Just about one year ago, while feeling isolated in quarantine, I decided that I wanted to start expressing myself with jewelry. Up until that point, I had worn earrings and the occasional rings or necklaces, but never every day.
I came across a collection of old jewelry that my mother had been keeping around for me to explore once I got older and had developed a sense of my own style. A lot of it was antique and had belonged to my great grandmother, some of it even from my great great grandfather. I was immediately drawn to the necklaces in the collection.
I wanted to grow my jewelry wardrobe, but everything I found was either too expensive or just not at all what I wanted.
Clockwise of pliers: round nose, wire cutters, half round half flat, smaller round nose 
Various gauges of wire
I remembered that a friend of mine had taken a trip to Michaels craft store just a few weeks earlier to purchase earring backings and jump rings. I decided I would pursue the same quest, only to make necklaces, bracelets and rings.
It was very overwhelming when I first purchased the supplies. Though once I got started, it was hard to stop creating.
Getting to know the tools I was working with changed everything. Instead of fighting to bend the wire into intricate patterns around rocks, I used two pairs of pliers and had them work together to bend the wire.
I discovered that they did a much cleaner job and created more precise bends and curves than just my finger. It hurt a lot less, too.
I started to learn that I could wrap the larger gauge wire in thinner wire to make things that looked more visually appealing. I took a lot of inspiration from some of the pieces that my great-great grandfather had actually made himself, many years ago.
Like any art, it was very gratifying to be able to hold what I created in my hands, especially when I was actually proud of it.
With jewelry making, though, it’s something that can so easily be displayed to the world as well. Quite frankly, I feel almost professional telling people that I created what I’m wearing.
Since I started, I have had the majority of my earlier pieces break (mostly from the wire being not nearly reinforced enough, sometimes resulting in beads going everywhere). I have even had some of the antique pieces crumple, simply from being old.
One day, I decided that instead of creating something new, I was going to redo some of those earlier pieces. I started with a pair of earrings that I had altered from a pair I had bought in early middle school. Looking at that piece, I saw nothing cohesive about it and much of the wire stuck out awkwardly and scratched me. Though the earrings were more minimalistic once I had finished, the overall product was much cleaner.
Currently, I’m a big fan of wrapping rocks and crystals with swirls that go all around, embedding the crystal into designs made just out of the wire. My next step will be to explore ring-making now that my abilities as a crafter have significantly improved.
At the end of the day, I love being able to give a new life to pieces of jewelry, new and old, and I love creating my own designs. I believe that this is a hobby that will stick with me, so I am certainly grateful that through the pandemic I have been able to emerge with this skill. Given the patience that’s involved, I’ve truly come to appreciate and admire hand-made jewelry, as opposed to that which is mass-produced.
