how much a goldsmith makes?

[pio]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Gemsetterchris]

If a goldsmith or whatever is worth their salt they deserve their pay.
Anyone else's profit is their own problem.

[Lucie]

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[I] at least[/I] double material costs and pass this onto customers. This can be really significant if you work with a lot of gold!

[medusa]

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[I] 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]

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.