Jewelry Designs Look Much Better Online When They Spin

Look at the fantastic GIF or animated image I found on the Klimt02 international jewelry design website! An animated product that spins to show all angles of a jewelry piece will show off your work to maximum effect, as Australian jewelry designer Julia deVille illustrates with the spin view of her Pave Rook necklace. Here's a video I found showing many other product "spins" to give you ideas of how you can show off your work better on your website, blog, or Etsy store.

The video will steer you to the Swiftspin360 website, and I'd like to direct you to their 7 Steps to Creating a 360 Product Spin. Join the website in order to freely access their articles and downloads. While the pitch is to photographers, if you're a jewelry designer with a camera, we'd like you and our jewelry design students to experiment with creating some beautiful product spins of your special work!

If you're interested in learning more about wedding planning, we encourage you to explore the Sheffield School, New York, NY. Sheffield began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Finding Closure In Jewelry Design

 

Before reading on... for those of you who think this blog is about relationships, I must clarify it is not. This is for those who are interested in creating their own closures when making jewelry. At Sheffield we teach students how to make their own clasps and ear wires, otherwise referred to in jewelry design as findings. Findings are the parts used to join jewelry components together to form a completed piece.

  

Clasps above both found on Something Sublime blog.

Clasp by Image Bead Jewelry on Etsy.

Embellishing clasps and ear wires with stones and coiling gives your work that unique handcrafted look. When you create your own clasps you can incorporate stones into the claps so there is a blending, a consistent feel with the work, instead of finishing your piece with a purchased clasp that may not be cohesive.

 

Hoops by Fail Jewelry.

 

Earrings by Fail Jewelry.

 

Learning to create your own ear wires is one of the most liberating moments in jewelry making. It opens the door to a whole new world of where you can take your designs. Rather than always having to attach an ear wire to a drop stone, or chain, you have the option to shape your earrings into one continuous piece. The hoop and inverted V earrings by Fail Jewelry are great examples of this. Learning how to make inverted V earrings, and hoops, are taught in unit four of the Sheffield Jewelry Design Course.  

Bracelet by Silver Bench Jewelry.

Once you know how to make your own findings, you may choose to blend your clasp right into the design of your piece, like the bracelet above by Silver Bench Jewelry.

If you're interested in learning more about jewelry design, we encourage you to explore the Sheffield School, New York, NY. Sheffield began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Jewelry Cool Tool Anouncement!

Fabulous, useful and free! 

Staying abreast of the new advances in technology has become a full time job, but we at Sheffield are here to help!

We've just discovered a free App called Etsy Text that is perfect for those selling their hand-crafted wares on the ever-booming Etsy marketplace.  This app notifies sellers via their smartphone or tablet when an item from their shop sells. Not bad!  

Seeing as Etsy has become such a huge marketplace in the e-commerce realm it's more important than ever to keep one's customers happy.  So, Etsy Text, we are definitely a fan! Thanks for making it all a bit easier!

Have a favorite smartphone or tablet app that helps you with your craft that you can't live without?  Share the wealth and let us know by leaving a comment!

...In the meantime, happy beading!

Interested in making some of your own smashing jewelry? As a jewelry design instructor at the Sheffield School in New York, I encourage you to take the matter of making into your own hands! Check out the newly launched Jewelry Design Course offered at the Sheffield School. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any other school in the world.

• Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.
• Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Jewelry Designer Update - 3 Necklace Favorites from Phoebe Stein

White Metal Mesh Drape Necklace by Phoebe Stein

 Students taking our Jewelry Design: Beading & Wireworking Course are treated in each unit of instruction to profiles of various jewelry designers. We wanted to check in with Brooklyn designer Phoebe Stein and pick three favorites from her PhoeBee's Knees Etsy Shop. Phoebe's creations are light, delicate, and modern. Her pieces are built to "last a lifetime" and they're quite affordable. Click on the photos of three of our favorites to get more information on each piece. Which one is your favorite?
 

Triple Chain Bali Necklace by Phoebe Stein

 
Turquoise Cluster Necklace by Phoebe Stein
 
 
 

We encourage you to explore the Sheffield School, New York, NY. Sheffield began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Wrap It Up! Etsy for Everything Holiday

The holiday season can turn the most organized of persons scattered searching for all the items on holiday lists. And, gifts are just part of the picture.  Shopping online is getting easier and easier as well as more and more pleasant.  Being a creative person I always seek to find ways to support fellow creatives whenever possible.  In this regard, Etsy can be your absolute best friend with an overwhelming number of options for pretty much any type of item.  I've added some that I thought were standouts below.  

Photo: Smock Paper

I went on a hunt for thank you cards and was blown away by how professional and varied my options were. And affordable, to boot! Next thing I knew I was looking for holiday cards.  Then it became very hard to stop looking!

Click to read more ...