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Article: What are handmade statement earrings?

Wat zijn handgemaakte statement oorbellen en hoe worden ze gemaakt?

What are handmade statement earrings?

How are handmade earrings made?

At first glance, making earrings seems easy for many people. That is also one of the reasons that many women dare to try this, whether or not as a secondary profession. They buy semi-finished earrings from a wholesaler which they then adjust a bit, or they buy material for earrings, put them together and resell the earrings, of course nothing wrong with that. However, Petit Bonbon tries to distinguish itself from this. Petit Bonbon firstly works with different collections that follow the trends of the different seasons. In order to do this every season, we follow a very strict process consisting of the following five steps.

  1. The creative process

Before any material is purchased to make the earrings, the creative process starts. The first step in the creative process is to look for the trends of the coming season in the fashion industry. Which colors will be part of the latest clothing collections, what will appeal to the public and what will not. Moodboards are made, talks are held with various retailers, etc. This gives us a good idea of what will be popular and which colors will be in fashion.

Based on all the input I make sketches of the earrings for the new collection. Personally, I prefer the old-fashioned way with sketch pencils and a sketchbook. I draw different shapes, use different colors, etc. until I am satisfied with the result. After sketching, I can digitize the drawing via an app and work on the design there. That way you can easily change colors and easily update the shape.

  1. Selection of the right materials

This first step goes hand in hand with step two, the choice of material. Perhaps the most difficult step. There are many different shapes (round, diamond-shaped, rectangular, ...), many different colors, and many different types of material (semi-precious stones, Swarovski beads, freshwater pearls, synthetic resin, ...). A statement earring often also consists of different parts, you have the clasps, the pendant and any decorative elements (eg a ring). For these parts you can choose the same materials or a combination of different materials.

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For the clasps, Petit Bonbon opts for gold-plated or silver-plated clasps, whether or not finished with a semi-precious stone. Full gold or silver clasps are much more expensive, so the earrings would immediately fall into a much more expensive price category. However, Petit Bonbon's goal is to offer quality, yet affordable earrings.

Pendant

There are also many materials available for the pendant. Petit Bonbon often opts for (a combination of) semi-precious stones, Swarovski beads or synthetic resin. In the choice of materials, we always go for the lightest materials, without compromising on quality. You can also read why this is important in our blog about 'light statement earrings from Petit Bonbon'.

All materials are therefore carefully selected. The right partner is crucial here.

  1. Selection of the right suppliers

One of the biggest challenges is finding the right suppliers. The right supplier means a supplier who not only delivers quality, but can also deliver the right quantities at the right time, and this at a correct price. Petit Bonbon has searched for the best suppliers for years and only selects material that meets the highest quality requirements, even if you sometimes pay a lot more for this. Cheaper material certainly exists, but we think it detracts from the final end result. Not all suppliers have all the necessary material, a good selection of different suppliers is crucial.

  1. Creating the unique collection

Once I have made my designs and have chosen the right suppliers who can produce and deliver the material on time, I can start producing the collection of earrings effectively. But, make no mistake. Even at this stage, it often happens that changes are still being made. A different shade, a different shape or sometimes even earrings that do not make the selection. Ultimately, you won't know if an earring is really good until you've made and tried them on. Earrings that I would not wear myself or of which I am not 100% satisfied, will not be included in the collection.    

  1. Making or updating the collection

Once the collection has been designed, it also needs to be produced in large numbers. All earrings from the collection have to be made dozens, hundreds of times so that we all stores and webshops where Petit Bonbon is soldcan be supplied in a timely manner. All earrings are still made by hand in my studio in Dendermonde. A long-term job, but this provides an extra quality control. Once this is done, the process can start again for the next collection. We aim to launch four collections per year. One spring-summer collection, one winter-autumn collection, with two flash collections in between. In addition, we also try the children's collection and the bridal collection to renew every now and then.

As you can see, this is a process that takes a lot of time and energy. And this is just the process of designing a collection. Here we do not yet take into account administrative tasks, maintaining the website, conducting marketing, etc. There is a lot involved, but it is so 'rewarding' at the end of the ride. The moment you are sold a pair of earrings is always a moment of happiness. Often there is even a second moment of happiness when someone sends a photo of them wearing Petit Bonbon earrings or when someone sends a nice message to tell them how satisfied they are. You guys rock!

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