Among the first jewelry I made were wooden bead bracelets. These are the easiest jewelry to make anyway. No clasps. Just plain stretchable bead bracelets that were simply wooden beads strung together on elastic. To make my bracelets more interesting, I used a metallic ink marker to draw patterns on the beads. Gold ink or silver ink depending on what looked best on that bead.



Bracelet making is about putting together a pleasant combination of beads, both in size and color. Mix and match the colors. Mix the big ones for focus with the small ones as fillers. You can thread them through a string first to see how it looks and measure it against your wrist for the fit. Once you are satisfied with the bracelet. String the elastic through the beads and tie a dead knot and hide the loose ends of elastic under the beads.

Here are 2 sets of instruction on bracelet making. Making A Bracelet and How to Make Bead Bracelets.

Once you have made your bracelets, you can sell them to friends and family. Or even get friends to sell for you for a commission. Some pals who love selling stuff might even sell them for free, or mark up the price and take the difference as a profit. Work out something you both are comfortable with.

After my first job, I actually tried doing this full time. I made bracelets, earrings, necklaces.. at home. Then I went door to door selling these bracelets, or rather from office to office selling these to the women working there. It was fun, thrilling, nerve wracking. Not for the faint hearted. I made a wrong decision and put all my money making a particular type of earrings which had sold out very quickly before that and that didn't move. Out of cash, I went back to the corporate world to get another job.