Jewelry Design Inventory--Part of Your Business Plan

Taking detailed pictures and including thorough lists of materials used doesn't sound very fun to the artistic jewelry-maker. It's the kind of paperwork most of the artistically minded loathe.

But ...

If you're making jewelry—even a few pieces—keeping these kinds of records can save you time, money, heartache, frustration and possibly even trouble with the taxman. 

Jewelry Design Records (or, Your Inventory of Design Ideas) 

What does that mean? It means keeping your own version of the Gallery of Designs: a good picture of your piece (including the back or clasp separately if necessary) and a materials or ingredients list that shows how many of each component you used in the piece. Make sure that list includes not only beads and findings, but also stringing materials, crimps and tools! 

And then, most importantly, save your gallery files to the cloud. That is, put those files on the internet. Not in a public place, of course. It can be as simple as emailing a spreadsheet to yourself or using a free online storage service such as Dropbox™ or Google Drive. What method you choose doesn't matter—what matters is that you have a digital backup of what you have as stock and what you've made from it. You'll be glad it's accessible from anywhere if you lose your paper files, computer or thumbdrive.

Use as a Catalog for Commissions

Besides planning for the future, jewelry design records offer you a kind of pre-made catalog. You can easily show a list of designs you're willing or able to make for your customer, who may ask you to customize the look by replacing the pendant with their birthstone or a swapping in a clasp their elderly mom can open easily. 

If you are really thorough, you can add the prices you paid for each item in your materials list and how much time it took to make the piece. (This is where that spreadsheet comes in handy. You can build it in Excel, Google Sheets, OpenOffice, Apple Numbers, etc.) That makes your pricing easy-peasy lemon-squeezy. When materials prices change, you'll be able to track what you originally paid for the component—not what you'd pay now. This improves your sales margins, as well! 

Even if you're not making jewelry as a business, this is still a good idea! Just think how low stress levels could be if a bride knows exactly what her jewelry will look like before she buys the gown. Some people can't visualize a design in their heads—their brains just aren't made that way—so having a photo helps everyone stay on the same page.

Planning Ahead for Obstacles, Adversities and Even Disasters

Artists face obstacles every day. Some you can control (your designs, recordkeeping or organization of your space), while others are simply beyond your control (the IRS audits you, a fire destroys your workspace or a hurricane hits your city). A jewelry design inventory is an insurance policy for every design you've ever made—you hope you'll never need it, but you'll be relieved to have it if you do. 

If you're in the business of making jewelry, then you are producing products (jewelry). Having images of those products will make it more clear that you are a legitimate business. Images let that IRS auditor see what you've done; attaching the materials list makes it clear what you used in it (which shows there's no shenanigans going on with your supplies inventory). This is especially important when you're using A grade gemstones or precious metals! 

If you're not in business, keeping a design database is still a good idea. You can secretly discover what style your friend likes and then make her one—just let her see your inventory book and wait for her to sigh dreamily over a design. Birthday present solved! 

If you donate your creations or old designs to a qualified charity for a tax write-off, your inventory will let you easily put a number on the donation, which you'll need for your taxes. 

And then there's the weather.

Natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados and wildfires can bulldoze your life in the blink of an eye. You can't control that—but you can plan around it. If you suffer a catastrophic loss of your supplies or finished designs, you'll be glad for electronic copies stored online. This is what you used, this is what you made, and this is what you lost. That allows you make insurance claims with greater accuracy. (Your insurance company may not appreciate this as much as you do.) 

And finally, it's a part of estate planning. Grieving relatives don't have a lot of mental space for figuring out how much money has been invested in your jewelry-making stash, whether you're a business or not. If you have a family member as your "craft heir," an inventory will help them make sure they've picked up everything you wanted them to have.

So, save yourself and your family time, money, heartache, frustration and possibly even trouble with the taxman by keeping detailed images and material lists of the designs you've made and the materials you used. It's an insurance policy for your creativity!