Hello again!
Wow - its been a busy few months and I've literally abandoned the blog, sorry about that!
We've had a few things happening here at Emi HQ that took up a bit more of my time that I had hoped, but now that things are getting back to normal again, it's brought me back to my blog.
So I thought it could be quite fun to show you the design process and what happens when you decide to put pen to paper and create some jewellery.
Now, don't panic, you don't have to be a great artist or even have even completed a course in art + design, all that you need to do is to convey your idea. There are 2 options depending on your business model.
Option 1
If you're a designer maker. This means that you design and then you proceed to make what it is that you have designed. You will have a good idea of the design in your head, its enough that you have a rough sketch and away you go. You're the one thats making your product, you know what it is that you like, so who cares what your sketch is like, right? You just use it as a starting point for your idea.
Option 2
If you're like myself and you work with a factory to produce your jewellery, OK yes its great to have a lovely technical sketch which looks perfect on paper, but is that really necessary? No. You just need to make sure that the factory understands your idea and they know what piece goes where.
Its as simple as that.
So lets put this into practice.
I sketched the below design out of 2 styles of face earrings. The first was a "dropper" and then second "studs". I did a super quick sketch thats all. I knew that I wanted to have some earrings that were inspired by faces, so going from that idea, I did a simple line drawing and jotted down some measurements. I scanned in the piece of paper and sent it off to the factory.
The factory then took my sketch and they began to re-draw it in illustrator their side. They refined my sketch and added some dimension to it ready to create the next step.
Once its had been created on the computer, a plastic mould was created which would allow the silver to be formed and allow it to take on its shape. From this point, you can also roughly work out if your design is going to work or not. I was really happy with mine.
From that point, the mould is put into production and the earrings are made. The silver is set, and the shape is made creating my face earrings as below. The loops for the earrings were created separately and then added on in a kind of production line along with all the backing tags to finish the design, prepping it ready to be shipped to the warehouse.
These were then sent to myself for approval, and then from that point we have 2 options.
1. If using silver, and the design weighs more than 7.78g then it will need to be hallmarked, if your design weighs under this amount, then it doesn't have to be. (fortunately, these didn't).
Hallmarking comes at an extra cost and strict rules and minimums are in place. Theres a really interesting blog post HERE about Hallmarking in the UK if this is something that you are interested in.
2. If under this weight, then they are just stamped S925 and are completed.
Then the fun stuff happens....the styling!
These earrings were then sent to the Lookagain.co.uk photo studio in the UK to be shot in collaboration with their new SS19 range. Check out the model shot below for both the droppers and the studs.
You can shop the full range of jewellery online at Lookagain.co.uk. The dropper earrings are £28 and the studs are £22.
And thats it! That is how a pair of earrings is made from initial sketch - to production - to styling.
Let me know what you think in the comments and don't forget to tag us @emijewellery over on Instagram.
Bye for now!
Love,
Xander
