronts a world which is unsure whether jewelry is “craft” or “art” or its own special thing I’ll call “design”. This can get very confusing and unsettling. Each approach has its own separate ideas about how the designer should work, and how he or she should be judged.

When defined as “craft,” jewelry is seen as something that anyone can do — no special powers are needed to be a jewelry designer. As “craft”, there is somewhat of a pejorative meaning — it’s looked down upon, thought of as something less than art. The craft piece has functional value but limited aesthetic value.

But as “craft”, we still recognize the interplay of the artist’s hand with the piece and the storytelling underlying it. We honor the technical prowess. People love to bring art into their personal worlds, and the craftsperson offers them functional objects which have some artistic sensibilities.

When defined as “art”, jewelry is seen as something which transcends itself and its design. It is not something that anyone can do without special insights and training.

“Jewelry as art” evokes an emotional response. Functionality should play no role at all, or, if an object has some functional purpose, then its functional reason-for-being should merely be supplemental. For example, the strap on a necklace is comparable to the frame around a painting, or the pedestal for a sculpture. It is not included with nor judged as part of the art work.

When defined as “design”, you begin to focus more on construction and functionality issues. You often find yourself making tradeoffs between appeal and functionality. You incorporate situational relevance into your designs. You see “choice” as more multidimensional and contingent. You define success only in reference to the jewelry as it is worn.

How you define your work as ART or CRAFT or DESIGN will determine what skills you learn, how you apply them, and how you introduce your pieces to a wider audience. [The bias in this book is to define jewelry as DESIGN, with its own disciplinary-specific, specialized knowledge and skills base, where jewelry is judged as art only at the point it is worn, and where jewelry-making is seen as a communicative process.]

QUESTION 2: How do you decide what you want to create? What kinds of things do you do to translate your passions and inspirations into jewelry? What is your creative process?

Applying yourself creatively can be fun at times, but scary at other times. It is work. You are creating something out of nothing. There is an element of risk. You might not like what you end up doing. Your friends might not like it. Nor your family. You might not finish it. Or you might do it wrong. It may seem easier to go with someone else’s project.

Applying creativity means developing abilities to generate options and alternatives, and narrowing these down to specific choices. It means developing an ease and comfort generating fix-it strategies when approaching unknown situations or problematic ones. It means figuring out how to translate inspiration into design in a way that inspires others and taps into their desires. It means differentiating yourself from other jewelry designers as a measure of your originality.

Creative people…

Set no boundaries and set no rules. They go with the flow. Don’t conform to expectations.

Play. They pretend they are kids again.

Experiment. They take the time to do a lot of What Ifs and Variations On A Theme and Trial and Error.

Keep good records. They make good notes and sketches of what seems to work, and what seems to not work.

Evaluate. They learn from their successes and mistakes.

As jewelry designers gain more and more creative experiences, they begin to assemble what I call a Designer’s Tool Box. In this virtual box are a set of thinking routines, strategies and fix-it strategies that have worked well in the past, are very workable in and of themselves, and are highly adaptive when used in unfamiliar situations. Every jewelry designer should develop their own Tool Box. This vastly contributes to success in creative thinking and application.

QUESTION 3: What kinds of MATERIALS work well together, and which ones do not? This applies to TECHNIQUES as well. What kinds of TECHNIQUES (or combinations of techniques) work well when, and which ones do not?

The choice of materials, including beads, clasps, and stringing materials, and the choice of techniques, including stringing, weaving, wire working, glassworks, metalworks, clayworks, set the tone and chances of success for your piece.

There are many implications of choice. There are light/shadow issues, pattern, texture, rhythm, dimensionality and color issues. There are mechanics, shapes, forms, durability, drape, flow and movement issues. There are positive and negative space issues.

It is important to know what happens to all these materials over time. It is important to know how each technique enhances or impedes architectural requirements, such as allowing the piece to move and drape, or assisting the piece in maintaining a shape. Each material and technique has strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons, and contingencies affecting their utilization. The designer needs to leverage the strengths and minimize the weaknesses.

All of these choices:
… affect the look
… affect the drape
… affect the feel
… affect the durability
… affect both the wearer’s and viewer’s responses
… relate to the context

Question 4: Beyond applying basic techniques and selecting quality materials, how does the Jewelry Designer evoke an emotional and resonant response to their jewelry? What skill-sets do Designers need in order to think through powerful designs?

An artistic and well-designed piece of jewelry should evoke an emotional response. In fact, ideally, it should go beyond this a bit, and have what we call “resonance”. The difference between an emotional response and resonance is reflected in the difference between someone saying, “That’s beautiful,” from saying “I need to wear that piece,” or, “I need to buy that piece.”

Quite simply: If no emotional response, and preferably, resonance, is evoked, then the jewelry is poorly designed. Evoking an emotional and resonant response takes the successful selection and arrangement of materials, the successful application of techniques as well as the successful management of skills.

Unfortunately, beaders and jewelry makers too often focus on materials or techniques and not often enough on skills. It is important to draw distinctions here.

Materials and techniques are necessary but not sufficient to get you there. You need skills.

The classic analogy comparing materials, techniques and skills references cutting bread with a knife. Material: bread and knife. Technique: How to hold the knife relative to the bread in order to cut it. Skill: The force applied so that the bread gets cut successfully.

Skills are the kinds of things the jewelry designer applies which enhance his or her capacity to control for bad workmanship and know when the piece is finished. Skills, not techniques, are what empower the designer to evoke emotional and resonant responses to their work.

These skills include:

— Judgment
— Presentation
— Care and dexterity
— Knowing when “enough is enough”
— Understanding how art theory applies to the “bead” and to “jewelry when worn”
— Understanding the architectural underpinnings of each technique, and how these enhance, or impede, what you are trying to do
— Taking risks
— Anticipating the desires, values, and shared understandings all client audiences of the designer have about when a piece should be considered finished and successful
— Recognizing that jewelry is art only as it is worn

QUESTION #5: When is enough enough? How does the jewelry artist know when the piece is done? Overdone? Or underdone? How do you edit? What fix-it strategies do you come up with and employ?

In the bead and jewelry arenas, you see piece after piece that is either over-embellished or under-done. Things may get too repetitive with the elements and materials. Or the pieces don’t feel that they are quite there yet.

For every piece of jewelry there will be that point of parsimony when enough is enough. We want to find that point where experiencing the “whole” is more satisfying than experiencing any of the parts. That point of parsimony is where, if we added (or subtracted) one more thing, we would detract from the whole of our design.

Knowing that point of parsimony is also related to anticipating how and when others will judge the piece as successful. And what to do about it when judged unfinished or unsuccessful.

There is no one best way — only your way

The fluent and empowered jewelry designer will have answers to these 5 essential questions, though not every designer will have the same answers, nor is there one best answer.

Yet it is unacceptable to avoid answering any of these 5 questions, for fear you might not like the answer.

The fluent and empowered jewelry designer will have learned the skills for making good choices. He or she will recognize that jewelry design is a process of management and communication. The fluent and empowered designer manages how choices are made. These choices include making judgments about selecting and combining materials, both physical and aesthetic, and techniques, both alone or in tandem, into wearable art forms and adornment, expressive of the desires of self and others. The artist’s hand will be very visible in their work.

This is jewelry making and design.

This is at the core of how jewelry designers think like jewelry designers.

This is the substantive basis which informs how the designer introduces jewelry publicly.

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft video tutorials online.

Add your name to my email list.

Posted in Stitch 'n Bitch | Tagged: artist, Beader, craft, jewelry design, Professional Artist | Leave a Comment »

So You Want To Be A Jewelry Designer … Becoming The Bead Artist and Jewelry Designer

Posted by learntobead on April 20, 2020

“Japanese Fragrance Garden Bracelet”, piece and inspiration, FELD, 2018

BECOMING THE BEAD ARTIST AND JEWELRY DESIGNER:
The Ongoing Tensions Between Inspiration and Form

Abstract: As a jewelry designer, you have a purpose. Your purpose is to figure out, untangle and solve, with each new piece of jewelry you make, how both you, as well as the wearer, will understand your inspirations and the design elements and forms you chose to express them, and why this piece of jewelry is right for them. Not as easy as it might first appear. This involves an ongoing effort, on many levels, to merge voice and inspiration with form. Often challenging, but very rewarding.

BECOMING THE BEAD ARTIST AND JEWELRY DESIGNER:
The Ongoing Tensions Between Inspiration and Form

As a jewelry designer, you have a purpose. Your purpose is to figure out, untangle and solve, with each new piece of jewelry you make, how both you, as well as the wearer, will understand your inspirations and the design elements and forms you chose to express them, and why this particular piece of jewelry is right for them. Not as easy as it might first appear.

You will want the piece to be beautiful and appealing. So you will be applying a lot of art theories about color, perspective, composition and the like. You will quickly discover that much about color use and the use of lines and planes and shapes and so forth in art is very subjective. People see things differently. They may bring with them some biases to the situation. Many of the physical materials you will use may not reflect or refract the color and other artistic effects more easily achieved with paints.

You want the piece to be durable. So you will be applying a lot of theories and practices of architects and engineers and mechanical physicists. You will need to intuitively and intrinsically understand what about your choices leads to the jewelry keeping its shape, and what about your choices allows the jewelry to move, drape and flow. You also will be attentive to issues of physical mechanics, particularly how jewelry responds to forces of stress, strain and movement. This may mean making tradeoffs between beauty and function, appeal and durability, desire and acceptance.

You want the piece to be satisfying and accepted by various wearing and viewing audiences. So you will have to have some understanding of the role jewelry plays in different people’s lives. Jewelry is more than some object to them; jewelry is something they inhabit — reflective of soul, culture, status, aspiration. You will recognize that people ascribe the qualities of the jewelry to the qualities of the person wearing it. You will bring to the forefront ideas underlying psychology and anthropology and sociology, and even party planning, while designing your jewelry or introducing it publicly. You may find the necessity to compromise part of your vision for something socially acceptable, or in some degree of conformance with a client’s taste or style.

BECOMING THE BEAD ARTIST AND JEWELRY DESIGNER

Sometimes becoming a designer begins by touching some beads. Or running a strand of pearls through your hand. Or the sight of something perfectly worn around the wrist, or upon the breast, or up near the neck. Or trying to accessorize an outfit. Or finding something for a special occasion.

Jewelry designers are extraordinarily blessed to do what they love for a living. For many, they have turned a hobby into an avocation into a lifestyle.

But it’s not like a regular job. There are many intangibles. Such as, what exactly is creativity and creative thinking? What are all the things that have to come together to recognize that creative spark when it hits you in your heart, gut or head, and how to translate that into something real, with beauty, with function, and with purpose? How do you mesh your views of and desires for aesthetics and functionality with those of your many audiences — wearer, viewer, buyer, seller, collector, exhibiter, teacher and student?

What exactly does it mean to design jewelry, and how do you know it is the right path for you? This is a tough question. You may love jewelry, but not know how to make it. You may get off on creative problem solving or be a color addict but not know what specific techniques and skills you need to learn, in what organized way, with what direction, leading you towards becoming that better jewelry designer. You may wonder what it means and what it takes to be successful as a designer. You may feel the motivation, but not know what the jewelry designer really has to do each day.

You may be taking classes and getting some training, but how do you know when you have arrived? How do you know when you have emerged as a successful professional jewelry designer? And what are your responsibilities and obligations, once you get there?

THERE IS SO MUCH TO KNOW

There is so much to know, and so many types of choices to make. Which clasp? Which stringing material? Which technique? Which beads? Which strategy of construction? Which silhouette? What aesthetic you want to achieve? How you want to achieve it? Drape, movement, context, durability? How to organize and manage the design process?

And this is the essence of this series of articles — a way to learn all the kinds of things you need to bring to bear, in order to create a wonderful and functional piece of jewelry. Whether you are just beginning your beading or jewelry making avocation, or have been beading and making jewelry awhile — time spent with the material in these segments will be very useful. You’ll learn the critical skills and ideas. You’ll learn how these inter-relate. And you’ll learn how to make better choices.

Everyone knows that anyone can put beads and other pieces together on a string and make a necklace. But can anyone make a necklace that draws attention? That evokes some kind of emotional response? That resonates with someone where they say, I want to wear that! or, I want to buy that!? Which wears well, drapes well, moves well as the person wearing it moves? Which is durable, supportive and keeps its silhouette and shape? Which doesn’t feel underdone or over done? Which is appropriate for a given context, situation, culture or society?

True, anyone can put beads on a string. But that does not make them artists or designers. From artists and designers, we expect jewelry which is something more. More than parts. More than an assemblage of colors, shapes, lines, points and other design elements. More than simple arrangements of lights and darks, rounds and squares, longs and shorts, negative and positive spaces. We expect to see the artist’s hand. We expect the jewelry to be impactful for the wearer.

We want to gauge how the designer grows within the craft, and takes on the challenges during their professional lives. This involves an ongoing effort to merge voice and inspiration with form. Often this effort is challenging. Sometimes paralyzing. Always fulfilling and rewarding.

Jewelry design is a conversation. The conversation in ongoing, perhaps never-ending. The conversation is partly internal and partly external. The conversation is partly a reflection about process, refinement, questioning, translating feelings into form, impressions into arrangements, life influences into choice. It touches on desire. It reflects value and values. Aesthetics matter. Architecture and function matters. People matter. Context and situation matter.

Jewelry focuses attention. Inward for the artist. Outward for the wearer and viewer. In many directions socially and culturally and situationally. Jewelry is a voice which must be expressed and heard, and hopefully, responded to.

At first that voice might not find that exact fit with its audience. There is some back and forth in expression, as the jewelry is designed, refined, redesigned, and re-introduced publicly. But jewelry, and its design, have great power. They have the power to synthesize a great many voices and expectations into something exciting and resonant.

JEWELRY DESIGN: An Occupation In Search Of A Profession

Jewelry design is an activity which occupies your time.

How the world understands what you do when you occupy that time, however, is in a state of flux and confusion, and which often can be puzzling or disorienting for the jewelry artist, as well.

Is what you are doing merely a hobby or an avocation? Is it something anyone can do, anytime they want, without much preparation and learning?

Is what you do an occupation? Does it require learning specialized technical skills? Is it something that involves your interaction with others? Is it something you are paid to do?

Or is what you do a profession? Is there a specialized body of knowledge, perspectives and values, not just mechanical skills, to learn and apply? Do you provide a service to the public? Do you need to learn and acquire certain insights which enable you to serve the needs of others?

Are you part of another occupation or profession, or do you have your own? Is jewelry design merely a craft, where you make things by following sets of steps?

Is jewelry design an art, where your personal inspirations and artistic sense is employed to create things of aesthetic beauty for others to admire, as if they were sculptures? Is the jewelry you create to be judged as something separate and apart from the person wearing it?

Or is jewelry design its own thing. Is it a design activity where you learn specialized knowledge, skills and understandings in how to integrate aesthetics and functionality, and where your success can only be judged at the boundary between jewelry and person — that is, only as the jewelry is worn?

The line of demarcation between occupation and profession is thin, often blurred, but for the jewelry designer, this distinction is very important. It feeds into our sense of self and self-esteem. It guides us in the choices we make to become better and better at our craft, art and trade. It influences how we introduce our jewelry to the public, and how we influence the public to view, wear, exhibit, purchase or collect the things we make.

What Does It Mean To Become A Professional?

At the heart of this question is whether we are paid and rewarded either solely for the number of jewelry pieces which we make, or rather for the skill, knowledge and intent underlying our jewelry designs.

If the former, we do not need much training. Entry into the activity of jewelry design would be very open, with a low bar. Our responsibility would be to turn out pieces of jewelry. We would not encumber ourselves too much with art theory or design theory. We would not concern ourselves, in any great depth, and certainly not struggle with jewelry’s psycho-socio-cultural impacts.

If the latter, we would need a lot of specialized training and experience. Entry into the activity of jewelry design would be more controlled, most likely staged from novice to master. Our responsibility would be to translate our inspirations into aspirations into designs. It would also be to influence others viewing our work to be inspired to think about and reflect and emote those things which have excited the artist, as represented by the jewelry itself. And it would also be to enable others to find personal, and even social and cultural, success and satisfaction when wearing or purchasing this piece of jewelry.

To become a professional jewelry designer is to learn, apply and experience a way of thinking like a designer. Fluent in terms about materials, techniques and technologies. Flexible in the applications of techniques and the organizing of design elements into compositions which excite people. Able to develop workable design strategies in unfamiliar or difficult situations. Communicative about intent, desire, purpose, no matter the context or situation within which the designer and their various audiences find themselves. Original in how concepts are introduced, organized and manipulated, and in how the designer differentiates themselves from other designers.

The designs of artisans who make jewelry reflect and refract cultural norms, societal expectations, historical explanations and justifications, psychological precepts individuals apply to make sense of themselves within a larger setting. As such, the jewelry designer has a major responsibility, both to the individual client, as well as to the larger social setting or society, to foster that the ability for the client to fulfill that hierarchy of needs, and to foster the coherency and rationality of the community-at-large.

All this can happen in a very small, narrow way, or a very large and profound way. In either case, the professional roles of the jewelry designer remain the same. Successfully learning how to play these roles — fluency, flexibility, communication, originality — becomes the basis for how the jewelry designer is judged and the extent of his or her recognition and success.

Why People Like To Bead and Make Jewelry

Most people, when they get started beading or making jewelry, don’t have this overwhelming urge to become a star jewelry designer. On the contrary, fame and fortune as a designer are some of the furthest things from their minds. Most people look to jewelry making and beading to fulfill other needs.

Over the years I’ve seen many people pick up beading and jewelry making as a hobby. They are drawn to these for many reasons, but most often, to make fashionable jewelry at a much lower cost than they would find for the same pieces in a Department store, or to repair jewelry pieces they especially love. When you start with the parts, and the labor is all your own, it is considerably less expensive than the retail prices you would find in a store for the same pieces.

Some people want to make jewelry for themselves. Others want to make handmade gifts. Giving someone something of great value, that reflects a personal expression of creativity, and a labor of love — you can’t beat it. And everyone loves jewelry.

When people get into beading and jewelry making, they discover it’s fun. They tap into their inner-creative-self. They see challenges, and find ways to meet them. They take classes. They buy books and magazines. They join beading groups and bead societies and jewelry making collaboratives. They have beading and jewelry making parties with their friends. They scour web-sites on-line looking for images of and patterns for jewelry. They comb the web and the various beading, jewelry-making and craft magazines, looking for sources and resources. They join on-line jewelry and bead boards, on-line forums, on-line web-rings, on-line ezines, groups, and on-line blogs. They take shopping trips to malls and boutiques and like little good Agatha Christies and Sherlock Holmes, they spy, looking for fashions, fashion trends, and fashionistas. They attend traveling bead shows. And every town they visit, they schedule some free time to check out the local bead stores and boutiques.

As people get more into beading and jewelry making, some discover that these avocations are not only sources of artistic self-expression, but also have many meditative qualities. They are relaxing. They take your mind off the here and now, and transport you to a very calming place.

Still, for others, beading and jewelry making become a way to earn some extra income. They might be to supplement what you’re making now. They might be ways to generate some extra dollars after you retire. They might be the start of your own business as a designer of jewelry. They might be a sense of independence and self-reliance. Having someone pay you for something you made is often the hook that gets people addicted to beadwork and jewelry making.

Most people, however, are content just to make jewelry. There are no professional Design paths to pursue. They may realize that they are out there somewhere, but don’t particularly care. Or sometimes they are unfamiliar with or can’t see all the possibilities. Perhaps they get stuck. No mentor, no book, no magazine, no project to entice them or spark an interest in something more than what they are doing now.

For those fewer people, however, who get a whiff of what it means to design jewelry, and jewelry which resonates, well, what a trip they are in for.

Do You Chase The Idea or The Material?

It is important up front to ask yourself, as a jewelry artist, what is more important to you: the piece of jewelry itself, or the reason why it was made? The idea? Or the material object?

The idea is about cause and effect. How the inspiration resulted in choices about colors, materials and techniques. How the artist’s intent is revealed through choices about composition, arrangements and manipulation of design elements. How the jewelry relates to the person and to the body? How the artist anticipates how others will understand whether a piece is finished and successful, and whether the piece incorporates these shared understandings into the choices made about design.

As solely a material object, the jewelry so designed shies away from resonance. It becomes something to be judged apart from the wearer. It too often gets co-opted by global forces tending towards standardization and same-old-same-old designs. The designer’s mastery is barely referenced or attended to. The designers voice is reduced to noise. The very real fear is that, with globalization and standardization, the designer’s voice will no longer be needed.

Jewelry as idea fosters communication and connection between the artist and his or her various audiences. It bridges thinking. It bridges emotion. It bridges social, cultural and/or situational ties. It goes beyond simple adornment and ornamentation. It becomes interactive, and emerges from a co-dependency between artist and audience, reflective and indicative of both.

Analyzing reasons, finding connections, and conceptualizing forms, components and arrangements are the primary functions of jewelry designer survival.

Otherwise, why make jewelry? Why make something so permanent to reflect your inner motivations, efforts, even struggles, to translate inspiration into this object? Why make something wearable, especially when each piece is usually not worn all the time? Why make something that might have such an intimate relationship with the body and mind? Why make something that can have real consequences for the wearer as the jewelry is worn in social, cultural or specific situational settings?

The Challenging Moments

Developing yourself as a jewelry designer has several challenging moments. You want to maintain high expectations and goals for yourself, and see these through. Some challenging moments include the following:

1. Learning your craft and continually growing and developing within your profession

2. Recognizing how jewelry design goes beyond basic mechanics and aesthetics, thus, differs from craft and differs from art, and then learning and working accordingly.

3. Getting Inspired

4. Translating Inspiration into a design

5. Implementing that design both artistically and architecturally by finding that balance between beauty (must look good) and functionality (must wear well)

6. Organizing your work space and all your stuff

7. Managing a design process

8. Introducing your pieces publicly, and anticipating how others (wearer, viewer, seller, marketer, exhibitor, collector, teacher, student, for example) will desire your pieces, as well as judge your pieces as finished (parsimonious) and successful (resonant)

9. Infusing your pieces with a sense of yourself, your values, your aesthetics, your originality

10. Developing a fluency and flexibility when working with new materials, new techniques and technologies, and new design expectations, including well-established ideas about fix-it strategies when confronted with unfamiliar situations

11. Differentiating your jewelry and yourself from other jewelry designers

12. If selling your pieces, then linking up to and connecting with those who will market and buy your pieces

Some Bottom-Line Advice For The Newly Emerging Jewelry Designer

Always keep working and working hard. Set up a routine, and do at least one thing every day.

Find a comfortable place to work in your home or apartment. Develop strategies for organizing the projects, your supplies and your tools, and for keeping things generally organized over time. But don’t overdue the organizing thing. A little chaos can be OK, and even, sometimes, trigger new ideas.

Give yourself permission to play, experiment, go down many paths. Everything you work on doesn’t have to meet the criterion of perfection, be cool, or become the next Rembrandt. A key part of the learning process is trial and error, hypothesis, test, and conclusion. This helps you develop fix-it strategies so that you can overcome unfamiliar or problematic situations, enhancing your skills as a designer.

Don’t let self-doubt and any sense of impending failure take over you, and paralyze you. Designer’s block, while it may happen occasionally, should be temporary. Jewelry projects usually evolve, and involve some give and take, change and rearrangement. Often the time to complete a project can be lengthy, and you have to maintain your interest and inspiration over this extended time period.

Don’t get stuck in a rut. Try new materials. Try new designs. Try new styles. Try to add variation, new arrangements, smart embellishments. Learn new techniques and technologies.

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft video tutorials online.

Add your name to my email list.

Posted in Stitch 'n Bitch | Tagged: artist, beadwork, craft, jewelry design, jewelry making | Leave a Comment »

UFO’s: Your Unfinished Bead or Craft Projects

Posted by learntobead on April 19, 2020

Unfinished Projects

Some people kindly refer to their unfinished projects as UFOs (Un-Finished Objects). Others less kindly refer to them as abortions. Let’s just call them un-finished projects.

You’ll find you have a lot of unfinished beading, craft and jewelry making projects. They might be waiting for more supplies, or finding the right color or clasp. They might be waiting for you to learn or re-learn a particular skill or technique. They might be waiting for more time or motivation. You might have discovered another more exciting project to do in your most recent issue of Bead & Button magazine, and want to get to that immediately, even though you haven’t finished your last project.

You might begin a project, and then as you get into it, put it down, pick it up again, find that you forgot what you were going to do in the first place. You might have inadvertently cannibalized some of your other Un-Finished Projects to help you finish a particular project on hand, and then not be able to find these very same UFOs you intended to come back to and finish, having forgotten you cannibalized them.

As one of my friends remarked, “I’m going to have to live a very long time, or else I won’t get anything done!”

People do funny things with their unfinished projects. One woman I know puts them in a clear jar, and let’s them stack up as an artwork in progress. Some people work on them in rotation, with some kind of system, lazy-susan-tray or otherwise. Others take the time to tear them up and reclaim the parts. That’s definitely not me. I leave them laying around, piled up on bead trays. Many people swap them.

I hate people who finish each bead project before starting another. Don’t you?

How can they? How much true-grit can anyone person have, or be allowed to have? Getting a grip on one’s beadwork — Is that really possible? Can you really weed out your unfinished projects, and reclaim your beads, and make clear, definite, timely decisions about which projects you will start, which projects you will finish, and which ones you won’t? Is there a pill for this? Either a stimulant or a cure?

My friend Adonna wrote to me…

“I am so jealous of people who finish things. I have tons of ufo’s and I want to keep learning new stuff. Beaded beads really do fascinate me… like the sparkly wheels. I have clipped the instructions, printed off the net, bought stuff from Halpenny and Ruby Fisch and have yet to sit down in a quiet space and do it. Then there is all the polymer clay ideas. If I had a room like Linda’s…… I’d be paralyzed with what to do FIRST… I guess I have to learn to go to my small room I now have and really get the stuff into separate corners. Beads, sewing, polymer, wire… then put the TV and dvd player in middle on a swivel stand, and close the door.

“I have realized LONG ago, that the fun is in starting something new, the challenges of finding all the pieces to work with, and learning and doing the beginning. When I can visualize the END, I stop and move on. You should see the ufo’s in quilting, doll/bear making, even a few pieces of clothes, and all of the useable incorrect size patterns and not to mention the 1,910+ collectibles.

“Some of the problems in finishing is surely the ‘Now What?’ concept of what to do with it all. I cannot wear all the finished jewelry. Certainly NOT give it away….would rather throw it away or let the executor deal with it at the junk shop than to give it to people who just politely say “thank you” and have no intention of wearing it even once a year.”

What is your unfinished project story?

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft video tutorials online.

Add your name to my email list.

Posted in Stitch 'n Bitch | Tagged: beading, beadwork, craft, jewelry making, Unfinished | Leave a Comment »

Beading While Traveling On A Plane

Posted by learntobead on April 19, 2020

Beading While Traveling On An Airplane

Most beaders like to bring their beads wherever they go. Lest they end up in some jail charged with terrorism, today’s air traveling presents special challenges for beading on a plane.

While the rules for what you can and what you cannot bring on a plane seem to vary frequently, you can be sure that scissors, crochet hooks, knitting needles, and many hardware tools, will tend to get you pulled over for a major search, and maybe a major loss of these as well.

Dental floss containers are good substitutes for scissors. And they hold your bobbin of thread in a good, tight way, as well. Supposedly, if your scissors are blunt-ended, they are OK.

Circular knitting needles are usually acceptable. Straight needles made of wood, plastic, or bamboo stand a better chance than metal ones.

Bamboo crochet hooks won’t get taken up.

Keep your beads tightly packaged, and your projects small. You don’t want your beads flying all over the plane. And the seats and tray tables are tight and small.

In case your stuff gets confiscated, bring with you a stamped, self-addressed envelop, so you can have these mailed back to you, instead of tossed in the garbage.

Try to get an EXIT row — more leg room.

Soft tackle boxes make excellent carry-on luggage.

You may want to ship your heavy duty tools and materials to your destination ahead of time, instead of playing the odds of bringing them onto a plane.

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft video tutorials online.

Add your name to my email list.

Posted in Stitch 'n Bitch | Tagged: Airplane, beading, craft, jewelry making, Travel | Leave a Comment »

You Can Never Have Enough Containers For Your Stuff

Posted by learntobead on April 19, 2020

Containers, Or How To Keep Things Organized

It’s hard to contain a beader’s or craft person’s delight for containers.

Boxes. Boxes with lids. Boxes with drawers. Boxes with neatly inset boxes with lids and drawers. Boxes on wheels. Boxes on wheels that fit neatly into the limited space between two cabinets. Boxes that rotate. And boxes that levitate.

There are at least three challenges that every beader faces.

First is finding the best container.

Second is deciding how to organize your beads and craft supplies and tools and all your containers. And if you keep notes and sketches, how to keep these organized and accessible, as well.

Third is labeling and keeping track of everything.

Containers are everywhere. Bead stores have some good ones, but you find the best ones at hardware stores (tool boxes) and tackle stores (fishing boxes) and kitchen and bath stores (organizers).

There are many things which make good containers. These include egg boxes, muffin pans, deviled egg trays, cosmetic cases, containers and accessories for lipsticks, nail polishes and brushes, contact lens cases, and tic-tac mint boxes. Better containers are things you can see through.

It is not uncommon for beaders and crafters to completely re-organize a previously well-organized bead or craft work set up, upon finding new and different containers for organizing beads.

Containers, you see, are just another excuse for handling beads and crafts. And while making a necklace or beading a doll requires exercising the creative mind in very taxing ways, containers and their re-organizing are less so.

Susan found her Ultimate Beading-2000 container set-up at Lowes. It was a large multi-drawer tool cabinet made from red plastic. It had a top that lifted up. It had a pull out work-shelf. And it had drawer after drawer after drawer, each dividable with adjustable section-dividers into 1”x3” spaces — Perfect. The unit even had wheels. She thought to herself, she could easily bring the unit onto an airplane, or in a car, or to the doctor’s office. Perfect.

She bought six of them. And she began the routine of re-organizing everything in her studio. And her studio was vast. Even people with vast studios would think hers was vast-er. After many days of mornings and afternoons, evenings and nights, after diligence upon diligence upon diligence, after conversing with her Freudian mother and Jungian best friend and Horney-ian sister and Bayley-ian cousin, Susan was done. Everything was re-organized.

A smile. A satisfaction. A relief. Until, that is, Susan remembered to check inside one more closet and one more desk and a kitchen cabinet and a file cabinet in her garage. Yes, Susan had forgotten about a few beads and findings that she had stashed away throughout her house. Many “few” things. Many, many “few” things. So many, in fact, that Susan had to re-organize again from scratch.

As Susan, and many other experienced beaders and crafters know, you need different kinds of containers for different kinds of situations. This amplifies the fun in finding containers.

Susan is not quite here yet, … or is she?

You need containers to store your beads. You need something to carry your beads in your purse. You need containers to hold all your beads and supplies for a particular project, and these usually must fit inside a canvas tote bag. You need containers to bring things with you on a plane. You need containers that help you bead while traveling in car. You need containers to help you sort through things. And you need containers because everyone you know has containers.

Part of the art of “container-ing” is placement. If on a desk or work surface, it must aid the flow of work and not distract from it. If on the floor, it must ideally fit within or under something, or somehow disguise itself as part of the furniture. If to be stacked, each component must rest upon the other in some natural, inherent and perfectly rational way. If there are other containers for items associated with non-beading crafts, these must somehow not contaminate those for beads. You don’t want to block anything — a doorway, the bathroom, the dining room table.

Once the containers are set, (until, of course, you find new more appealing containers), you must decide what goes in them. Easier said than done. In an internet survey I once did, most people wrote that they organize their beads by color. All the reds go in one place, all the blues in another, and so forth.

This creates a slight dilemma. Say you want to do a project with delica beads. Arrangements solely by color will mean that you’ll have to dig through a lot of different styles of beads to find the delicas you want. And you’ll have to do this for each color.

If you arrange by style, then it will be difficult to pull your beads, if you want to use several different colors.

If you arrange by materials — glass vs. gemstone vs. plastic vs. metal vs. ceramic — then it will be difficult to find and pull your beads, if you want to mix styles and colors.

If you arrange by palette, then it is easy to find colors you know that work well together. But it becomes more difficult to locate specific colors or specific sizes or specific shapes.

You might feel the urge to separate small hole from large hole beads.

You might want to keep letter beads in their own place.

You might want to have additional trays that contain all the beads and other pieces used for your favorite designs, so if you want to repeat them, all you have to do is grab one tray.

Do you mix vintage with new?

Small with large?

Holiday with general?

Beads for bead-weaving with beads for fiber embellishment and sewing?

Beads in-style with beads out-of-style?

Machine made with handmade?

Contemporary with ethnic?

Do you cut things off strands, or leave them on strands?

Do you mix up your tubes, or keep them separated?

Do you hang things on pegs on a wall, put them in drawers, put them in containers stacked on counters, or lay them in trays or on bead boards?

Ballen once told Krystal that one of the drawbacks to her container method was that there was some overlap of her categories. For instance, Lampwork, Shape-Beads (further broken down by Flora, Fauna, and Celestial/Symbols) and Large Glass Beads and On-Stone Pendants (in 6 color-grouped containers). She attempted to overcome this overlapping by giving priority to Stone Beads, then Pendants, then Shape-Beads, then Lampwork, then Large Glass Beads (which did not fit in with anything else already categorized).

And Krystal, in turn, got very confused. When she needed beads for classes, she found one arrangement of containers to be useful. But when she needed beads for projects, this same arrangement was unhelpful. Took too long to find what she needed. She could not come up with a set of rules for what should go where when.

And we haven’t begun to talk about stringing materials, jewelry findings, needles, glues, tools, and other beading accessories….

How do you label everything? How do you keep track of what you have and don’t have? How do you keep track of the color name, the color code, and the cost?

It is important to label everything: On your labels, you want some description, color name, where you bought it, any re-ordering code, and the date you bought it, as well as the price you paid for it. Save the price tags and package labels. Keep track of ideas — clippings, photos, sketches, internet notes, magazines and books. With patterns, instructions and designs, you want this categorized and kept in easily accessible and understandable file folders.

As one of our beader-friends said, “I have so many sketch books, that when I look for something, I don’t know where to start.” Moreover, “if I find the sketch I want, I don’t know where to safe-keep this, until I’m ready to begin the project, without losing it again.”

Where among all your containers in your already crowded workspace do you plan to situate the super-computer you’ll need to keep everything straight?

Whew!

Beads are so small! How can you possibly have difficulty organizing them? Or running out of space?

Which brings me to another important point. Anticipate growth!

For example, if you have allowed space for 300 colors of delica beads, leave some open space for some more. There are 35–60 new colors of delicas introduced each year. Delicas are usually ordered by code number. The code numbers do not reflect any system or logic about specific colors or finishes. New color code numbers are not only incremented from the previously highest number; many new code numbers are squeezed in among the previously existing order.

Beads and other craft supplies are power, and you will always want to accumulate more and more.

With all the containers you’ll need, and all the organizing and re-organizing you have to do and keep up with, will you ever have the time to take courses and develop your skills? Maybe, maybe not.

Too much to think about.

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft video tutorials online.

Add your name to my email list.

Posted in Stitch 'n Bitch | Tagged: beads, Containers, craft, Organizing, Work Space | Leave a Comment »

Organizing Your Craft Work Space: Some Smart Pointers

Posted by learntobead on April 19, 2020

Work Spaces

Every crafter, jewelry maker and beader has to decide which part of the house will be taken over by beads, craft supplies, and tools.

Often it’s the whole house.

James is a classic example. James never met a horizontal surface he couldn’t cover up with stuff. So his small beading table blossomed into multiple tables. These blossomed into several TV trays. And these blossomed into piles of stuff on chairs, counter-tops and couches. Stacks appeared in every room on the floors. It was not long before James had six projects on-going in the dining room, one in the kitchen, four in the bedroom, three in the TV room, one in the laundry room. James salivated about tool boxes, and so he bought tool box upon tool box upon tool box, in every size, with every arrangement of drawers and dividers and sections, in industrial colors of bright yellow, fire engine red, charcoal black, and steel gray.

We built a studio off our house. The studio, at first, was for silversmithing. It then also served for lampworking. And then for metal clay. And fused glass. And more beading. The studio then spilled right back into the house. So James wanted an additional studio room to accommodate yet more obsession. And we built an additional studio room off the house.

Years ago, in an internet survey we did about “Where People Beaded In Their Homes”, most people said their dining room or kitchen table was their Primary Creative Place. Meals were banished to the TV or living rooms, lest they be laced with beads. TV trays and cocktail tables were forced into new use. Most families, when queried, could no longer remember what colors the kitchen and dining room walls and cabinets were, as beads took over more and more of these rooms.

Another wrote that she would let us know about her special craft space, once she got things straightened up. She told us, “I don’t actually work there, because it looks like a tornado hit it. I just rush in to grab things, or dump things off, and run out.”

From Kathy Thomason: “I have a craft room lined with shelves and tables. I keep my beads in rolling carts, divided by color with each drawer labeled. I keep all my tools in a basket on one of the tables and I have all my findings in storage containers, divided by color and item and those sit on top of one of the rolling carts. I keep my wires in a drawer, where they are put into small trays and divided by color and type. I have beading trays set up on the tables with a rolling desk chair that can go from table to table. I get everything I need for my current project put on a tray, which I then carry to the living room to do the actual beading so I can be out where the family is.”

Some rooms did double-duty. There was the dining room/bead room. The TV room/bead room. The sewing room/bead room. And the laundry room/bead room. One person wrote that she had to share her bead room with her nursery. This created quite a dilemma in that beads and parts, plastic bags, needles, and threads were not a good fit with cradles and baby toys and baby blankets and, actually, not a good fit with babies.

Some beaders were blessed, however. Their spouses built them special spaces in attics, garages or the once-previously used bedroom. Some wealthier beaders had both a bead room, as well as another room devoted to another craft like sewing.

But most people were forced to take over the biggest table in the house, most often in the dining room.

Every workspace had to accommodate a lot of containers and a lot of room to layout different projects.

Organizing your work space, for some, can mean saving and salvaging their creative lives. Clutter and disorganization is distracting, and can prevent you from making progress on important projects. You don’t want to waste time looking for things. You want to be able to get rid of things you no longer use, without it becoming a major effort to do so. And you do not want to overwhelm yourself with too many half-finished projects laying all over the place.

I remember Ginny telling me about her desk. It just wasn’t big enough. So she abutted a folding table next to it. It just wasn’t big enough. So she got another folding table. Again, not big enough. Plus, at each edge the tables met, they were uneven. So she bought some large pieces of plywood, and hardware to nail them together, and lay over all her tables. She ran molding along the outer edges so that beads wouldn’t roll off. Her expanded table was soon over-run, so she set up another smaller table on the opposite wall, and towards which she could wheel her chair. She found herself working on the smaller table, and used her large table for storage.

Ginny had the best chair. Ergonomic. Great back support. Wheels. It spins. It was a chair she could sink into, relax, wheel herself from one side of the room to another. Heavenly. She could sit on it for hours without getting tired. It had good arm rests that didn’t get in the way of beading or stringing.

Ginny was determined to maximize her work space, any way she could. She attached shelving off the wall that would fold up, and fold out, depending on how much horizontal work surface she wanted. She took off the closet door, and built in shelves with drawers that pulled out. In three of these drawers, she stuffed fabric she had accumulated from an earlier obsession. She hung a hanging shoe bag off one side of the closet, and stored “projects-in-progress” in each of the shoe storage slots. She put up pegboard along all the open wall space. She hung over-the-door wire storage racks on the entry door to the room — one on the back and one on the front of the door.

She hated clutter. But each time she put into effect another plan to improve the efficiency of her bead room set-up, she ended up with more and more clutter. A jumble. Beads begat beads begat beads begat books, papers, half-finished projects, storage containers and more supplies.

She read a book by Jo Packham called Where Women Create: Inspiring Work Spaces of Extraordinary Women. She looked for beautiful and inspirational and practical ideas so that she could create in an environment conducive for creativity. One of many questions raised in the book, was “Do you like to listen to music while you create?” She did. Where would she put the stereo and the speakers now?

[Another question asked in this book was “Where did you like to work as a child?” Ginny liked to work in her bedroom under a blanket. ]

Ginny failed to anticipate the “administrivia” of it all. She had to keep everything labeled. She now had to keep records of what she bought at what price. She had sketch books of ideas. She had pictures torn out of magazines. She had pattern upon pattern of designs. She had lists of addresses, websites and phone numbers of sources. She had to coordinate trays of several unfinished projects. She needed to add two filing cabinets, which she shoved underneath one side of her expanded table.

She bought a computer and installed a phone and internet connection, so she could keep up with her bead research as she worked. She forgot to add some space to store all the bead and jewelry magazines she subscribed to and never threw away. She threw them in a pile on the floor in a corner and under part of her expanded table.

Her sister, who visited almost everyday, gave Ginny two hanging plants “for the studio.” Just what Ginny needed. But Ginny was too embarrassed not to find places for these, as well.

Ginny began to realize that her creative energies were getting used up in planning and maintaining her environment. She was too tired to think about making jewelry. So she moved some of her stuff, and her great ergonomic chair, to a table in what today is rumored to have been her dining room, and where she wouldn’t have to deal with it all. …And she moved just a few little things to a tray that sits on top of a throw pillow that sits on top of her living room couch.

As every beader has experienced, the beads take over more and more of your home. Eventually, if you keep beading and making jewelry long enough, you’ll need a second home. Or you’ll be forced to open up a bead store of your own.

As one of my friends remarked recently, in a controlled panic, “I’m out of space, and I have nowhere to go.”

And not to complicate things, but to complicate things…. If you are selling yourself, it is very advisable to set up a “Business” area separate from your “Craft” area.

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

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Posted in Stitch 'n Bitch | Tagged: beading, craft, Organization, Studio, Work Space | Leave a Comment »

JEWELRY MAKING TIPS: What To Know About Gluing Rhinestones

Posted by learntobead on April 19, 2020

GLUING RHINESTONES

There are glue-on rhinestones and hot-fix rhinestones. They are equally as good.

For glue-on, prefer E6000 glue. Other glues either don’t hold well, or can ruin rhinestones.

When we use E6000 with rhinestones, we put a little drop of glue on the end of a pin.

Then we touch the glue to the back of the rhinestone.

We maneuver the pin-glue-rhinestone over the place where we want the stone to be.

Then we push the rhinestone in place with our finger, and simultaneously pull the pin away from the stone.

We rub the stone and around the stone with our finger or the pin to get any excess glue off.

Before it dries, E6000 rubs off like rubber cement.

E6000 takes 10 minutes to begin to set, so you can move things around for 10 minutes to get them to the position you want. At 20 minutes, the consistency is like rubber cement. You can use your finger or a tweezer and easily remove the excess glue. E6000 takes 24 hours to fully set.

WHEN YOU DON’T WANT THAT POP!…
Gluing Rhinestones to Flip Flops (or other Oily Surface)

Flip Flops are a fashion statement — especially when decorated with bright, shiny Austrian crystal rhinestones. Unfortunately, the rhinestones will pop off easily, if the surface of the flip flops isn’t treated first. You see, the rubber flip flops are very oily, and glue will not stick to them very long.

I suggest going to your local hardware store. Buy a can of wood-deck water-proofing sealant, and paint it on your flip flops. Let them dry. Then glue your rhinestones on. I suggest using a glue like E6000 or Beacon 527.

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

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Posted in Stitch 'n Bitch | Tagged: craft, embellishment, Gluing Rhinestones, jewelry making, Rhinestones | Leave a Comment »

JEWELRY MAKING TIPS: Duct Tape Your Pliers

Posted by learntobead on April 19, 2020

DUCT TAPE YOUR PLIERS

If you feel you are scratching up your pieces with your pliers, you can do one of two things.

You can replace your pliers with nylon tipped ones. This solves the scratching issues, but sometimes you don’t feel you have the same control over these, as you do with regular pliers. They tend to slip too easily when you are using them.

Or, you can take some duct tape, and tape over the jaws of your pliers. You can do this to your chain nose pliers, flat nose pliers, round nose pliers, and the like.

Since the duct tape is thin, you don’t lose that “feel”, as you manipulate the pliers with your hand.

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

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Posted in Stitch 'n Bitch | Tagged: craft, jewelry making, Jewelry Making Tools, Nylon Tip Tools, wire working | 1 Comment »

JEWELRY MAKING TIPS: Wax,Wax,Wax

Posted by learntobead on April 19, 2020

Wax. Wax. Wax.

A really good artist will wax their beading thread (Nymo, C-Lon, One-G) or cable thread (Fireline). Even if the thread says it’s been pre-waxed, you want to re-wax this thread.

We wax our thread to make it strong, less likely to fray, to straighten and stretch it a bit before using, to waterproof and protect the thread from weird body chemistries as well as cosmetics, perfumes and perfume oils and hair sprays, and pollutants in the air, to glide through the beads better, and to fill in the jagged edges of the hole of a bead to make it less likely to cut the thread.

There are different types of threads and conditioners.

The primary choices are among pure beeswax, synthetic beeswax (also called microcrystalline wax), and a thread conditioner, like Thread Heaven. I suggest you always use beeswax, either pure or synthetic. I do not recommend a thread conditioner.

Thread conditioners reduce the chances your thread will get tangled or knotted up while you are weaving or stringing with it. It reduces the static electricity that builds up each time you pull the thread or cable thread through a bead. But it doesn’t have any of the positive impacts that wax does. It’s an either or choice. So I choose wax.

The synthetic wax is a little more expensive than the pure wax, but I prefer it. The synthetic does everything the pure one does, only better.

Waxing the thread takes very little time, and it can add years to the life of your bead art. Regular bees wax will protect your thread for 150 years. Synthetic bees way many more times this.

When waxing, we pull our thread through the wax two times. Then we take our two fingers, pinching the thread, and slowing moving down the full length of our thread. Our body temperature melts the wax into the thread. Our fingers also knock off any excess wax on the thread. Always pull by the thread, not by your needle, when waxing.

To feel the effects of waxing, try this:

Take an arm’s length (about 6 feet) of Nymo D or C-Lon D Thread it onto a Size #10 English beading needle.

Double it up, so that you now have your length of thread in half, with two equal lengths extending from either side of your needle’s eye hole.

At the needle end, wrap the thread around your forefinger a couple times. When we pull the thread through the wax, we want to pull by the thread, and NOT by the needle.

Wax the thread twice, then take your two fingers and go down the thread, allowing your body temperature to melt the wax into the thread.

Now un-double your thread.

Move your needle up to one end, leaving about an 8–10” tail.

Take your two fingers, pinching the thread, and feel down the length of the thread to find the area that was wrapped around your finger, and did not get waxed. Your fingers will slip.

Now wax two more times from that area on down.

Pinch your thread at one end, moving your fingers down the length to melt the wax into the thread.

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

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Posted in Stitch 'n Bitch | Tagged: bead weaving, Bees Wax, craft, jewelry making, waxing thread | Leave a Comment »

JEWELRY MAKING TIPS: The Color Effects of Threads

Posted by learntobead on April 19, 2020

Same bead strung with different colors of thread

Color Effects of Thread

Thread color affects the viewer’s perception and evaluation of the piece.

People see the thread at the knots. They subconsciously see the threads between each bead. If you are using transparent or translucent beads, the thread color will affect the color of these beads. You can do the same piece using different colored threads, and each of these pieces will look very different.

Black always works. Can’t see the knots, only shadows. This makes your piece seem older, richer, more traditional. It gives your piece a patina.

White makes your pieces brighter, sharper, more contemporary looking.

Colors: Most people select a color that is the same or similar to the predominant color in the piece. In this case, there is no color affect. However, you can pick contrasting or complimentary colors, such as using an amethyst colored thread to string peridot colored beads. You can also change the colors of your thread as you work thru your piece.

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft video tutorials online.
Of special interest: My video tutorial THE JEWELRY DESIGNER’S APPROACH TO COLOR

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Posted in Stitch 'n Bitch | Tagged: beading, colors, craft, jewelry making, Thread | Leave a Comment »

JEWELRY MAKING TIPS: Beading Threads vs. Bead Cord

Posted by learntobead on April 19, 2020

Beading Threads vs. Bead Cords

People often confuse BEAD CORDS and THREADS.

Beading Threads are very thin ribbons, and are meant to be fully covered with beads, thus hidden within your pieces. They are typically waxed with beeswax to keep them from fraying. Threads, once waxed, are actually stronger and more durable than bead cords, but they are unsightly.

Threads are used in both bead weaving and bead stringing projects.

Beading Cords are threads that are braided together, to make them visually attractive. But you don’t wax bead cords — this would make them ugly. So Bead Cords will have problems of fraying and stretching that waxed Threads will not. When Bead Cord is waxed, the exposed waxed cord also picks up dirt and body oils, making it dirty and unsightly, and furthering weakening the cord.

Bead Cords are used for projects where you want the cord to show, like putting knots between beads, or tin cup necklaces where you have a cluster of beads, then a length of cord showing, and then another cluster of beads, then the cord, and so forth.

If you do not want your cord to show, then you would use a waxed Bead Thread or Cable Wire, which are much more durable than Bead Cords.

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft video tutorials online.

Add your name to my email list.

Posted in Stitch 'n Bitch | Tagged: Bead Cord, bead stringing, bead weaving, craft, Thread | Leave a Comment »

JEWELRY DESIGN TIPS: Bead Stringing With Needle and Thread

Posted by learntobead on April 19, 2020

CHOOSING STRINGING MATERIALS

There are many types of stringing materials to choose from. Each has its own pros and cons. These types include,

o Beading Thread
o Flexible Nylon Coated Cable Wires
o Cable Threads (a hybrid between the cable wires and the beading threads, such as FireLine)
o Bead Cord
o Elastic String
o Hard Wire

The primary choice is between needle and thread vs. cable wire.

You always get your best design or functional outcome with needle and beading thread. Projects strung on thread always take the shape of your body, so they move with the body, drape the best, feel the best. Needle and thread, however, is very involved — you have to use a needle, you have to wax the thread, you typically go through each bead at least 3 times. If you are trying to sell your pieces, it is almost impossible to get your labor out of a needle and thread project.

Flexible, nylon coated Cable Wires are much simpler and quicker to use. But the outcomes tend to be stiff, not move as well, or drape as well. However, by adding support systems, such as rings and loops, within your piece — ways to increase jointedness — you can make your cable wire project function a little more closely to that of needle and thread.

In terms of other stringing materials, cable threads (such as FireLine) often offer a good compromise between the functional qualities and marketing concerns of needle/thread and cable wire projects.

Bead Cords are threads braided together so they look pretty. Bead Cord is used when you want your stringing materials to show, such as when putting knots between beads, or doing something like a Tin-Cup necklace, where you have a cluster of beads, and the cord shows, another cluster of beads, the cord, and so forth. Bead Cord trades off durability for visual appearance. If you were covering the whole string with beads, you would not want to use bead cord.

Elastic String is very popular, and avoids the issues of attaching clasps; however, it is not a durable product and loses its “memory” over time.

A last choice is hard wire. Hard wire is not a stringing wire. You can’t put a strand of beads on hard wire and attach a clasp; the metal wire will bend, kink and break from bending back and forth. Hard wire is used to create structural components, chains or shapes, which you can begin to link up, that is, build in support systems, in order to construct a bracelet or necklace.

Basic Steps: Using Needle and Thread to String Beads

Needle/Thread Bead stringing is a technique for securing a clasp to beads strung on beading thread or cable thread. Here you tie knots to secure your beadwork to your clasp. The process is relatively simple and requires only a little practice.

Successful Needle/Thread Bead Stringing requires that you understand the following:
1. Which threads or cable threads are best for which projects
2. Which needles work best
3. How to wax your thread
4 . How the materials you use affect your success
5 . The mechanical process itself, how it works, why it works, and why we do each step

THE BASIC STEPS:

With needle and thread, you always go through your beads 3 times. In a bead strung piece,that means you are going to take your needle and thread back and forth 3 times.

In fact, we are going to do everything in 3’s. We are going to go back and forth 3 times. As we get to each end,we are going to tie 3 knots.

Create your pattern.

2. You would cut your thread — about 6′ (a wingspan).

3. Lay out all your beads and the clasp assembly parts on the bead board or some other work surface, in the order they are to be used.

4. Thread your needle.

5. Wax your thread.

6. You would attach the largest part of your clasp — with Toggles, this is the ring — on one end, tying three overhand knots, and leaving a 8–10″ tail.

7. Slide on your beads, following the pattern.

NOTE: We only slide the beads over the thread spine, not the tail. With needle/thread work, we deal with the tails at the very end. They will be annoyingly in the way until then.

8. Determine the fit — both length and ease — by clamping or holding with your fingers the open end, and encircling a sizing cone or someone’s wrist with your bracelet. Remember here that the other end of the clasp will add another 1/2″ to this length.

Adjust the number or patterning of beads, if necessary.

NOTE: You need to make all your size and patterning adjustments BEFORE you attach the 2nd part of the clasp.

9. Tie off the other clasp-component — with the Toggle, this is the bar — making three knots.

10. Bring your needle/thread back to the ring side, and tie three more knots.

11. Bring your needle/thread one more time back to the bar side.

12. Tie three more knots.

13. Bring your needle/thread back through towards the ring about 1 1/2″ to 2″.

14. Tie 3 more knots.

15. Finishing off the tail. We want to see if we can pop any excess threads or knots which are showing back into the hole of that first bead.

Pinch the beads under the clasp and pull away from you while you grasp your thread and pull this towards you. Sometimes you will feel or see a pop.

Trim the tail.

16. Thread the tail on the other side of the bracelet onto a needle, and repeat these last two steps.

HOW TO USE NEEDLE AND THREAD
To String a Bracelet, Including How to Wax Your Thread

There are many different types of stringing materials. The best outcomes are achieved using needle and thread. Beading threads are nylon. Most are shaped like a thin ribbon, rather than round, like sewing thread. Most are bonded, rather than twisted, fibers, which adds a lot of what is called “abrasion resistance.”

With beading threads, your stringing will be the strongest, it will last a long time, it will feel supple and soft, and it will drape and wear the best. It will take the shape of the body, and move the best with the body. These jewelry qualities are referred to as “ease.” Needle/Thread projects have a natural ease to them. Achieving good ease is much more problematic with other stringing materials.

With needle and thread, you tie knots to secure your clasps. Prominent beading threads including Nymo, C-Lon and One-G. One thread, Silamide is a pre-waxed thread and it is twisted, rather than bonded, which means it has no abrasion resistance. Although it is pre-waxed and little easier to manipulate through your beads, I don’t recommend it. I’m not big on anything that breaks easily.

Using needle and thread does add a lot of time to the creation of a piece. You have to use a needle, which can be awkward. You need to wax your thread, which takes more time. You need to go through your piece THREE times. If you are selling your pieces, very often it is difficult to recoup your labor costs, when using needle and thread. In this case, people often revert to using a cable wire as their stringing material.

Bead Stringing with cable wires goes very quickly and is easy to do. The cable wire is stiff enough to be its own needle. You don’t wax. You only have to go through your piece ONE time. The better cable wires are very strong. There is a stiffness to them that makes the pieces not feel as good when worn, in comparison to thread. You also have to use a crimp bead to hold the cable wires in place, and this is a weaker and somewhat riskier design element than tying a knot in the Clasp Assembly. Cable wire brands that I like include Soft Flex and Flexrite.

Pieces done on cable wire move in the opposite direction that your body moves. If I wear a needle/thread bracelet on my wrist, and move my wrist to the left, the bracelet will move with me. If I wear a cable wire bracelet on my wrist, and move my wrist to the left, the bracelet will actually move in the opposite direction to the right. The cable wire bracelet does not conform to and take the shape of your wrist, when worn. This becomes a major design problem not always dealt with easily.

Another alternative to beading thread is to use a hybrid cable thread, such as FireLine or PowerPro or Spiderwire. Cable threads are threads braided together and encased in nylon. Originally these were used as fishing line and adapted by craftspersons for stringing and weaving. You use needles with these cable threads, but you only have to go through your piece one time, instead of 3 times, as you do with thread. You can go through your piece more than once to make your piece stiffer, but you don’t have to. You do not have to wax these cable threads. You can wax them, however, if you want, to increase your thread tension, and add more security against the sharp bead-holes cutting the cable thread.

The cable thread pieces are stiffer than the regular beading threads, but drape better than the cable wires. You tie knots with the cable threads, like with regular beading threads, to secure your clasp. Since you still rely on a needle, using the cable threads goes more slowly than using the cable wires. The PowerPro is a little awkward to use. I really like the FireLine and Spiderwire.

Threads (nylon beading thread)

There are many types and brands of beading threads, each with some pros and each with some cons.

The original nylon beading thread is Nymo. Nymo was first developed by the shoe industry to attach the bottom of your shoe to the top of your shoe. It is widely used in upholstery. In the 1980s and earlier, if you wanted to buy Nymo, you bought it on a gigantic wheel — a five lifetime’s supply for us. As beading got more popular, Nymo packaged their thread on smaller and smaller entities, starting with a cone (a little bigger than a fist), then a spool (a little bigger than a thumb), and then a small bobbin. More recently the spool has been replaced by a large bobbin.

It turns out that the company could not get the same product onto a small bobbin. So, the thread on the small bobbin is weaker than the thread on the large bobbin, spool and cone. However, usually only white and black colors are available on the entities larger than the small bobbin.

Nymo is very strong. I suggest, if you have never worked with Nymo, to cut off about a 3 foot length, and try to pull on it and break it between your hands. It will break, but you’ll feel how tough it is. And in bead stringing, we typically go through each bead at least 3 times, so you have 3 thicknesses of this thread inside your piece.

When they make Nymo thread, it is a beige color. To make black, they dye the thread. The black dye tightens the thread, and makes it stronger. To make white, they bleach the thread. The bleach weakens the thread, so white is weaker than black. To make a color thread, they first bleach the thread white and then add a color dye. These color dyes further weaken the thread. So colors are weaker than white, and thus weaker than black. The colors of the thread, however, are consistent from batch to batch.

Nymo comes in many sizes. From smallest to largest, these include: OO, O, A, B, D, F, and G. The most popular and most often used size is D.

C-Lon is a newer thread. When they make C-Lon, whatever color it is, that is the color the thread starts as. So, all the colors AND the white AND the black are equally as strong. However, the color from batch to batch will vary, sometimes widely. Overall, we like C-Lon better, particularly for the white and the colors. Black C-Lon is equivalent in strength to the Black Nymo. For everything else, it is stronger. One drawback to C-Lon is that the ends of the thread fray easily, making it more difficult to get your thread into the eye-hole of the needle, than with Nymo. C-Lon only comes in two sizes — AA (smallest) and D (thickest).

ONE-G is a premium beading thread and is similar in strength to C-Lon. I think its best attribute is that it has a spring-i-ness to it, that makes it much less tiring to use, than Nymo or C-Lon. ONE-G only comes in size D and only in about 12 colors.

Silamide is a pre-waxed thread. The pre-waxing allows the thread to get less tangled up when you use it. However, Silamide breaks very easily, so I don’t recommend it. Why put in all that time into a project if there is a good chance your thread will break?

Beading thread is shaped flat like a ribbon. Sewing thread is shaped round. Sewing threads are not strong enough to use in beadwork.

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.

Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).

Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft video tutorials online.

Add your name to my email list.

Posted in Stitch 'n Bitch | Tagged: bead stringing, craft, jewelry making, Needle And Thread, Stringing Materials | Leave a Comment »

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FOOTNOTES

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Other Articles of Interest by Warren Feld:

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5 Essential Questions Every Jewelry Designer Should Have An Answer For

Fluency and Empowerment

Question 1: Should BEADWORK and JEWELRY MAKING be considered ART or CRAFT or DESIGN?

QUESTION 2: How do you decide what you want to create? What kinds of things do you do to translate your passions and inspirations into jewelry? What is your creative process?

QUESTION 3: What kinds of MATERIALS work well together, and which ones do not? This applies to TECHNIQUES as well. What kinds of TECHNIQUES (or combinations of techniques) work well when, and which ones do not?

Question 4: Beyond applying basic techniques and selecting quality materials, how does the Jewelry Designer evoke an emotional and resonant response to their jewelry? What skill-sets do Designers need in order to think through powerful designs?

QUESTION #5: When is enough enough? How does the jewelry artist know when the piece is done? Overdone? Or underdone? How do you edit? What fix-it strategies do you come up with and employ?

There is no one best way — only your way

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5 Essential Questions Every Jewelry Designer
Should Have An Answer For