Sunday, May 2, 2010

3 Work Tips For Jewelry Beginners

I wish I had these tips when I first started out in jewelry making. While for some people these are simply common sense by now, for those who are just starting out in jewelry making these should help you make your life easier and more comfortable when working with wire or any other kind of jewelry material.
  • Work directly from the spool. There are times when this is just not possible, however for the most regular things such as coiling wire, avoid pre-cutting it since you might end up with a smaller piece than you original wanted and have to cut some more. And particularly with wire the less 'lose end' wire sticks you have, the better for the piece and the wearer. Also you might be cutting a bigger piece than you need, so the remaining one will be wasted. Copper might not matter much, but silver and gold is not cheap.
  • Use a magnifying lamp, such as the Magnilamp (which is extremely cheap at Amazon). Trust me the difference is amazing particularly when it comes to helping your eyes through the strain of the very small work, and making more beautiful work.





Check out the difference in the wire:

- without a magnifying lamp








- with a magnifier lamp







- with the extra magnifier setting







  • Use two monitors. I know this does not apply directly to jewelry making or wire wrapping but trust me when you're many hours at your computer (especially when your craft desk or table also happens to be your pc table, just like in my case), having two monitors makes your life much, much easier. I use one monitor for browsing the internet using various tabs, and the second one for local harddrive, or working from the pdf tutorial - like in my case, I have one monitor open on Eni's older site looking at the various tutorials picture deciding on which one to do, and on the left side monitor I have the actual pdf open, ready to work.
I will post more beginner tips as I get a chance to take some more shots of various things around my craft table. I hope these tips are helpful to newcomers to wire wrapping and jewelry making in general. Comment away if you have other tips or you have other experiences with the above.

7 comments:

The Beading Gem said...

Excellent tips! I use all of them. But I have to admit, the magnifying glass is the most useful!!

Raka said...

Thanks Pearl :)

White Gold Princess Cut Engagement Rings said...

Wow, can't wait to use it on my next project. Thanks for sharing the tips Marika.

Hemp Necklaces said...

I'd definitely like to try a 2 monitor setup, it does seem like it would make things easier

AnaVar said...

Hi! I just found your blog and enjoyed going through it! Great tips! Unfortunately I don't have enough space, so I can have my laptop on the desk too (I really miss that!). And I really have to buy the magnifying glass! Thanks for the tip!

Kimberworld said...

You are my new hero! I'm just starting out making my own jewelry with the hopes in selling it...someday. My goal is to make prop jewelry pieces for cosplay. Anyway, I found your magnifying lamp on Overstock.com for under 13.00. With shipping my total was $15.52! Can't wait to read more of your blog. :)

Antique Jewellery said...

Very helpful info for the beginner.

keep up the good work.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Search with Google

Custom Search