By: Tracy Matthews
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Handmade jewelry has been all the rage lately. The personal attention and love that makers and artisans infuse into their work is evident in the masterpieces that they create. What most people don’t understand is why handmade jewelry is more of an investment than its mass produced counterparts. There are many reasons why handmade jewelry is more of an investment than pieces that are mass produced. Below are 7 Things You Didn’t Know About Handmade Jewelry.
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1. No Mass Production Machinery Involved
By definition, handmade jewelry is literally just that, made by the “hands” of the artisan or maker. The pieces are soldered, sawed, carved and shaped without the use of mass produced manufacturing machinery. A machine can crank out hundreds of units per hour while an individual can only make a finite quantity or fraction of the number of pieces in the same amount of time.
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2. The Value of Time
As previously mentioned, since there are no machines involved, handmade jewelry takes an incredible amount of time to produce just a single piece. The time to make the piece often can take weeks.
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3. The Maker’s Process
The maker has a very intimate relationship with each piece or design they create. The design process is key to the value that is inherent in each piece. Emilie Shapiro talks about her process and says, “While creating jewelry, there is a very intimate relationship with work which every curve and line (is) put there with intention. As a maker your energy goes into the piece.”
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4. Materials
In almost every case, the value of the materials involved in a handmade piece are of stellar quality. It’s difficult to regulate or even know exactly what alloys are used in mass produced factories where dirty metals are blended together to create costume pieces. Handmade materials are generally sourced from highly reputable suppliers.
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5. Sustainability
Jewelry Makers are often dedicated to sustainability and ethically sourced materials. By nature, being ethical can be much more costly than taking the easy route and purchasing from the refiner or dealer with low prices and shady sourcing. Once again, Emilie Shapiro always uses the highest quality materials sourced from suppliers who share her ethos about sustainability whenever possible. Smaller scale production is almost always higher quality.
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6. Quality
Smaller scale production is almost always higher quality because the ability to track and control the process from start to finish is inherent in the making process. Makers and artisans are extremely proud of the work they produce. They aren’t going to let something of inferior quality leave their studio with their name on it.
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7. Locally Made with Love
There is a lot of buzz with “buying local” these days. Reducing your carbon footprint and supporting local artisans is good for the environment and good for everyone. Artisans and makers infuse love and energy into each piece of work. There is HUGE value in supporting local from a sustainability and energetic standpoint. Along with the extra value inherent in handmade jewelry you are also buying a truly one-of-a-kind product. Even if the handmade piece is part of an edition – no maker creates two pieces that are exactly identical. You are the only person with that specific piece of jewelry which says a lot.
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Fashion Turning To Handmade Jewelry? (By: Stephanie White)
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With the economy in a slump, many people don’t have the cash that they used to in order to buy the jewelry that they need and want. Even though you may not have the same jewelry budget that you used to have, it doesn’t mean that you can’t accessorize and have jewelry that is fashionable and that accentuates your outfits.
Handmade jewelry has made a comeback and has become very popular these days. In fact, open up any fashion magazine as of late and you will see some form of handmade jewelry being worn by today’s top models and fashion icons. Most of this type of jewelry utilizes beads as the main element of the piece. This makes this type of jewelry very fun to wear as beads can be purchased in all shapes and sizes to create some very interesting jewelry pieces. Instead of paying thousands of dollars on expensive jewelry pieces, the average person can buy everything they need to make a fantastic jewelry piece from their local craft store for under 20 dollars. This price break alone has made jewelry handmade products extremely popular.
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Not only is the price affordable nice with this type of jewelry, but the customization possibilities are also a huge draw. Have you ever wanted a certain jewelry piece that matched your outfit, but was unable to find something? This is very common, but this doesn’t have to be the case any longer. With handmade jewelry, you can create exactly what you want to match that unique outfit, or other accessories that may be difficult to match with. Many people who get into creating jewelry handmade often will create pieces completely specific to one outfit, and with the prices of this type of beaded jewelry being affordable, you could literally create a piece of jewelry for every outfit you own.
While it is cheap to make jewelry yourself, many people are finding that hand made jewelry sells for quite a bit in the local and online jewelry markets. While anyone can get beads for cheap, the creativity and combination that people create are what drives the masses to buy this type of jewelry. Many stay at home moms have been able to establish a pretty decent income driving business on the side creating handmade jewelry.
As you can see, handmade jewelry is extremely fashionable and is family budget approved. Have some fun and create that perfect piece of jewelry that you have always wanted. If you aren’t the creating type, look in local stores and online for the perfect piece that someone else has created. Regardless, handmade jewelry is here to stay and is definitely fashionable.
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Handmade Jewelry - Playing With Sparkle and Light
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Light--one of the basic elements of our existence. It gives us sight, perception, and affects our health and our moods. How it reflects from some surfaces, glides over other surfaces, and filters through yet others, is one of its most beautiful aspects.
Jewelry loves light and light plays with it in return. After all, the word jewelry comes from the word jewel, the anglicized form of the Old French word "jouel". That came from the Latin word "jocale", which actually means plaything!
One of the things I love most about creating handmade jewelry is designing the way light chooses to play with it. A reflection here, a gleam there, a sparkle dancing along a strand of beads or leaping out from crystals--it’s exciting to put the components together, to choose for selves how intensely the light plays with any given section of creations.
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Crystals, in particular, absorb and bend and release light in the most engaging way. Nature designed them charmingly, with a molecular lattice that repeats and repeats, resulting in a geometric shape that light strides through in a manner persistent to each specific crystal-type. When it exits via a smooth facet face, the light literally jazzes across it and your eyes see--sparkles!
I love sparkling jewelry! Don't you?
Every separate element of controls light differently. Pearls have luster; they glow! The Latin lux, from which luster derives, means--yes--light! Solid beads and glass beads reflect light, scattering it back into your eyes like delicious beams skittering over water! Gemstones gleam and shine and, as minerals, exude earth essence.
Remember, unique jewelry always brings you back to the light and the sparkle. Colors pirouette from surfaces, facets flicker radiance, a soft sheen whispers from pearls...wrap yourself from ears to neck, from wrist to ankle, in the joy of captured light!
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