Jewelry & Watches

Making jewelry is a creative hobby and it can be very rewarding, but it can also sap your creativity if you’re making a lot of unique jewelry designs and then spending lots of time putting together the materials for each piece repeatedly. One good way to avoid that jewelry making burn out while still using your jewelry design skills is to begin to repair jewelry on the side! A lot of handcrafted jewelry makers work throughout the day putting together unique jewelry pieces and buying jewelry supplies for that new necklace or pair of earrings.

Repairing someone else’s jewelry uses your jewelry making skills and will usually give you some fun challenges. Instead of making a anklet from your own ideas, you usually need to take someone else’s jewelry pattern and find pieces to replace missing or broken jewelry pieces that either look similar to the rest of the jewelry piece or at least compliment it. Fixing jewelry requires a slightly different approach to purchasing jewelry supplies because you’ll need to have lots of connectors, pendants and wire available. You’ll also need think about using a good jewelry supply inventory program to track what jewelry supplies you have in stock, what you’ll need to buy soon and where you can get them for the lowest price. Here are some general tricks to remember when you start fixing jewelry for clients:

Some people want their jewelry to be repaired to the exact specifications it had before, some do not mind small bead or clasp changes. Remember to get a little creative, especially if you need to fill in missing pieces, but check with the customer first.

As a custom jewelry maker you may also need to make suggestions on other parts of a jewelry pieces to fix even though it may not be broken yet. If you see worn wires or cracked beads it’s a good idea to notify your customer so that she isn’t caught off guard when something else breaks.

Remember to price yourself fairly. Many times you’ll be fixing a jewelry piece that holds a special meaning or is particularly liked by your client. You are performing a service of not just fixing a piece of jewelry, but often you’re helping restore a memory or feeling!

Don’t forget to have fun with it! Both fixing custom jewelry and creating your own jewelry are creative ways to make some extra money, but it’s up to you to find the proper balance to keep you smiling and making money at the same time. And really, you can generally charge just as much to repair a piece of jewelry as you would to create it. But because are often working with existing jewelry supplies fixing a piece of jewelry can be a lot more profitable.

Need to learn more great jewelry business tips and tricks? You can visit our site to read more about making custom jewelry and get some great jewelry ideas while you’re there.