Adding New Jewelry Methods – Start Simple

Many jewelry makers take a New Year’s resolution to learn a new jewelry making technique or two. Maybe they want to learn to solder or they want to learn to macramé. Here’s a tip, and it may seem like common sense, but you’d be surprised at how many people I’ve met who don’t consider this: Start with something simple

As an example, my friend J. learned how to do bead stringing last year. She really jumped in with both feet and has gotten pretty good at it and has now decided she’d like to also learn how to bead weave. To that end, she took a class at the local bead shop to learn her first bead weaving technique: Dutch spiral. So, what’s the problem?

While Dutch spiral isn’t necessarily impossible for a beginner to learn, there are tons of other beading stitches that are much easier. My friend was really frustrated in the class. She’d never even worked with seed beads before, couldn’t thread a needle, didn’t know how to snake the beads onto her needle, hadn’t a clue about tension, nothing. Dutch spiral, in my opinion, is not the stitch a new bead weaver should start out with. Yes, it looks really cool, but it’s probably more like an intermediate stitch rather than a beginner’s stitch.

My suggestion for J. was try to make something like a pair of fringe earrings. These are the perfect beginning bead weaving project. They don’t take too many beads, and you learn two stitches (ladder and brick) while you make the earrings.

If you are thinking of trying your hand at a new jewelry making method, think “simple” so you can get a little success under your belt and the confidence to move on to more advanced project. Not sure what would constitute “simple”? As someone who knows for suggestions on where to begin.