Description
Silver Keepsake Business Startup Kit to help you on the right track to start your baby and breastmilk, memorial or keepsake and memento jewellery business. The silver level package includes a selection of items available from Keepsaker Supplies with a recommended retail price of over £1980! It’s ideal for new starters, those taking the Advanced Breastmilk Jewellery Course and people attending our Studio Training Sessions!
It’s enough to make at least fifty five pieces straight away – twenty beads, ten rings, and twenty five necklaces or dangle charms. Make as many variations as you can and take lots of photos, sell some to friends and family before ordering, to pay for the kit, then use the photos on social media to get more orders.
Enough consumables to send out 200 kits for your clients to post in their breastmilk, hair, fur, cremation ashes, umbilical cord etc. You will use the tools and moulds in the kit moving forward, buying settings as needed when your clients order. You have enough tools and equipment to speed up your orders, tools you would usually need to buy anyway.
Here’s a spreadsheet with the business startup packages in comparison (coming soon).
Step one, watch Nikki’s entire playlist on YouTube here (click)! Then purchase this Basic Supplies Bundle or choose our Bronze Startup Bundle to be able to make more pieces and sell faster.
All Round Kit Includes
- Moulds – 2x medium bead moulds, 1x faceted bead mould, 2x 8mm round duos, 1x 12mm round duo, 1x 16mm round duo, 2x 10x8mm oval moulds, 1x 10mm heart duo, 2x 18mm heart duo, 1x 10x8mm teardrop duo, 1x 18x13mm teardrop duo, 1x 18x13mm oval duo, 2x 11mm sphere moulds
- Rings – a selection of 10 rings (handmade silver bezel rings) with any bezel cups, your choice of style and size (UK, US or EU sizes)*
- Necklace and dangle charm settings – 1x 10mm crown heart, 1x 18mm crown heart, 2x 10mm heart bezels, 2x 8mm round bezel, 2x 12mm round bezel, 1x 16mm round bezel, 1x 18x13mm crown teardrop, 1x 8x6mm teardrop bezel (ideal for necklaces and dangle charms) and 2x 13x9mm teardrop bezel. 1x 18mm heart necklace setting in gold vermeil, 1x Gold Vermeil 18″ chain
- 10x silver 6mm domed headpin, 8x necklace chains in your choice of lengths**, 8x mini dangle charm bails for Chamilia and Pandora style bracelets and 8x 11mm carabiner clasps for Links of London and Thomas Sabo style bracelets.
- Bead cores (5x Breastfed With Love, 5x Forever In My Heart, 5x Always With Me, 5x blank) plus: one free “practice” core
- Consumables – an Arteza whiteboard pen, 25 packs of breastmilk preservation powder, resin sparkle mix full set of 13 colours in 3ml pots, breastmilk resin sparkle mix set (6 colours in refill bags), Filled metal leaf gold, silver and copper, one 60g and one 200g bottle of UV resin, 30g Padico UV resin, two bottles of UV top coat, sandpaper, 2x white tack, 10 dust masks, label backing paper, practice cremation ashes, practice breastmilk and hair and fur, Town Talk polishing cloth, Town Talk silver care kit Town Talk silver storage strips, Town Talk gold polishing cloth, 1000 cocktail sticks, 20 sparkle applicators, 20x 5ml spoons
- Sending Kits – two black Sharpies, fine and ultra fine (ESSENTIAL!) and 100qty breastmilk sending tubes 5ml, 100qty sending pots, 200qty cellophane bags 13x18cm
- Tools – rainbow carbide burr bit, 2x 1mm micro drill bits, 2x tiny measuring spoons, 2x pestle and mortars, silicone spatula, jump ring opener, hairdressing scissors, set of four styles of hair tweezers, 3x ring sizer sets and a UV pen light
- Silver level tools & equipment – a SUN3 lamp, a curved burnisher, a wooden ring clamp, mini USB hand drill, a ring sizing stick, set of 10 diamond files and a plier set
- Silver level PPE – apron, resin respirator mask, safety goggles
- one text engraving included
- Downloads – access to all of our stock images and the pricing calculator
- Two 15 minute Zoom calls with Nikki to help you with any queries that aren’t covered by the video tutorials
- UK customer exclusive – special discounts and advice on insurance and accountancy. The insurance provider we work with provides discounts from many supplies you will use as a jeweller and small business
- Lifetime 20% off at Keepsaker Supplies (terms apply, sale items excluded etc)
- Lifetime free unrecorded shipping from Keepsaker Supplies for future orders
Breastmilk Speciality Kit
- No Forever In My Heart or Always With Me bead cores: you will receive 15 Breastfed With Love cores and 5x blank altogether
- No practice cremation ashes but Nikki is happy to send you some of their own preserved dried milk to practice with if you like
- No memorial jewellery stock images – you will receive packs of breastmilk preservation powder to the equivalent value (usually around 5 packs)
Memorial Speciality Kit
- No Breastfed With Love bead cores: you will receive 15 Forever In My Heart or Always With Me cores altogether (let us know which one you prefer and would like more of or we will send ten of one and five of another)
- No packs of breastmilk preservation powder or breastmilk resin sparkle mix set. No breastmilk and baby jewellery stock images – you will receive store credit to the equivalent value or can replace with silver items or moulds of your choice
These are the tools and settings we have used at Tree of Opals for the past 6 years from suppliers we trust and items made in-house. For advice on making keepsake and memorial jewellery see our blogs here. The silver keepsake business startup kit is suitable for breastmilk and baby keepsake (breastmilk jewellery, first curl, placenta and umbilical, baby teeth and Christening flowers etc) but also as a memorial for your clients (cremation ashes jewellery, hair and fur, funeral flowers) and all other occasions and elements such as wedding dresses, wrapscraps, petals, earth, sand etc.
You’re welcome to make swaps, within reason. Please discuss prior to ordering!
Worldwide Sourcing Guides
We provide the basic personal protective equipment or PPE (vinyl gloves and dust masks) but highly recommend that you invest in some more heavy duty equipment such as safety goggles. You can find links to buy these items in our country specific Worldwide Sourcing Guides here – including the UK, USA, Australia and Canada (more countries coming soon). You can find all the items you need to send your clients a kit for their ashes/hair/cord/breastmilk, which is something we highly recommend. The sourcing guides also give examples of office equipment such as printers and label makers, and packaging items like polishing cloths, jewellery boxes, business cards.
Silver Keepsake Business Startup Kit Extras
You will need to provide the following yourself, these are items many people already own:
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- PPE (see above)
- sending kit components (see above) such as stamps
- order packaging supplies such as jewellery boxes
- a freezer for breastmilk
- a hob, saucepan and bowl for a bain Marie to preserve breastmilk
- a logo, social media accounts and website (Etsy do not allow breastmilk jewellery, they do allow hair and cremation ashes pieces but only for pets, not humans)
- moulds for other items you wish to sell, such as findings you purchase elsewhere
Stock Images
You can download the stock images after your order has been paid in full and we have added them manually to your account. They’re royalty-free and Creative Commons 00 so you’re free to edit and use for your own purposes but we ask you to let your clients know in the image description that they do not necessarily reflect your own work and are for guidance only. You can Photoshop in your own work if you know how. More coming soon – feel free to submit your own royalty-free CC00 images to benefit the community, so long as you are happy with no attribution required, which means that someone using the images doesn’t have to credit you for the photo.
925 Sterling EcoSilver
The silver in the settings of the Silver Keepsake Business Startup Kit is a minimum of 925 solid sterling EcoSilver. Please see our blog on Types of Solid Silver which explains the care instructions for the silver and the metal content.
Pro tip – at Tree of Opals we like to make the client two charm beads or cabochons with their elements (ashes, hair etc) at the same time. Remove both from the moulds and send the client a photo to check they’re happy and offer them a choice. Let the clients know that you will return the second one free of charge as a spare, and set their favourite with a core. Over half of our clients ask for the second charm to be set, which you may charge £20 for doing. So it’s always worth buying an extra core just in case!
Costing Keepsake Jewellery
Over at Tree of Opals we sell charm beads with hair for around £70 (80EUR/85USD/120CAD/130AUD appx) and sets of them down to around £50, plus occasionally up to 30% off for large family orders, wholesale (funeral homes and crematoria, I used to do 30% off for 10 pieces or more for a breastfeeding group) or black Friday deals etc. The very cheapest I would sell a charm bead for would be £25 as a mystery piece/mystery order addon or for someone who wanted a second charm bead set when you’ve already made two. The profit margin on that is high enough to cover my overheads (websites, payment processing fees, my admin manager, moulds etc) and support my family.
Of course, you can sell charms for £15, and I have seen them that low, but only with silver plated cores. Clients will happily pay extra for a solid silver setting on any piece. We also sell glue-in charm inserts and a set is a little less expensive but they do not fit all the way through the core and will need to be glued in. This will take longer and occasionally they can fall out. These cores provide the most professional option and will set your business above others using glue-ins.
Use the free pricing calculator to work out the prices you need to charge. You may wish to employ an accountant or you can download our free UK tax
Does not include terms and conditions. You may use the Tree of Opals Terms and Conditions as a guide but copying may result in legal action from SEQ Legal, the company we purchased the template from. To be on the safe side, you can download their free version but you must include their information as explained in the download. For other countries, please check local government guidelines for terms and conditions. In the UK you also need to have a privacy policy and a returns policy.
RRP Prices are a guide and correct at the point of publishing!
robyncarmichael (verified owner) –
Everything I could ever need came in this kit and I was able to purchase additional things if I wanted. Nikki is amazing and really cares about her clients and wants you to have a successful business. Plus shes full of knowledge! Thanks again
Nikki Kamminga –
I’m so so grateful for this review and it made me a bit emotional honestly. It’s been a tough couple of years for all small businesses and we have struggled, so to be able to help others start a business and help them with the things I’ve struggled with myself really gives me that warm glow. If you ever need any help you know where we are and can’t wait to see how your orders take off!
Nikki