Home-made jewelry

BY RAFFY BOUDJIKANIAN

raffy.boudjikanian@transcontinental.ca

Allison Sklar was tired of seeing everybody constantly wearing the same kind of jewelry, so she started making her own.

"I'd go see my friends, and they'd ask me if they could buy off of me," said the Dollard des Ormeaux resident. Unwilling to part with her creations, Sklar began making other necklaces, bracelets or earrings to sell her friends. That is when one of them suggested she try selling to strangers by setting up a group account on Facebook, a free online social networking website.

"In September, I started making jewellery more professionally, and then I started selling it," she added.

Though her first creations were usually collages of disassembled, previously purchased jewellery, Sklar now uses actual materials that she orders online, from different kinds of beads to metals.

Her friend Lora Ryan, a frequent customer, called Sklar's style "very original," also praising her for making custom jobs according to her customer's needs. "I have very small wrists," Ryan said, explaining that it is usually difficult for her to find bracelets that fit properly. With Sklar, however, that is not a problem.

"I never took any (jewelry) courses," said Sklar, who is a full-time geography and human relations student at Concordia University. Everything she knows about jewellery is self-taught, she said.

Trying to expand her business has also forced her to expand her knowledge in other fields. Deciding to create a proper website, she first used Microsoft Word and simply put the page into web format.

"It looked really crummy," said Ryan with a laugh. However, it was not long before Sklar learned to use SeaMonkey, a web-design software, to give her own web page a much cleaner, more professional look.

She hopes to one day have a true boutique rather than simply a virtual one. "We have very similar styles," Sklar said about one among several jewellers she has met since she started selling her wares. The two might open a small store together eventually, she added.

For now, Sklar has managed to make enough since she started in September to pay off her tuition fees for the year and order some new materials to work with.

"She doesn't charge very much at all," Ryan said.

Bracelets vary between $15 to $25, and necklaces between $15 to $40.

For more information, visit www.delaudela.com