The DIY landscape is so booming right now with artists sharing ideas on the internet, EtsyLabs featuring how-tos on a daily basis, and fine craftsman posting daily blogs which share the intricate nuances of their craft. We are living in a time of information overload. If you haven’t found inspiration yet, it’s because there is too much out there to take in. The purpose of this article is to share just a couple basic techniques in one comprehensive space, and then really focus on the importance of taking any basic technique and making the end result uniquely your own. This will be the first installment in a series of articles that will hopefully give you some extra inspiration that may just take your jewelry sales to new heights in 2009, regardless of what is happening with the economy.

 Collage Your Own Mini Pendants –

Hardly a unique idea, the art of collage is centuries old. However, there are a multitude of ways to put your own spin on collaged pendants. The materials you choose can dictate the look. You can repurposeold game pieces, rivets from old shoes, found objects from the aisles of Home Depot or mismatched toys from your kids’ toy box. We found these wonderful vintage wooden tiles that my son Max & I have been playing around with. I have a collection of old postcards and withered magazine clippings from many years ago that we have been cutting or tearing apart to make miniature collages with. Using Modge Podge & a toothpick, we’ll carefully arrange our artwork and then paint a layer of Modge Podge over the dried image in one or 2 layers (letting it dry in between layers) to seal it. I like a vintage look so I’ll sand the sides of the paper before sealing it for a weathered look. Maybe you like a more whimsical look – you could collect stickers that feature a series of birds – or better yet design your own stickers on your computer with found or hand-drawn images and print them out yourself. Customized jewelry for Moms and Grandmothers is huge right now. We have these amazing glass pendants that are easily collaged onto or into. There are even double paned pendants that are hinged so that you or your customer can change their designs. A slam-dunk idea would be to design a series of collages and sell your initial pendant with the option to change out the artwork enclosed in the glass. Or if you are a painter or work in another 2-D medium, these are a great way to market your prints to the jewelry buyer. No matter what materials you choose, the goal is to make your own unique and cohesive look. At times we all feel like our creativity is stifled if we have to hone in on say, one motif or set of imagry, or look. However, artists commonly focus on doing a ‘series’ of paintings, drawings or whatever their medium so that they can master a concentration within that medium. Think of your commitment to focusing your work as not only an economically smart marketing choice that will hone in your brand, but also as an exercise in refining your art.

Drilling Beads & Components – We have just started to carry a series of drills by Dremel in our shop and online at http://www.beadinpath.com/. This is because we were recommending custom drilling to so many of our shoppers as a way to set their jewelry designs apart and we figured why not provide the service of having the drills to purchase, right in-house. There is an art to drilling your own beads & it’s not as simple as one might think (see Dara’s blog on drilling). However, mastering this technique will open up a plethora of possibilities in customizing your own unique look in your jewelry. Again, the theme of repurposing keeps coming to mind: it’s a great way to do our part in the green scheme of things, but it also provides an endless amount of materials to work with as an artist. Start hitting yard sales looking for plastics, wooden pieces or even glass or stone articles that you can put a hole in and make it a bead. Start to look differently at the wares in the aisles of your local dollar store or antique shop. When we purchased the contents of the Best Plastics Lucite warehouse, we had loads of beads. But there were also pounds & pounds of undrilled Lucite parts. Some of them were such odd-ball shapes, it was hard to picture turning them into jewelry and how one could. With a drill and a creative eye about where to put the holes, a Lucite cabochon or slab of plastic can be turned into a fabulous pendant, or stretch bracelet component. Sea glass and beach stone jewelry is a common find up here in the NorthEast. There are lots of designers working with beach treasures of all kinds. However, few are doing it well (not to risk offending any of my locals who work with sea glass, surely your sea glass jewelry is not what I’m referring to). The problem with most of the designers who are working with sea glass isn’t that their works aren’t pretty: it’s that many are doing the exact same thing. If you’re going to choose to use materials or componentry that others are using and perhaps selling at a craft booth next to you, for you to succeed you need to make your choices unique. Using the sea glass example, instead of wire wrapping a free-form pendant, why not experiment with setting your sea glass into something else like PMC? Or mixing it with an unexpected material – like vintage postcards that you have shrunken down to a pendant size on a copier and coated with resin and then drilled – drop a piece of drilled sea glass from it as if it’s a found treasure from an ancient artifact or ancestor’s scrapbook. Having a drill in your studio will open your eyes and abilities to the point where ANYTHING you encounter, can instantly turn into a bead!

I could go on and on because there are so many ways that flourishing jewelry artists have come into their own, and honed their brand to the point of wild economic and artistic success. Some use color, other use motif, while others harness a period in time based on their material choices. By customizing your components when you design your beaded jewelry, you’ll find that your works will set themselves apart from the competition and that you’ll be more successful, even in these economic times.

For more technique articles relevant to customizing your beaded jewelry…

How to Drill by Dara Spiotto - http://www.beadinpath.com/content/view/493/4/

Making Resin Beads & Pendants by Dara Spiotto - http://www.beadinpath.com/content/view/654/4/