The Unconventional Guide to Handmade Jewelry

If you love jewelry, and especially if you love the idea of someone making a piece of jewelry that is unique, then you probably already love handmade jewelry. These days there are plenty of little arts and crafts venues you can go to and find cute little necklaces made out of old dominoes or pins from vintage pop bottle tops. Those little kitschy pieces are cute and I certainly would never say to skip them over. But if you want a guide to handmade jewelry, knowing and understanding the craft that goes into them, then let me take you on a little journey to the kind of artisan work you see here at Inbal.

A Guide to Handmade Jewelry Production

No, I am not going to teach you how to create the kind of sterling silver and gold plated earrings we make and sell here at Inbal Studios. But I will talk a bit about what kind of creative effort goes into each piece.

You must remember when looking at these delicate gold post earrings that they began in a single strand of wire. Each little golden bubble is carefully wrapped into a circle. It is then vigilantly soldered to the next one until you get the flowing stream of golden bubbles. Finally a stone is carefully set into one of the circles. It is slow careful work — done so you can wear a cascade of golden light down your ears.

Fire Down Below

This bracelet may look simple, but each loop is carefully constructed to sit in the exact right way when it is connected to the next loop. It began as a simple silver wire — cut and shaped link by link. But the true magic is the oxidation.

Different silversmiths use different compounds, but basically it is a chemical that when the silver is placed into it, reacts by turning black. After, it is polished to a high sheen such as you see here in our elegant black oxidized chain bracelet. It is truly a one of a kind design.

Cutting Away to the Beauty

Remember as a child when you would fold paper up and then cut into it to make paper snowflakes? While we cannot fold up metal to do it, the goal was much the same for these little brooches.

Inspired by the cog shapes in machinery, these are carefully cut away in the master form to give these delicate edges. The cutaways inside are even trickier to do, as they need to be cut carefully with a tiny handsaw to give it that open lacy look. We end up with tiny metal snowflakes for our scarves and jackets.

A Guide to Handmade Jewelry for Fans of the Unique

As you can see this somewhat unconventional guide to handmade jewelry is more than just an introduction to our pieces. To truly understand and appreciate handmade jewelry, you need to also understand the hours of work it takes to create them.

In an era where so much in our lives are mass produced — cutting corners to make it faster and cheaper — there are still artisans around the world who do this kind of work. Thanks goodness we have people like you, our wonderful clients, who appreciate this.

Why not take some time browsing through our collection of earrings and rings, or an individual collection such as Lace or Ktan-Tan? You will always find something unique at Inbal Design.

Originally published at www.inbaldesigns.com on May 24, 2015.