I've spent the past two days working. I got a new sketchpad and pencils dedicated to designing jewelry and I started working with Microsoft Excel. If I can offer any advice to someone just starting out GO DIGITAL!! I made the mistake of recording all of my pricing and the cost of my materials by hand last time. Unfortunately I lost the notebook that I had written it all down in. I'm not even sure how I lost it or where it might have gone.
So now I have to try to find each individual material (closures, jumprings, chain, etc) on line and record the price from there. Not fun, and a lot of work. So now I have pricing spreadsheets that do all the work for me and I've got them stored on my zip drive and backed up.
Another bit of advice I'd like to give. Unless you plan on making your jewelry in bulk (multiples of each piece) try not to buy your materials in bulk. Yes it is cheaper but for me I've found that I have more fun and better success just buying some key peices and the design something using your imagination. Plan what you need and buy that. I have so many beads that I thought were pretty and I just don't know what to do with them. Not only that but they're taking up storage room and I have no space to store the stuff I'm actually going to use. If you wind up with some extras that's fine, be creative and use them. But if you've got something like 200 glass pearls all of your jewelry is going to start looking the same. I like to make each piece unique and only remake something if someone really wants me to or they would like something in a different color.
Above all though. If you're thinking of selling your own work you've got to do what makes you happy. Don't put yourself in a box. Don't create for anyone but you.
