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Thread: Factoring your time into your jewellery costs

  1. #11
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    Nothing wrong having an hourly rate of £60 so long as you only take 5 minutes.

  2. #12
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    I think the sheer lack of decent craft fairs has a lot to answer for. We have one held every other friday in our wee town, sounds great in theory but it's no good having them on a weekday morning. Side note, I really wish people would stop and think at craft fairs about their attitudes towards handcrafted stuff, making comments about how they could get it cheaper on eBay is down right rude and disrespectful to the person that sat and made it.
    However, if you find the right venue or online platform, technically you can then charge whatever you like, and people do pay. You should never undersell yourself though, you really do need to find the best platforms for the type of clientèle you want. I've found that galleries placed in tourist traps are the best for me. I'm currently with two and that makes me enough each month to keep things ticking over at a good pace. As my kids get older and need me less, I add another gallery to the list. I charge £8.00 p/h on my work and gradually increase that slowly over time as my skills increase. It all balances out in the end =)
    Sian Williamson

  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by ps_bond View Post
    I've said this before once or twice.

    If your USP is price, then it is a race to the bottom and you will lose.
    Handmade jewellery - handmade anything - cannot compete on price.
    This is the thing, you need to find a USP that will sell your work.
    Be unique, design the unusual, find your niche.
    Competing against the generic with the generic you will never succeed.

    That isn't directed at anybody or a comment on anybodies work BTW, just a general statement.

  4. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Patstone View Post
    She commented that she could get the same on the internet at half the price.
    Aha! what about making stuff she can`t get anywhere else.

  5. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Patstone View Post
    A friend of mine that is Chinese and is a student at the university (she fell in love with my dogs and we got chatting) said that in China some people will work for virtually nothing, just food, so obviously the finished cost will be a lot lower, but its still sterling silver and semi precious stones.
    To give a different perspective, whenever my Chinese inlaws come to the UK, what they really want to take home with them are things that are made (preferably by hand) in our country, not China. In most shops the search is futile, as the ubiquitous "Made in China" stamp crowds everything else out. My wife recently went back to China for a stay and took some items of jewelry made in the UK as gifts, one or two made by me. They were very greatly appreciated.

    It's all a question of cachet. As long as the quality of an item is obviously high, the cachet to a Chinese person (and discerning British people) of owning an item handmade in the UK cannot be overestimated.

    People have asked how they can compete on price with imported jewelry when they are trying to make a living selling their own handmade items. As Peter and Chris have indicated, you can't compete on price, so forget it. But on exclusivity you can blow your cheap import competitors out of the water. Whatever selling approach you take, if you don't emphasize this point about exclusivity again and again ad nauseam you're doing yourself an injustice and to some extent undermining and wasting your hard work making and selling things in the first place.
    Last edited by Aurarius; 03-10-2014 at 12:02 PM.

  6. #16
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    I feel very strongly as I've probably said before about pricing! Like Peter and Aurarius have said we are producing unique handmade pieces with everything that goes along with that. If we start pricing to what people expect to pay rather than what it's worth we are in big trouble. I believe it undervalues not only our own work but everyone else's if we don't put a true worth on our work. You are selling a product of quality not something they are going to buy on eBay or in accessorise every weekend as a throwaway. I used to have a girl worked for me and every weekend she spent £20 or so on the High St on some bit of shoddy costume jewellery that she wore a few times or then lost but she would never consider paying 100 for something that she could keep. Maybe it's just our throwaway society.
    I have taken issue in the past with a Gallery who bought in cheap import jewellery and then put bespoke next to it. Human nature is that if the cheap is nice and wearable that's what people will buy first. The reasoning from the gallery was it was their bread and butter but then they wondered why their hand made exclusive work didn't sell. I don't think I ever see them buying in imported paintings though and hanging them next to their best selling artists:/

    Like Tabby I have pretty well worked out a price for a piece rather than working an hourly rate. I've seen me labour for hours perfecting a clasp or something for a piece, I need Donald Trump for that hourly rate
    Last edited by CJ57; 03-10-2014 at 02:30 PM.

  7. #17
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    It's perceived value that matters to a buyer, silver doesn't generally rate very highly in that respect so the piece has to be either be extraordinary or quick to make.

    You might need to step up materials if you want to spend a lot of time on a design to make it worthwhile.

    There is a balance between churning out work & actually enjoying it...spending half hour over something you could have called finished in 10 minutes...we've all been there.
    Bottom line is that abit of twisted wire doesn't really warrant much no matter how much time spent & neither does any basic design.

    Better material will allow that extra time & profit because of the added value customers automatically associate with it.

    That's my view at least.
    ?

  8. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gemsetterchris View Post
    It's perceived value that matters to a buyer, silver doesn't generally rate very highly in that respect so the piece has to be either be extraordinary or quick to make.

    You might need to step up materials if you want to spend a lot of time on a design to make it worthwhile.

    There is a balance between churning out work & actually enjoying it...spending half hour over something you could have called finished in 10 minutes...we've all been there.
    Bottom line is that abit of twisted wire doesn't really warrant much no matter how much time spent & neither does any basic design.

    Better material will allow that extra time & profit because of the added value customers automatically associate with it.

    That's my view at least.
    ?
    Yeah, I go with that about value of materials, although you do get stuff in silver which is extraordinarily expensive sometimes. Even stuff in silver plate can be stupid money. I had an idea for something and decided to see if it had been done (it had, of course) and saw cast brass pendants selling for £150. I don;t get it. The silver versions were about double.

    In terms of pricing as you learn, I think the best approach is to see what else is out there that is similar and hand made and price accordingly. That way you are selling for a realistic price and whilst not making a huge hourly rate, at least it goes up over time as you get quicker. I've gone from about 50p per hour to around £9 an hour over the last few years.

  9. #19
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    That old chestnut, eh?!

    If people don't have the money to spend where you go to sell, then you are in the wrong place! Don't limit yourself to your local craft fairs, because people expect to buy thing for nothing, a few people sitting there with their hobby made things, content with covering their materials so they can make more. A lot of people don't realise that some traders actually try to make a living out of it and that you actually PAY TO BE THERE. I'm amazed at how many people think you can just rock up and start selling your things with no charge for the space etc. You need to find your market, if you do you can charge premium for your work.

    I think it's a lot down to design/"uniqueness" and I find not always so much about materials, if someone likes your design they are likely to pay good money for it whether it's made from tin or silver... Just look at all the Scandi brands that sell for quite a bit of money, e.g. Efva Attling, Dyrberg & Kern and the likes, they used to use plated metals and still charged high prices! Of course they have the brand advantage...

    Ignore people who say "I can buy that elsewhere for less", or "my daughter can make that", because if that was the case then why don't they, and why are they even looking? The difference between saying that and actually doing it is a big one! Have confidence in your work and come up with ways of meeting comments like that. I usually just say "how nice, you should do that then"!!

    I know it's hard to value yourself, but if you don't, nobody else will.

    Carin
    Last edited by camalidesign; 06-10-2014 at 09:41 PM.
    Carin Lindberg

    Camali Design
    www.camalidesign.com

  10. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by camalidesign View Post
    That old chestnut, eh?!

    If people don't have the money to spend where you go to sell, then you are in the wrong place! Don't limit yourself to your local craft fairs, because people expect to buy thing for nothing, a few people sitting there with their hobby made things, contact with covering their materials so they can make more. A lot of people don't realise that some traders actually try to make a living out of it and that you actually PAY TO BE THERE. I'm amazed at how many people think you can just rock up and start selling your things with no charge for the space etc. You need to find your market, if you do you can charge premium for your work.

    I think it's a lot down to design/"uniqueness" and I find not always so much about materials, if someone likes your design they are likely to pay good money for it whether it's made from tin or silver... Just look at all the Scandi brands that sell for quite a bit of money, e.g. Efva Attling, Dyrberg & Kern and the likes, they used to use plated metals and still charged high prices! Of course they have the brand advantage...

    Ignore people who say "I can buy that elsewhere for less", or "my daughter can make that", because if that was the case then why don't they, and why are they even looking? The difference between saying that and actually doing it is a big one! Have confidence in your work and come up with ways of meeting comments like that. I usually just say "how nice, you should do that then"!!

    I know it's hard to value yourself, but if you don't, nobody else will.

    Carin
    You're a woman after my own heart Carin. The first year I did the OS I had a few visitors very loudly saying' oh well I don't suppose I can afford my favourite piece then' after looking at the price list! I made some cheaper pieces for the following year and they didn't sell because my heart wasn't in them.
    I stand firm now, not everyone can afford some of my work, maybe some day they will be able to but there is always someone who can and sees it for its worth and not because they are looking for a bargain.
    I can't afford a Jaguar but I can dream

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