DIY Handmade Jewelry

You can make a great second income selling jewelery online. With a creative spirit and the right tools and information, you'll be running your own online jewelery shop in no time!

Creating Your Brand First, decide what kind of jewelry you want to make and sell. One way to choose your brand style is by determining your target market - the specific group of people you want to sell jewelry online to. Some target markets include: stay-at-home-mums, teenagers, tweens, brides, professional career women, gothic jewelry, or men's jewelry. Once you've decided your target market, choose the type of jewelry you'll focus on. Many artists have carved out a niche for themselves selling wire-wrapped jewelry, scrabble-tile pendants, ribbon necklaces or bracelets made from lampwork beads. Others draw inspiration from nature, or architectural monuments, or cats. Don't copy someone else's successful products - spend time designing your own unique jewelry collection. Your design should be as unique as you are.

Sourcing Supplies In order to create a top class jewelry shop, you need to be picky about your supplies. When sourcing gemstones you must learn how to tell the difference between real stones, fakes and poor quality stones. Find a single, reputable supplier and stick with them. Always clean found items and vintage jewelry findings. Coat organic accessories like butterfly wings, stones, seeds, food and wood in resin to prevent damage and decay that comes with time and exposure. One of the big jewelry trends at the moment is eco-friendly jewelry. If you want to go down the eco-friendly road, you need to commit to sourcing sustainable, all-natural, vegan friendly, recycled and recyclable supplies - and this means everything from your glue to your stones to your ribbon to your beads.

Creating Your Product Now you've got your supplies handy, you're ready to create your fabulous jewelry collection. Depending on your crafting experience, you might create professional, quality jewelry on your first day. However, you might need to practice for a few months to hone your techniques and designs. Give away your prototype jewelry to friends and family. When they wear them around town, people will ask where they brought them from and they can hand out your business cards. Family and friends make the best billboards. Once you're satisfied with your jewelry designs, take photos of your pieces separately and in sets. You may need to fiddle with the images in a manipulation program to get them looking perfect. Professional photographs make or break an online jewelry shop, so take the time needed to get those photographs right.

Finding a Market Online handmade markets offer jewelry artists a unique opportunity to set up an online shop for very little cost, and tap into an already established pool of buyers looking for fashionable handmade jewelry. Many jewelry artists also gain success selling on auction sites, although fees are considerably higher than handmade market venues. Alternatively, you could set up your own website or blog, and sell your jewelry through a shopping cart. You'll need to learn basic graphic design and blogging skills, which you can easily pick up by looking for online tutorials.