A lot of it is trial and error, as was noted above. You learn from your mistakes. I have had a few pieces break. Bracelets which I strung onto wire. One was because I had everything too tight and there was constant tension on the wire. The second bracelet, I’m still not sure why it broke. It could have been the wire wasn’t a heavy enough gauge. Don’t know. I fixed both, free of charge, and made matching earrings as a gift for the bother the customers went through.

With bead weaving I’m pretty confident because I can reinforce many times; with stringing you often don’t have that luxury. But like the earlier comments, you do the best you can – double crimp, pull test, good quality wire or string, split rings instead of jump rings, wire guards, I use a dab of liquid cement as well, and I like to test wear my stuff before I sell it if possible because I’m pretty hard on jewellery.

Knock on wood, but I haven’t had anything break other than the 2 bracelets when I first started selling. I hope it continues that way 🙂 Have confidence, Shelly…as long as you’re doing everything you can, your jewellery is as good as anyone elses. Even the most expensive jewellery could break, and as noted above, has!!! So you have nothing to fear…get out there and sell your stuff 🙂

If it breaks, I ask only they bring back as many pieces as possible (I seldom make the same thing twice and often forget how I made it!), and repair or replace it for free. I’ve only had to do one. Plus, as Linda said – test, test, test. I call them ape-testing and, in fact, market a line of guitar pick necklaces as “Ape Tested.”

More and more people are making these necklaces but, because they just poke a hole in the top with a jump ring (usually on a cheap piece of cord), the picks tend to wear through and fall off. I make a bail out of wire for each one and then tug, pull and intentionally catch them on something as a customer might. If it breaks, I study it, figure out what happened and address it. I’ve repeated others a bit but I hope it helps your confidence.

I used to be afraid that things would break too. I got over it by reinforcing what can be reinforced, tugging on pieces to make sure they are sturdy and even doing a wear test for different styles. If I am making a style for the first time I will wear the first one around on a normal day to make sure it feels good and there is nothing that is unusually weak. Have faith in your work! 🙂

All the above advice is great. I’ll add just these few tips. WIRE GUARDS! They are amazing and take the stress off of your crimp. Use solid sterling silver crimp tubes and then cover them with whatever color crimp cover matches the metal in the piece you are working on. They won’t crack like cheaper plated tubes.

Also double up on jumprings if they are thin. I loop mine through each other, its a simple chainmaille technique that really adds strength to your pieces.

Reena is right about wrapped loops, they are super strong.

People break jewelry, it happens. But you can fix it for them! They will be so happy that you stand behind your craftsmanship in this way. Had a customer bring me a bracelet she got at Macy’s that broke the same day she bought it they wanted to charge her $50 to fix it!!!! I fixed it for $5 (she gave me $20) and now she brings me everything that she breaks! I also use soldered jumprings when I can as they can never pull open.

For the pricing of your pieces you need to think about a few things

1. how long have you been doing this, the more experience you have the more $ you need to pay yourself per hour! I have been making jewelry for over a decade I charge about $26 per hour for my time.

2. the cost of ALL materials in the piece, include the cost of shipping if you buy online and the cost of gas if you drive to a bead store. a great way to do this is to average out the total cost per bead/component and put it on a sticker on the bag its in.

3. 10% overhead, your business costs you $ so you need to set aside a small amount on every sale that you can reinvest into that business to help it grow!

4. if the item is wholesale don’t add this last step but if you are selling retail then you have to consider the items perceived value. Even though a piece may not have cost that much to make consider what people will think it is worth. ask yourself these important questions “is this piece a one of a kind?” “is the piece highly popular, enough that you find yourself making more of it than other pieces?” and most importantly “how much do you love this piece?” This last step is one many people leave out in their pricing this is the part that makes me adjust my prices the most, if I find its very popular, very unique or I just do not want to part with it then I charge more, if it is not unique, or not as special to me then I charge a little less. Typically i multiply time+material+overhead by 2 and then adjust it up or down depending on its perceived value. I hope all this information is helpful to you!

I give my new designs to people to test drive, not only for breakage potential, but ease of on-off, and general comfort/wearability. My greatest fear is that something I make will snag on clothing (and of course it will be brand new and expensive!) which is why I am obsessive about finishing off my wraps such that they’re virtually invisible and I run my fingers over every wrap, closed jump ring, etc., as I finish them.

The yanking test — yes, always, and definitely with crimped anything. If your jump rings give way, use heavier gauge. Double crimping — yes, with all heavier bead strings. Make sure you’re using the correct size of crimp bead for the weight of the wire and the weight of the beads. Another way to make sure it won’t come loose in particular when using heavier wire with heavy beads is when you bring your wire through the crimp tube, bring it up around and through the crimp tube again, then crimp it. You might have to go up one size of crimp cover, but a professional jeweler I go to for help and advice told me by doing it this way it will never ever pull loose.

And so what if something breaks? A, you’ll learn not to do something that way ever again; and B, you’ll fix it immediately and your customer will be so happy and relieved and probably buy something else simply because you didn’t treat her shabbily. I cannot tell you how many people bring me other people’s jewellery to fix and they tell me how many times they tried to phone or email the person and they were ignored. Being treated like that takes every smidgeon of joy out of owning and wearing that piece of jewellery, but we can restore their pleasure by making it wearable again, and — obviously — making it better than it originally was. Again, win/win: they’re so happy with YOU that they’ll come to you when they need to buy more jewellery AND they’ll tell all their friends. Works for me!

I know you believe your stuff costs too much, but think of it this way: people will treat it with more care if it costs what it really is worth. Then you won’t need to fear that it will break. People treat cheap stuff like junk. People treat things they value with respect.

Barbara

I also have a few tips on looking after hand made jewellery on the back of my business card which makes my customers realise that these are special pieces to be treated with care but worn and enjoyed.

I am sure your pieces are not as breakable as you think – have more faith in yourself! 🙂

2) double crimp everything (use 2 crimps on each end). I use crimp covers, so no one really knows they are tubes or double crimped.

I feel a lot more confident following these 2 steps. You might want to give it a try, at least for awhile.

The method I use is this: research & test out the jewelry as much as you think is necessary. Next give the jewelry piece to your most destructive friend or relative. If they can’t manage to destroy it accidentally then your good!

Don’t be afraid to price your items at their true worth. All of us jewelry makers are the creative do it yourself kind of people & we tend to forget that not everyone is that way. People will gladly pay for lovely jewelry what you & I just look at & make to suit ourselves at a much lower price. When pricing just remember this:

They are paying for the time & design effort
They are paying for the materials
They are paying for your skill & knowledge
These are things worth paying for!

~Catherine

Normal usage is a fair thing to guarantee. (You DON’T need to guarantee that you’ll fix bracelets that get run through the garbage disposal, necklaces that get chewed on by a puppy, etc.)

Also, you’ll feel better if you know you’re using high quality components and techniques that you’ve tested and haven’t had any problems with. Here’s how I would do that:

Make yourself a sample “tester” bracelet and then try to break it. Pull hard on it, and see what it takes to make it come apart somewhere. See what kind of abuse it can take.

Find any weak points or flimsy components through your testing, and then design in ways to eliminate those weaknesses or make those points stronger.

Use sturdier techniques such as wrapped loops whenever possible.

Consider using split rings if your jump rings are coming open during your stress tests.

If your tests reveal that your crimp beads aren’t holding your beading wire, get another kind of crimps (or get them in a different metal type) – and then test that new kind.

I think you’ll feel more comfortable after you’ve tested some samples of your jewelry and eliminated any weak elements – so you’ll be able to confidently guarantee your pieces for normal wear.

Your quality-consciousness is a definite asset for your jewelry business. And when you show your creations to your customers you can point out the quality features you build into your jewelry.

Best of luck to you, Shelly, and I’d love to hear the results of your jewelry product testing! 🙂