…or 3 Shortcuts for Maximising Designs

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the idea of ‘making do’ with what you have. Often this idea relates to saving money in the home, but I approached it as a designer. It got me thinking: if you’re trying to create something new, whatever it is, you probably already have what you need.

The idea of using what you have is not new in design and it links nicely with an Instagram story I saw recently about ‘shopping your stash’ or treating your possessions like a store that you ‘shop’ to produce new ways of using what you already own, instead of buying more. As a maker, my stash is the materials in my studio and my existing designs, but a stash could be clothes, ingredients, furniture, even intangibles like skills and ideas - basically any collection you have amassed.

This got me thinking about how I shop my stash when I’m designing jewellery and I came up with 3 useful shortcuts:

1.Using off-cuts

Arguably one of my simplest but also most popular earring designs is the Hexagon Dangler. These are colourful little hexagons with a hole in the middle that are hung from thin wire hoops. When the hexagonal hole is cut from the middle it creates a tiny piece of acrylic - perfect for making a little stud earring, or Mini Stud. By using the off-cuts from the Danglers to make the Mini Studs I minimise waste (I never throw off-cuts away). Together, these two designs make affordable products that my customers appreciate, particularly when buying for teens or as little add-on gifts.

With this in mind I designed the oval Princess Drops with central holes large enough to provide off-cuts for another type of earring - the Hippie Drops. When I’m designing a new style I now ask myself if any of the off-cuts can be used to make another product.

2.Re-purposing components:

Occasionally I design something that isn’t as popular as I would like and I’m left with components that are sitting idle. The Comet Studs are such a design. These Art Deco inspired studs combine a small circle of opaque acrylic and a mirrored, etched ‘tail’ on a thin ply base. I think they’re lovely, but perhaps it was my choice of colours that made them less popular? Recently I decided to re-purpose the coloured circles into a little range of simple studs. I haven’t found a use for the tails yet, but give me time.

The Dancer earrings were one of my first lasercut designs and they are probably my most popular earrings to date - I’ve made and sold hundreds of them! The simple semi-circle of coloured acrylic with a walnut wood circle seems to have a hold on my customers and I now make them in 20 colours. A customer asked me to make a matching necklace, and so after looking through my stash I settled on the classic Dancer semi-circle with a small brass disc to complement the shapes of the earrings. Now, I regularly play with existing components to see what else I could make from them. Sometimes all that’s required is a simple, additional component to make an entirely new product.

3.Re-sizing existing designs:

Sometimes simply re-sizing an existing design can give me a whole new product. The Starlight earrings feature an Art Deco mirrored star that I thought would look amazing as a tree decoration for Christmas. I re-sized them, stuck two stars back-to-back and strung them on a red ribbon to make a striking, reflective decoration.

I have also re-sized my Ginkgo Leaf design to make a smaller version for necklaces and smaller dangly earrings. While the original, larger Ginkgoes are very popular, some customers prefer a smaller style. Whenever I re-size a design I don’t simply re-create it as I think that’s boring; I make sure I change the colour and/or finish, I might change how it is attached to the ear or I turn it into a different type of product entirely. Now, I regularly re-visit my designs to see if they can be sized up or down for another use.

Takeaways

Remembering my 3 shortcuts of 1) using off-cuts, 2) re-purposing existing components and 3) re-sizing existing designs:

• reduces waste

• saves time and money

• reduces risk

• maximises designs

If you are designing something you could do worse than to remember to use what you already have and shop your stash!