by Barbara Guess

Created on: January 22, 2009

Look in the window of any jewelry store and see the glittering array that greets your eyes. Rings, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, watches and broaches, so many that your eyes glance from one dazzling object to the next; but look closer are they really what you are looking for?

Shop windows and stores are filled with items designed and selected by somebody else, a stranger and what is worse, they seem to copy each other with the safe saleable items that they stock. If you want to give yourself a personal identity, that accentuates your character then you need jewelry that hasn't been produced on a factory assembly line, you need jewelry designed and crafted by yourself.

There are things in life that you find pleasant to look at, that stimulate your imagination. Colours and colour combinations that suit your skin tone or match your eyes, or ones that you simple enjoy and feel comfortable with. This information and colour preferences can be incorporated into your design. The surface texture is important, do you like metal to be smooth and shiny, dented, cut out or engraved.

All of this knowledge you already have, the skill you have to learn is how to use it to make the most creative and unusual jewelry, just for you. It is easy to sit back and ride on the backs of the leaders of fashion, the people with flair that put the designs in the shops, but how much more rewarding to step out in something of your own.

The learning period can be lengthy if you want to be a silver smith and proficient in all the smithing techniques. Maybe you are put off by the cost of lessons or equipment or perhaps you're not an art and crafty type of person. Never mind, start by stringing beads for a necklace because these beads will be ones that you've chosen, the colours will be your pattern. It could even be more rewarding if you're using beads from old necklaces from your family, ones that you've kept and treasured in a box since childhood. One thing you can be assured of is that no one else will have the same necklace as you.

Once you've decided to try making your own jewelry you will be surprised at how much more notice you take of other peoples jewelry, looking for design ideas or innovations of style. If you take the plunge into silver smithing you will discover the supreme satisfaction of creating a project from start to finish and the pleasure you will feel as you complete the final polish and put it on, marvelling at the perfect fit and knowing that when the complements come you can tell them you made it yourself.

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