I made one inch pendants with chain in a box. How much would you charge for them? Each snowflake is unique, no two are alike.
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I can’t tell from the picture what they are made out of or how they were made. They do look very nice…Rob
They are sterling silver on sterling silver chain.
Looking at how long it took after the first 2, I would use average time and 3x materials. Any other shop markup you consider necessary if you have brick & mortar overhead cost.
They are quite pretty.
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I work a lot in silver and have kept good time and material records for years. From these records I have developed some average rates. I price my bigger pieces like heavy bracelets, regardless of differences in time from one style to the next by a per gram rate based on these averages. I do adjust the rate if the silver spot changes a lot, but use $25/oz as my material rate. This accounts for the spot, supplier labor and transportation. I use an average of 60 minutes/20 grams for labor cost at $50/hour. Indirect and selling costs are added at 20% of the total of time and material. Then I add profit. For bigger pieces this works out to $8 - $10/gram, depending on where they are sold and changes in the spot. I try to keep my prices the same regardless of whether or not I have to pay a commission or other outside selling costs. Pendants and earrings don’t fit this model and I price them according to what the market will stand. What this really means is I ask my wife, daughters in law, grand daughters and friends what they would pay for them and then give them a pair to go out and show to other people. I sell chains pretty much at cost. This is usually around $1/inch since I only buy fairly fine chains. In the end, the market will tell you what you can sell at. If you wait long enough you may be able to develop your own market. My brother and I were lucky to have inherited a local market for our bracelets from one created by our father years ago. We are now selling to a fourth generation of people buying Meixner Bracelets. Your pendants are nice and just in time for the season. Good luck selling them…Rob
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Thanks Rob, this is very helpful. I also make bracelets so the $8 per gram guideline is very helpful. It is so hard to make custom silver jewelry when there is so much mass-produced silver jewelry for cheap.
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You are up against mass produced jewelry and a customer who can’t tell the difference or, in many cases, care. In the end your challenge is figuring out what they want and if you want to be the one to make it for them. I am lucky to be able to make what I want while serving my creative needs, and still be able to sell enough to go out and make more. I try not to make something just because I think that I can sell it unless I really want to pursue it from a creative point of view. I always say that I am glad that I don’t rely on making and selling silver jewelry for my livelihood. I am curious, are you making your pendants from a single stamping or assembling them from many discreet pieces. Either way, they look nice…Rob
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Hi Rob, each piece is made from a single 3d printed wax. No mold. I use CAD to make the designs.
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I assume then that they are cast either by you or a casting house. Either way, they become more of a mass production piece even if you aren’t mass producing them. In another post you say that they cost you $40. Does that include part of your one time CAD time and the cost of printing or just the cost of having them cast?
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Steve don’t give up. I did The Utah Shakespeare Festival for many many years. I was put on a small stage before the main plays for the night. I showed how to do old Renaissance metalsmithing. I also sold my silver jewelry. Problem I ran into was the same. People saying they could buy it (at that time) for $10. This is where salesmanship comes in to overcome that. First let them feel how heavy your piece is. The cheap stuff they have looked at is made very flimsey. Next if it came from China, which most are, you run the risk of it being plated plastic. I have had many people want me to repair their silver jewelry which when you hit it with a torch melted into a small blob. First time that happened, I gave one of my pieces to the person to make up for the destroyed necklace. After that if someone insisted, I had them stand beside me as I attempted the repair. They get what they pay for. I call it Chineseum. Not all comes from China, but it is enough you that does that ruins sales for us with poor workmanship and materials. Making it and knowing what you want for it is only the first step. Selling it is the second.
I go with the triple keystone most the time. Easier to discount to an individual to keystone making them think they got a bargain.
Have fun
Aggie
At the least double your cost of materials including the boxes and contract labor for anything you job out. This should include the cost of shipping to you. Those charges should cover your cost of consumables like shop supplies, rent and utilities. Then charge your hourly labor at what the average plumber gets in your area. That should be your wholesale price to a retailer or gallery. If you are selling directly to the public double your wholesale price. Be sure to emphasize that each piece is hand made and a one of a kind. Be sure to present each piece with care. Use a velvet counter pad, remove the piece from the box and slowly and lovingly ay it out on the counter pad. Have the person try it on. Afterwards wipe it gently with a selvyt cloth before putting it back into the box. Nine tenths of the battle of selling is presentation. It’s kinda like foreplay 
The more you charge and romance the piece, the more the public will respect you. Finish with “Will that be cash or credit?” Do not make the mistake of trying to beat mass manufactured prices aka “racing to the bottom”. Search results - RioGrande
Good luck have fun and make lots of jewelry.
Jo
Hi Steve,
I personally think that $90 for a 1” medallion pendant is a reasonable price, if there is heft and weight to the piece.
the cost is $40 total? what is the metal cost? printing cost?
if you cast a master for each one, finished it, rubber molded it, and shot injection waxes to cast, you would eliminate the per piece printing cost, and some of the necessary finishing time costs…maybe $20 bucks…?…so…cost would be $20… selling price …$49-50…i am guessing the chain adds cost of $5-8?
perhaps offer a version on a silk ribbon, or leather cord…for $75…
so…you would have a burden of needing to sell about twice as many units, to achieve around the same amount of sales…something to think about….
…but, they would not be one of a kind…
the higher price you are selling at is sort of justified by the “I broke the mold, and there is only this one unuque piece”
I sold my 18g monogram 1” pendants well for $99.
for gift giving, some people want a lower price, but others do not want a price that is not too low if that makes sense…same for self purchases…
I had a thought…one thing you mentioned was that “each one is different…no two are alike”…this is a great feature of your product.
this make me think of:
special (people like special)
unique
individually designed
one of a kind
hand made
also, there is a crystal nature to snowflakes and how they “miraculously” form in “nature”…with no two being alike…like your necklaces…nature meets science…organic yet structured…
they are also season-specific, so you may want to embrace that as well:
winter snow white silver bells
starry nights glimmer glitter (they are somewhat faceted)
cosy warm fire logs
cosy richness cashmere, angora sweaters
rich colors plaids
holiday party wine candlelight
heirloom jewelry
holiday jewelry
create visuals…of elegance, special occasion, “important” jewelry…and/or perhaps…casual modern active outdoor…
…whatever YOU think makes sense to you
snowflakes occur outside, so perhaps pine needles branches bark berries
focus on winter…which is longer than holiday season celebration versus Christmas…I was a sweater buyer for years…and christmas has a hard out date of 12/26…
I looked at your photo above, and they are all uniquely beautiful…yet you have them uniformly displayed, in the same black box, all lined up together…
perhaps you can box them while they are stored and when they are sold, but display and photograph them (for online) in a more unique way
make them look special…
introduce rarety/ scarcity/ one and gone
name each one…
also, earrings would be great, alot of my friends wear special holiday earrings…
you could possibly separately focus some presentations on the processes…?..the tech nature…futuristic modern design…symmetry, perfect crystal structure…natural organic meets modern tech…3D CAD design and how they are printed…
behind the scenes
bench shots
create the backstory
why snowflakes? (you could choose to make anything in CAD)
why your fascination?
just some of my morning musings
julie
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Hi Steve,
I forgot to mention…when I was doing my personalized charms, I was basically selling the “same thing”…in 5 sizes…1/2”, 5/8”, 3/4”, 7/8”, 1”…I created a progressive price range for them that I thought made sense…
since you can scale in CAD, perhaps test one or a few smaller sizes at lower prices…your “opening or key item price point”…a “tiered pricing structure”…
the 1/2” sold the most (dainty, teeny jewelry trend, lowest price)
the 3/4” was a close second
I am not sure if size preference/ trend or price was the main driving factor…
on a “fashion note” perhaps offer the 1” medallion on a 24-28” longer chain, and the smaller on finer 16,18, or 20” chains.
I personally used dainty 1.1mm cable chains on the smaller sizes because I think it looks more “fine jewelry”…and then used the 1.5mm chain on the bigger 7/8”, 1”…
and custom order 2.4mm rolo for the longer 24-28” medallion look
(they can slip it over the head…no need to activate the clasp…some people prefer this)
the 7/8” was my original hand engraved cast blank size, and personal favorite size…yet weirdly the last size I added when i started to die struck discs​:joy:
people seem to have a hard time estimating size online…I used US coins as reference, as well as “on body” shots…
Julie
Oh this is very helpful. I was using a 1mm chain. Never thought I might need to scale it up.
Hi Steve,
i think your chains look like the right size at 1mm…interesting…maybe because your pendants are visually light in nature…open work…I dont think you need to scale up, thats just what i did for my pendants, which were solid discs…
however, For the longer length 22-28”, i felt thicker made more sense for me…play around…
julie
I have read all these comments about pricing. I must be doing something wrong. I am an independent jeweler , I work in a studio with other jewelers. Each year we do a show and sale in a gallery. The gallery rents us the space and takes nothing. I find that we all base our price on mostly doubling the price of materials and all feel if we were to make it triple we would not sell anything. We all mostly work in gold and gemstones which are costly materials. I find that customers rarely will pay the fair price. One jeweler has solved this by selling a lot of pendants about the size of a small pea. they are made out of gold , have a diamond chip and are on a silk cord. They sell for $65 they go like hotcakes. Is this what the answer is?
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I am not sure. When I went to the shopping mall they were selling one inch pendants with CZ for $250. He offered to sell me a thin silver 1" pendant with Allah cut out of it for $160. And THEN he tried to sell me a silver chain for $100! He was for sure triple-key pricing me or more.
There is a company I follow on Instagram called Mejuri and they sell thin little wisps of jewelry at an affordable price. Not my thing.