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I think I can safely announced the 'events' that I told you was going to happen this month, now that everything at this stage seems to be confirmed already, barred any unforeseen circumstances. The one non jewellery making and three jewellery making 'events' I was talking about, remember?
Okay, I'll tell you about the non jewellery making event first. It's going to Shaunee's graduation play (or something like that) of the musical Annie, happening this week. LOL....very Mat Salleh's style of schooling experience! She is leaving primary school and will be beginning her secondary schooling in Sept, of what they call it the senior year la.
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When you are making jewellery for yourself, it is easy to decide on the size because you can try the fit on them as you are working along. However, if you are making them to sell, size seems to be a major concern; to come up with a size that fits all. Not only to save you the headache of alteration to say the least, but to also reach out to the general masses out there. Which is why elastic stringing material and memory wire has got the upper hand in this area.
Size adjustment is no doubt a consideration that would go into the design because certain designs such as beadweaving/beadstitching or wireweaving may face a hard time in adjustment after completion but it might be much easier when it comes to simple loop wirework jewelleries.
Despite the idiosyncracies of sizes of the general masses, there are nevertheless some standard sizing which are meant to fit everyone anyway. In this discussion, I'll try to touch on each piece of jewellery here although the focus is mainly on women's jewelleries.
Earrings
Okay, I seriously don't think theres a standard sizing for earrings.... LOL. It pretty much depends on the design. It can go as short or as long as the artist want! Although I do think it's probably interesting just to touch on the types of earrings that we have here.
Alright, let's see. There's the very common stud earrings.
And then, we have the once-crazed-after chandelier earrings. I still remember when the trend first make a comeback after the 80's. It's like almost everywhere you turn, everyone's donning this huge pair of earrings and all that everyone's selling is chandelier earrings! LOL..... It's still in trend now but just maybe not as 'hot' as it was a couple of years back.
There's also this drop/dangle earrings. Someone once asked me what's the difference between the two. I would say that there are not much difference between the two; which is why I group them together. Although I personally think that you call the shorter one; which hangs just below the earlobe, drop and longer ones hanging below the earlobes, dangle. Drops are not very long, are they? And you do need longer dangles to facilitate the dangling movement, don't you? ;)
Bear in mind that as far as chandelier earrings and drop/dangle earrings are concern, the hangers for these style of earrings can be either a hook or stud.
One last type of not so common or popular but very unique type of earrings is the ear thread. They go by a few different names; ear threads, ear threaders, threader earrings, earthreads. Just like what the name suggest, the wearer actually “threads” through the ear hole. Designs may vary, but basically ear threads consist of a small metal bar on one end, a few inches of thin chain connected to the metal bar, and then on the opposite end you can attach beads.
And so, that's about earrings.
Bracelet
I would say that the average size for women's bracelet would be 7". Those with bigger wrists might require a 7 ½" to 8" sizing. Those with smaller wrists on the other hand would require a 6" to 6 ½" sizing. In any case, if you want to avoid the hassle of adjusting, make a 6" long bracelet and attach a 2" long extension chain. That way, it can fit the smallest size wrist to the bigger ones! LOL..... XP
But on a personal note, I'm not in favour of the use of extension chain for bracelet because I feel that the extra chain if not in use is in the way and spoils the overall look of the design. Well, that's just my take on bracelet.
Necklace
I intentionally left the discussion for necklace last because there's more to say about them!
Alright, to begin, there's many different lengths of necklaces but did you know that there are different lengths of necklaces are categorized accordingly? Well, I didn't untill I flip to the last page of The Basics of Bead Stringing: A Complete Illustrated Approach for Beginner and Advanced Designers by Debbie Kanan.
This was my very first beading book which I got as a gift from Sa Kor when I first got into jewellery making. Well, as much as they say that it's an illustrated approach, the illustration here unfortunately are drawn illustration rather than pictorial illustration.
So, if you are one of those visual learners, there is a high probability that you may not like this book at all. Otherwise, it is a fairly okay book for beginner. But seriously, reading The Work Room might be just as good if not better! Ahaks! XP
Anyway, as I was saying......
The last page of the book actually gives an illustration of the different categories of necklace according to their length.
See what I meant by drawn illustration?You will realize that it also lists down for you the approximate number of beads of specific size needed for the specified length. Which is what people would normally use a bead board for.
Bear in mind however that these numbers can only hold true if you are doing bead stringing. That is to say you string on one bead after another, with no use of any other findings. This would also mean that the use of wires are also discounted since the loop you make and the connection between two loops would also take up a good amount of the total length of the necklace.
I have something to say about the stated size though. I don't they are by any means conclusive but at best only a guide? I find that the stated size range for the different categories of necklace may be a bit too long for asians. And this I am saying based on the comparison I made of the commercial jewelleries that I used to have. I said 'used to' because I have since gave them away to my cousin sis and ever since I started making jewellery, I don't see the need of buying them anymore. :P
Take the size of choker for example. I think it should be 14" with 2" extension.
A princess necklaces; which hangs somewhere around your collarbone, should be 16" to 18".
A matinee necklace; which hangs somewhere around the chest area, should be somewhere between 20" to 25"
Opera necklaces; which hang below the chest area, should be somewhere between 27" to 35".
As for anklets, 10" might be too long. 9" might be more appropriate.
This is also by no means conclusive. Just a little something I draw from my experience of jewellery making so far.
One other thing that I would like to add here is the allocation of 1" for clasp. I find that no matter what sizes of clasps I use, I always allocate 1" for it to make up the total length of the necklace and they more often than not come up to the right total length.
Okay, take for example you want to make a 16" necklace. What you need to do is to subtract 1" for the allocation of clasp, which is to say the necklace length that you will be making is only 15". The clasp will make up the final 1" for the necklace.
On the very rare occasion that they don't end up the final length that I want, I only needed to make minor adjustment here and there.
I also find that this only seems to hold true if the clasp is attached externally with an extra finding. That is to say you are connecting the clasp to your piece with a finding and not directly the clasp to your piece. What I normally use for the connection is a jump ring.
So, for bracelet, standard size of 7" means to make a 6" bracelet with 1" allocated for clasp.
Once again, this is also not rules carved onto stones. Just something which I have found to have worked for me which you can use as reference.
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