How Do You Learn Jewellery Design?

Recently I've started to learn jewelry design and I'm amazed that I never tried it before. When you learn jewelry design, you're learning how to become financially independent, to make an income for yourself - no matter where you live.

To learn jewelry design doesn't have to be difficult either, you can start with very simple, classic chic designs, working with just a couple of beads and wire - and slowly build up over time to try more difficult designs. And that's what I'm finding to be the most amazing part as I learn jewelry design: that I don't have to be the best, I just have to do what I know well.

How to Study Jewelry Design

Everybody is different and the first thing you need to think about is how to study jewelry desgin - you can do this from books or videos, evening/night classes, week-long residential courses, or full-time study at a University. Maybe you'll do all these in the coming months or years!

You can even learn jewellery designing online these days, in fact it can be a great way to learn because it's at your own pace and you've plenty of opportunity to get your questions answered fully. Often, a classroom environment has too much going on and there's not the time to explore ideas or ask questions beyond the immediate basics.

Take a Class to Learn Jewelry Design

At first I simply found and attended a couple of bead workshops which were within 20-30 miles of where I live. I live in a remote area, 100 miles from the nearest city, so I found to learn jewelry design in a class wasn't easy to do as it involved many miles of travelling - even a free beading workshop was costing me $15-20 just in fuel for the car and car parking.

I was very limited in what was available to me to learn jewelry making, so next I enrolled on a nightclass to learn about silversmithing - the trouble was the class was 25 miles away and by the time I discovered the class I'd already missed the first lesson and although I am still going I am always playing "catch up" because of the first lesson I missed.

So far, things were going OK, but neither of these solutions provided me with a way to learn jewelry design in a way that I could keep referring back to my notes - because there were no notes, I had no written instructions from any of the classes I attended, and I do like to have everything written down so I don't forget something important.

If you can find a jewelry design class in your area, it's definitely worth going, but you might find keeping to their timescale and getting to their location is challenging.

Learn Jewelry Design Online

This is where things really took off for me. As a committed Internet nut, it just hadn't occurred to me sooner that my best way learning jewelry design online - and not in a class. Learning jewelry design online gives you access to:

• get good notes,
• good photos,
• good pictures and
• some videos to watch.

It's like one-to-one tuition that you can go over and over again, when YOU decide - and without having to pay $15-20/week to fit somebody else's schedule.

Jewelry Design Kits

You can simply buy individual jewelry design kits, containing everything you need to create one set of designs. These are great as you're only paying for what you need - and once it's made up you can even sell the finished product, so your learning isn't costing you anything. The biggest selection of Jewelry Design Kits is probably on ebay.

Jewelry Design Lessons

When I looked at online jewelry making lessons and courses I was surprised to find that I could learn a lot more, a lot faster and a lot better than I could in class. I now have all the information I need right here on my PC, to be read and absorbed when I'm ready to create something. And there's great help available too.

Once you start to learn jewelry design, you'll find there are some really easy things anybody can do. Stringing some beads onto a wire, then connecting a clasp takes no more than 3-4 minutes, yet looks stunning. I love to work with simple designs using sterling silver bugle beads and sterling silver balls, with just 2-3 larger shiny beads. There will always be more complex things to do, I'm currently learning how to twist wire into various shapes, because that interests me - the great thing about jewelry design is it's up to you to pick and choose the parts you DO like doing, and ignore entirely the things that are harder or don't interest you! And, whatever you make, so long as you do it well (and not slapdash), you then have a beautiful piece of jewelry you can sell at craft fairs, at your own party plan parties, or even online on ebay or sites like Etsy. If you're in the UK, here's a list of UK Sites Like Etsy

In 'the real world' there's not many free jewelry design courses, even some beading workshops make a charge - and you still have to pay full retail price for the beads. It's worth going to one or two anyway, but in my very first workshop I found that with only 2 minutes' instruction (having NEVER done anything craft-related before whatsoever), I was able to produce two necklaces and two matching pairs of earrings in under an hour - not bad going for a complete beginner - and you're probably better at it than I am!

So now I subscribe to a couple of free newsletters, which help me to realise new ideas and learn new techniques too. The more ideas and designs you expose yourself to, the easier it becomes to spot the easy/fun things that you'd like to be able to make and this free ecourse is giving me 52 weekly designs/lessons with step by step instructions for free.

If you can follow simple instructions, you too can learn jewelry design online.

There are other jewelry design courses you can pay for, which give you more support. In my experience these work out much cheaper/easier/better than paying for a course and paying for fuel (and sometimes accommodation) to attend. Many very basic, simple, jewelry design courses charge $20-30/hour and once you've walked out of the room that's the end. With online jewelry design courses you get a lot more for your money, without travelling, at the times it suits you!

In my opinion, paying for jewelry design courses online provides best value for money, compared to most real life courses; I get a lot more inspiration and help/support from them than I have experienced so far by attending workshops.

I hope I've given you some inspiration today - and check out the free jewelry design course in the section above if you're curious to discover just how easy it can be.