Hey, Santa: Gift Ideas for Jewelry Makers

If you're like our Sheffield School Jewelry Design instructor Haley Mindes, you're always on the lookout for gifty items for both yourself and those like-minded jewelry makers on your holiday shopping list.

Haley has given us a few items that she thinks anyone who's making jewelry would love finding under the tree or in their stocking this year. Click on each photo for more product information.

Beadalon Beading Station - Every beader needs workspace tools to help organize their tools and materials, and this station lets you store multiple materials and even sort beads by colors and different color combinations.
 

Beadsmith Three-Step Wire Looping Round Nose Pliers (5mm, 7mm, 10mm) - While tools aren't necessarily the most glamorous of gifts, they're inexpensive and you'll use them again and again to save you time and money as you're putting together your wireworking creations. These wire-looping pliers are nifty and essential.
 

 

The Workbook Guide to Jewelry Techniques - It's great to have some handy reference materials, suitable for both students and professionals, at hand when you want some inspiration or quick how-to help; this guidebook has photographs to help illustrate the steps of different techniques.

Beadsmith Solid Stainless Steel Mini Jewelry Anvil Wire Work Tool - With straight edges on one end to assist in wire bending, and a tapered end for wrapping and shaping, this heavy (1 pound) anvil takes up little space (it's only 4 inches long), but it will be a workhorse part of your design projects.

Handcrafted Wire Findings: Techniques and Designs for Custom Jewelry Components - Every jewelry designer is looking at holding down the costs while adding personal style to their pieces, and this book inspires jewelry designers to creatively do it themselves. 

Beadsmith Craft Wire Multi-Mandrel - Use these different mandrels or shaping tools to create round, oval, triangle, and square shaped jump rings, toggles, pendants, earrings, and other jewelry items.
 

 

Profiting By Design: A Jewelry Maker's Guide to Business Success - It's important to focus your attention on starting a business and earning a living from your jewelry creations, and author Marlene Richey gives you abundant ideas and inspiring case studies to help your business grow and find its unique niche.

 

 Eurotool 6-Step Multi Size Wire Looping Jewelry Pliers - Haley's certainly a tool lover, and this is a favorite!
 

Sheffield School 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.

Geometry and Strong Lines Inspire These Jewelry Creations

The Carrotbox is a site dedicated to all those wonderful rings made of glass, lucite, resin, plastic, jade, wood, bakelite, metal, and even stone. Alice Matsumoto from Vancouver, BC, Canada has a ring shop and has kindly given us permission to inspire our jewelry lovers at Sheffield with her discoveries. In this post, Alice focuses on imaginative uses of line and geometric form.

In grade 4, while making posters for Easter, my art teacher got me hooked on the technique of going over the outlines of my drawings with a black Sharpie. To my 9-year-old self, it made everything look so much better. While I doubt London's Janice Zethraeus was Sharpie-crazy like me, the illustrator-turned-jeweller shows her love of thick, fluid lines in her metalwork. Shown above is her "hole" ring in oxidized silver.

Bonus

Here's another ring my Sharpie-loving former (and present-day) self would love. Ring by Germany's Corinna Loelgen, whose work is based on architectural forms.

Even more jewelry:

• Victoria Thay (UK) - lines on hexagons
• Brice Garrett (Massachusetts) - wood art
• Ana Cavalheiro (Virginia) - moonstone cabs

Interested in learning more about jewelry design? 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.

Distinctive Wired-Up Rings from Brazilian Jewelry Designer

The Carrotbox is a site dedicated to all those wonderful rings made of glass, lucite, resin, plastic, jade, wood, bakelite, metal, and even stone. Alice Matsumoto from Vancouver, BC, Canada has a ring shop and has kindly given us permission to inspire our jewelry lovers at Sheffield with her discoveries. In this post, Alice focuses on wire, one of the key materials we use in our Jewelry Design course.

Brazil's Natália Dalbem manages to turn simple wire (and the occasional slab of amethyst) into a style distinctly her own.

Bonus

For your "stay away from me" days, Chris Parry has another kind of wire ring — barbed wire! Check out the UK jeweller for lots of simple silver pieces, including fingerprint rings.

Even more jewelry:

• Mu-Yin Jewelry (South Carolina) - wire & stones
• David Bizer (Germany) - conceptual design
• Henry Lanham (UK) - slats & lines

Interested in learning more about jewelry design? 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 Design Frustration: Bent Wire

Bent wire isn't necessarily a problem when it comes to making jewelry pieces. In fact, you have tools to help you bend thick or thin wire to meet the particulars of your design.

But have you ever gotten some thick or thin wire from your jewelry supply wholesaler or retailer and you wound up taking home something amazingly bent, twisted, or misshapen? It happens all the time, particularly when you get wire off the end of a spool - it's just naturally bent in order to begin the wrapping process. And you'll want to start your wire bending process with a straight piece of wire, so this unintentional bending needs to be rectified.

We found this helpful video from jewelry designer Nancy LT Hamilton on wire-straightening tips. No more wire messes!

READ MORE: If you're designing your own jewelry, be sure to read our in-depth look at The Importance of Play and how it will help you create more interesting pieces.

As lead curriculum developer for Sheffield School, I enjoy finding video tutorials for our students from experts like jewelry designer Nancy LT Hamilton. If you're interested in learning the craft of jewelry design, then I 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.