Naomi knows: Making custom jewelry for a groupTips to help you plan, budget, and produce personalized jewelry
by Naomi Fujimoto
Published: August 11, 2011 |
Patty and I co-captained our summer tennis team, the Honey Badgers — here we are at last year's team dinner.
This year, we decided to give necklaces to everyone as end-of-season gifts. I wanted to make a necklace with a little charm that said
"honey badger," along with an initial to personalize it.
I barely got the necklaces done in time! But I learned a few things along the way. If you're tackling a big project, here are a few tips.
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1. Order extra supplies.
• It's helpful to have extras of certain things, especially if you drop a bead on the floor or accidentally chip one when making a wrapped loop.
• Also consider ordering jump rings in different sizes. In addition to choosing a gauge that's strong enough to support the charms you're
attaching, consider the size of the charm's hole or loop, where
it's placed (toward the top vs. down a couple of millimeters), and the thickness of the chain.
I thought I'd need 5
mm jump rings, but the 3.8 mm ones looked better. So I was glad to have options.
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2. Yet also keep your budget in mind.
• For the charms, I wanted something subtle; we already have
t-shirts that scream "Fearless Honey Badger." Browsing on Etsy, I found
that sterling silver charms were out
of my price range, but I spotted silver-plated disks and tags that were
reasonably priced. I worked with Emily from Emily Dewees Jewelry, who emailed me a photo before completing my order. She did a beautiful job and the charms arrived exactly when promised! (Incidentally, Melanie is the only person who will get an "undefeated" charm.)
• It's worth it to use high-quality chain when it will be a prominent part of the design. I love this sterling silver chain from Artbeads. It's absolutely gorgeous. I first used it two
years ago when I made necklaces for the bridesmaids in a friend's wedding.
Even though the jewelry was simple, the chain gave it a pretty sparkle. The links look delicate yet still can
accommodate a 22-gauge jump ring or head pin.
Figure out what's not negotiable vs. where you can cut costs. I used base metal extender chain, for example — no one will see it, and as long as it's durable, it's doesn't need to be the best quality.
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3. Allow more time than you think you'll need.
• Make sure to cover all aspects of the jewelry process — not just ordering and assembling but
packaging and shipping/transporting.
• Will you photograph your mementos for your blog or website? Plan breaks to shoot photos at various stages of the project, if necessary.
• Make a list of recipients. This might seem obvious, but it didn't occur to me until I realized that I kept referring to the team schedule for a list of names. With 17 recipients, my alphabetized list worked well, but you can also make a list based on necklace length, bead colors, or some other useful category.
The list came in handy when I confirmed that the custom charms order had been filled
correctly, that I had made a necklace for everyone, and finally, that I had packaged a necklace for everyone. |
4. Use an "assembly line" approach to production.
After making a sample necklace (mine, of course), it was tempting to make individual necklaces and then package them.
But I squelched that impulse and did the same task over and over, which ultimately helped me get the necklaces done quickly. If you're curious, here's what I did:
• Cut all necklace chain. Separated the 16-in. (41 cm) and 18-in. (46 cm) pieces.
• Cut 2-in. (5 cm) pieces of cable chain for extenders.
• Made crystal dangles with wrapped loops.
• Made extender dangles with the first half of a wrapped loop.
• Attached lobster claw clasps to the long chains.
• Strung crystal dangles on the chains.
• Attached extender chains. Attached crystal dangles to the extenders.
• Attached the charms with jump rings. (Of all my supplies, the jump rings for the charms arrived last, which is why I did this last.)
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5. Don't forget the packaging!
Since you've planned ahead, you'll have plenty of packaging materials and can present your jewelry beautifully.
Unfortunately, I didn't have ribbon in our team colors of red, black, and white. So I compromised and used the pastel stuff I had on hand.
Finally, all the gifts are wrapped. Now I'm all set for our team dinner tonight!
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