Everything You Need to Know About Jewelry Making Materials

What Materials Do you Need to Make Jewelry at Home?

With my own experiences, I am gonna present essential materials to make jewelry at home. But before that, I insist you decide the kind of jewelry and prime material you’re going to start with.

Are you going to make jewelry out of paper, wood, or silver? This should be absolutely clear and then you can proceed with the first stage of jewelry making – Ideation.

1. Stretch Cord

2. Jump rings

3. Lobster Clasp

4. Earring Hooks

5. Stud Pins

6. Push Locks

7. Nylon Cord

8. Clasps

9. Bead Caps

10. Ring Base (Optional)

11. Chain

12. Needle Set

13. Head Pins

14. Eye Pins

15. Strong Adhesive

16. Epoxy or Art Resin

17. Variety of Glass Beads

18. Wooden Beads

19. Seed Beads

20. Skewers

21. Tweezer

22. Hand Gloves

23. Paint Brush

23 Must-have’s Materials for your Jewelry Making Kit

The following list is a perfect guide for first-timers who have no idea about the tools. Take a look and start making a list with me.

1. Stretch Cord

Commonly known as the stretch cord which is an extremely essential material for making stretchable bracelets. Stretch cords are basically used for making handmade bracelets. They are basic and must-have jewelry finding for designers.

Size: 10 Mtr Elastic Cord 0.7mm Spool

2. Jump Rings

A jump ring is a small ring shape finding used to connect jewelry components. Round in shape comes in distinct sizes.

Two crucial aspects you need to remember – Diameter which means how small or big the size of the jump ring you have. Secondly, Gauge means the thickness of the wire. You can explore more details on jump rings with The Spruce Crafts.

3. Sliding Hook Lock

A must-have material in your jewelry kit. A sliding hook lock is used for locking necklaces, bracelets, and pendants at the end. It comes in two colors – golden and silver and sizes. I would recommend adding both colors to your kit.

Size: 6mm Silver and Gold Lobster Clasp

4. Earring Hooks or Ear wires

One of the common and popular earring findings is the Shepherd Ear hook. They are easily available online in fact I have them handy with me. Shepherd ear hooks are slightly curved with a small loop at the bottom so you attach your earring easily.

Suggested Earring Hooks: Earring Hoops, Kidney Ear wires, or Ear threads.

5. Stud Pins

Stud pins are used for making earrings attached at the back of the design. Well, I’m very fond of stud earrings and I highly recommend considering this to your bucket list.

Recommended Quantity and Color: 20-25 silver or gold-colored stud pins

6. Push Locks

Push locks are inserted to the backside of stud pins. when you wear them. It is an essential material for locking purposes you must have in your jewelry-making box.

7. Nylon Cord

I would recommend a bunch of nylon cord which is required to make pendants, necklaces, and even bracelets. You can choose any color black, white, yellow of your choice.

8. Clasps

Clasps come in different varieties, but I would recommend lobster clasp with a sliding lock and hook clasps for a beginner.

9. Bead Caps

If you want to learn to make beaded necklaces or earrings you must purchase bead caps. It gives beautiful look covering the upper part of the bead to make stunning patterns. Make sure you choose the correct size of the bead cap.

10. Ring Base

A ring base is an extremely crucial material if you are making a ring. It comes in golden and silver colors. By the way, you can avoid the hassle of buying this material and make your own ring base using a paper clip.

11. Silver and Golden Chain

This is a super important material for making magnificent pendants, bracelets, and necklaces. Make sure to choose a top-notch quality chain you’ll wear around your neck to prevent skin allergies.

12. Needle set

You will need a needle set for sewing purposes. Also, go in for needles for beading purposes which are easily available online.

13. Head Pins

Headpins should be available in good quantity with you. We can make lovely danglers, bracelets, beautiful hangings which I have recently taught in one of my youtube videos. I am sure you’ll like it.

Size: 2 Inch 50mm length finding

14. Eye Pins

Eye pins have one-sided loop pins used to attach jewelry components. You can craft gorgeous pieces like pom-pom bracelets, necklaces, anklets, and whatnot.

15. Strong Adhesive (Preferably E6000 glue)

My favorite is E6000 glue which I have been using for so long and I personally loved working with E8000 glue

.16. Epoxy or Art Resin

If you are learning to make resin jewelry at home, add epoxy resin and art resin to your bucket list but make sure you buy quality epoxy resin else it won’t cure properly.

17. Variety of glass beads

You must-have a bright colors of glass beads with you for making jewelry at home. It comes in different sizes such as 5mm,8mm, and so on. Make sure you choose the correct size for beading.

Recommended Size: 5mm and 8mm of glass beads



18. Wooden Beads (5mm size)

Being a huge fan of eco-friendly jewelry, I love wood beads. So, If you want to make wooden jewelry, go in for wooden beads of 5mm size.

19. Seed beads

Seed beads are used for embroidered fiber crafts embellishments and simple stringing you’ll fall in love working with. It comes in lovely colorful seed beads like crystal, black, pink, blue, etc. can be added to your bucket list.

20. Skewers

Skewers will be required if you want to set aside wooden beads for drying or knitting purposes while making handmade jewelry. Make sure these are available with you.

21. Tweezer

Tweezer is one of the important materials for making jewelry at home because you may need it while holding small pieces for decorating or even working with resin jewelry making.

22. Hand Gloves

Hand Gloves should be a part of your jewelry-making kit as they are needed to avoid your hands getting messed up. Most importantly, you will need it as preventive clothing when working with resin as it may harm your hand.

23. Paint Brush

Top-notch quality paintbrush comes in different sizes you can easily buy online or at any craft store. This should be a must-have to your jewelry-making kit.

Budget-Friendly DIY Jewelry Ideas During The Lockdown | Recycle and Inspire the World

Amidst the disrupted times and uncertainties of pandemics, we had to face sudden lockdowns across the globe. That doesn’t mean to drop the idea of jewelry making. With crisis comes another opportunity to think out of the box for us as artists.

Do you know I have learned woodcutting for making jewelry during the lockdown? If a person like me who is a beginner can take this plunge so can you? Let me list out the daily materials along with their purpose that can be used to make jewelry at home.

Materials

Jewelry Making Ideas

Paper Clips

Ring Base and Hoops

Scrap Wood Pieces

Wooden Jewelry like Pendant, Rings, earrings, etc

Pulses and dried fruits

Encapsulate with epoxy resin to make jewelry

Old Tissues

Paper earrings, pendants, and necklace

CardStock

Any kind of jewelry using cardstock

Metal wires, wire cutter, and Pencil/pen

You can make jump rings and other findings

Fabric

Wrap fabric around the material to make jewelry

There are endless ideas. Don’t trash things, use them for crafting purposes that are the true essence of creativity especially when you don’t have requisite resources during the lockdown.

I hope you got a fair idea on “What materials do you need to make jewelry at home?” I have entailed down a complete list and ideas for you. Do share your experiences and ideas with me. I would love to see them.