How To Create Your Own Original Jewellery

Did you ever consider making your own personalised jewellery. Perhaps you played with beads when you were a child but have never touched them since. The easiest jewelry to create is probably a necklace and with just a litle thought can look either funky or elegant and appropriate in both cases to the rest of the outfit you are wearing.

First let us decide what to make the necklace from. You can buy semiprecious stones such as jade, amber or other semiprecious jewels already polished and with holes in them ready to string. Or you can obtain raw stones and put more work in yourself. If you live near the sea, or go on holiday there, you can go beachcombing and look for stones, it is amazing what you can find, although you are unlikely to find anything truly valuable. However, this sort of jewellery is not about value, it’s about looks that complement your outfit.

The next step is to polish your stones. This can be time consuming. You start with an abrasive  to get the basic shape and take the roughness off and gradually polish with softer abrasives and cloths until you finally get the finish you want. It does not pay to hurry this process, the longer you spend at this, the better the end result will be.

Now you need to drill your beads so that you may string them together.  There are many tools out there you may use - the miniature drills used by model makers are the most obvious. Line your beads up before drilling them so that you know exactly where to drill and again take care. Having invested all the time and effort into polishing your stones, you do not want to break or scratch them at this stage.

Next to string your beads. The best thing to use for this is jewellers thread, although other threads may be used. Be careful, though, sewing cotton and the like will be too soft and will break and fishing line is to hard and may cut its way through your beads - and your neck if you are not careful. Don't finally tie the thread until you are satisfied with the arrangement. You can thread the beads a number of times before finishing the knot, but once that knot is finished it will be difficult to change without starting over with a new piece of thread.

With some creativity and time it is possible to make some really personalised pieces of jewellery. I know somebody who pierced orange pips to make a necklace - it looks great. Try carving and polishing small pieces of coal, it looks just like jet, with little or no cost. It may not last long, but this sort of jewellery is not meant to be an heirloom.