Margaux Lange Jewelry

I stumbled across this hand crafted jewelry site this morning and thought, Wow! Talk about making memorable niche jewelry. The designer uses barbie doll parts to create unique and interesting jewelry. It is definitely something people will take note of when you wear it! Check it out, Margaux Lange.

Free ebook from Dr. David Weiman!

Dr. David Weiman is letting his affiliates share his new ebook with you for FREE! How cool is that? You can get your free copy of 50 Great Jewelry Selling Techniques by Clicking Here!

Review: Marketing and Selling you handmade Jewelry, by Viki Lareau

Being a successful jewelry business woman, Viki Lareau has written this book to help out the rest of us. She shares with us what she has learned in this easy to read step by step format. The chapters cover things like getting started, pricing work, building a portfolio and more. She keeps things positive and shares encouraging stories from other successful jewelry businesses. I think this book is great for beginners to get them pointed in the right direction. It is definitely something you should read before to start selling your jewelry. There is so much that goes into selling your finished pieces it is hard to know where to start. If you are already trying to sell and not having an easy time of this book may be able to help you change that.

Tips to get better photos of your handmade jewelry

Tips for better jewerly photos

Taking pictures of your handmade jewelry can be a real chore. Most of the jewelry makers I know, including myself, have had trouble getting great pictures. Some of the most common problems are blur, yellowing, glare, and poor lighting.

Blur can be caused my several things like, unsteady camera, holding the camera too close to the jewelry, or being too far away and zooming in. The best way to avoid these problems is to steady your camera with a tripod or stack of books and use the macro setting on your camera. The macro setting allows you to place your camera very close to the jewelry and still allow the camera to focus on it.

Having you jewelry photos come out with a yellowish look to them is from light bulbs. Regular household light bulbs give off light with a yellow tint. To avoid this use white bright light bulbs like flouresent or the energy saving swirl bulbs. If you have the chance take your photos outside on a sunny day. Sun light will give bright clear true colors to your photos. There are lamps that simulate sunlight. I haven't tried these to see how they work with jewelry photography. It may be worth experimenting with. Most digital cameras have a white balance setting, ajusting this can give you better photos. Some photo editing software also has white balance you can play with.

You want your jewelry to sparkle and shine, but not glare. Using a light box or tent is the best way to control glare. I have seen jewelry sized light tents for sale on ebay for over 100.00! The good news is you can make your own. Depending on the size you need you can use a milk jug or a tote. The opaque plastic will cut down the glare from your lights and help you keep jewelry sparkle. Sometimes simply placing a piece of white paper in front of your lights will defuse the light enough to cut out the glare. It is key to avoid using the flash on your camera. This will only add to the glare.

Household lamps aren't as bright as professional photography lamps. This can leave you photos coming out too dark. I use about three desk lamps and then lighten the pictures further in photoshop. If I had more lamps I would use them! I have found that if I hold one lamp above and a little behind me, it seems to allow the camera to pull in more light.

I have seen people using their scanners to get images of their handmade jewelry. It is not my favorite way of getting images of jewelry. The shadow of the jewelry always looks like blur and takes away from the picture. I have tried it with my scanner and it doesn't work. If you have no camera, do try out your scanner, yours may work better than mine. The main thing is that people can clearly see what your handmade jewelry looks like. Get close ups, get details, and get different angles.

Keep experimenting until you find a set up that works for you.

Review: Dr. David Weiman's The Jewelry Selling Answer Book

Dr. David Weiman offers programs to help you learn to sell more jewelry. I recently bought The Jewelry Selling Answer book. This book is written to answer some of the questions we all have when we begin to sell our jewelry. He covers questions on how to set up your business and how to handle customers. This book is a good place to begin if you are just starting to sell your jewelry. Selling jewelry can be hard and arming yourself with knowledge is always a good thing to do. Reading this book will also help you decide if you would like to buy Dr. Weiman's other products. The Jewelry Selling Answer book is really geared toward people that are new to selling their handmade jewelry.

Do you have questions about
how to sell your jewelry?

Dr. David Weiman has the answers!

He's the marketing director of Lapidary Journal and

Step by Step Beads. And he just wrote a new eBook:

The Jewelry Selling Answer Book:
Expert Answers to the Most Popular Questions
Jewelry Makers Have About Selling.

It's available for Instant Download. Click here to learn more!

Worried about a boring Bridal Shower?

Are you having a hard time planning a bridal shower? What if no one wants to play those silly shower games? With the cost of weddings going up a great way to help the Bride have fun and shave money is to throw a jewelry party! You can find a local jewelry making to help you throw the party or do it yourself. If you have some basic jewelry making skills, like bead stringing, you can host your own party. All the beads and jewelry finding can be matched to the wedding colors and the Bride's style. It is a lot of fun and the bride gets handmade custom jewelry at a low cost!

If you are not up to doing it all yourself, you can find local jewelry makers that will come to you. They will bring all the tools and supplies with them. You and your guests get to have fun learning something new. How cool would it be for the whole bridal party to have custom handmade jewelry? Very cool, and very affordable when you can make it yourself.

I host jewelry parties in my area. You can use google to search for independent jewelry makers or jewelry direct sales companies in your area.

Looking for free jewelry making lessons?

Here are some great sites with fun lessons.

Jewelry making on about.com

Eni Oken~ One of my favorite jewelry artists! There are free and paid lessons.

Studio Health

These are just a few site that have free lessons. I have used lessons from these sites. Remember to have fun!