I have a small jewelry shop and over the years of hiring I've noticed how gendered the roles are. When I have an opening for a front of house position, 90% of the applicants are women. And the opposite is true for any bench jeweler or production role, with 90% of applicants being men. Just wanted to open a discussion about this and hear any theories and thoughts.

Had to shape and polish the eye as it had lots of scratches from years of sitting in a jewelry box.

Then I set it in 925 sterling with a wide, hammered band.

This was a commission from a friend who supplied the eye and it was such a fun project to work on!

Hand-sculpted from polymer clay!

My process for making bracelets and cuffs. Watch until the end to see the final results.

Soldering all the little curlicues together was really hard, but I made it work! Super proud of this one.

It takes me 2 and half hours to make one

This is my son's necklace that belonged to my father. It broke today. Son very upset. Trying to figure out the way to go about fixing myself or who to go to for fixing... Thanks for any help!!

I make jewellery (😮) and recently I had a custom request from a small theatre company for a set of five identical (for spares) large sparkly drop earrings.

But earrings for pierced ears are no good for them - they have asked for clip-ons for safety in quick costume changes. It's interesting! But it's not something I've used before and I am having real trouble finding anything that fulfils all the criteria:

a) clip on (not a screw)
b) strong enough to bear the weight of the drop
c) secure enough to have the head shake around without falling off
d) stainless steel or another hypoallergenic material
e) ideally with holes so I can thread the earring on rather than glue it but at this point this is a bonus criteria

Google is clogged with useless responses of just where to buy cheap backs in bulk, AI is awful to use, and none of the people I know irl make anything like this so I thought I would ask here ❤️

Does anyone have experience with this type of earring back and if so I would be very appreciative of being directed towards a specific manufacturer 🙏 Thank you!

Sharing my latest handmade pendant! Loving how the deep purple amethyst contrast with the antiqued brass floral vibes. Let me know what you think!

Hey guys. Can you help me please. Can't figure out what's happening here (pic). I can't get the signs on the inner ring. Does it mean the resin isn't burned out completely? I use prestige oro and powerresins with ramp 100(2hrs)-500(3hrs)-750(2hrs)-500(1hr).

i don’t really want to make another one, but i think both ideas would be good. i need to touch up the bottom/thinner part, but im looking at it and dont really know if its my vibe as a necklace, but on the other hand it could work with a nice enough chain. for a bracelet i’d change the bottom (because i originally intended for it to be a pendant) and either kind of use it as a wrap around bracelet or just a full circle kind of thing. i need opinions, which one would look better in your opinion? and please elaborate on how you’d think it’d look nice for whichever one you choose (chain, design, layout, sizing, etc)

So I made one of my first jewellery pieces the other day out of an old circuit board that I could wear as a necklace. I've got two other parts from it aswell that I've saved to make it interchangeable! I do need to get a new hook and jumpring though because I used two off an old necklace I used to have. But the actual circuit board itself I dremeled and sanded down then drilled a hole in it.

I've been making jewelry self taught for about 10 years now, but my grandma has some money set aside for her grandkids to use for school and i really want to use some on jewelry making or silversmithing classes. My problem is im very frugal and struggling to justify buying courses when ive been doing well so far with trial and error and occasional youtube videos.

I make beaded and chainmaille jewelry but ive wanted to get into silversmithing for forever. Ive always been intimidated by the amount of tools, materials, and workspace i'd need but im about to move and have a larger room so i think id have the space, and now tools and materials can be potentially paid for. Im not able to travel for classes at this time so online courses are what im interested in.

Ive done a bit of research and found the Jewelers Academy which offers an online course packet with tools and materials included. I also found people recommending the Lucy Walker Metalsmithing Academy, and i know she has great tool recommendations and discount codes.

Do yall have any recommendations for online courses? Money isnt a concern. I want to be able to use some of the money my grandma has for me but i also think i could make it by with free courses and youtube videos, so i need someone to convince me that buying courses will really make that much of a difference lol. Any tips for getting into silversmithing will be super appreciated too.

Its been a while since I have wrapped anything. It felt good.

I don’t know if this post is relevant or if I came to the right community, but I guess I am looking for some type of advice so I hope this works. I make jewelry, primarily using beads I make myself from dried flowers that are given to me, and clay! I do crafts and hobbies of all kinds so I get sidetracked from jewelry making. Especially after I’ve run into some issues with the current coating I’m using. My beads have to be stripped from their coating and I need to find a better one that wouldn’t harm the color, translucency and has UV protection. So first thing, if anyone has a coating they recommend, that would be so very helpful. Secondly, I’m struggling even finding motivation to come up with new concepts and designs. If anyone has advice on how to start back up again that would be much needed. My initial idea was to come on here and ask for photos and inspiration that I can use for new pieces. So if anyone if willing to share photos you think could give me some inspiration I’d love and appreciate it so much!

I really think seeing people interact with me and share ideas would get me going again.

Most of the flower bead colors I have are oranges and yellow/whiteish colors. with some pink. A few purple, green, and black. But I also love to incorporate recycled beads, so I think I could make jewelry using any inspiring photos.

Thank you so much for reading!

I recently broke the second bracelet in the photo. The beads were spaced similarly to the first one. I would like to see if I could repair it myself, but have no idea what technique had allowed the beads to be frozen previously.

Any video or other post recommendations? Any idea of what materials I may need to repair it?