Can You Make a decent Living Making Jewellery?

[Cathy at the Beach]

Very cool info on this thread. Thanks to all of you.

My next question is kind of personal, but I'll ask it and if any one wishes to answer great- if not I sure do understand.

What kind of profit margin do you work on?
I have been using 10% on my retail.... so I calculate my wholesale and double it (most stores on this side of the pond keystone so doubling my wholesale is how I get there.

so----

wholesale is cost of materials +shipping+ taxes +overhead+labour ($12 an hour for me)
retail is double the wholesale + 10% profit for an absolute minimum (if it looks low I raise the price- most items I do raise)

I just find I have to sell to a lot of stores and they have to sell to a lot of customers for me to make a substanance income!!

what should I change???

[caroleallen]

That sounds about right to me Cathy.

[MuranoSilver]

That sounds about right to me too
nic xx

[disorganised]

Nic - apologies for demanding your life story and then essentially abandoning this thread - I've been unable to access the website from work...grr....

Anyway, thank you very much for your reply. That was incredibly useful. It's quite exciting to think that I might actually be able to do this! you know....in a few years... once I actually know what I'm doing.

[Cathy at the Beach]

Ya...thats how I feel too. I really want to make this into something I can do full time. But-- I need to make some money!

So thanks for all your imput!!

[Shaun750]

I'm trying to find out this question myself.
I've got a small income from a house I'm renting while looking after my Mum,so hopefully I wont starve.
I don't expect to make a living,but i would like to make some money and justify the time I'm putting in.
I had a retail unit for twelve years and although it's hard work,I made money from the very first day,paid staff bills,my mortgage,a new car,and some nice holidays.
When ever i hear 'I quit my day job' on etsy or ebay,all you've got to do is check there feedback and it takes a second to see it's a lie,they are selling 2 items a day on average. Maybe £20 a day.
£7300 a year??,the last one that i read who said they quit their day job,didn't even have a profile anymore.
When i had my shop I could never have made a living just selling,I did repairs,watch batteries,bought scrap gold. As far as i can see there is no 'bread and butter' lines to give you a constant income,while your waiting for Christmas or the odd big sale,handmade.
I can buy wholesale silver/gold jewellery finished and set with stones(cz's) for example £10.it would probably take me all day to make some of them.Still hard to sell.
Selling jewellery to me on ebay and etsy,the web(although i haven't tried this yet) is equivalent to a high street with 100 jewellers down both side of the street. You can walk past every one. All the other shops are looking in every other shops window,and selling the same for a £1 less.
Instead of competing with all the other jewellers,selling the same stuff,I'm trying to make and sell designs that no one else is ( there is a danger that no one wants what I'm selling though!). I also try to add a personalized twist(engraving,nameplate),which makes it slightly more difficult to mass produce,which is my favor(I hope).What I'm selling is relatively expensive,but i might have to make and post one item.That's melt and roll the silver out,buff it,polish it,set up the engraving,cut it out,polish it.Then put it in a box and an envelope(I paid for),then jump in the car(how much does that cost a year to run and wear and tear!!) drive to the post office.Then drive back again.
There are quite a few other things working against us as well.We are in a recession.
Don't wish to be negative, Just got to be realistic,if you enjoy making jewellery then maybe we should be happy with that I'm always experimenting/inventing.I'm lucky if 50% of things work,so that's still half of things work.

[caroleallen]

It is hard to make a living at making jewellery. I really did "quit my day job" about 3 1/2 years ago to concentrate on my business. I've never made a loss but also never made a really good living until this year. For some reason, things have taken off for me now and the first three months of this financial year have been amazing. I think what happens is that as you go to shows and events around the country and get listed on lots of websites, people start to have confidence in your work. It's an uphill struggle and I work at it 7 days a week but you'll get there in the end. (and I have my very own post-boy who walks down to the post office every day for me - bless!)

[andrew_berry]

I started in my parents garage with a makeshift bench made out of an old door.

I had a £1000 overdraft and bought a rolling mill and polishing motor which I still have 22 years on.

I put out flyers door to door taking in repairs to start with. I did make up jewellery initially but very disheartened by shops saying no.

I did get my break when a local boutique took a load of stock I made. I put together a 'designer' range in silver and took them to the owner. I spent the next week making the order and it all grew from there.

i moved to a near by village in a back room above an estate agents then a year later took on a shop with enough room for a workshop.

Since then we have extended the workshop and have just recently had a shop refit.

I have made jewellery for local celebrities, band members and Jamie Oliver.

We did think about opening up another shop but this would have cost too much and I would have had to divide myself between two shops so we developed a few online ecommerce websites and have never looked back.

I now write for several magazines and I am in the process of writing two books. Just launched an oline jewellery training website and the shop has never been busier.

[LydiaNiz]

This is really interesting stuff.
I made a slight loss my first year - a main problem is due to family issues, I am the only one of us working, and instead of putting money back into the business it all tends to disappear into clothes for the kids/bills! I have a list on my wall - i still need my hallmark (as I'm currently limited to small pieces), a rolling mill, and I'd like a go at simple casting (Andrew, I think it was your vids of the delft clay method that has me fancying it!). I am hoping that I can pick things up this year. I've had a nightmare selling through galleries and shops (not being paid for months etc) and prefer to sell directly, but need to promote myself better. I'm not very good at selling myself (or my work!)

[andrew_berry]

Delft Clay is the biz for small one off pieces.

It take a few goes to understand the logistics of how to set up the sprue and air vents to get the right result each time.

Andrew