Buy less, make more! | 6 good reasons to make jewelry yourself, and why it's easy

I've been making my own jewelry ever since I can remember. Well, more or less, depending on my age. I've made necklaces with colorful wooden beads, friendship bracelets, earrings from buttons, all kind of things. Lately however I've been into simple necklaces that are basically made by combining a plain necklace chain with a pendant or a few beads. I love how they don't look all store bought and not at all handmade. Nothing against handmade, I love all things handmade, but I hope you know what I mean.
My favorite necklace at the moment is the one below, with the color sprinkled ceramic beads. You know how long it took me to make? A minute at most. You know how much it cost me? Under 1€. You know how many people asked me where I got it? Four up to now.

I knooow, I didn't really make this necklace. Not in a crafty kind of way. I assembled it. But still it's my own creation, I chose the supplies and  I thought of the design. No one else has a necklace like this and I'm pretty proud of it. 
So let's not argue about words but start making more jewelry ourselves. Here are 6 good reasons why:

1. It's easy

Jewelry making doesn't have to be difficult. You can make some very decent pieces in just a few easy steps. Take the basic pendant necklace consisting of a pendant and ... a necklace. Easy. Did you know that you can buy a lot of different pendants and supplies online? Choose your favorites and than its just one plus one and you have a great piece of jewelry!

2. It looks just like you want it to look

That also means, that it doesn't have to look handmade. You know best what you're looking for and what you want your jewelry to look like. By choosing the supplies and making it yourself, you have a lot more control over the look and style. Maybe next time, when you have a new piece of jewelry in mind that you can't find anywhere in the stores, try to DIY!

3. It's cheaper

Buying supplies and combining them at home can be a lot cheaper than buying it in the stores, especially for costume jewelry. You don't have to pay for brands, names and designs.

4. You choose which quality you'd like

This one goes with number three. If you like to buy costume jewelry and change your stock every few months, you can choose to by cheaper materials. I'm talking mostly about metals here: chains and jump rings and closures. You could go for gilded copper or tin instead of going for pure gold.
On the other hand, if you'd like your jewelry to last long and look pretty all the way, than you should go for higher quality metals.

5. You can make more

Your jewelry is broken, discolored or lost? No problem! Because you know where you got it from or have all the supplies still at home. A lot of shops sell their jewelry findings in multi packs, so it's easy to make more for your friends, make your favorite necklace in different lengths or create matching earrings.

6. It's all yours

You create unique pieces if you DIY jewelry! There's literally no chance you ever come across one person on the street who is wearing the same jewelry you are. And the best thing about it: if someone compliments you on it and asks where you got it you can smile and say 'I didn't buy that. I made it myself'. Best. Feeling. Ever.

To get you started on your handmade jewelry adventure, these are three necklaces that I made lately. The one on the left is my favorite necklace and I've been wearing it almost daily. If you'd like to recreate it, or one of the other, these are the materials that  I used:

ceramic beads
natural citrine pendant
ball chain necklace

For more jewelry tutorials check out my MAKE page!