A note of advice to Tiff:
1. Pursue your jewelry hobby.
2. Just keep in mind that your biggest sellers may be what you consider to be cheesy.
3. Artisans frequently do massive amounts of cheesy stuff in order to pay for and to provide time for the stuff that they really like to do. Photogs do yearbooks and wedding photography, corporate events, commercial artists do ads for the newest taco shop on the local strip. Just the way it is...
4. Sell it through Facebook.
You got it easy kid, take advantage of it.
There is no market for *costume* jewelry, per se. Regardless, the Internet abounds with twisted wire and bead gewgaws. Vintage costume jewelry sellers on eBay are even seeing a slowdown in their business, after 2-3 years of very good sales.
The cost of precious metals is prohibitive for the average artisan. Reactive metals (Titanium/Niobium) are now nearly as expensive as precious ones. Anything cast (brass/bronze) takes expensive electricity to produce. Copper oxidizes on most people. Anything with set stones is cheaper if made in China or India. No one can compete with Indians for stones or with the Chinese for making the most out of the least amount of gold.
My husband would be back into the jewelry business in a nanosecond if the above were not true.
Your last advice is the most correct: she has it easy.
etsy.com