Are you ready to start making your custom-made jewelry accessories? Take a look at the tools you’ll need to create your first rings, bracelets, necklaces, and earrings.
Homemade jewelry requires basic skills and can be extremely fun.
There are plenty of jewelry starter kits for beginners willing to learn more about the art of working with gemstones, gold, and silver, but you can also teach yourself at home with the right guides and the right equipment.
Initially, all you need to start making jewelry at home are tools, metals, wires, beads, and stones.
Whether you’re an amateur craftsman or an interested beginner, building your first stunning jewelry pieces is not an impossible mission.
Learning the basics of jewelry is within anyone’s reach.
There are several ways of acquiring fundamental crafting techniques. After checking a few jewelry books, you will feel free and comfortable to let your gemstone imagination fly away.
From Soldering to Cutting
The jewelry-making tools will allow you to cut, shape, and soldier metal. The basic soldering equipment includes:
- Jelly Roll Pan;
- Kiln Brick;
- Solder Picks;
- Quenching Cup;
- Blazer and/or Max Flame Torch;
- Safety Glasses;
- Cleaner;
The bench, hammering, bending, and cutting tools that you should have are:
- Bench Block;
- Rawhide Mallet;
- Plastic Mallet;
- Chasing Hammer;
- Scissor or French Shears;
- Side/Flush Cutters;
- Chain-Nose Pliers;
- Bent Chaine-Nose Pliers;
- Round-Nose Pliers;
From Marking to Polishing
Finally, you’ll need marking, measuring, filing, and polishing to complete your first jewelry pieces:
- Metal Jeweler’s Rule;
- Divider;
- Wire Gauge;
- Millimeter Gauge;
- Permanent Marker;
- Half-Round File;
- Needle Files;
- 3M Sponge Sanding Pads;
- Salon Boards;
- Wet/Dry Sandpaper;
- Pro Polish;
- Brass Brush;
These tools will help you create fantastic jewelry pieces. They seem a lot, but the majority of them are really affordable and inexpensive.
So, now that you’ve got the hardware, it’s time to get the right materials for your creative projects with beads and stones.
The most common homemade jewelry pieces include a wide variety of metals such as copper, fine silver, sterling silver, nickel silver, brass, and gold.
You will also have to choose between round wire, bezel wire, or flat wire in your creations, as well as jewelry findings (jump rings, head pins, ear wires, clasps, etc.).
Then, to get things started, a generous collection of colored beads and stones.
Start your early jewelry artwork with simple exercises. Get a simple thin wire and a few colored beads, and try to complete your first piece.
As you improve your technique, you might want to dive into intermediate and advanced projects.
The essential jewelry techniques are cutting, straightening, bending, making “P,” “Eye,” “Open,” and “Wrapped” loops, connecting different components, and setting gemstones.
Stringing beads, wire wrapping, and soldering, for example, require advanced jewelry skills, but as you progress, you’ll notice that the final results may well earn their spot in your local jewelry store.
For more information on tools you need to start making your own jewelry, get “Simple Soldering – A Beginner’s Guide to Jewelry Making,” and “The Complete Jewelry Making Course.”
