Hand Made Designer Jewellery

The creative process of designing and crafting a unique piece of jewellery is all consuming. It’s important however that as well as embracing the creative process, jewellery designers must grasp the other side of the business – the money making side. Most importantly for a new jewellery maker, this means marketing. To point you in the right direction, here’s some simple advice on where to start:

It is essential to know who your customer is. This may sound obvious, but many a designer has tried to sell their handmade jewellery in the wrong places and found themselves either without a customer base, or categorised in a way they don’t want.  Both of which are hard to recover from, especially when you have already invested time and money.  The best thing to do is research companies and jewellery designers out there to get an idea of where your designs fit within the market.  This can be time consuming, but it is time well spent, as it will constitute a significant investment for the future.

Once decided on your market, you need to work out where you are going to start.  Building a customer base is essential; once people know and like your work, they will seek you out rather than the other way around.  Craft shows are an effective means for testing the viability of your work, and building a reputation at the same time.  Search online to find some in your area, and then visit them.  As good as a particular show might sound, you need to evaluate whether it is the correct show for you.  Does it focus on handmade pieces?  Is the show specifically for jewellery, and if not, would it be an appropriate event for selling your jewellery?  Does it attract your chosen consumer demographic?  Good shows book up well in advance, so be proactive and start your research early. 

The second starting point is getting your jewellery into some shops or spaces where your customers visit.  Boutiques and crafts shops are good places to begin.  Try to think outside the box.  Maybe a display case in the right hairdressers might get you some attention.  Remember though, there will be a cost associated with any of these options; you may have to pay a fee to the shop/place for displaying your work, or they may require a commission per piece sold. Therefore, find out their policies prior to discussing your costs, to avoid promising prices that will put you out of pocket.  .

Finally you need to start selling your work online as it allows your established customer base to purchase your pieces at their leisure.  Online jewellery is a fast growing and dynamic business, and although building your own website is going to be a lot cheaper than opening a shop, it can still be a considerable outlay if you are not a web designer yourself!  However, it is still possible to sell online through existing websites, who might consider your work well suited to their target market.  Most websites will have information on their website if they are open to new designers. 

Remember, as wonderful and unique as your handmade jewellery may be, if your buyer doesn’t see it, it doesn’t exist.  You’ve just got to make a start – Good luck!

If you are looking for the perfect jewellery gift, the ideal places to look for it are none other than the stores of jewellery designers. The creation of a designer who is truly dedicated to his or her craft is something that a jewellery aficionado will definitely appreciate. There are many jewellery collectors out there who get so enamoured of a particular designer that they fill their entire collection with the work of just this designer.
But it should not be a deterrent for you if the person to whom you will be giving this gift of jewellery is not really knowledgeable about jewellery designers. It is, after all, the style that you should be looking at and the style of the designer should suit the taste of whoever is receiving your gift. Who knows, maybe your recipient would become a fan of the jewellery designers you have patronised, and this may make gift-giving a lot easier in the future.
Why Buy from Jewellery Designers?
There is a big advantage that buying fine jewellery directly from a designer gives. One such advantage is that you are sure that the jewellery you will buy is somewhat unique. Mass-produced jewellery pieces are just that: mass-produced. With these kinds of jewellery, it is entirely possible to walk down the street and see someone wearing the exact same piece that you are wearing. This can be potentially embarrassing and somehow devalues the gift.
On the other hand, this would not happen if the piece is a creation of certain designers. There are designers who only release a limited number of copies of their work to prevent their creations from being devalued. There are even some designers who create just one item from a specific design and then retire the design altogether.
You can even request a designer to create custom jewellery pieces for you. Even if what you require are just simple silver chains, a clever designer would be able to make those silver chains look truly one-of-a-kind.
How to Buy Jewellery as a Gift
How should you go about buying a gift of jewellery? Buying jewellery for someone else, especially if it is a gift, is not as easy as going to a jewellery store and making a purchase. You would need to make sure that it is something that the recipient will truly appreciate.
So, before you make a rush to the jewellery store, it may help you a lot to do some research about the person for whom you will be buying the jewellery. You can watch him or her and make yourself familiar with his or her sense of style. You can look out for indicators such as whether he or she likes gold jewellery more than silver jewellery. Do you have access to this person’s jewellery box? Take a look at what is inside for clues if you can.
Also, it may be necessary for you to weigh into the act of gift-giving the value of the jewellery gift and the occasion that prompted you to give the gift. Jewellery is expensive and people always read meanings into gifts of jewellery, particularly when it is the work of a famous jewellery designer. You would not want your recipient to reject the gift just because he or she misunderstood what you meant.

Jewellery industry is one of the India’s top export earner, amounting to more than 16 billion US dollars, in the fiscal year 2006-07. This coupled with the zero import duty on diamonds entering into India has further enhanced the country to be claimant as a global diamond jewelry trading hub. Importance of Jewelry designers and gemmologists in the Gem and Jewellery field today is very immense. Even the sky rocketing gold prices have not dimmed the hopes of the buyers from buying jewelry. This boom has opened up many more oppurtunities for the jewelry professionals.Many times, I have come across people asking questions like, “Is there any career opportunity as a “jewelry designer”. My answer to this would be a firm “YES!” And I don’t feel there would be any other field where the career opportunities would be so exciting and enticing.Jewelry designers have the choice of working with jewelry stores or big export corporate houses. Multinationals are also on the look out for young talented designers all the time, willing to pay any price for the creativity and art. After getting little experience and knowledge jewelry designers who believe in themselves and want to grow further may also go in to start their own jewelry business. In this scenario, however, investment and contacts play a key role to achieve success. If not business, designers can also sell their designs for a fee and not get bounded by any job or business. In other words, the opportunities are unlimited.Dos and Don’ts1) Whenever a student joins a jewelry design school, the first thing to hit his/her mind is this – “Is art important in learning jewelry designing?” to attract more business for their schools you will definitely get the answer from the jewelry schools that,”no prior art backing is required and any one can take the admissions”.But let me assure you one thing, if you don’t have the talent or that creative inclination in you then you are going to have a very tough time to cope up with classes and I am not exaggerating here. To become a successful designer you need to have that creativity, art and sense of design. Precision and attention to details are also very important. Also the labour and time involved in very high. If you are determined and willing to put in that extra effort then there is no looking back.2) Most importantly, let’s address the basic issue – To learn designing first or learn jewelry manufacturing first? If you say designing, then my friends I am afraid you are terribly mistaken! Because it’s like learning to run before learning to walk. In order to design jewelry, you need to know a million things about the material you would be working on, about the feel of the metal, about its joints, hinges, polish and lots more.All these things are very important to know before you learn designing. Jewelry designing, unlike painting, requires some basics and guidelines to be followed, which can be learnt best only with practical knowledge and not just theory.3) When you are choosing a jewelry designing school, check out the faculty before joining it. Don’t just join any institute. Learn your basics, Do your homework and then take the interview of the faculty rather than them choosing you. You are paying money and should get back every penny’s worth you are putting in. I can tell from my personal experience that most designing schools do not even teach the basics properly.4) Always keep updated with the trends in the fashion industry. After all, we survive on what is going on in the current latest fashion industry and that’s where our whole business lies. Designers should always know what the current trend is, what’s in, what’s not and what’s cool, what’s hot! Visit trade shows, exhibitions, fairs and whatever possible. Check out the jewelry of celebrities. Read books, surf the net. Do whatever possible to stay updated on latest news, trends and fashions. Trade shows give you lots of experience and confidence than one can imagine.Finally the money, which everyone’s interested in. As a trainee one can expect a starting pay of Rs. 4000 – Rs. 5000 per month in small showrooms and up to Rs.10, 000 in big multinational organizations. Talent, nevertheless, is imperative to demand or deserve these. One can always improve their skill, art and talent with their hardwork and dedication. After some years the pay scale can jump easily up to Rs. 25,000 per month.Remember along with jewelry designing if you also know gemology, diamond grading or jewelry manufacturing then double the above estimates. Designing degree along with gemologist or certified gemologist degree can work wonders to your career. So it’s very important to know the whole jewelry industry on the whole rather than just knowing it in bits and pieces.