Super easy and super cute – Use charms in your jewelry designs. These cute enamel charms are from Oriental Trading. Add them to ear hooks for instant earrings, attach a few to a bracelet-sized chain for a charm bracelet, or slip on a longer chain or even some rat-tail cording to make some super quick necklaces.

Not long ago I posted my Vintage Key Necklace and had a number of readers asking me about the key – Where could they get one?
The one I used in the necklace I got off of etsy.com, so it isn’t something available to tons of jewelry makers. However, as luck would have it, I was flipping through a catalog the other day for Oriental Trading company and discovered a number of key charms.
I did a search on their site using “key charm” as the search term: http://www.orientaltrading.com/application?namespace=search&origin=searchMain.jsp&event=button.search&Ntt=key+charms&Ntk=all&Ntx=mode%2Bmatchallpartial&N=0
I found these and a few other cool look key charms. Of course, …read more

No, this is not a necklace for nurses. It’s a necklace for those who nurse. b5media’s breastfeeding blogger, Angela White, author of Breastfeeding 1-2-3, has written a few posts about these popular mommy-type necklaces (one on how to make a nursing necklace and another on safety issues), and she asked me to see what I could come up with. So here goes. Oh, and to cover myself, I’m not a nurse, nor nursing, nor a mommy to humans, so don’t let your little ones stick any of this in their mouths.
You’ll need the following supplies:
10 – 12mm barrel-shaped onyx beads (I got …read more

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and a good way to get the word out is by making related jewelry to give to others and wear yourself. It’s kind of like a mini-billboard you can wear around, only a lot more attractive.
Lots of jewelry suppliers sell components that can help you make some jewelry that is related to this important issue.
For example, Jerry Smith Beads sells these cute little charms along with similar charms in all silver and even beads. You could easily whip up a pair of earrngs with two of these charms and a pair of ear wires.
D.D. …read more

Here’s my first tip for designing a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry for a special person on your gift list: start wit a component. This could a charm, pendant, bead, piece of chain, whatever, but look for something that represents that person to you somehow.
For example, the brass pendant pictured is from Guyot Brothers, and I don’t know how clear it is on your monitor, but it says “August” on it. One of my sisters was born in August, so I immediately thought of her when I saw this. I plan to use it in a jewelry piece for her that …read more

Funny how I managed to get “unisex” and “quickie” in the same blog post title, huh?
But, I’m talking about cell phone charms again. Not only can these be unisex jewelry items depending on the materials you use, but they are nice quick projects, a little something to tuck into a stocking or give out to co-workers which won’t cost you a lot of time or money. Here are a few projects I’ve already created for cell phone charms.
Angel Cell Phone Charm
Crystal Doll Cell Phone Charm
Cell Phone Jewelry Dangles
Fuzzy Navel Fiber Cell Charm
 

Men are notoriously difficult to buy or make something for as far as gifts. Most wouldn’t mind a number of electronic doo-dads, but you basically have to be a rocket scientist to figure out all the RAMS, ROMS, etc that go with whatever their dream machine is. Plus, of course, that stuff isn’t cheap either. So, what’s a busy jewelry maker to do? Charm him.
Charms are a great way to personalize just about any piece of jewelry, and this goes for both men and women of course. Obviously, a charm bracelet may be a little over the top for your …read more

I think these charm bracelets are still pretty popular. While I know they don’t necessarily come under the area of “making” jewelry, I know a number of jewelry makers who use these as an extra item to sell at shows and markets.
Right now, Fascino Veneziano has a sale going on, including their Disney character charms. I thought this one of Piget was adorable!

 
I’m working on a new project right now incorporating this beautiful sterling butterfly pendant from the Soft Flex Company. The item number is BBB-10391 and it retails for $11.76 each.
 

 
If you look on the back, you’ll see what I really think is extra cool about this pendant – there are three loops – one in the middle and two on either side of the wings. This way, you have more jewelry design options.
The necklace I’m working on right now includes this as the focal piece and then 4mm AB red crystal beads and 4mm white pearl beads.