for Jewelry Makers

Insight and skills to elevate your jewelry practice

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jewelry-related stories, news, design

short-format lessons and articles keep your design instincts sharp

  • motivation and community

  • current trends, events, designers

  • design, marketing, and sustainability guidance

Excerpts from recent newsletters:

Jewelry World

Featured
Break Time Browsing
Break Time Browsing

recommended readings that are entertaining and informative

Is That How You Really Feel?
Is That How You Really Feel?

-A Year-End Review Process
-NYCJW video recs

Suzanne Belperron
Suzanne Belperron

The transition to modern jewelry design

Suzanne Belperron initially gained the attention of her affluent patrons by reworking their stodgy gems into pieces that reflected the changing world while maintaining the status they required.

Looking for Your Match
Looking for Your Match

Applying to shows is expensive and time-consuming, and getting your work seen by curators or editors can feel like a crap shoot. To maximize your results, you want to be sure to target the people, places, and events that are the best match for your aesthetic.

A little research will give you some direction.

Gift Guides
Gift Guides

Gift guides are everywhere during the holidays.

Today, I want to share my takeaway from two of them and show how this information can help you at your holiday markets or events.

Reading the room
Reading the room

Jewelry is a popular gift category, and for many artists and craftspeople, the holidays can be a profitable time. Finding the right product balance can make a big difference in your results. So, let's look at who you will meet at holiday markets, what they want, and how to make the most of your efforts.

Design

Featured
Color Summary Part 3
Color Summary Part 3
Color Summary Part 2
Color Summary Part 2

In the second part of our exploration of color in jewelry design, we observe how to adjust and utilize traditional jewelry materials, primarily metal, gemstones, and natural substances, by looking at the work of artists who deliberately use color to affect the impact of their designs.

Color Summary Part 1
Color Summary Part 1

The color palette of jewelry is often limited to the hues of metals such as yellow, white, reddish-brown, and black. These neutral tones provide an ideal backdrop to highlight vibrant colors from gemstones or enamel. Alternative materials expand color options significantly. Here are examples of jewelry where color is the dominant element of interest.

Jewelry Club

An Online Program for Jewelry Makers

Jewelry Club members are successful jewelry makers who appreciate high-level content to stay fresh, motivated, inspired, and connected to the world of jewelry outside their studios.

Mastering technical skills is essential, but it's just the beginning of the journey. Understanding your design voice is equally important.

Recognizing good design is intuitive. Learning the vocabulary of design helps you access subconscious knowledge, making your work easier and more enjoyable. An ongoing conversation about design is at the core of Jewelry Club.

A critical aspect of any creative practice is getting your work out into the world. Jewelry Club programs that help us see our jewelry from the audience's perspective support that effort. (This is a soft approach to what most people call marketing.)

To round out those two pieces- design and marketing- we include cultural awareness to better understand our place in the lineage of jewelry making and regular updates about designers and collectors worldwide.

Lastly, there is sustainability, aka profits. Here, knowledge about techniques and processes helps us explore ways to improve profitability while maintaining our design identity.

This range of topics will help you produce jewelry you love, develop an individual, authentic voice, and build and maintain a creative practice.

Subscribe to Jewelry Club and join like-minded jewelry makers who want the most from their creative practice. 

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Gain design confidence

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  • understand your audience

  • make jewelry you love

In-Person Classes

I offer classes in jewelry-making techniques in my Decatur, GA studio. Class size is limited to four students, providing exceptional individual attention.

Check this page for details.

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