PDA

View Full Version : how much a goldsmith makes?



pio
02-08-2013, 12:16 AM
hi all, how are you doing?

i was wondering if you could help me, i have a question..

how much money does an employed goldsmith make? considering:

-vairus good courses and a lot of practice in well equipped workshop (around 2 years) + 6 months internship in wax carving company + 1 years experience at the bench
-very good in cleaning and assembling casting
-no problem with any kind of sizing, retipping and general repair
-good ability in handmaking quite complicated jewels in any alloy, 6 month experience with platinum also.
-6 months experience with the laser.
-able to carve wax (does not happen often)
-good stone setting skill, pavè, rub over, microsetting, claw setting, not so much experience, slow, but very good result.

-small workshp located in central london

i tryed to give you as many details as i could, cuold you give me a rought idea?

thank you!

Dennis
02-08-2013, 08:42 AM
Quality of work, self promotion and market forces apply. If you gather a faithful following of collectors, get pictures into posh magazines, or your work is bought by celebrities, or royalty, the world's your oyster.

medusa
02-08-2013, 10:14 AM
I was really shocked to see bench jewellers advertising in bench peg magazine offering to work for £10 per hour. That just seems stupidly cheap to me.

caroleallen
02-08-2013, 12:43 PM
I'm a bit embarrassed to say that that's what I pay Liz. I think it depends on the experience and skill level.

medusa
02-08-2013, 03:33 PM
well it seems to be the going rate. I'm half tempted to try and outsource commissions i can't do due to (hopefully current) lack of skill and just pay someone who has spent years learning and perfecting their craft. I suppose they don't have the overheads and stuff to worry about, but for skilled work it seems crazy cheap.

None of this I suspect is terribly reassuring to Pio!

Goldsmith
02-08-2013, 03:55 PM
It really depends on what type of goldsmith you are. The term goldsmith is used to describe many levels and varied skills within our trade. As Pio states he or she has only one year experience at the bench, I assume the rest of the experience is college work, so I would expect a low starting wage of around the £10 per hour mark would be a good start. As Dennis said, quality of work and a gained reputation will help increase the wage packet. The last time I was employed at a manufacturing goldsmith's company was way back in 1985, and then my hourly rate as a master goldsmith and workshop manager was circa £15 per hour.

James

Melson
08-08-2013, 09:49 AM
Interesting to know! It's less than I expected actually!

Gemsetterchris
08-08-2013, 10:18 AM
Not a straight forward answer to this question, though if your self employed your going to be aiming for 3 times or so what`s been stated so far.
Of course it all depends on alot of things, a regular salary can be lower but work out better in the long run, with paid holidays ect & peace of mind.
Working for yourself is a different ball game, you never know what next month is going to be like..you may earn more or less per hour on certain jobs or then you are working to someones budget in which case you have to either speed up or cut corners abit.
You need to figure out what you need to earn & try to find a balance that works.
Bit difficult to judge people just by the years in the trade, some "newbies" are talented, some "old-hands" are still rather useless, it`s the result you produce that matters.

medusa
08-08-2013, 01:28 PM
if your self employed your going to be aiming for 3 times or so what`s been stated so far.
I would have thought that £25 -£35 would be more like it as well, going by what plumbers and electricians charge. On the other hand I suppose if you are only charging £10 ph, you might be more likely to get a steady stream of work in. I don't know if the guys advertising for work in Benchpeg were expecting to use their own benches (and all the consumables as well) or to 'hot bench' as it were.

caroleallen
08-08-2013, 09:44 PM
It's quite difficult as the person employing those Benchpeg peeps has to also make a profit and if they're being paid £25 - £35 then there's not much margin left. The employer has all the overheads.

Gemsetterchris
09-08-2013, 06:02 PM
If a goldsmith or whatever is worth their salt they deserve their pay.
Anyone else's profit is their own problem.

Lucie
09-08-2013, 06:41 PM
I might be getting the wrong end of the stick here (entirely likely :) , but is it possible that people who are charging £10 hour are putting a large mark-up on their materials. I thought it was pretty standard to] at least[/I] double material costs and pass this onto customers. This can be really significant if you work with a lot of gold!

Gemsetterchris
09-08-2013, 07:07 PM
I'm talking about the "work" aspect, nothing to do with materials.
There are a lot of workers using materials paid for by others..
Basically (my opinion) I'd charge for argument sake £30 hr for work, time travelling, paperwork, email, phone call ect (time).
Then expense of above ( phone , petrol ,post ,material, electric, pen ink :D ) ect...well not quite but you get the idea.
If you don't, you won't make jack & you'll forever be just grinding that eternal wheel.
Plus, while we're here, I don't like automatic doubling of material cost, that just sucks..you need to be abit more realistic - figure a percentage system.
You can't double the cost of a matrial item worth say £500 but 10% would figure you £50 for doing nothing, whereas a £5 bit you could add 400%..if you get my ideology.
I think being realistic actually works better & if your customers can see that they'll be happier to return & advertise for you (for free) which is a big big plus :cool:

ps_bond
09-08-2013, 07:51 PM
You can't double the cost of a matrial item worth say £500 but 10% would figure you £50 for doing nothing.

Are you referring to a markup as part of a wholesale price or a retail markup there?

Gemsetterchris
09-08-2013, 08:14 PM
Are you referring to a markup as part of a wholesale price or a retail markup there?

Either!
I guess that depends on your situation, obviously if you have a brick & mortar shop you'll have nasty overheads..however I personally (from wholesaling experience) think retail stores take the p*ss & it really doesn't do anyone any favours.
Taking a smaller cut regularly is alot better than sitting on overpriced stuff, & is way more likely to encourage a win for everyone.
Example: I set a casting & sold it to a shop that automatically doubled + tax..it sold "eventually" a year later, however..for the window space they'd have made a good sum a lot quicker on 25% in a matter of days (as did the same job elsewhere)..also keeping in line with online stuff, which is where the problem lies these days.

Lucie
10-08-2013, 09:47 AM
Do most people double (approximately) then, or add a % onto the material costs?
The pendant I've just finished is 10g 9ct gold - I was always told it was pretty normal to double the metal cost to protect against the gold price increasing between quoting a job & casting & losing money?
ie: (gold price x 2) + (additional costs -postage /hallmarking / packaging) + hourly rate + profit.

In other folk's opinion, is there a better way to approach this?

Gemsetterchris
10-08-2013, 10:40 AM
I made myself a little chart of % to add to materials, as the price rose, the % dropped..like doubling the cost of a 1ct diamond is abit much isn't it?
Doesn't really matter what you do, so long as its kinda reasonable.

medusa
10-08-2013, 02:05 PM
It's quite difficult as the person employing those Benchpeg peeps has to also make a profit and if they're being paid £25 - £35 then there's not much margin left. The employer has all the overheads.

This is true, but then if someone is paid say £20ph (which is the minimum I previously imagined) and they are good, then how many things would they get done in that hour? If they make say 100 ear wires in that time, that's 20p per wire. Not that bad for the employer. I'm obviously making a huge assumption that these guys are enormously proficient. I take about 10 mins to make one ear wire :)




I might be getting the wrong end of the stick here (entirely likely :) , but is it possible that people who are charging £10 hour are putting a large mark-up on their materials. I thought it was pretty standard to] at least[/I] double material costs and pass this onto customers. This can be really significant if you work with a lot of gold!

these are people who are just hiring out their labour.

Patstone
07-05-2015, 11:20 AM
As some of you know I do mainly craft fairs, (but I only make as a hobby) with the occasional commission. If I charged what Chris suggests nobody would buy anything. As it is, we had a lot of people in last Sunday and my daughter sold a ring for £30, I sold nothing. People down here in Devon just havent got the money to buy stuff. We are in the process of having a new website but the old one works ok if anyone wants to have a look at our prices. www.iscasilver.co.uk
Both of us only make as a hobby and to provide us with nice jewellery but we try to sell the rest. Normally at the Exmouth craft fair we go to every month and people know us and its getting our name around, so its worth the table cost but frequently we dont sell enough to pay for the table. We have been making for around 5 years now so not that experienced but our finish is getting better all the time. The majority of our stuff is using semi precious stones set in sterling silver, sometimes we have used copper as an embellishment. Talking about prices, we guess at a price - what we think its worth and what people will pay.

Gemsetterchris
07-05-2015, 11:46 AM
Experiment with a 50-100% increase, if you don't sell you won't be any worse off :)
Then again, you might be pleasantly suprised.
Lots of stories of price increases doing the trick, people don't buy stuff on price if they want it.

Patstone
07-05-2015, 11:59 AM
Experiment with a 50-100% increase, if you don't sell you won't be any worse off :)
Then again, you might be pleasantly suprised.
Lots of stories of price increases doing the trick, people don't buy stuff on price if they want it.

Wow, we will give it a try new things month.

silverlining
07-05-2015, 03:48 PM
Wow, we will give it a try new things month.

Do try, lower prices have been known to put people off! A higher price can make it feel more special and exclusive. And women, well, if we really want something we'll pay the price!!

Pricing is a nightmare though as you run the risk of selling yourself short and looking cheap or feeling uncomfortable and overpriced. You need to think you're worth it.

I follow the pricing method that Angie Boothroyd has in her jewellery business book. I have very small overheads which is helpful!

My pricing is labour @ £17ph + materials + 20% x 2. I'm quite happy with it and the 'labour' charge includes a portion of overheads which are averaged out as cost divided by my making hours.

Hello from a newbie by the way