By: Janice Bowden

Janice Bowden — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 10:57:50 +0000

I am somewhat familiar with this side of the business, and I think it is important for you to have a prototype made for several reasons. First, to determine if the design is wearable. It may look lovely on paper but need some tweaking for it to fit a 3 dimensional body. You wouldn’t want to sell the first run and find out that it either lays wrong on the body or isn’t a workable design at some point. Secondly, you want to make sure it’s a design that can be manufactured, or that it requires a different method than you initially thought. Again, it may look lovely on paper, but may not be possible to manufacture because of some aspects of the design. And finally you need to know the exact cost of materials and labor, and that would only be by making an actual item from a design. You might be able to find a jeweler that will make one for you to work out all these details. You may not need to make it out of the actual metals you are wanting to use for the testing, particularly if it is precious metal, but I think items would sell much better if the customer could see a picture of the real item instead of just a drawing. I worked with aspiring clothing designers when I was doing custom dressmaking, making muslins or test garments from their drawings.

By: Val

Val — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:36:24 +0000

Hi Deandra,
I do not know much about this side of the business. I have noticed on Linked In (www.linkedin.com) that this sort of thing is sometimes discussed. If you do not have any luck you may want to join jewelry groups there for trade sources that can help. 🙂 You would just want to be careful to protect your designs.
~Val

Comments on: How Do I Create Fine Jewelry to Sell Online?

By: Janice Bowden

By: Val