More tapping....

[Stirring Moose]

Another hand engraved aluminium bracelet. First attempt at double sided work, in this case Celtic knotwork on the outer face and Gaelic text on the inside.





As ever, would be interested to hear what you guys think. One further question if anyone feels able to tackle it (quite understand if you'd rather steer clear); does anyone have any idea what such a thing might be worth on the open market? All my work so far, while I've still got my engraving "L-plates" on, has been for friends so very much mate's rates. I know I've got to get quicker and more confident before I'll see any kind of sensible hourly rate but any ideas or suggestions appreciated.

S.M.

[ShinyLauren]

Very cool - your engraving is so neat and precise!

I've no clue on pricing I'm afraid, that's the bit I hate the most.

[Stirring Moose]

Thanks Think maybe the neatness may trace back to the fact I am basically an engineer rather than an artist. Either that or I'm just a bit pernickity and really should get out more!

S.M.

[Dennis]

Pricing has been discussed at great length on this forum, but our search box is notoriously difficult to use, so try various phrases on Google.
My first attempt brought up this: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ho...BMzH8gfg7YKQCA

Dennis.

[EmmaC]

Really nice work again I can't advise on pricing, only to say don't undersell yourself, proper hand engraved items are scarce.

[Keia]

I do love your work, it's right up my street.
I think pricing can be quite a personal affair where you need to ask yourself, "what was the cost of my materials used? How many hours did I spend making it? How will I feel if asked to make another - Will I roll my eyes and think ughhh, or will I skip happily to my bench?"
If you want to showcase your work in galleries you'll need to factor their 30% (30 - 40% ish) into your price also, and I'd probably do that as early as possible as I've just learnt to my cost. I've had to adjust all my prices to make sure I can still make a profit after the galleries have taken their cut, and that means making sure my prices on my website match the prices the galleries are selling my stuff for, so that we're not in competition with each other

Best of luck with everything & I hope you get some good sales soon. Don't price yourself too low, you clearly have skills =D

[Stirring Moose]

Thanks for all the input guys. I appreciate the pricing thing is tricky. At the moment I'm lucky in terms of materials costs as I'm just using up offcuts from my automotive and motorcycle activities. At the moment pricing my time is nigh on impossible because I'm still learning and thus still very slow. For now I'll just have to stick to taking a punt and seeing how people react. The one thing I'm always very concious of is not going excessively low and giving people the idea that jewellery skills, either mine or anyone else's, should come cheap.

S.M.

[Tabby66]

Can you give an idea of your silver cost/ metal cost and dimensions of the flat sheet in a piece SM?? (my starting place for costing......) .....edit....if you weren't using offcuts and had to buy the metal in!!

[caroleallen]

Sadly, the only way you're going to make much money from your lovely work is if you send it off for casting. Even then, the price of the silver for such chunky pieces will be quite high.

[Stirring Moose]

This bracelet is roughly 20mm x 170mm with a thickness of 2mm. As I said, the aluminium doesn't really cost me anything (if anything it's a bonus to get some of the stuff out of the way!!). Even if I was paying for it, the cost would be a matter of pence. To replicate the piece in sterling silver would be about £40.00 in materials.

Sending work off for casting? Hmm, intriguing. I presume this refers to using an engraved piece as a pattern for producing cast replicas? Most of my work to date has been commissioned one-offs so not so appropriate there. Maybe worth looking at this route for some simpler more generic designs though. Will look into it, thanks.

S.M.