Making Jewelry with Wire

When I first began making jewelry, the most frustrating thing for me was which type of wire to use. I was very limited on start-up funds, and wasn't quite ready to invest in sterling silver wire.

I looked everywhere for advice about cheaper wire to use, and couldn't find any clear answers. Finally, I came across a company called Parawire in a jewelry magazine that offered non-tarnish silver plated coated copper wire. To me, (and I only wear sterling) it looks like sterling silver, and has the added bonus of being remarkably cheaper AND hypoallergenic. This isn't cheap nickel or aluminum wire.

Initially, I thought I'd make all my jewelry with this wire. There are quite a few jewelry makers on Etsy and Ebay who primarily use craft wire vs sterling or gold filled, but it really depends on what you're going for.

I bit the bullet and decided to go 100% sterling silver, and I downloaded Eni Oken's fabulous price calculator that has been very helpful in figuring out what my products are worth. It might seem that the prices come out high, but you have got to remember that if you're jewelry is high quality, people WILL pay for it.

There's a big difference between the jewelry that people buy on a whim at Walmart and wear once only to discard it to the bottom of their drawer and jewelry that will be cherished for years. What kind of jewelry maker do you want to be? And are you willing to stand behind your craft even when sales are lacking?

There are a TON of jewelry designers out there--good ones and bad ones. How will you stand apart? It seems way too easy to stand apart by offering your art for a cheap price. It might get you sales, but your overall profit will suffer, and it makes it harder for jewelry artists everywhere to get a fair price for their hard work and creativity.

It's agreed upon in the jewelry world that better pictures of jewelry help sell jewelry, whether it's on your website or in your business materials.

Some people use lightboxes, some people use scanners; I find I like the unusual settings better than basic white background shots. I personally like to find interesting backgrounds for my shots, whether it's a unique color, fabric, or different kinds of light. Plain ol' daylight works the best for me, but it's fun to experiment.

When I take a picture of, say, a pair of earrings, I take at least 20 shots, with a few different settings, and end up editing the best one. This takes up more of my time than any other aspect of my business. Sure, you could get a professional photographer and spend hundreds of dollars, but I really don't think it's necessary. There are so many tutorials and books out there on taking good digital photos these days--learn how to use your camera!

The most important thing is the Macro setting. Learn how to use that, and play with the manual light settings.

In case you want to go the lightbox route, here's a few links:

1. Super Simple Light Tent on instructables.com.

2. Bucket Light Tent, also on instructables.com.

3. DIY Lightbox from jyoseph.com.

4. Another DIY Light Tent, from a Canon digital photography forum.