Materials and Pricing Artisan Jewelry

If you’ve started your business as a hobby, chances are good that you’re pricing by materials alone, with a bit added in for labor. It’s time to stop that practice right now if you’d like to make jewelry making your career rather than your hobby. But because you’re already most familiar with materials, of the four parts to a product price–materials, labor cost, overhead, and profit—let’s start there. These are the tangibles, such as metals, metal clay, stones, beads, glass, and fibers that are actually part of the jewelry you deliver to a customer and the part of the jewelry that customers appreciate.

But do you also consider findings?  Continue reading

Selling at Art Shows: Treat or Torture?

"River Pebbles." Sterling and 18k gold, with blue sapphire and Tsavorite garnet. Photo courtesy Deb Carus, <a href="http://www.elentari-handverk.com/">Elentari Handverk</a>.

“River Pebbles.” Sterling and 18k gold, with blue sapphire and Tsavorite garnet. Photo courtesy Deb Carus, Elentari Handverk.

If you attend art and craft shows—and if you make artisan jewelry, you probably have—you know they can be a lot of fun. At a good show, there are lot of interesting pieces—not only jewelry, but sculpture, painting, fibers, woodwork. There’s lots of potential for inspiration.

But for a retail show to be successful for someone holding down a booth at one, the artist has to be willing to engage potential customers. Many artists enjoy the chance to “chat up” their work to potential buyers. They are, after all, enthusiastic about the pieces they make. (Aren’t you?) Continue reading