Designing Jewelry Making Kits
and Beading Patterns

In designing jewelry making kits and beading patterns, there are certain things you should keep in mind:

To avoid breaking any copyright laws, your designs and patterns must be original.

If your bead jewelry kits are designed to appeal to beginners and inexperienced handicrafters, then they should require a minimum amount of time and skill to complete.

All necessary materials, instructions, and any special tools should be included.

Each kit should have a picture of what the finished project looks like when completed.

Your step-by-step instructions should be clear, concise, and easy to understand. Written in short sentences using simple English.

Most jewelry making kits and beading patterns are designed for three different levels of ability:

Beginner — a project that is quick and easy and can be completed with little difficulty.

Intermediate — a project that is a little more challenging for people who have been dabbling in jewelry making for some time or who have natural creative talents.

Advanced — a project that is challenging and more time-consuming for the jewelry designer who wishes to further develop their creative skills.

Preparing the Contents of Your Kits

Many kit manufacturers supply all the necessary materials needed to complete the project, and others supply only some of the materials and give a list of what else is needed.

Depending on what bead jewelry project you are marketing will depend on which materials you will include in your beading kit and if you have access to all materials needed. For example, a beaded bracelet kit may include all the necessary beads and findings to put the project together and a pattern or instructions for the how to put it together, but do not supply the pliers or scissors with the kit.

What materials you include in your beading kits will naturally depend on the project itself, availability of supplies, whether or not you can break down the materials in small enough quantities for one project, and whether or not the necessary supplies are easily assessable to the consumer.

Purchasing Beading Supplies and Materials

Of course to get the best price for your kits, it is essential that you purchase your supplies and materials in bulk and at wholesale prices. When cutting or dividing the materials to be included in the kit, provide only the necessary amount needed to finish the bead jewelry project. This will help keep the cost of your kit down, besides if you supply any more than needed the excess will probably be just thrown out anyways.

If your jewelry making kits include small items such as seed beads, jump rings, flexible beading wire, clasps, head pins, crimps or any other jewelry findings and components in small quantities, then you should consider purchasing tiny plastic zip-lock bags to supply them in. Threads, yarn, floss and wire can be wound around small cardboard rectangles and placed in small bags.

Bead Jewelry Instructions

The instructions in your jewelry making kit and beading patterns should be clear, concise and easy to understand. They should be written in a step-by-step format with each step numbered. Try to use photos, drawings or illustrations wherever possible to help the reader along. (Remember illustrations, drawings and pictures are worth a thousand words.). What may sound logical and easy for you to understand may sound confusing to the reader, photos or drawings may help to put into perspective what you are trying to instruct them to do.

Start your instructions with a list all the necessary materials and tools needed (along with the quantity of each) indicating whether they are provided in the kit or to be supplied by the customer.

Then in a logical sequence start to number each step in the construction of the project. You may want to include tips, hints or suggestions along the way to help the reader in assembling and/or embellishing the item.

Your beading pattern instructions could be printed in a column format on the same size paper as your pattern and folded to fit the package or you could present them in a card or booklet format.

Kits With Meaning

If you design kits where the beads or the energy from the beads have a meaning or story, then make sure you explain the meaning of the beads used and why they are included in the kit. An example are the two kits below which are from a series call "Soul Journey" where one means Love and the other Confidence. The beads, stones and charms in these two kits represents love and confidence, with a brief explanation of the beads used.

They were printed on 8 1/2" x 11" card stock then folded in half with the introduction of the bracelet and photo on front and the meaning of the stones on the back. The step by step instructions are on the inside.

Pricing Your Kits

When pricing your bead jewelry kits and beading patterns be sure to include the cost of every little piece of material that is included in it. It may only cost you a couple of cents to include a little bit of thread or a few crimps, but those couple of cents can quickly add up once you start to produce hundreds of kits.

The cost of producing your jewelry making kits should also include the printing costs of any patterns, instructions and packaging materials. As well as any bags, boxes, or cardboard slips.

If you are including a photograph of the finished project in your kit (which you should be), then be sure to also include the cost of having the picture developed or reprinted. Your labor costs should include not only the time to prepare the materials needed but also the time it takes to package it all together.

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