Does anyone here do jewelery making? where do you get ideas and materials from?

Question

Does anyone here do jewelery making? where do you get ideas and materials from?

Answer 1

hobby lobby, michael's, herrschners, mary maxim and annies attic. i see a picture of something i like and i try to dupilicate what i see.  

Answer 2

oriental trading has the best supplies and has deals on shipping

Answer 3

I love making jewelry. I order my materials because I prefer working in sterling silver and semi precious gem stone beads..

I buy my sterling wire on ebay- normally I get 24 gauge dead soft for wiring projects. Beadalon works better for stuff that needs to drape loosely, like a necklace.

Some places I've ordered beads from are..

http://www.gemmall.com

http://www.artbeads.com

http://www.auntiesbeads.com

http://www.firemountaingems.com

http://www.brandywinejewelrysupply.com

Probably several other places too..

As far as ideas go, I try to tell a story or follow a theme. For instance, I bought some little sterling rose charms. I thought it would be fun to do a 'rose garden' theme. So, I used strawberry quartz, amethyst and jade to imitate the colors you would see in a rose garden. I wired them with sterling to look like a vine wrapping around a pair of hoop earrings with the rose charms hanging from the bottoms and the amethyst and jade wire wrapped and scattered along the hoop.. I hate to think how many materials I've wasted trying an idea that didn't work, but, it's worth it when you make something you really like that you know no one else has.

Sometimes I take a bunch of different colored beads and shake them in a container and then keep looking to see if I see a color combination I like.

I would recommend following a couple patterns first though just till you learn the basics of how to assemble jewelry. Then start experimenting once you have the basics down..

Here are some free video clips on beading..

http://www.auntiesbeads.com/Category.asp...