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.
SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER Merging Your Voice With Form
So You Want To Be A Jewelry Designer reinterprets how to apply techniques and modify art theories from the Jewelry Designer’s perspective. To go beyond craft, the jewelry designer needs to become literate in this discipline called Jewelry Design. Literacy means understanding how to answer the question: Why do some pieces of jewelry draw your attention, and others do not? How to develop the authentic, creative self, someone who is fluent, flexible and original. How to gain the necessary design skills and be able to apply them, whether the situation is familiar or not.
The Challenge To Explain Who You Are As A Designer
It is very challenging to explain who you are to people who do not know anything about you. You have several vehicles for conveying this information. These include how you name your business or name your jewelry and jewelry lines. These include your getting started story. Your tag line. Your elevator pitch. Your brochures, business cards and stationery. The types of inventory you carry, and do not carry. The consistent and coherent features of your jewelry designs.
In this book, I go over in detail how to begin to develop the kinds of information and the vehicles for conveying this information to influence how people see you, want to come to you, want to buy your jewelry, want to recommend you to others. Then it comes down to planning, strategy and practice.
TELL YOUR STORY
The story of your jewelry passion and career is a critical component of business success. The story can be real. It can be partially real and partially embellished. It can be a fantasy. However, it is important to have a story. It will always be a foundational element of your business. Jewelry design doesn’t speak for itself. Storytelling helps design stand out. People are attracted to stories and like to follow narratives. Always remember this maxim: Facts Tell, but Stories Sell!
With your story, you begin to establish that personal, emotional connection between your customer, you and your products. When you establish a very personal connection with your customer, you will more likely make the sale. And keep making the sale. Over and over again.
People are not just buying your work. They are buying an experience. The more they know about you, your techniques, and the particulars of the work, the more likely they are to buy something.
You, in effect, are building a brand. The brand is you.
Your story could be real or imagined. Whatever it is, it must be relevant and ring true to what you are selling. AND, it must be to the point and easily repeatable.
Telling her story was something Sarsaparilla Sue did very, very well.
Many people learn beadwork and jewelry-making in order to sell the pieces they make. Based both on the creation and development of my own jewelry design business, as well as teaching countless students over the past 35+ years about business and craft, I want to address what should be some of your key concerns and uncertainties. I want to share with you the kinds of things (specifically, a business mindset and confidence) it takes to start your own jewelry business, run it, anticipate risks and rewards, and lead it to a level of success you feel is right for you. I want to help you plan your road map.
I will explore answers to such questions as: How does someone get started marketing and selling their pieces? What business fundamentals need to be brought to the fore? How do you measure risk and return on investment? How does the creative person develop and maintain a passion for business? To what extent should business decisions affect artistic choices? What similar traits to successful jewelry designers do those in business share? How do you protect your intellectual property?
The major topics covered include,
1. Integrating Business With Design
2. Getting Started
3. Financial Management
4. Product Development, Creating Your Line, and Pricing
5. Marketing, Promotion, Branding
6. Selling
7. Professional Responsibilities and Strategic Planning
8. Professional Responsibilities and Gallery / Boutique Representation
9. Professional Responsibilities and Creating Your Necessary Written Documents
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.
SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER Merging Your Voice With Form
So You Want To Be A Jewelry Designer reinterprets how to apply techniques and modify art theories from the Jewelry Designer’s perspective. To go beyond craft, the jewelry designer needs to become literate in this discipline called Jewelry Design. Literacy means understanding how to answer the question: Why do some pieces of jewelry draw your attention, and others do not? How to develop the authentic, creative self, someone who is fluent, flexible and original. How to gain the necessary design skills and be able to apply them, whether the situation is familiar or not.
Some Updates and Things Happening. (Please share this newsletter)
In this Issue: 1. Exhibitions Not Just Seen But Felt 2. Why jewelers are championing ‘ugly’ gems 3. Jewelry Deserves A Place In Art History 4. Call For Submissions: Smithsonian Craft Show, 2026 5. The Artist Who Captured the Contradictions of Femininity 6. Some Tips For Designing Your Website 7. The Mirror Motif In Contemporary Jewelry 8. FEAST -Contemporary Jewelry From the Susan Beech Collection
Some articles you may have missed Featured
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1. Exhibitions Not Just Seen but Felt, Beyond the Vitrine. By matt lambert, Art Jewelry Forum
(Left) Leo wearing a necklace by (right) Sofia Tekela-Smith. Sofia Tekela-Smith, Untitled, 2025, necklace in mother-of-pearl, waxed thread, photo: Jamie Berry
At the start of my Munich Jewellery Week adventure, I made my way to the Museum Fünf Kontinente (Museum Five Continents) to attend the KOHĀ ceremony led by Aotearoa (New Zealand) adornment practitioners Neke Moa, Sofia Tekela-Smith, and Stevei Houkāmau. The Munich Jewellery Week website described it as a performance and activation.
Fijian Wasekaseka Necklace, in sperm whale teeth, acquired in 1900 from Parisian dealer Emile Heymann, further provenance unknown, collection Fünf Kontinente Museum. (On stage, right) Stevei Houkāmau assists (left) Sofia Tekela-Smith in securing the necklace from the Fünf Kontinente Museum collection. Tekela-Smith is wearing a “Tofua,” a traditional Rotuman pandanus skirt from the island of Rotuma, a Parā /head lei of artificial hibiscus and leaves made of silk, 2024, necklace by Stevei Houkāmau, Korero with Our Ancestors, 2025, in black clay, wax cord, paint, photo courtesy of matt lambert
Koha is a vital concept in te ao Māori (the Māori world). It references the act of offering a gift or contribution as an expression of gratitude. Koha exists in both formal ceremony and everyday life.
The happening was rich and layered with many components. I cannot properly do it justice. In a highly emotive moment, Moa, Tekela-Smith, and Houkāmau showed works they made in response to works in the museum’s collection. In a surprise move by the museum, during the ceremony they were allowed to handle pieces from the historic collection, even permitted to wear one of them.
“Using the scientific precision of terms like “IF Type IIa” — to describe diamonds so pure they show no inclusions under 10x magnification — jewelry purveyors have long placed heavy emphasis on the clarity and cut of a gem. The sharper the facet and flawless the sparkle, the more valuable a stone once appeared.”
“Until now. Once dismissed as “ugly ducklings” — too marked, too dark, or too strange — imperfect gems are now stepping into the spotlight, as high-end jewelers increasingly champion stones with unique inclusions or less-than-perfect clarity.”
“The popularity of unconventional stones signals a broader shift in consumer behavior. More women are now buying jewelry for themselves, often valuing design and emotional resonance over traditional notions of investment — contrasting with male buyers who typically view jewelry as a store of value or a gift, according to several jewelry executives interviewed by CNN. “
Unknown English artist, “Armada Portrait” (1588), oil on oak panel (image courtesy Woburn Abbey, Woburn, Bedfordshire, England)
“In Albrecht Dürer’s idealized, early-16th-century portrait of Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor wears a dazzling crown. The diadem, topped by a cross, was itself very real. But it did not exist until around 962 CE, over a century after Charlemagne’s death. “
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, “Portrait of Madame Moitessier” (1851), oil on canvas (image courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)
“Considered the oldest decorative art, jewelry has such a power to communicate that artists have been willing to bend the truth to exploit its associative capacities — or so argues Beyond Adornment: Jewelry and Identity in Art (2025). Yvonne J. Markowitz, jewelry curator at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston, and Susanne Gänsicke, senior conservator of Antiquities at the Getty Museum, explore what the depiction of jewelry in art says about adornment, artists, and their subjects.”
“This practice of eschewing historical accuracy in order to build a compelling narrative is a prevalent theme, and the book’s discussion of Archaeological Revival jewelry — European and American pieces from the 18th and 19th centuries that sought to recreate ancient styles — is particularly fascinating. In Spanish painter Vicente Palmaroli y González’s 1870 portrait of aristocrat Enid, Lady Layard, the sitter wears jewelry made from “numerous ancient cylinder seals and stamp seals” found in excavations at Nineveh, the effect of which Gänsickedescribes as a “historical melange.” Her husband was a prominent Assyriologist known for uncovering the Library of Ashurbanipal. Perhaps, Gänsicke suggests, “the set’s purpose was as much to declare her husband’s accomplishments as to adorn the wearer.” “
Christina Ramberg in her studio (Photograph by Mary Baber)
“Observing a woman get ready to go out is, for many girls, an early glimpse at the ritualistic preparations that femininity can entail. For the artist Christina Ramberg, watching her mother getting dressed for parties — in particular, putting on a corset called a merry widow, which gave her an hourglass figure — revealed the extent to which the female form was a ruse. “I can remember being stunned by how it transformed her body, how it pushed up her breasts and slendered down her waist,” Ramberg later observed. “I used to think that this is what men want women to look like; she’s transforming herself into the kind of body men want. I thought it was fascinating,” she said. “In some ways, I thought it was awful.””
The estate of Christina Ramberg Probed Cinch, 1971
“These dueling reactions, fascination and repulsion, come up in Ramberg’s paintings, which, especially early in her career, fixated on the artifice of the female body — all the different ways that women construct themselves, with the aid of the mass market. Her striking portraits of women’s body parts feature torsos strapped into corsets, feet shoved into high heels, intricately arranged updos. The images are crisp, flat, and slyly cropped or angled to never show faces. And although they’re sensual, they’re also depersonalized and often off-kilter; sometimes, hair is parted in unnatural directions, or skin is patchy. The dueling presence of unruly and taming forces in these paintings recalls the consumer products that divide women’s bodies into conquerable parts: the sprays that restrain, the undergarments that shape. As the artist Riva Lehrer puts it in one of several essays accompanying a traveling exhibit of Ramberg’s work, currently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, “Without the face, the body must tell all.””
The estate of Christina Ramberg Untitled (Hand), 1971; Untitled (Hand), 1971
If your art website serves different audiences — like collectors, store owners, individual buyers, and publishers — don’t overwhelm visitors with too many options.
Instead, divide your homepage into clear sections, each labeled for its audience (e.g., “For Collectors,” “For Store Owners,”, “For My Customers”, “For Authors”).
Let each section guide visitors to the relevant content and products, so they instantly know where to go.
Use simple language and align your navigation menu with those same categories.
A clear structure not only reduces confusion — it helps the right people find what they’re looking for, fast.
💻 Quick tips on designing a clear and engaging artist website:
Start with messaging that speaks to your audience’s experience, not just your own story.
Break long paragraphs into short, scannable chunks to keep visitors engaged.
Simplify your menu by grouping offerings into “artworks” and “services.”
Move exhibitions to your About page to keep your navigation clean and current.
Aim for a clean, professional layout that feels like a curated gallery space.
🖼️ When building your website, treat it as a portfolio — not an archive.
Focus on showcasing only your strongest work that represents who you are today as a creator, especially if you’re multidisciplinary.
Resist the urge to include everything you’ve ever made; too much content can overwhelm visitors and dilute your message.
Highlight only key exhibitions that add credibility, and keep the layout clean and intentional to avoid a “garage sale” feel.
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7. Perceptual Surfaces in Flux: Mirrors, Embodied Vision and Optical Fields in Contemporary Jewellery
Tour the home of American collector Susan Beech. Since 1991, she has been transforming her house into an extraordinary environment in which the themes of her extensive jewelry collection interact with craft and fine art, all against a backdrop of Art Deco glamour. Beauty is entwined with darker forces of death and decay, and glimpses of pleasure are complicated by a nod to the surreal and uncanny. The result is a wholly original and fascinating stage for a major collection of contemporary jewelry thoughtfully assembled over four decades.
Sat, 7/19, 9am-Noon, INTRODUCTION TO WIRE WEAVING and MAYAN PENDANT
Middle Tenn Gem & Mineral Society, Donelson Fifty Forward Registration begins June 21http://www.mtgms.org/schools.htm Sat, 7/19, 1–4pm, WIRE WORKING INTRODUCTION and MIX N MATCH BRACELET
Middle Tenn Gem & Mineral Society, Donelson Fifty Forward Registration begins June 21http://www.mtgms.org/schools.htm Sat, 7/26, 1–4pm, WIRE WOVEN MAYAN PENDANT, Hoamsy, Nashville, LC Goat, Germantown, 1220 2nd Ave N
Sat, 8/16, 9am-Noon, WIRE WRAPPED CABOCHON PENDANT
Middle Tenn Gem & Mineral Society, Donelson Fifty Forward Registration begins June 21http://www.mtgms.org/schools.htm Sat, 8/16, 1–4pm, WIRE WEAVE 2 and SUN PENDANT
Middle Tenn Gem & Mineral Society, Donelson Fifty Forward Registration begins June 21http://www.mtgms.org/schools.htm Sat, 8/23, 1–4pm, WIRE WRAP MIX N MATCH BRACELET, Hoamsy, Nashville, LC Goat, Germantown, 1220 2nd Ave N
Promote your current projects, promotional copy, News & Views, videos, reels, tutorials, instructions, social media posts online in this newsletter and on our jewelry designers’ Patreon hub.
No deadlines! Opportunity available all the time. No fees.
But don’t wait to take advantage of this opportunity.
This copyrighted material is published here with permission of the author(s) as noted, or with Land of Odds or Warren Feld Jewelry. All rights reserved.
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Repairs Stumping You? Let Me Take A Look
I take in a lot of jewelry repairs. People either bring them to me in Columbia, TN, or, I pick them up and deliver them back in Nashville. I am in Nashville at least once a week. It’s been convenient for most people to meet me at Green Hills Mall. But if not, I can come to your workplace or your home. This is perfectly fine for me. My turnaround time typically is 3–4 weeks.
I do most repairs, but I do not do any soldering. I also do not repair watches. These are the kinds of repairs I do:
o Beaded jewelry o Pearl knotting, hand knotting o Size/Length adjustment o Re-stringing o Wire work/weave/wrap o Micro macrame o Broken clasp replacfement o Earring repair o Replace lost rhinestones or gemstones o Stone setting o Stretchy bracelet o Metal working which does not involve soldering o Bead woven jewelry and purses o Beaded clothing o Custom jewelry design
WARREN FELD JEWELRY (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com) Custom Design, Workshops, Video Tutorials, Webinars, Coaching, Kits, Group Activities, Repairs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Join our community of jewelry designers on my Patreon hub Be part of a community of jewelry designers who recognize that we have a different way of thinking and doing than other types of crafters or artists. One free downloadable Mini-Lesson of your choice for all new members! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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. Picking the right clasps and rings and connectors and stringing materials is fraught with implications. 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 desire it. To buy it. To wear it. To wear it more than once. To wear it often. To exhibit it. To collect it. To show and talk about it with others. 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 designer 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, but rather, inform them.
There are 8 major ways in which jewelry designers get caught beginning to fall into that abyss we call self-doubt: …
I believe jewelry designers have a special way of thinking through selecting design elements, composing, constructing, and manipulating objects. Different than crafters. Different than artists. Different than other disciplines and their core ways of defining things and thinking things through.
How should the designer think? How should she organize her tasks? How should she tap into her creative self? How should she select materials, techniques and technologies? How should she assert her creativity and introduce her ideas and objects to others? How much does she need to know about how and why people wear and inhabit jewelry? What impact should she strive to have on others or the more general culture and society as a whole? How should she approach unfamiliar, unknown or problematic designs?
I try to formulate a disciplinary literacy unique and special and legitimate for jewelry designers. Such literacy encompasses a basic vocabulary about materials, techniques, color and other design elements and rules of composition. It also includes the kinds of thinking routines and strategies jewelry designers need to know in order to be fluent, flexible and original. It includes what the jewelry designer needs to know and do when introducing their pieces publicly, either to have others wear, buy or collect their pieces.
These routines and strategies are at the heart of the designer’s knowledges, skills and understandings related to creativity, elaboration, embellishment, reflection, critique and metacognition. This disciplinary literacy in design is very similar to how sounds are made into music. This literacy is very similar to how words are made into literature. There is an underlying vocabulary and grammar to jewelry design, from decoding to comprehension to fluency. The jewelry designer is dependent upon this disciplinary literacy to the extent that she or he is able to move from inspiration to aspiration to implementation and management towards finish and success. …
Why do you want to become (or are already on the way to becoming) a jewelry designer? 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 designer. 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. …
From Warren and Land of Odds Join my community of jewelry designers on myPatreon hub MAY 1, 2025 Sign up for a Free or Paid Subscription[Note: Paid Subscribers on Patreon Hub get 25% Off @Land of Odds]www.landofodds.comHi everyone, Some Updates and Things Happening. (Please share this newsletter)
Some Updates and Things Happening. (Please share this newsletter)
In this Issue: 1. Jewels of the Garden 2. HANDWORK: Celebrating American Craft 2026 3. Pearl Knotting…Warren’s Way, 2nd Edition Released 4. 64 Open Courses You Can Apply For 5. Your Artist Statement 6. Call for Entries: Workhouse Arts Center CLAY INTERNATIONAL 7. The Jewelry of Lesley Aine McKeown
Insects and fruits in adornment. What would jewelry be without them?
2. HANDWORK: Celebrating American Craft 2026
To join the celebration, please contact Jen Ruppmann (handwork@craftamerica.org) . Visit www.handwork2026.org for a full listing of participating organizations. 3. Pearl Knotting…Warren’s Way, 2nd Edition Released 184pp, many images and diagrams Ebook, Kindle or PrintClassic Elegance! Timeless! Architectural Perfection! Learn a simple Pearl Knotting technique anyone can do. No special tools. Beautiful. Durable. Wearable.In this very detailed book, with thorough instructions and pictures, you are taught a non-traditional Pearl Knotting technique which is very easy for anyone to learn and do. Does not use special tools. Presents a simple way to tie knots and position the knots to securely abut the bead. Anticipates both appeal and functionality. Shows clearly how to attach your clasp and finish off your cords.Most traditional techniques are very frustrating. These can get overly complicated and awkward. They rely on tools for making and positioning the knots. When attempting to follow traditional techniques, people often find they cannot tie the knots, make good knots, get the knots close enough to the beads, nor centered between them. How to attach the piece to the clasp gets simplified or glossed over.Pearl Knotting…Warren’s Way teaches you how to:· Hand-knot without tools· Select stringing materials· Begin and finish pieces by (1) attaching directly to the clasp, (2) using French wire bullion, (3), using clam shell bead tips, or, (4) making a continuous piece without a clasp· Add cord· Buy pearls, care for them, string and restring them, store themPearl Knotting doesn’t need to be this hard. By the end of Pearl Knotting…Warren’s Way, you will have mastered hand-knotting pearls. RE: Second EditionThis second edition takes into account a fuller utilization of technical options for the E-book version. Additional information, clarifications and summaries of ideas are added throughout. Instructions for Variation #3: Using Clam Shell Bead Tips is simplified a little bit.184pp, many images and diagrams Ebook, Kindle or Print
4. 64 Open Courses You Can Apply ForWhen jewelry making is your passion…
5. Your Artist Statement 📝 Your Artist Statement isn’t about you—it’s about the work.
Curators are looking for clarity, context, and commitment.
A strong artist statement clearly explains what your work is about, what drives it, and why it matters—without over-intellectualizing.
Avoid vague phrases like “exploring the liminal space…” unless you can explain exactly what that means.
Your bio, on the other hand, is your professional snapshot. Lead with location, education, exhibitions, and press—keep it factual and recent.
6. Call for entries, Workhouse Arts Center CLAY INTERNATIONAL
READ THE PROSPECTUS HERE 7. The Jewelry of Lesley Aine McKeownVisit her website “Creating is a process constantly in motion, one that keeps the maker searching for balance. I hope to create work that provokes thought. Bordering between sculpture and jewelry each is thoughtful in design and construction representing a meaning deeper than aesthetics.”“I am fascinated with juxtaposition and fluidity of materials. My work is about exploring the aspects of ephemeral impressions and the urbanity of metal. I use precious metals, stones and alternative materials to explore these expressions.”Using low-tech traditional metal smithing techniques and tools, each piece is created in Lesley’s studio in the tradition of the American Studio Art Jewelry movement of the 1940’s through the 60’s, which dictates that the work is created entirely in the artist’s studio. Her work is hand fabricated using recycled metals and ethically, sustainably-mined gemstones.
Promote your current projects, promotional copy, News & Views, videos, reels, tutorials, instructions, social media posts online in this newsletter and on our jewelry designers’ Patreon hub.
No deadlines! Opportunity available all the time. No fees.
But don’t wait to take advantage of this opportunity. This copyrighted material is published here with permission of the author(s) as noted, or with Land of Odds or Warren Feld Jewelry. All rights reserved.Repairs Stumping You? Let Me Take A Look I take in a lot of jewelry repairs. People either bring them to me in Columbia, TN, or, I pick them up and deliver them back in Nashville. I am in Nashville at least once a week. It’s been convenient for most people to meet me at Green Hills Mall. But if not, I can come to your workplace or your home. This is perfectly fine for me. My turnaround time typically is 3-4 weeks.
I do most repairs, but I do not do any soldering. I also do not repair watches. These are the kinds of repairs I do:
o Beaded jewelry o Pearl knotting, hand knotting o Size/Length adjustment o Re-stringing o Wire work/weave/wrap o Micro macrame o Broken clasp replacfement o Earring repair o Replace lost rhinestones or gemstones o Stone setting o Stretchy bracelet o Metal working which does not involve soldering o Bead woven jewelry and purses o Beaded clothing o Custom jewelry design
WARREN FELD JEWELRY (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com) Custom Design, Workshops, Video Tutorials, Webinars, Coaching, Kits, Group Activities, Repairs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Join our community of jewelry designers on myPatreon hub Be part of a community of jewelry designers who recognize that we have a different way of thinking and doing than other types of crafters or artists. One free downloadable Mini-Lesson of your choice for all new members! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Add your email address to my Warren Feld Jewelry emailing listhere.
Thanks for being here. I look forward to sharing more resources, tips, sources of inspiration and insights with you.Join A Community Of Jewelry Designers On MyPatreon Hub
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?
A successful jewelry design has a character of its own as well as some kind of evocative essence. Let’s call this a tone. The choice of materials, including beads, clasps, and stringing materials, and the choice of techniques, including stringing, weaving, wire working, glassworks, metalworks, clayworks, cements that tone into place. Techniques link the designer’s intent with the client’s expectations. The successful designer has a depth of knowledge about materials, their attributes, their strengths, their weaknesses, and is able to leverage the good and minimize the bad within any design. The same can be said of techniques.
The choice of materials and the choice of techniques set the tone and chances of success for your piece. Materials and techniques establish the character and personality of your designs. They contribute to understandings whether the piece is finished and successful.
However, there are no perfect materials (or techniques) for every jewelry project. Selecting materials (or techniques) is about making smart, strategic choices. This means relating your choices to your design and marketing goals. It also frequently means having to make tradeoffs and judgment calls between aesthetics and functionality. Last, materials (or techniques) may have different relationships with the designer, wearer or viewer depending on how they are intended to be used, and the situational or cultural contexts….
Some Updates and Things Happening. (Please share this newsletter)
In this Issue: 1. How to use AI in your jewelry business 2. Some pointers about the design of your website 3. Take Some Time To Celebrate Yourself! 4. Jewelry in the news 5. Simplify your INSTAGRAM feed — some tips 6. FLUENCY IN JEWELRY DESIGN: Fluency and Empowerment
Here are nine AI-driven strategies to boost your bottom line.
1. Personalized recommendations. AI analyzes customer behavior, such as purchase history, browsing behavior, and interactions with the brand. It then suggests relevant products, such as a “complete your look” feature at checkout, which increases sales and engagement.
2. Virtual try-ons. Augmented reality, powered by AI, is transforming the jewelry shopping experience. Virtual try-ons allow customers to see how a piece of jewelry would look on them without ever visiting the store, offering more confidence in their purchasing decisions.
3. Inventory management. Predictive analytics can take the guesswork out of inventory management by forecasting demand. This ensures you neither overstock nor run out of high-demand items, which leads to better resource allocation and cost savings.
4. Customer service chatbots. AI chatbots provide instant 24/7 support, freeing staff for in-store interactions. It’s important, however, to have a process in place for a smooth handoff to a human representative to resolve more complex issues.
5. Visual search. Customers can upload an image to find similar jewelry in your inventory, making discovery seamless.
6. Dynamic pricing optimization. AI can optimize your pricing strategy by suggesting pricing adjustments, in real-time, based on competitor rates, demand, and sales trends to maximize profits.
7. Product photography enhancement. AI-powered tools can automatically enhance product images, ensuring consistency and high quality across all visuals. Additionally, 360-degree views of jewelry pieces can be created, allowing customers to examine items from every angle.
8. Appraisal assistance. AI streamlines jewelry appraisals with data-driven valuations, reducing errors and increasing accuracy.
9. PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS. AI can significantly improve the quality of your product descriptions by translating industry jargon into customer-friendly language. Many shoppers are unfamiliar with terms like “14KWG” and would prefer a description that simply says, “14 karat white gold.” Clear, well-crafted descriptions make it easier for shoppers to purchase with confidence
So how can you get started? Identify your business needs (e.g., design, marketing, customer service, logistics) and explore AI tools already integrated into your existing e-commerce, CRM, or design software. Many platforms offer free trials or demos.
2. Some pointers about the design of your website
With the availability of chatgpt and other ai applications, it has become ever more difficult to do a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on your website and compete. Every new or upgraded website will have done this making it as difficult as ever to depend on someone doing a search engine search and finding you.
This means that the look and feel of your website will become its biggest asset.
Some things to think about:
Use your website as a portfolio, rather than a sales tool.
Keep your website clean and focused on your credibility.
Don’t worry about accommodating Google’s ranking and rating search criteria
Rely more on social media, like Instagram, and on email to drive traffic to your site
Large, high resolution impactful photos on your landing page is ideal
Use larger fonts, black type on white background works best
If listing collections on your landing page, also include a short description with each one
BE SURE: It’s easy to find how to contact you
3. Take Some Time To Celebrate Yourself
When was the last time this year you paused and looked back to celebrate the little wins — or the big ones?
It’s so easy to get caught up on doing, doing, doing… without pause.
At least once a week, sit down in a familiar place, relax, and reflect.
And celebrate yourself!
4. Jewelry In the News
o MUNICH JEWELLERY WEEK TO RELOCATE TO ALASKA IN 2026 In an effort to fight global warming, the biggest global event in art jewelry will be permanently held in Anchorage. There’s a positive side to it: “Big, heavy parkas are a great surface for displaying brooches,” stated Frau Brosche, a press officer from the Internationale Handwerksmesse.
Bespoke abacus yellow gold ring with yellow sapphire, designed and made by Tamara Gomez, photo courtesy of the artist
o SMITHSONIAN TO OPEN MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN ART JEWELER The institution will join the Air and Space and Hirshhorn museums on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Yvonne Montoya, AJF’s former executive director, has been appointed its director. “Pforzheim and Espace Solidor won’t get all the glory,” vows Montoya.
Called Scrambled Head with Glimmer of Hope, this Tamara Gomez statement ring is made with diamond, moissanite, 14-karat yellow gold, and sterling silver, photo courtesy of the artist
o NEW EXHIBITION — FOLLOW YOUR NOSE: SEPTUM RINGS OF THE POWERFUL “With this type of piercing,” said curator Naz Schnozz, “you can wear a retainer that flips up inside the nostrils. That means the public doesn’t know you have a septum ring.” Many are familiar with Madeleine Albright as a diplomat who spoke with her brooches, “but few realize she wore a septum ring in private,” added Schnozz. Besides Albright’s jewelry, the traveling exhibit features pieces worn by Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, and Michelle Obama. Coming soon to a museum near you!
The 18-karat gold Cherrybomb ring with sapphires, diamonds, and tourmalines, designed and crafted by Aishleen Lester, photo courtesy of the artist
o KIM KARDASHIAN APPLIES TO JEWELRY MASTERS PROGRAMS She’s already done shapewear, fragrance, makeup, investing. In 2011 Kardashian launched a line of costume jewelry that let fans accessorize like her at an affordable price, but it flopped. The reality star attributed this to the baubles being kind of “basic.” Enrolling in a master’s jewelry program “will hone my understanding of jewelry theory,” says the influencer, “and help me create designs that are more critical of the beauty industry. That’s what my fans really want.” Kardashian hopes to start classes this fall and looks forward to dialog with instructors and fellow students.
Hugo Luis Johnson’s white gold and silver violin won Silver at the 2021 Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council Awards, photo courtesy of the artist
o ADRIAN BRODY DESIGNS LINE OF CONCRETE ART JEWELRY “My stylist has had me wearing brooches on the red carpet,” says the actor, “Her choices are pretty conventional high pieces, but they gave me an interest in jewelry as a medium. Then filming The Brutalist made me want to design my own. I asked a local contractor to show me how to make little molds and mix the cement.” Find the pieces in the MOMA gift shop.
5. Simplify your INSTAGRAM feed — some tips
📱 Simplify your Instagram feed to attract more followers.
Avoid adding text directly on images. Keep your jewelry as the main visual and use captions or separate slides for text.
If you need to include text or promotional material, make it the last slide rather than the cover image.
Promotional content, like event details or newsletter sign-ups, works better in Instagram Stories instead of your feed.
A clean, cohesive feed makes your art look more appealing and increases the likelihood of organic followers staying and engaging with your work.
📈 Boost Instagram engagement by showcasing your process.
While personal moments add depth, prioritize close-up shots of your jewelry making process, selecting materials, implementing techniques, choosing colors and other design elements. These are visually engaging & highlight skill.
Instead of vague captions, explain why your jewelry is unique. Share insights about your techniques, inspirations, and creative decisions to draw in your audience.
Start reels with attention-grabbing text like “This transformed my jewelry making” or “Here’s how I create rythm” to keep viewers watching.
Experiment with a series of reels following the same engaging format, such as “How I make jewelry [subject],” to create familiarity and encourage followers to return.
NOTE: Instagram’s algorithm now prioritizes content discovery through the Explore page and recommendations rather than hashtags.
6. FLUENCY IN JEWELRY DESIGN: 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, that is, as the jewelry is worn.
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, buyer, exhibitor, client, collector, teacher and student.
With fluency comes empowerment. The empowered designer has a confidence that whatever needs to be done, …
9/15/2025–10/15/2025 Art Jewelry Exhibit at Pryor Gallery, Columbia State Community College My pieces will be showcased an this exhibit. In the works is a possible Seminar and a beading workshop.
WARREN FELD JEWELRY (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com) Custom Design, Workshops, Video Tutorials, Webinars, Coaching, Kits, Group Activities, Repairs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Join our community of jewelry designers on my Patreon hub Be part of a community of jewelry designers who recognize that we have a different way of thinking and doing than other types of crafters or artists. One free downloadable Mini-Lesson of your choice for all new members! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are lots and lots of places for selling your jewelry. These include,
1. Wear It and Sell It
2. To Friends, Family and Work-Mates
3. Retail and Wholesale Stores
4. Consignment Shops
5. Art and Crafts Fairs, Flea Markets, Bazaars
6. Jewelry Parties, Home Shows
7. Trunk Shows
8. Galleries
9. Online
10. Catalogs
As well as through Trade Shows, TV and Radio, Webcasts, Through Sales Reps and Agencies, and many more options for profitable venues.
1. Wear it and Sell It
Yes, people do buy jewelry off your back, so to speak. You might be standing in line at the supermarket. Or attending a concert. Or sitting in the shade at a table in a local park. People will come up to you, marvel at your jewelry, and ask if they can buy it.
So, wear your favorite pieces and flaunt them.
2. To Friends, Family and Work-Mates
Arrange showings of your jewelry with friends, families and people you work with. They know you, and you know them….
____________________________________________________________________ Conquering The Creative Marketplace
Many people learn beadwork and jewelry-making in order to sell the pieces they make. Based both on the creation and development of my own jewelry design business, as well as teaching countless students over the past 35+ years about business and craft, I want to address what should be some of your key concerns and uncertainties. I want to share with you the kinds of things (specifically, a business mindset and confidence) it takes to start your own jewelry business, run it, anticipate risks and rewards, and lead it to a level of success you feel is right for you. I want to help you plan your road map.
I will explore answers to such questions as: How does someone get started marketing and selling their pieces? What business fundamentals need to be brought to the fore? How do you measure risk and return on investment? How does the creative person develop and maintain a passion for business? To what extent should business decisions affect artistic choices? What similar traits to successful jewelry designers do those in business share? How do you protect your intellectual property?
The major topics covered include,
1. Integrating Business With Design
2. Getting Started
3. Financial Management
4. Product Development, Creating Your Line, and Pricing
5. Marketing, Promotion, Branding
6. Selling
7. Professional Responsibilities and Strategic Planning
8. Professional Responsibilities and Gallery / Boutique Representation
9. Professional Responsibilities and Creating Your Necessary Written Documents
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 think, speak, work, and how he or she should be judged.
CRAFT: When defined as “craft,” jewelry is seen as something that anyone can do — no special powers are needed to be a jewelry designer. Design is seen as a step-by-step process, almost like paint-by-number. Designers color within the lines. The craft piece or project has functional value but limited aesthetic value. As “craft”, there is somewhat of a pejorative meaning — it’s looked down upon, thought of as something less than art.
If following the Craft Approach, the designer would learn a lot of techniques and applications in a step-by-step fashion. The designer, based on their professional socialization into Craft, would assume that:
a) The outlines and the goals of any piece or project can be specified in a clear, defined way.
b) Anyone can do these techniques.
c) There is no specialized knowledge that a designer needs to know beyond how to do these step-by-step techniques and applications.
d) If a particular designer has a strong sense of design, this is something innate and cannot be learned or taught.
e) There is little need to vary or adapt these techniques and applications.
f) The primary goal is functionality.
g) There are no consequences if you have followed the steps correctly.
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.
ART: 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. The goal of any project would be harmony with a little variety, and some satisfaction and approval.
SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER Merging Your Voice With Form
So You Want To Be A Jewelry Designer reinterprets how to apply techniques and modify art theories from the Jewelry Designer’s perspective. To go beyond craft, the jewelry designer needs to become literate in this discipline called Jewelry Design. Literacy means understanding how to answer the question: Why do some pieces of jewelry draw your attention, and others do not? How to develop the authentic, creative self, someone who is fluent, flexible and original. How to gain the necessary design skills and be able to apply them, whether the situation is familiar or not.
Often Unexpected, Always Exciting: Your First Jewelry Sale
How many times have you heard a jewelry artist say…
I can’t bear to part with my pieces.
My jewelry is too precious to me.
I only give a few pieces that I make away as gifts to friends and family.
I’ve never sold anything.
Selling would take the fun out of it.
And then, while you are filling your cart in the grocery store, someone offers to buy a piece you are wearing, and the rest is history. A sale! Sold! They paid so much more than it cost you! Right off your wrist! Gotta make another! That was so fast! That was so easy!
My friend Connie used to make things only for friends. She always wore the things she made. At one point, she was repeatedly approached in various stores around town by women who wanted to buy the pieces around her neck.
At first, Connie quoted them, what she thought were outlandish prices. No one hesitated. Connie was awe-struck, but didn’t say No. I don’t know if she secretly wore a sign on her back — JEWELRY FOR SALE — or, somehow stuck out her cheek in such a way, as if asking to be kissed, that people came over to her, but she was getting quite good at attracting buyers. At TJMAX, at TARGET, at MACY’s, at DILLARDS, at SEARS, at KROGERS and PUBLIX. She kept upping her prices each time, and no one had yet to blink!
Jona had made many things before, but had never sold anything. Then…
Many people learn beadwork and jewelry-making in order to sell the pieces they make. Based both on the creation and development of my own jewelry design business, as well as teaching countless students over the past 35+ years about business and craft, I want to address what should be some of your key concerns and uncertainties. I want to share with you the kinds of things (specifically, a business mindset and confidence) it takes to start your own jewelry business, run it, anticipate risks and rewards, and lead it to a level of success you feel is right for you. I want to help you plan your road map.
I will explore answers to such questions as: How does someone get started marketing and selling their pieces? What business fundamentals need to be brought to the fore? How do you measure risk and return on investment? How does the creative person develop and maintain a passion for business? To what extent should business decisions affect artistic choices? What similar traits to successful jewelry designers do those in business share? How do you protect your intellectual property?
The major topics covered include,
1. Integrating Business With Design
2. Getting Started
3. Financial Management
4. Product Development, Creating Your Line, and Pricing
5. Marketing, Promotion, Branding
6. Selling
7. Professional Responsibilities and Strategic Planning
8. Professional Responsibilities and Gallery / Boutique Representation
9. Professional Responsibilities and Creating Your Necessary Written Documents
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, that is, as the jewelry is worn.
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, buyer, exhibitor, client, collector, teacher and student.
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. Or which materials or techniques should be used. 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 5 critical questions.
SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER Merging Your Voice With Form
So You Want To Be A Jewelry Designer reinterprets how to apply techniques and modify art theories from the Jewelry Designer’s perspective. To go beyond craft, the jewelry designer needs to become literate in this discipline called Jewelry Design. Literacy means understanding how to answer the question: Why do some pieces of jewelry draw your attention, and others do not? How to develop the authentic, creative self, someone who is fluent, flexible and original. How to gain the necessary design skills and be able to apply them, whether the situation is familiar or not.
Let Business Concerns Influence Your Artistic Choices
To what extent do (and should) business concerns influence the artistic choices bead and jewelry artists make?
If you want to be in business, then I’d say, “A Lot!” But this isn’t what a lot of designers like to hear. Success in business takes something besides being an excellent jewelry designer.
Jewelry making is not a passive art. You make jewelry for others to wear and buy, and you have to anticipate how they will assess your work and recognize your artistry. It is not the same as painting a painting or sculpting a sculpture in the sense that with paintings or sculptures, the artist does not need to communicate interactively with the viewer in order to create the product and be deemed successful. Jewelry making, instead, is more an interactive art. It is like architecture, where success can only be created through some kind of dialectic with others, and only be defined as successful as the product is introduced publicly and understood by others as finished and successful.
Selling your pieces is merely another phase of this interactive art, but sometimes forces upon you some more limits and refinements. You have to market to audiences. You may have to standardize things to be able to make the same thing over and over again. You may have to work in a production mode and repeat making certain designs, rather than freely creating and designing anew each time. You have to price things so that they will sell, and you have to price things so that you can make a sufficient profit. You do not (which translates as never) undersell yourself, like offering discounts to family, friends and co-workers.
You have to conform to prevalent styles and colors and forms. You have to make things which will photograph well for sale online. You have to make things that local stores want and are willing to buy or put on consignment. You may end up with a lot of “one size fits all,” because producing too much variety in sizes, shapes, colors and sizes could overwhelm you financially.
You find that if you want to make your jewelry design into a successful business, you may have to compromise with yourself, your artistic drives and sensibilities. You may have to limit what you offer. In order to make that sale. In order to make a profit. In order to establish your brand and how it is recognized. And stay in business.
As You Get Started, Ask Yourself These Questions
1. After honestly evaluating my hard and soft skills, am I business-ready?
2. Are there potential customers who will want, need and demand the kinds of jewelry I design?
3. Can I price my products competitively?
4. Where do I want to sell my pieces?
5. Can I get my pieces the visibility and opportunities to get purchased, given where I want to sell my pieces?
6. What are my competitive advantages? How do my works and my business strategies differentiate myself from my competition?
7. Are my pieces consistent and coherent enough to be recognized and understood as a brand, and as a brand designed by me?
8. Do I feel I can organize, manage, control and keep updated all the business functions – Design, Financial Management, Production and Distribution, Marketing and Branding, and Selling, Feedback and Evaluation?
Many people learn beadwork and jewelry-making in order to sell the pieces they make. Based both on the creation and development of my own jewelry design business, as well as teaching countless students over the past 35+ years about business and craft, I want to address what should be some of your key concerns and uncertainties. I want to share with you the kinds of things (specifically, a business mindset and confidence) it takes to start your own jewelry business, run it, anticipate risks and rewards, and lead it to a level of success you feel is right for you. I want to help you plan your road map.
I will explore answers to such questions as: How does someone get started marketing and selling their pieces? What business fundamentals need to be brought to the fore? How do you measure risk and return on investment? How does the creative person develop and maintain a passion for business? To what extent should business decisions affect artistic choices? What similar traits to successful jewelry designers do those in business share? How do you protect your intellectual property?
The major topics covered include,
1. Integrating Business With Design
2. Getting Started
3. Financial Management
4. Product Development, Creating Your Line, and Pricing
5. Marketing, Promotion, Branding
6. Selling
7. Professional Responsibilities and Strategic Planning
8. Professional Responsibilities and Gallery / Boutique Representation
9. Professional Responsibilities and Creating Your Necessary Written Documents
From Warren and
“I am fascinated with juxtaposition and fluidity of materials. My work is about exploring the aspects of ephemeral impressions and the urbanity of metal. I use precious metals, stones and alternative materials to explore these expressions.”
Using low-tech traditional metal smithing techniques and tools, each piece is created in Lesley’s studio in the tradition of the American Studio Art Jewelry movement of the 1940’s through the 60’s, which dictates that the work is created entirely in the artist’s studio. Her work is hand fabricated using recycled metals and ethically, sustainably-mined gemstones.
SOME POSTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:CONQUERING THE CREATIVE MARKETPLACE SERIES:
Thanks for being here. I look forward to sharing more resources, tips,
