Why You Should Buy Handmade Jewellery

Why should we buy handmade products, particularly handmade Jewelry? Or why do we buy them? Is it because we want to own customised or niche products, or do we want to promote crafts as an industry? Is it because handmade is “in”? Neena of Caprilicious Jewellery , a NRI who has had a long love affair with jewellery, is here with us JewelsofSayuri to talk about her passion for jewelry and all things handmade. She understands that women need a varied diet of jewelry to match their moods, just the one style simply wouldn’t do.
Over to you Neena….

…. I am passionate about handmade. I buy, make, sell and wear handmade jewelry. People often look at the price and ask why each piece is more expensive than something they can buy in a large department store, or something produced en masse in a factory in the Far East, and why I bother to make jewelry in the first place. This post attempts to answer these questions.

I come from a fairly conservative Indian family in Bangalore, where the word jewelry is synonymous with gold and precious stones – I was allowed to buy silver bits and bobs by my mother as a young girl. She thought they were junk – and now I want to make jewelry out of polymer clay, which, let’s face it is a kind of plastic (shock, horror!!), wire, resin, sari fibres, and all sorts of found objects – nothing is rejected and everything is grist to my mill. My poor mother is finding my new found passion very difficult to understand

I noticed one girl at my last exhibition in Bangalore – she came with her mother in law who asked in a stage whisper – ‘Is this silver?? Then why is it so expensive’??

In actual fact, my prices are not high – but the perception is that it is not gold jewelry, so one should pay junk prices for it.

Why You Should Buy Handmade Jewellery

Each piece I make is about the time and effort that goes into it, it is about the skills I spend hours acquiring and honing, the magic that is sparked by my imagination without me being aware of when This generation of contemporary women are used to buying gold and silver, but are now coming over the idea of buying other stuff too, as long as it is stylish and how it happens, the love and care I take to ensure that the piece fits right, sits right and makes you look stylish and cool in your piece of one-of- a- kind jewellery. I have had to learn to take good pictures, IT skills to write and update my website, to engage with social media, and to write a weekly blog which is a dynamic and growing online history of my development as a jewellery designer/maker and a portfolio of my work. And this is all once I come home from my day job as a gynaecologist.

Buying handmade is a celebration of a community that puts a lot of love and effort into producing what is to us our ‘progeny’ – it is fabulous when you ‘like’ our photographs on Facebook – but when someone pays us the huge compliment of actually liking a product enough to put money down for it – that is the ultimate, fantastic buzz, and that’s what keeps us doing what we do best to make you happy – a win win situation!

Each piece is different, as unique as you who wear it, and me, the maker, and nobody else will have one. Handmade ensures that prices are not artificially lowered by bulk buying and scrimping by using cheap raw materials. Bargain priced mass produced goods are more likely to be cheap tat that has a very short life span.

Giving a handmade gift to your loved ones shows that you cared enough to have spent time on picking out a gift as individual as they are.

Your piece of handmade jewelry glows with the positive energy from the love that has been put into making it – a gift from the ‘handmade’ community to you.

About the Author

Neena Shilvock is a Consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist by day and jewelry maker by night from Warwickshire (UK). She set up Caprilicious Jewellery ( Delicious Jewellery For The Capricious Woman) three years ago and her aim is to bring handmade statement fusion jewellery with a multitude of styles (one simply wouldn’t do!) that is affordable, contemporary, and cosmopolitan to her clients and to have a lot of fun while doing so. You can find her on Facebook too at Caprilicious Jewellery

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bairozan

05/09/2014

So true! I was taught to wear silver and gold, everything else was considered junk and bad taste. Later I fell in love with Indian, gypsy and the hippie's jewelry I saw in the movies. And I am so happy that I'm learning to make and design "free" jewelry!

Neena Shilvock

05/09/2014

And lovely your 'free' jewellery is too, Bairozan. Thank you for your kind words.
Neena
Caprilicious Jewellery

Why You Should Buy Handmade Jewellery

Why You Should Buy Handmade Jewellery

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