I made this pendant over the weekend – CB’s mom has a lot of tools and beads to make her own jewelry, and she nicely said that I can make something on my own. So while CB was out working on his car, I just grabbed a pearl bead and some silver wire and went to work.
For someone who has never wire-wrapped before, I was very happy with how the necklace turned out. The pearl looks as if it’s floating in an orbit of silver, and I maintain that the unevenness and asymmetry are intentional and only increase its charm. 
Although I love this necklace (partly because I made it), I don’t think making my own jewelry would be saving any money, per se. Quality beads / materials / tools can get quite expensive. CB’s mom has a large cache of materials to work with – but it costs a lot of money to build up such an inventory. Then, there’s the monetary value of the time that one spends working on the jewelry. Jewelry-making probably won’t turn into a full-fledged hobby for me, but it’s nice to be able to make something pretty once in a while.
One of the good things about making jewelry is that it can potentially turn into a money-making hobby. My one excursion into DIY jewelry, however, made me wonder how much of a profit those wonderful Etsy jewelers turn.
More expensive items has bigger profit margins, but on etsy the prices are all fairly low for jewelry. $100-$200 seem to be around the high-end of the range for jewelry prices. Especially people who sell a pair of earrings for $10 or less – how do they make money? After accounting for the time they spend making the piece, the raw materials cost, and the fee they pay to list on etsy, the profit margins must be quite thin.
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I don’t know if that was a hypothetical question or if you are really curious, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. A lot of successful Etsy sellers have their own popular blogs, maybe they could do a guest post for yuo? I’m sure they wouldn’t give out actual numbers, but it could be neat to see how they price their work so that it is affordable and allows them to earn a living wage. Etsy seller Lillyella comes to mind. I have bought a few items from her, she does beautiful work.
Love the new Header!
I’m not really jewelry wearer so I can’t comment on this. I usually try to buy the cheapest set of earrings from Claires or Forever 21. I love it when it comes in bulk too, like 12 earrings for $3. LOL.
Etsy prices are kind of all over the place. A lot of the sellers are clearly undervaluing their own time but some sellers must think that everything they touch turns to gold. It really helps to have an idea what the materials would cost and how much time it would take to do it yourself when shopping on Etsy.
You know, I wondered about that too
But a lot of what people make for low/thin margins, is that
A) they buy the items in bulk, costing less than $1 per item
B) the items are already pre-made and not made by hand, like the Antique Poppy Leaf Pendant thing or whatever
Some sellers just string that Poppy pendant on with 2 chains and call it $15.
It looks cute, and to ME, looks worth $15, until I checked how much they paid for each pendant, and realized they were making a $13 margin each necklace!
The way more expensive stuff, is the handmade stuff like silver rings, or stamped out things..
Ask Ginger, she made me that silver ring that i won in the giveaway, and it is CLEARLY handmade, which I love love love.. but she told me that it was expensive to even rent the studio to do silversmithing and then the time involved…
I have my favourites on Etsy for sure.. and I’m starting to learn what everything really costs, and then I evaluate what I buy on there.
@ Megan – I googled etsy and Lillyella and this article about her quitting her day job to do Etsy full-time came up. If you haven’t seen it already, you might be interested! http://www.etsy.com/storque/spotlight/quit-your-day-job-lillyella-2522/
@Wellheeled – that’s how I found her. Love her stuff and her blog!
I definitely agree that it's fun to make your own jewelry, and it might be great for a one time thing, but it can get SO expensive. I make my own earrings and just to get started I felt like I had to spend over $100 to get good materials to make a few sets. So, I totally understand. But I love the necklace you made, isn't it fun to have people give you things to create what you want! Love it! Thanks for sharing!
Designing jewelry yourself saves the money in a sense that if others also appreciate your creations then turn this hobby to home based business, this thing is also helpful for the mothers who are looking for their infants and can't go outside; to pass the time in healthy activity and make some money also.