I made and sold various crafts for years, first at craft shows and later, when I got weary of schlepping the stuff around I rented a booth in one of the Country Sampler stores. Every outlet has it's pros and cons. Internet is definitely the easiest. My niece sold her jewelry on the Ruby Lane Shops website for a couple years. Etsy is a good bet. I know someone who gets lots of orders for her hand-dyed yarns. It's best to get onboard before a website mushrooms to gigantic proportions. Ebay takes quite awhile to get a following although GP original Ruthanne has made a terrific business on Ebay with her hand painted signs and furniture. It took her awhile though. I'd love to see pictures of what you're creating. I think Wanda is talking about selling in an elementary school. Do you have any friends who teach grade school? At one point I had an entire little shop set up in the Xerox room of my children's school. The grade school teachers are notorious craft consumers. The teachers would all pray to get my kids in their classes because they knew I gave handmade gifts! The principal didn't care, everyone was happy with the little shop. Isn't it great to have a creative outlet? I just made some earrings today. Earrings are ridiculously easy. I'm also knitting some cute evening bags for Christmas gifts.

You can use just the stretchy thread to thread the beads and make a bracelet. Put a drop of nailpolish on the knot to help it hold. For necklaces/braclets with wire, it gets a bit more complicated. Need some basic tools (you can get at any craft store)and a few hours to watch videos on the computer. Yup, that is how I learned this fall - there are instructional video clips all over the internet. Mostly it comes down to two things: using what's called "crimp" beads to hold the beads on the wire and also learning how to make "loops" to connect components.

I've been debating about your question and I would really have to see the piece before giving an answer because there are several different answers in fact. You might want to take the peice to a Jeweler...NOT Wal Mart but a real jeweler and get his opinion. Most places are glad to help you, to keep or win your business. Congrats on your new jewelry and good luck on finding the answer you need. ginger

honestly, all my jewelry crafting toolboxes are packed away- there's a dish of beads out on my sewing table from a dreamcatcher I made back in april- but jewelry is very much a winter time thing for me- there's no way I'm spending a hot summer night beading, or worse, working with a torch and a hammer! I'll admit to not having a scanner or a digital camera, either (and we just finished up a roll of film- the first picture was date-stamped june of 2003, which gives you an idea of how often we take pictures ;) but maybe we can get something going anyway, if you girls really want to start a discussion? because Jewelry really encompasses ALL those other areas- they can be painted, worked in any number of materials... my boss just got into a new project- making pins with scraps of old toiles on shank button forms. we're going to edge some of them with grosgrain ribbon, some of them with lace- I think they're going to look pretty dashing, and am thinking about doing the same with some of her tiny little florals (she's working with figurative toiles at the moment) I'm not happy with the pin backs- but I never do pins because I LOATHE every single commercially available pin back. they're ugly, and clunky looking.