The Jewelers’ Palette, 12/1/2024

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From Warren and
Land of Odds

Use December’s Discount Code For Extra 25% Off @Land of Odds:
DECEMBER25
www.landofodds.com

December 1, 2024

Hi everyone,

Some Updates and Things Happening.
(Please share this newsletter)

1. In our jewelry designers’ hub, I post questions students and customers have related to jewelry design, either the techniques, the materials, or the business. Here’s one of the latest. Please share your responses on the hub.

Did the people closest to you, your family and friends, encourage or discourage your pursuit of art as a profession? Share your experiences or thoughts on the influence friends or family have had on your pursuit of your art and/or jewelry designing.

2. I have always tried to push my jewelry making students to see themselves as professionals providing a service to others. I wrote my first book — SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER — with this foremost in my mind. If I were teaching an undergraduate college class in jewelry design, this would be my textbook.

600pp, many images and diagrams
Kindle or Ebook or Print


Taking Jewelry Design Beyond Craft

Jewelry making has aspects of craft to it, but it is so much more. It is art. It is architecture. It is communicative and interactive. It moves with the person wearing it. It is reflective of the jewelry designer’s hand. And it defines and reaffirms the narrative stories of everyone who wears it, views it, buys it, exhibits it, collects it, talks about it.

To go beyond craft, the jewelry designer needs to become literate in this discipline called Jewelry Design. Literacy means understanding how to answer the question: Why do some pieces of jewelry draw your attention, and others do not? How to develop the authentic, creative self, someone who is fluent, flexible and original. How to gain the necessary design skills and be able to apply them, whether the situation is familiar or not.

Craft and art techniques and theories are of little help. These do not show how to make trade-offs between beauty and functionality. Nor how to introduce pieces publicly. These provide weak rules for determining when a piece of jewelry is finished and successful. Often, the desires and motivations of wearers, viewers and buyers are minimized or ignored.

So You Want To Be A Jewelry Designer reinterprets craft techniques, modifies art theories, and introduces architectural, socio-cultural and perceptual-cognitive considerations so that jewelry makers are better prepared to approach design.

By the end of So You Want To Be A Jewelry Designer, established jewelry artisan Warren Feld teaches you how to
• Select materials, techniques and technologies
• Choose, compose, construct and manipulate jewelry design elements
• Anticipate expectations, perceptions, values and desires of client audiences
• Develop those soft skills of creativity, inspiration, aspiration and passion

Warren Feld examines with you all those things which lead to your success as a jewelry designer, and your associated design practice or business.

This book is for someone who wants to develop that strategic kind of thinking and speaking and doing which underly their discipline we call Jewelry Design.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Why I wrote this book and acknowledgements
AN INTRODUCTION

1. JEWELRY BEYOND CRAFT: GAINING A DISCIPLINARY LITERACY AND FLUENCY IN DESIGN

2. GETTING STARTED
2a. BECOMING THE BEAD ARTIST AND JEWELRY DESIGNER:
The Ongoing Tensions Between Inspiration and Form
2b. BECOMING THE BEAD ARTIST AND JEWELRY DESIGNER:
5 Essential Questions Every Jewelry Designer Should Have An Answer For
2c. GETTING STARTED: CHANNELING YOUR EXCITEMENT
2d. GETTING STARTED: DEVELOPING YOUR PASSION
2e. GETTING STARTED: CULTIVATING YOUR PRACTICE

3. WHAT IS JEWELRY, Really?

4. MATERIALS, TECHNIQUES AND TECHNOLOGIES
4a. MATERIALS: Knowing What To Know
4b. TECHNIQUES AND TECHNOLOGIES: Knowing What To Do
4c. MIXED MEDIA / MIXED TECHNIQUES

5. RULES OF COMPOSITION, CONSTRUCTION, AND MANIPULATION
5a. JEWELRY DESIGN COMPOSITION:
PLAYING WITH BUILDING BLOCKS CALLED DESIGN ELEMENTS
5b. THE JEWELRY DESIGNER’S APPROACH TO COLOR
5c. POINT, LINE, PLANE, SHAPE, FORM, THEME:
Creating Something Out Of Nothing
5d. JEWELRY DESIGN PRINCIPLES: COMPOSING, CONSTRUCTING, MANIPULATING
5e. HOW TO DESIGN AN UGLY NECKLACE:
The Ultimate Designer’s Challenge / You Be The Judge
5f. ARCHITECTURAL BASICS OF JEWELRY DESIGN:
Building In The Necessary Support and Structure
5g. ARCHITECTURAL BASICS OF JEWELRY DESIGN:
Anatomy of a Necklace
5h. ARCHITECTURAL BASICS OF JEWELRY DESIGN:
Sizing

6. DESIGN MANAGEMENT
6a. THE PROFICIENT DESIGNER: The Path To Resonance
6b. JEWELRY DESIGN: A Managed Process
6c. COMPONENT BASED DESIGN SYSTEMS:
Building Both Efficiency As Well As Effectiveness Into Your Jewelry Designs

7. INTRODUCING YOUR DESIGNS PUBLICLY
7a. SHARED UNDERSTANDINGS AND DESIRES:
THE CONVERSATION CENTERED WITHIN A DESIGN
7b. “BACKWARD-DESIGN” IS FORWARDS THINKING

8. DEVELOPING THOSE INTUITIVE SKILLS WITHIN
8a. CREATIVITY ISN’T FOUND, IT’S DEVELOPED
8b. INSPIRATION AND ASPIRATION
8c. YOUR PASSION FOR DESIGN:
Finding It, Developing It, and Embedding It In Your Designs

9. JEWELRY IN CONTEXT
9a. CONTEMPORARY JEWELRY IS NOT A “LOOK” —
IT’S A WAY OF “THINKING”
9b. CONTEMPORIZING TRADITIONAL JEWELRY:
Transitioning From Conformity To Individuality
9c. Fashion-Style-Taste-Art-Design:
Coordinating Aesthetics With Pleasure
9d. Designing With The Brain In Mind:
Perception, Cognition, Sexuality
9e. SELF CARE

10. TEACHING DISCIPLINARY LITERACY:
Strategic Learning in Jewelry Design

SOME FINAL WORDS BY WARREN FELD
ABOUT WARREN FELD
OTHER ARTICLES AND TUTORIALS BY WARREN FELD


Kindle or Ebook or Print

3. If you’re lacking confidence when pricing your art…

• Set a price at which you’ll sell the maximum number of pieces, and achieve the maximum profit for your business.
• Your goal: a consistent and steady level of sales (the price can’t prohibit most interested buyers from buying).
• Flipside: don’t price it so low that you’re not generating profit for yourself (or any gallery you apply to).

“To do this, start by understanding your baselines: what does it cost to produce? What is the framing cost? Time?”


For more information:

Pricing and Selling Video Tutorial
Conquering the Creative Marketplace book
“A Foolproof Formula For Pricing And Selling Your Jewelry” article

4. “Is my art good enough to be in boutiques and galleries?”

There is always a boutique or gallery out there in which you can show your jewelry.

Just like there are jewelry designers at every phase of development & progression,
the same is true for boutiques and galleries (at every level of development).

As the boutique or gallery becomes more established and grows,
they will become able to be more selective and assertive.

“Our job, especially in the early phases, is to show our work to as many boutiques and galleries as possible. Find those that are interested in your work, and grow right along with your galleries.”


Further reading:
CONQUERING THE CREATIVE MARKETPLACE book
“Selling Your Pieces In Galleries: Some Strategic Choices” article

5. It’s approaching the end of the year.

You might have some excess inventory that you need to sell, and want to take advantage of the season to promote a sale.

Feel free to use or adapt either of these two images (my copyright so you have full permission) in your marketing:

6. People are often hesitant about signing up for coaching services.

One thing we don’t think about as much when it comes to finding the motivation to be consistent with your jewelry designing is something I talk about a lot in other contexts: Know Thyself.

This is something I work on with designers when coaching them. When I’m struggling with consistency, it’s not the same mayhem necessarily that you’re working with. Our remedies are going to be different potions. We have to do the work to know who we are, to look honestly and as objectively as possible at our patterns, and to understand why we struggle with certain things.

If you’re getting pummeled by procrastination, what’s behind it? Fear? What are you afraid of? Why?

Is your tendency toward perfectionism? Where’s that rooted?

Wondering why you’re not getting the sales you anticipated?

Got shiny object syndrome? Always looking for the next thing to pull you in and not letting yourself mature into something remarkable? What part of you thinks it’s being nourished by that pattern?

There’s a lot we can do to motivate and channel creative effort, but it’s all going to be short-lived if we don’t get to the root of our patterns. So who are you and what are your actions and mindsets that are in the way of your motivation?

I hope you’ll give yourself some time to consider these questions. If you’re ready for support in this critical exploration, review my COACHING services. Book your coaching session now.


— Warren

7. People are always wondering what types of jewelry I make. This is how I describe my personal jewelry making style.

My Personal Style

My personal style centers on a few key elements. I like to…

— Mix colors in unexpected ways, particularly colors you would not ordinarily assume would complement one another

— Use a lot of what are called “grays”, such as black diamond, montana blue, colorado topaz, alexandrite, and other “simultaneity effects”

— Combine both bead weaving, bead stringing, and wire-working techniques within the same piece, but typically the emphasis is on bead weaving techniques.

— Modify traditional weaving and stringing techniques or come up with my own new ones — I’m very experimental

— Define and play with forms and themes, and thresholds, frames and transitions from one form to the next

— Have pieces that emphasize the sensual and sexual

— Create unusual, unexpected placement of shapes, such as using curved tubes where you might expect a straight tube instead, or using a cube where you would expect a flat rondelle

— Add dimensionality, curvature, and interlocking forms, where I can, to make my pieces both fashionable and contemporary

— Add a sense of movement and move-ability, wherever possible, and likewise, anticipate the aesthetic and functional impacts and effects which come from movement when worn

— Push the limits of, and experiment with, the materials and techniques I am using

— Organize my pieces into Series I call “Collections.” For each Collection, I study a particular culture or technique or design theory, and play with what I’ve learned. How can I adopt what I’ve learned to my individual style and approach? Each Collection, then, is a personal challenge of expression and expressiveness.

— Consider that both the art (appeal) and architecture (function) goals both must be satisfied to the fullest, which most often requires making tradeoffs in design,

— Believe that jewelry can be judged as art only as it is worn, thus, designed in anticipation of this principle.

8. Some Quick Notes

a. Added 70 new colors, size 11/0 Miyuki seed beads to Land of Odds catalog. Shop here.

b. Added 130 new colors, delicas (size 11/0) to Land of Odds catalog. Shop here.

c. Added 159 new colors, size 8/0 Miyuki seed beads to Land of Odds catalog. Shop here.

d. Added 202 new colors, size 6/0 Miyuki seed beads to Land of Odds catalog. Shop here.



“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.” / Georgia O’Keeffe

And don’t forget to use this 25% discount code
throughout December at Land of Odds!!
Use December’s Discount Code
For Extra 25% Off @Land of Odds:
DECEMBER25
www.landofodds.com

SOME POSTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

Can Jewelry Designers Deduct the Value of Their Handmade JewelryDonated to Charities or Non-Profits?

SO YOU WANT TO BE A JEWELRY DESIGNER: Creativity: How Do You Get It, How Do You Enhance It?

ODDS or EVENS…What’s Your Preference?

AN ADVERTISING PRIMER FOR JEWELRY DESIGNERS: How To Work Within Different Advertising Channels

JEWELRY MAKING TIPS: When You Attend A Bead Show…

HOW TO BEAD A ROGUE ELEPHANT: The Musings Of A Jewelry Designer: RACE

THE JEWELRY DESIGNER’S ORIENTATION TO OTHER JEWELRY FINDINGS: PART 2 (of 2): CONTROLLERS AND ADAPTERS

WARREN FELD JEWELRY (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com)
Custom Design, Workshops, Video Tutorials, Webinars, Coaching, Kits, Group Activities, Repairs
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One free downloadable Mini-Lesson of your choice for all new members!
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Where you can buy:
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Take advantage of our video tutorials, mini-lessons, projects and our coaching services:

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Thanks for being here. I look forward to sharing more resources, tips,
sources of inspiration and insights with you.

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