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Jewelry making craft projects typically involve using jewelry supplies to make all sorts of items – some wearable, some useable, and some decorative. It’s a fun way to use up bits and pieces of leftover supplies, or to mix other craft forms with jewelry techniques. If you’re having a creativity block, have some fun using your supplies in a totally different kind of project.

Kids love jewelry making craft projects too. You can set out an assortment of beads, findings, colored art wire, ribbon, glue, and a few other odds and ends – and a group of creative children can happily entertain themselves for a couple of hours.

You can also make and sell kits for specific projects, and include photos of a few suggested ways to create the project using the supplies in the kit package. Jewelry making craft kits are popular gifts, and can sell well if you hit on currently cool projects and colors.

Jewelry Making Craft Ideas

Here are a few idea starters for projects you can experiment with. Many of these items make wonderful gifts, especially if you personalize the design for the person you give it to.

* Home decor – try using your jewelry supplies to embellish vases, create wall hangings, craft a bookmark, or make a wind chime.

* Baby gifts – make a dream-catcher to hang over baby’s crib, or a sun-catcher to sparkle in the window.

* Clothing – use rhinestones or faux pearls to decorate a T-shirt, a pair of jeans, or a jacket. Make a belt buckle fancier with your jewelry making craft supplies.

* Handbags – embellish a cigar box into a purse with jeweled clasp, or crochet a beaded evening bag, or decorate a tote bag with beaded fringe and photo-charms of grandchildren.

* Shoes – make pretty shoe clips from wire and other items. Or add beads to the ends of tennis shoe laces.

* Gift packaging – use jewelry supplies to decorate a gift bag or create package ornaments.

* Holiday ornaments – design seasonal decorations small enough to hang on a tree, or large enough to hang on a door. Or give ordinary ornaments a makeover with jewelry making craft supplies.

* Party favors – make wine glass charms or coffee mug markers.

* Small gifts for anyone – create zipper pulls, cell phone charms, ceiling fan pulls, and key chains.

What Can You Use for Jewelry Making Craft Supplies?

In addition to your regular jewelry supplies and tools, here are some examples of other great crafty items to have on hand for your projects:

* A variety of glues.

* Fabric paint.

* Spray paint.

* Sharpie markers – wide tip and fine tip.

* Craft knife and cutting mat.

* Mod Podge.

* Bits and pieces of interesting paper and ephemera.

* Used postage stamps.

* Sponge brushes.

* Small paint brushes.

* Scrapbooking paper.

* Embossing powders.

* Ribbon, string, raffia, embroidery floss.

* Rubber stamps and ink.

After enjoying a few sessions of jewelry making craft projects, don’t be surprised to find yourself crossing over into using craft materials in your jewelry designs. It opens up a whole new universe of addictive supplies and tools to collect!

A jewelry toggle is a set of two pieces: a jewelry loop and a jewelry stick. The jewelry loop is attached to one end of your unfinished jewelry; the jewelry stick attaches to the other end. The jewelry stick gets pushed through the jewelry loop, then turned so it rests longways against the loop, gravity holding the two components in place. A skin-tight jewelry piece without any slack will not last long — this style closure is made to have some slack.

Toggle clasps come with a bit more risk than lobster claw clasps. However, many jewelry fans seem to regard jewelry toggles as more fashionable than lobster claw clasps. Jewelry closed with toggles may fall off the body if they are made with too much slack; sometimes the toggles may come undone when the tension on the jewelry is relaxed.

Fancy toggles will often be used at the front of a necklace as a visual centerpiece — especially fancy shaped toggles or toggles with addition decorations.

Jewelry toggles come in many different shapes: round, oval, square, diamond, heart-shaped, floral, stirrup, etc.

Toggle Mechanics

A toggle is most secure when it cannot easily slip back through the loop accidentally. The widest opening of the toggle loop must still be smaller than the shortest distance from your anchor point (often a ring soldered on or cast midway a metal toggle stick) to the end of the stick. The toggle loop must also be big enough to accommodate the smallest beads on the end attached to the toggle stick. The stick must be pulled through the loop before it can be turned to rest against the toggle loop. Many jewelry pieces with toggle clasps will have beads graduated in size from the larger beads at the center, where they are most visible, to the smaller beads at both ends. Toggles that are light with respect to the center beads will shift to the top as a bracelet rotates due to gravity. A heavy toggle will help a bracelet to hang comfortably, with the toggle loop underneath the wrist.

Fastening Toggles

In pieces made with jewelry chain, you may see chain end caps soldered onto the chain and toggles connected with link locks or soldered jump rings. Unsoldered chain pieces will often use open jump rings, split rings or link locks. Jewelry designers will usually fasten toggles to bead wire projects using flattened crimps. Some designers favor clam shells or bead tips to make the transition to the jewelry closures for bead wire projects and fiber projects such as knotted silk jewelry. Inexpensive leather or fiber pieces may be knotted directly onto the toggle pieces with overhand knots.

Toggle Materials

Your “stick” may be as simple as a button with a shank used with a loop of seed beads on bead wire. Your loop may be quite fancy, with “expandable” toggles of several rings attached together. The rings on both the toggle loop and toggle stick should be firmly attached. Toggle sticks with spiral patterns seem to be susceptible to bending more than many other designs.

Toggle in the United States will often be made of one of the following materials:

* Platinum
* Palladium
* Gold
* Gold-Filled
* Silver: Thai silver, sterling silver (.925 silver)
* Titanium
* Surgical Steel
* Brass, usually plated with gold, silver, copper, antique copper, antique brass, gunmetal/black nickel and imitation rhodium
* Wood
* Stone

Many of these materials are available in different surface textures: shiny, matte, brushed, etc. Crystals, cubic zirconia and gemstones may decorate toggles of the more expensive metals.

The jewelry designer’s unique sense of design and style will define the jewelry aesthetics and the the possible toggles for a jewelry piece. Fortunately, toggles are available in a wide range of prices, shapes and materials.

Business is producing a product, selling that product, and earning dollars for your services. If you are not comfortable in asking a customer for money to pay for a product, you are not ready to become a business person.

If you are not ready to build a business then continue as a hobbyist or an employee. This is not meant as a let down; every person has a niche to fill in our world. Happiness is doing what you like to do.

For those who what to be self-employed and wish to build a home business in jewelry making you need to preplan, plan, and keep planning for the life of the business.

Building a business is very similar to raising a child.

1. The preplan: The decision to have a child.
2. The planning; your child is born and needs to be guided during the growth years which means planning education, health care, social relationships, and so on.
3. Keep planning: As a child matures your plans keep changing to meet new current and future needs, e.g. college education, first car, first apartment, wedding, and so on.

Are you ready to go into the jewelry business?

Building a successful business takes time. It becomes your lifestyle. A home based business of jewelry making is an excellent choice. Making jewelry does not require a lot of space. It is a pleasant business because you are constantly surrounded by beauty.

Creativity is your baby. There are so many facets to making jewelry you will never get bored. As your creative baby matures through the years there will be many types of jewelry making to keep your interested in your profession. You can choose to specialize or you can generalize.

I prefer specializing at this time because I make beaded jewelry part time. When I tire of my specialty or there is no longer a market for my jewelry designs, I will turn to another technique and meet new challenges.

You may choose to design and assemble two or three different types of jewelry at a time and work part time or full time in your jewelry business. Full time business people will be more successful having much diversity in their jewelry line than specializing in one, unless your specialty is very exceptional.

Do not hesitate to start your business today as your jewelry skills and your business management and practices will improve in the activity of working your business.

You will discover that business people are the movers and shakers of progress. The business world is constantly changing to meet the demands of the public. That is why operating a business is exciting. Are you ready to leave your footprints in the sand?

Many parents are proud when their baby walks down the marital aisle as it marks the day their baby has grown up and is ready to stand on their own two feet and meet the demands of living a fulfilling life. Parents very proud knowing their children will be successful and worthwhile to society.

One day you will look back on your business and review the many accomplishments and contributions of what your business life has provided for self, family, and community. You will feel very proud.

Cutting out stencils is the extra step of a cut-and-paint stencil design. Cut-and-paint stencils require you to actually cut out the openings (islands) where paint is applied. However, for the extra work, they provide some great advantages.

A cut-and-paint stencil design is usually printed on paper and so it can be reduced or enlarged to fit almost any project size. This is a big deal. If you like a Plastic Pre-Cut Stencil and it comes in two sizes -small at 2′ and large at 4′- and the area you have for an image is 1′ then the plastic stencil will not work for you. Take a cut-and-paint design to a copy machine and resize it to whatever your project area requires. Flexibility is great!

Also, cut-and-paint stencils are less expensive. You are not paying for the manufacture, warehousing and shipping of a product. If you can find downloadable stencil designs you can have your stencil immediately and no delay to your project. Just download the design and print out on your printer.

So far I referred to cutting out stencils on paper, but you have other options. You can purchase sheets of materials like acetate, mylar, wax paper, stencil film or clear overlays. These options allow you to create a permanent stencil that will be resistant to the penetration of oil, dyes, and water-base paints and ink. Simply trace your design onto the stencil film and cut.

You will find many options for materials useful in stencil making. They can be found at your local craft supply store, on line and office supply stores. You’ll find it sold in letter size sheets or rolls for larger stencils. You may even find some clear sheets that will work in your printer or copy machine. When you are looking for a good film for making stencils, you want a material that will accept ink or marker so that you can trace onto it. Look for a matte finish. Also, a matter finish is best for the finished stencil because it will not encourage paint to seep under the edges.

Well on to the one disadvantage: Cutting the stencil.

If your paper stencils are in a book, I would recommend making a copy of each stencil overlay for the project you have chosen. By using the copies, your book and originals are preserved for future use. Don’t forget that you can reduce or enlarge the size to fit the area you want to place the picture when you make copies.

Using a craft-knife cut out the objects on the stencil. Make sure your blade is sharp at all times. Dull blades may cause a paper stencil to tear or not go completely through plastic sheeting. The goal is to cut along each line only once with a firm, smooth motion. With your free hand, hold the stencil firmly and rotate the stencil so that you are always cutting with your wrist at a comfortable angle. This will help you maintain control over the blade and not veer off course.

When cutting past a thin bridge area carefully use a firm finger to hold down the paper. Try to keep your fingers well away from where you are cutting. If you are working with a multi-layer stencil don’t forget to cut out the registration holes in each of the four corners, which will be used for the alignment of the stencil overlays.

As for recommendations on craft knives, I prefer an X-Acto knife with a #11 triangular blade. But an OLFA knife with the snap off blade refills is a fine option too. Again, just make sure the blade is sharp. Of course, be very careful when working with a blade and protect your fingers. Always be alert.

Well, I am sure that once you get the hang of cutting out stencils you will find the many advantages well worth the extra work. Happy Stenciling!

Jewelry made out of leather, whether it’s an ankle bracelet or a wristband, looks beautiful and unique. There are many people who prefer wearing this type of jewelry due to its touch of style. The details might be small but they can never go unnoticed when you wear it. You can team up bikini, shorts or even shorts skirts with leather jewelry.

A bracelet made out of leather is typically a collection of parts that are string-shaped and tied together along with some jewels. Sometimes the bracelets are made thick and sometimes thin, but no matter what the size, it looks attractive and nice. Leather jewelry can be worn by women as well as men. These bracelets are unisex and you can make them at home also. Just tying a few strings of leather of the same color will give you a beautiful and stylish bracelet.

Another jewelry piece that is very popular is a leather necklace. Even you can make this necklace at home. All you need is a string of leather and some decoration material like simple beads or costly precious stones. Choice of decoration material will depend a lot on your interest and design. If you want to get the gothic or vamp look then try wearing leather with metal, but if you want to come across as a very friendly person then wear leather jewelry with polished rocks.

You can make a style statement with a leather ankle bracelet. The market is full of a wide variety of leather ankle bracelets; all you need to do is find one that suits you best. You can wear a skirt and open shoes in the summer, with an ankle bracelet and grab attention wherever you go. It can be adjustable for your legs as there is a tie that can slip off easily when you want. You can even try anklets that are decorated with flowers.

Today, many celebrities can be seen wearing leather jewelry. They find it the ‘in’ thing and since they influence what is hot and what’s not, try and observe them to know what type of leather is in fashion. You can get leather jewelry customized for you. You can get your name engraved on the leather bracelet, to demand attention. You can also get your husband’s, son or daughter’s name engraved on it to show your love and affection for them.

Just Leather Bracelets offers a large selection of leather bracelets for men. They carry unique quality leather bracelets at ridiculously low prices. Looking for something that fits your personality?… They have just that. They’re constantly updating their inventory with new styles and designs.