Most of my customers love to buy my handmade jewelry for themselves, but I also get asked about buying jewelry for friends. While I LOVE giving gifts and pride myself on planning gifts the whole year long for my loved ones, I do understand how hard it is to pick something out for someone. It’s especially hard for men to pick something out for their sweetie, family or friends – because they have never had the experience of purchasing jewelry for themselves. As a woman, it’s easier to put yourself into your friend’s shoes and get an idea of what they love, and I’m sure you’ve been shopping with your girlfriend and have an idea of their likes and dislikes.
Here are some tips and tricks to ensure that you get the perfect gift! With these simple 4 steps, you can narrow down your jewelry choices to a few items.
Step 1. Think about their personal style. Are they trendy? Bohemian? Classic? Gauging their personal style will give you a starting point to start thinking of what kind of jewelry piece to get them.
Step 2. Determine what color metal they prefer and what size of jewelry piece they’d like. Think about the color of metal they choose (gold, silver or white gold), and the size of the jewelry you usually see them wearing. If your friend usually wears small stud earrings, they probably wouldn’t like large, swingy earrings. As well, if they wear delicate necklaces with small pendants, then you should probably start there.
Step 3. Decide what colors they wear most frequently and love. What colors does your friend usually wear? This is a great place to start narrowing down what kind of jewelry you want to look at. My friend Andrea loves blue and green and usually wears black or grey – that starting point gives me a good idea of stones to look at.
Step 4. Decide what article of jewelry they’d like : earrings, a necklace or a bracelet. Think of what you’ve seen your friend wear and which items they change out most often. My friend Yesi loves to switch out her earrings to match her outfits. Knowing that, I usually focus on giving her earrings in a size similar to what she already has, but in a different style or with a different color stone.
There is one thing to keep in mind. Does your friend have a signature piece of jewelry that they always wear? Maybe a diamond pendant given to them by someone special? In that case, they probably never take that item of jewelry off, so it might be fun to get them something to accent it in a similar style. For example, my friend Hilary always wears a small silver garnet necklace and wears small delicate earrings. As a gift, I would give her small silver earrings with accents in a red color similar to the garnet necklace.
I hope that my advice has taken away some of the anxiety of shopping for jewelry. Everyone loves to receive jewelry, especially when it’s obvious that you’ve taken the time to pick out that’s perfect for them! I hope that you decide to purchase a piece of handmade jewelry for that extra personal touch! If you don’t find anything that’s perfect, think about having something custom made. Please click here to check out my site here for some options.
