Designing Necklaces - Learning as I go

I recently started creating some necklaces with my wooden components. I've had some pretty good success with all my other jewelry items that I wanted to try something larger scale and play with new designs. I've found out that my designing is a work in process...lol!

Here is the first design I tried. I liked how it looked all laid out on the table, but it didn't wear quite right. The pieces didn't hang like I'd expected and it looked all jumbled at times. I think one of my biggest obstacles is that the wood is so light.

So I decided to start with a more simple design and see if I could work from there. So I removed all the smaller pieces and added one more larger piece and left them in one single strand. It's a much simpler design, but I'm much happier with how it wears and hangs.

As most of my readers know, I love the chevron trend, so I decided to make a chevron necklace next. This one turned out pretty well, but I didn't like how wide the pieces were. I think this is more of a personal preference than a design flaw, so I made a second one with narrower pieces.

I really love how this one turned out. I much prefer the narrower pieces and think the whole piece hangs well and wears well. I even added this one to my shop already and have gotten quite a few views and favorites! I'll be adding the wider one as well. Even though I prefer the narrower one, I think people will love them both :)

 I have a few more designs in mind that I'm working on. I like to take a few days to put them together and see how they look when I come back to them. Then wear them for a while and see how they look when they hang. I've been having fun coming up with new designs!

Reader Inspiration

 I want to thank everyone who has left suggestions lately for new items to add to my shop. I love hearing your ideas and wanted to share a few that I've gotten made so far.

Paige of Oh Nostalgia Designs and Little White Chapel suggested using more than one charm per earring to create a staggered design...I ♥ this idea! I made some with my feather charms as well as my butterflies. I got the butterflies listed last night!

 

Rose of Random Creative mentioned how well my wedding items have done and suggested I make some key chains for wedding favors. This is such a great idea! And I made some little heart shaped tags in the same design while I was at it!

Valerie of Additions Style suggested adding cuff links to my shop. This is something I've had on my "want to make" list for a while and Valerie's suggestion motivated me to get some supplies ordered and cuff link designs made! I'll be adding both custom options as well as premade options. Superman Cufflinks added this morning!

Gia of One Perfect Day suggested that I add some fun ornament designs to my shop. Since my woodland items have done so well, they were a natural place to start! I have a set that will be added to my shop this week that will include a deer (shown above), an owl and an engraved tree.

Now if I just had time to get all those photos taken, edited and all those items listed! I have so many great new ideas and I want to thank everyone who has given me suggestions! You fuel my creativity and make my "work" so fun!

Earrings Are Listed!

I want to thank all my readers who gave gave input on my questions and concerns about listing my new line of jewelry. I was going to wait and list the earrings and pendants at the same time, but I'm waiting on new cords and chains to arrive, so I figured I might as well start listing my earrings :)

Engraved Hearts

Butterflies

So far I have 4 pair listed and I plan on adding about 1-2 new pairs per day. So far I have a set of Butterflies, Feathers, Round Hearts and Flowers. I started with my personal favorites :)

Flowers

Feathers

I've also been working on making some more magnets, key chains, wine charms and other small items I've been making with all this leftover wood I have accumulating! I like to be resourceful and use every bit I can, so I'm using my creativity to come up with new ideas to add to the shop!

Let me know what you think of the new earrings!

 And let me know if you have any ideas for new items I can make with small pieces of wood...I'm always looking for more ideas :)

Learning to Photograph Jewelry

I've gotten some great feedback on my wood jewelry and I've decided to list some of them in my shop. So far I've photographed about 10 pair of earrings and I'm finding that jewelry is a whole new ballgame for me when it comes to product photography.

I'm used to photographing larger objects and most of which stand on their own. Jewelry is small, but you still need to show its size and how it hangs. And since Jesse (my boyfriend) doesn't have pierced ears, I'm attempting to photograph myself wearing the jewelry...lol!

I know there are several jewelry artists that read my blog and many jewelry buyers, so I'm looking for input! Above are the two photos I'm debating using for my feature photo. Are either of them eye catching? Which should I use and why?

Here are the other photos I plan to use in my listing. What are your thoughts? Are there better angles I should be using?

Next I hope to photograph some of my pendants. I suppose I better get all my earring photos edited first!

 Thanks in advance for your input and advice :)

Finding Time to Play

I've been having a lot of fun lately learning new techniques and looking for new items and ideas to add to my shop. One thing I've been playing with is jewelry. So far I've just been making samples and keeping them for myself :)

~~~~~~

My challenge piece for the month of February was one of my first jewelry pieces...and it made me want to create more! I bought a few basic jewelry-making items like jump rings, chain and pliers and got my creative juices flowing.

This banner-style necklace was the next item I made. I thought it was fun and can be customized in so many ways! I've even thought of using hearts instead of triangle pendants.

I've seen other pieces similar to this made out of metal and stamped and I thought...why can't I make this out of wood! It took a few tries to get the circles the size I liked, but I love how it turned out! I thought I could make these in both a premade option as well as a made to order option.

And my next attempt is to make one out of colored acrylic!

I also made a pair of earrings to match one of my pendants. I like how the set looks together!

The only problem is, the jewelry category on Etsy is SO saturated! So I'm trying to decide if I should list these or sell them in sets or what. I'd love to take them to shows with me, but the friend I share a booth with makes jewelry, so I don't want to step on her toes too much either. But I sure am having fun coming up with new designs :)