Making Jewelry To Sell – Five Things Beginners Need To Know.

In this post, I am going to talk about making jewelry to sell and giving you suggestions for a quick and easy way to begin, even if you are not artistic or full of creative ideas.

By the end of this post, you will know how to quickly begin creating attractive handmade jewelry that you can sell online or at craft fairs.

Although I do sell craft printables on Etsy, I also regularly give away free printables on here for those who may appreciate having designs they can use when making jewlery to sell.

In this and future posts, I will be showing paid for designs that you can buy for a few dollars in my Etsy shop but I will also be giving out new free printables on here as well to ensure everyone has access to designs they can use freely.

So for those who are new to making handmade jewlery, here are the five main things you need to know when making jewlery to sell.

• Your handmade pendant/bracelet/bag charm/keychain must be quick and easy to make.
  Otherwise, you will not be able to make enough stock to make a worthwhile profit. You should be able to make plenty of stock quickly if you want to make money. And unless you are making high-end gold or silver handmade jewelry, you will not be able to set your prices based on how long it took you to create a piece.
  
  If you are a beginner to crafts or handmade jewlery, a very good place to start is making glass cabochon jewelry which is quick and easy to make but is also attractive and looks professional.
  
  The four main elements of glass cabochon jewlery are:
  
• The pendant bezel, which is the metal tray that the design sits in.
• The design – an image that sits under the glass cabochon.
• The glass cabochon, or dome, that sits on top of the design to protect it
• A chain to hang the pendant on.
  
  You can see how to put these elements together in this YouTube tutorial.

2. Your jewelry needs to be made with good quality, robust materials that will not fall apart.

The challenge you face in selling handmade jewelry is sourcing good findings that don’t cost the earth and yet still produce an impressive, good quality product you can sell at the right price.

The pendant trays and glass cabochons that I use in my jewelry are a good example of how it is possible to find good quality supplies at the right price.

And I will be giving links further down, showing where you can get these supplies to use either with your own designs or, with the free designs I post on here.

In the images above, you can see three of my previous free printables which are still available. All you need to do is click the link to go to the post where you will find links to the videos showing how I used them. And in those videos you will be given a password to get into the download page for each design.

3. Your jewelry needs to be priced just right in order to attract buyers.

To see what I mean, have a look at the handmade jewelry being sold on platforms such as Etsy. Look for stores that have lots of sales and take note of their pricing and quality.

Then look for stores that have beautiful handmade jewelry but very low sales and look at the pricing. Is it too high? Is that why people are not buying?

You can learn a lot about the handmade market by Etsy surfing and seeing what sells well and at what price.

Being able to source decent findings, at a good price and of a standard good enough to use as a base for your designs, is the key to being able to sell at a price people will be willing to pay.

If your base supplies are very expensive and it takes you two days to make one item of jewelry, the chances are you will not be able to charge enough to cover your time and costs and make a profit.

4. Your jewelry needs to be unique and any designs used must not infringe copyright.

Cabochon jewelry is all based around having an eyecatching design at the heart of the piece. That is the point of cabochon pendants, keychains, bag charms, fridge magnets or card toppers. You need an attractive design that will go under the glass cabochon and be the main focus of the piece.

But what if you are not confident with your design skills or artistic capability?

Does that mean you can use pictures from the internet instead of creating your own designs?

This is where you need to be very careful.

Using designs that belong to individuals or organisations without their permission is a bad move.

The rule of thumb is this – if you did not create the image/painting/drawing you want to use, there will be copyright issues to consider and consider them you must.

Using any images, icons, characters from, for example, a Disney movie could get you into a lot of trouble.

Do not be fooled by those who appear to be getting away with breaking copyright by using well known characters, logos, names, images etc on their products – do not follow suit.

Whatever money you make is not worth what will happen when copyright owners catch up with you. It really isn’t. So what do you do?

You can either buy designs from online shops such as Etsy or look for free printables like the ones I give away on here.

If you buy designs, you must check to see if you are allowed to use them to make items you are going to sell.

The same goes for free printables. Always check with the seller’s Terms & Conditions for the limitations are on how you can use them. Most sellers publish their T’s & C’s on the page where they are selling the download.

My free printables can be used freely to make jewelry, bag charms, fridge magnets, card toppers or keychains to sell.

The only restriction I place on my free printables is that they must only be used to create a jewelry item in which the design is used. They must not be sold on, or given away, as a sheet of designs or repackaged in any way to be sold as is.

There are Terms & Conditions on the download pages with each free download.

If in doubt, you can always contact me through the contact form to ask.

5. Presentation – Your handmade items need to be presented/packaged properly

Before you begin to make items to sell, you need to give some thought to how you will package them.

Organza bags such as those you see above are a great way to present your pendants etc.

They are easy to get online and will not add too much to the costs of making your items.

Another way to present your work that will not cost you too much is to fix your jewelry to a piece of card that you have stamped with a decorative stamp.

You could combine this with the organza bag if you wanted to – just slip the card into the bag and this will finish things off nicely.

You can also buy small boxes but of course the more sophisticated your packaging, the more your costs will eat into your profit.

As you can see, making jewelry to sell is fairly straightforward if you follow these five tips.

If you still feel daunted by the thought of what you will use for designs, just go ahead and watch my YouTube video tutorials in which I give the passwords for the pages on this site where the free printables are, download the designs, print them off and make your first pendants, bag charms, keychains, fridge magnets, card toppers or whatever other items you can think of.

Here are links to the YouTube videos showing how I used my previous giveaways:

My latest free printable is a set of Zodiac designs using a background design I did with a heavenly theme.

Click here to go to the download page for this free printable – pssst – no password needed this time!

There is also another set of Zodiac signs, in white and on a different background, available to download in my Etsy shop.

So now that you have some designs to use, where do you get these bezels, glass cabochons and chains?

It’s easy – everything you need to start making cabochon pendants to sell is all under one roof in my Amazon storefront. Follow this link if you are UK based and then go to the Craft Supplies section where you will find everything you need.

If you are US based, please click here.

And to read my Amazon Affiliate statement, please click here.

There are also double-sided tapes in my stores but I have not used them myself and so I don’t know if they are crystal clear.

If you want to use the double-sided tape that I use to make my pendants click the link below. It looks red because it has a red liner which you peel off and discard.

If you having been looking for an easy, relatively inexpensive way to explore selling handmade jewelry online, I hope this has helped.

Feel free to ask me questions via the contact form or in the comments section below the YouTube tutorial that goes with this post.

Good luck with making jewelry to sell – and don’t forget to subscribe to this blog and to my YouTube channel to keep up with all the free designs I will be posting here.