Fashion jewellery stringing weaving techniques black shell

Fashion Jewellery techniques (stringing, beading, weaving...) are fun and therapeutic; but did you know they can also generate an income if you build a creative business from your passion? Moreover, the majority of successful artisan entrepreneurs in jewellery started or grew their businesses with handmade Jewellery! Have you ever wondered why?

  1. Fashion Jewellery techniques are FAST!
    You will learn commercial tricks to improve speed whilst retaining quality.
  2. Fashion Jewellery SELLS!
    Unlike fine jewellery, where investment decisions come into play, fashion jewellery artists enjoy customers who appreciate style, trends and quality finish without an accompanying high price tag. And this trend is accelerating with Millennials choosing style over expensive heirloom or investment pieces.
  3. Fashion Jewellery Artists need no heavy upfront investment.
    Your design sense, your knowledge, your skill and your connections with quality suppliers are all you need to start and even grow a fashion jewellery business.
  4. Your time is your own.
    Being a Fashion Jewellery artist frees you from the traditional work week and requires no factory workspaces or special selling venues.
  5. Unlimited materials choices.
    Fashion Jewellery artists enjoy the most flexibility and popularity when it comes to working with sustainable materials, upcycled materials, and non-traditional jewellery materials. Your customers are willing and eager to experiment if you have the right story.
  6. Your inventory never goes bad!
    Quality materials last very long and designs that don't sell can be re-designed without damage or loss. Few other businesses offer this flexibility over inventory, just imagine working with food, flowers or technology!


With all of these amazing reasons, is it any wonder so many successful Jewellery entrepreneurs rely heavily on fashion jewellery in their skills portfolio?

Learn more about JDMIS Fashion Jewellery Training



Curious about what you can produce?

The Creative Jewellery Studio is a not-for-profit designer co-operative boutique where JDMIS graduates can launch their brands and maintain a physical and virtual presence. Check out the many high-quality fashion jewellery creations JDMIS graduates are producing and selling at https://creativejewellerystudio.com/ ».


So how do you get started? Our Fashion Jewellery Programme is completely modular allowing you to learn and master techniques while you build your brand and product line. Check out the first of the JDMIS Professional Fashion Jewellery courses below:


Fashion Jewellery 1 - Creative and Essential Fashion Jewellery Knowledge


Professional Stringing Techniques

Stringing on soft wires provides durability and speed to designers working with crystalline materials. Learn about different qualities of soft wire, when to use each, and how to design and create your first pieces of jewellery with a professional looking, lasting finish.


Wirework Foundations

This emphasizes accuracy, skill and speed are an important tool in every fashion designer's arsenal. Learn to create a variety of designs and understand about wire hardness and tensile strength. Build the technique and confidence to ensure future works are made to high standards and learn unique styles & patterns suitable only for wirework designs.


Stringing Pearls and Gems Incorporating Knots

This technique is reserved for higher quality jewels. Learn established professional stringing techniques, alternative stringing threads and the very unique finishing methods which apply to this excellent system.


Chain Maille Jewellery

The history of chain-maille jewellery and its numerous modern weaves and patterns are fun and add a creative dimension to the program culminating with a multi-layered fashionable chain-maille bracelet. Incorporating maille components into stringing and wirework designs can add uniqueness and flair to more traditional design styles.



Absolutely everything included!

We have sourced equipment and materials from around the world and included it in your course. Most importantly, there are no hidden costs! All JDMIS certification courses are fully inclusive of tools and equipment, without spending a penny more. Price is inclusive of hundreds of natural materials, genuine Swarovski Crystals and top-quality findings, as well as a full-set of tools and design board.



View Upcoming Schedules

As a pillar of JDMIS' professional jewellery courses, the techniques, materials and information in the Fashion Jewellery Arts Program is constantly updated to keep up with the changing times! It represents the most formal and complete training available in the Fashion Jewellery Arts anywhere! So why not take the first step and start with FJ100 - Creative and Essential Fashion Jewellery Knowledge

Tanja M. Sadow G.J.G.
Dean and founder of the Jewellery Design and Management International School

fashion jewellery samples

It's a very common misconception to think that "Fashion Jewellery" is the same as "Costume jewellery" and that both are cheap vs Fine Jewellery which is always more costly. However, there is a marked difference between "costume" and "fashion jewellery" where the latter can often command at least a few hundred to several thousand dollars for a good reason.

Fashion jewellery samples

Fashion Jewellery refers to the mid-tier pieces, just below fine jewellery. These are mostly handcrafted with care, and custom made in small, limited quantities using high-value materials including pearls and other natural gems. Fashion jewellery can command a high premium not only because of the quality of materials used but also for the intricate and stringent professional techniques that go into making them. These pieces are made to last and are to be enjoyed through generations.

Image of costume jewellery

Meanwhile, Costume Jewellery usually refers to low quality and often mass manufactured pieces made up of less valuable materials and base metals which are plated. They can be purchased at prices as low as a few dollars per piece. Methods of manufacture include die striking and stamping of parts by machine which are quickly assembled with glass, plastic or synthetic gems often glued in place to hold them together, so finishing techniques are much lower standard than with Fashion Jewellery. For a few dollars and cents costume jewellery is meant to enjoy for a short period of time and not made to last!

Example of techniques that create the value of Fashion Jewellery

Stringing jewellery making techniques

STRINGING WITH AND WITHOUT KNOTS (FASHION JEWELLERY 1) »

Stringing on silk or thread with knots is reserved for higher quality jewels like pearls and organic gems. Stringing on soft wires provides durability and speed to designers working with crystalline materials. Learn established professional stringing techniques, alternative stringing threads and wires and the unique finishing methods which apply to this excellent system.

Chain Maille jewellery!

CHAIN MAILLE JEWELLERY (FASHION JEWELLERY 1) »

The history of chain-maille jewellery and its numerous modern weaves and patterns are fun and add a creative dimension to the program. You'll have hands-on experience in making the popular Byzantine chain and culminating with a multi-layered fashionable bracelet for men or women. Incorporating maille components into stringing and wirework designs can add uniqueness and flair to more traditional design styles.

Weaving jewellery technique

3-DIMENSION WEAVING (FASHION JEWELLERY 2) »

Extend existing flat and fancy designs by producing fast and more challenging three-dimensional creations. These can be used not only for jewellery, but fashion accessories for handbags, cell phones, dress and shoe straps & much more. The versatility of this style will expand all options.

GEMS & JEWELLERY TRADE SECRETS »

Gemmology cover image

Gemmology course

Knowing about the wide variety of gem materials on the market today can be immensely helpful for any aspiring jewellery artist. Understanding the value and having knowledge of the materials that go into your jewellery creations is a must for making confident sales. Having proper communication with your customers builds trust and will have them continue to return to buy from you time and time again.


In Fashion Jewellery 1, students are exposed to several foundational techniques including stringing, knotting, wirework and chain maille, which should be sufficient for the the professional fabrication and creation of sell-able jewellery.

After mastering the foundation, more ambitious learners can choose to learn more advanced techniques in Fashion Jewellery 2,3 and 4 or upskill horizontally with Gemmology and Aesthetic Trends. They can even combine Fashion Jewellery with Metalsmithing or Metal Clay to produce even more valuable and unique pieces. If this sounds exciting, why not explore one of the next steps below:

View Upcoming Schedules of Fashion Jewellery 1

Tanja M. Sadow G.J.G.
Dean and founder of the Jewellery Design and Management International School

Jewellery Designing Tools - Photo

With nearly four decades of experience within the jewellery industry in Singapore, we have put together this guide to help our students and any aspiring jewellery artisans make informed decisions when procuring their jewellery supplies and tools.

Gemmological equipment and tools

People often think it is possible to identify a gem just by looking at its colour and cut. However, today gemstones can come in so many colours and cuts that there is no one specific colour or cut that can be used to determine the identity of a gemstone. Therefore, the only way a professional gemmologist can accurately identify a gem is to test it using gemmological tools and equipment.

Gemstone varieties are classified according to their own unique set of physical and optical characteristics such as chemical composition, crystal structure, transparency, refractive index, birefringence, specific gravity, pleochroism, and other traits. Testing for these properties is the key to allowing gemmologists to identify a gemstone by eliminating gem possibilities that do not match.

It is only through the use of gemmological equipment that we are able to obtain accurate information about a gemstone’s properties and deduce its identity. Shown below is a brief overview of some of the basic tools needed for proper identification of a gemstone.


A person looking through a jeweller's loupe

Jeweller’s Loupe

The 10x gem loupe is the international standard used for gem grading and evaluation, and is often called a gemmologist’s best friend due to its portability and usefulness. It allows gemmologists to magnify and observe more clearly both external characteristics and inclusions of gems, which can sometimes lead to distinguishing between natural gemstones and their imitation counterparts.


Picture of an orange gem in a refractometer

Refractometer

The refractometer is used for assessing a gemstone’s refractive index (which refers to the speed and bending of light as it passes through a material). Since few gems share the exact same refractive index, the refractometer is one of the most straightforward and accurate tools to narrow down the number of possibilities.


Picture of 2 JDMIS students looking through a polariscope

Polariscope

This is another tool that is often used in the earliest steps of the identification process. The polariscope assesses whether a gem is singly refractive or doubly refractive – from this, gemmologists are able to distinguish between gem types by quickly eliminating many options. As the function of the polariscope is dependent on observing the light that passes through the material, it can work only on transparent and translucent stones, and not opaque stones.


Picture of a black dichroscope

Dichroscope

The dichroscope also assesses double refraction in a gem and is a useful alternative when the polariscope cannot be used. It is helpful in separating glass and other cheap man-made imitations from natural gemstones that are doubly refractive.


Picture of gemmology instructor, Tanja Sadow, using the microscope

Microscope

The microscope is used when higher magnification is needed to observe the inclusions in a gemstone. Observing specific types of inclusions can help gemmologists to distinguish natural, synthetic, and imitation gems. The microscope is also helpful in assessing all kinds of treatments and enhancements typically practiced today.
Picture of a green gem in a spectrometer

Spectrometer

Spectrometers allow gemmologists to observe the absorption spectra of gemstones and compare the patterns to those of known gems. The spectrometer can detect origins of chemical elements in gemstones, application of treatments and dyes, and other evidence that can help the gemmologist to distinguish between natural and synthetic materials.


Picture of instructor Tanja putting a gem into gravity liquids

Specific gravity liquids

These are chemicals with known specific gravity that gemmologists use to assess the density of gemstones. Every gem has a unique specific gravity – when an unknown gemstone is placed into a liquid of known density, the way it sinks, floats, or remains suspended indicates to the gemmologist its specific gravity, which then can be used to narrow down the possible identities for that gemstone.


Picture of a black hand-held diamond tester

Diamonds testers and screeners

Diamond testers and screeners are portable testing devices that function based on thermal and electrical conductivity and are a convenient way to separate diamonds from diamond simulants.

For a more detailed explanation on using diamond testers and screeners, join Tanja Sadow (Dean of JDMIS) and Armani Shariff (member of Presidium, leading manufacturer of gemmological instruments) in an informative video as they demonstrate testing on natural, synthetic, and imitation diamonds. (Watch the video)


While it may seem daunting at first to handle many types of professional and expensive gemmological equipment, the knowledge and skill of gem identification will be an invaluable addition to your repertoire, especially if you often need to handle gemstones in your gem trade or jewellery business.

Kickstart your journey to become a gemmologist with the Jewellery Design & Management International School (JDMIS), the only specialized jewellery training institution in Singapore. JDMIS’ gemmologist courses start you off with a strong foundation in the wide variety of gem materials available on the market and then delves deeper into gem identification as you learn how to properly use gemmological equipment to deduce the identity of gemstones.

Tanja M. Sadow G.J.G.
Dean and founder of the Jewellery Design and Management International School

gemstones tested

The internet is rife with ineffective or bogus tests that claim to help you identify real and fake gemstones, but the truth about gemstone setting is more complicated...

Jewellery Design and Management International School, Singapore

Opening hours:
Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 11am-6pm, closed on Friday and Public Holidays
Tel: (+65) 6221 5253
WhatsApp: (+65) 9125 4107

91 Bencoolen St. #03-01 Sunshine Plaza Singapore 189652

Closest MRT stations:
- Downtown Line: Bencoolen (DT21) - 1 minute walk
- Circle Line: Bras Basah (CC2) - 4 minute walk
- East-West Line: Bugis (EW12DT14) - 12 minute walk
Nearby bus service: 56, 64, 65,131, 139, 147, 166, 857 Parking: There is ample covered parking in side Sunshine Plaza

Troubleshooting Information:
NON SEF URL:
Printable: