Coincidences abound! I’m a graphic designer, have been for about fifteen years now, and my sister is a jewellery designer.
I’ve done freelance work on and off over the years, but found much more security by working for someone else (ie, able to raise a family type security). That way you’re not always chasing the next job, and you have some level of flexibility with your spare, non-project, work-time (although, I’m sure the permanent free-lancers will tell you they value the ability to work when they want, where they want and on what they want, but it’s a case of different strokes for different folks. I prefer working for someone else, letting them handle the business management, keping that stress away from me. Certainly, there’s still stress, but it’s a different kind of stress).
As others have also pointed out, there’s lots of different types of graphic designer. I’ve worked in television (a little) and entertainment design (laser spectaculars) but mostly I’ve worked in e-learning. All of these jobs require specialist skills, and are very different disciplines. I have friends who work in newpaper art departments, video game companies, art print houses, teaching and Video FX houses, and this is a small chip off the proverbial iceberg. For more diversity you can look at how graphic designers work in print versus multimedia (all of which can be applied to the bulk of the jobs I’ve just listed. The catch-all phrase ‘graphic designer’ isn’t as simple a job description as you might think.
Toadspittle is indeed correct, selling your brain is the way to go. Simply because your skills can and will be found more cheaply either locally, or overseas. I’ve found that the ability to speak to high-ranking corporate decision makers with conviction about design elements and media has helped me more than the ability to sit down and design a pedagogic agent for 18-35 year old clothing manufacturers. The company I work for HAS outsourced work to India, and we found the only way to stay competitive in the face of that was being able to guide the talents in the work. This means that art-direction skills and communication became as important as anything else I’d done.
Toadspittle is also correct in saying that EVERYONE thinks they can be a graphic designer. it’s that old saw, ‘I don’t know art, but I know what I like’. This means you really need to be able to sell yourself, as much as you sell your work.
As for Jewellery design, my sister has had to work LONG AND HARD to get where she is. She runs her own boutiquie jewellery creation studio in Sydney. She takes students and she does A LOT of exhibitions and competitions (wins a lot of them too!). And even with all of this she finds herself struggling, because a lot of people are willing to go to el-cheapo mall jewellers instead of looking for something unique, or custom designed. That said, she’s doing a LOT better now than she did in the early days, and a lot of that is because of her growing reputation for being punctual with delivery of commissions, and her staggeringly high quality work. These are two things that seem to be CRUCIAL in the world of jewellery design.
However, I’ll let others speak about that in more depth, simply because IANAJ. One thing to bear in mind, you need money in the bank to be a jeweller. Your start-up costs, and equipment costs will far-exceed the already sizeable equipment costs faced by a graphic designer.