Hi. I’m looking for recommendations for excellent quality casters,
could a few of you brag on who who you trust with your production
work? I’ve been searching for a few months now and I’ve had a few do
test for me and was dissapointed with more than a few because they
took more than a reasonable amount of time to finish one test cast or
the quality just wasn’t there. Is a good casting company that hard to
find?
Also, when you do a production line what percentage of the casting /
finishing sourced outside of your studio makes up the final cost of
the piece. I’m looking at about 50% right now which I think may be
too high.
Mike Levi
Mike,
I know you will get many referrals to Daniel Grandi of Racecar
Jewelry. Dan is a caster extraordinaire, and comes very well
recommended.
sales@racecarjewelry.com
Terrie
Hello:
I use an Orchid member- Dan Grandi at Racecar Jewelry - he is based
in Rhode Island and he ships. I must add- his polishing team is the
BEST… If you need to have great hand finishes - he is the man…
Check out my work to see his GREAT work…
DeDe Sullivan
www.dedemetal.com
Is a good casting company that hard to find?
NO, Mike! Well, maybe yes, but I’m really really happy with The
Alchemist Shop in Seattle. Quick, professional, excellent quality,
family run. Note the professional in there - always responsive,
delivers as promised. Too bad that’s unusual these days, but it is.
Steve Slaughter & Dana Carlson
The Alchemist Casting Shop
Work address
8139 32nd Avenue SW
Seattle, WA 98126-3539
Telephone
Work: 206-933-9255
E-mail
The-Alchemist@comcast.net
Roseann Hanson
Desert Rose Design Studio
www.desertrosedesignstudio.com
Tucson, Arizona
520-591-0508 voice/message
866-421-1813 toll-free fax
Hello Mike,
I am using a guy and his co. named Paul Quackenbush. He is in Grass
Valley Ca. We aren’t in full production yet and he has been working
with me on getting the bugs out of things. Great folks. Good price.
You can pull his number out of directory assisit. Good Luck I don’t
think that your casting costs should be that much of your gross.
Unless you are undervalueing your own work into the pieces I would be
surprized if you can find someone to do your finishing to the level
of your satifaction. I may be wrong though.
Cheers, Dennis
Hi there,
The casting house we use in our shop for our production is…
Quality Casting Inc.
64 West 48th Street
Suite 900
New York, New York 10036
212-391-9149
Never had a problem with them. They will even keep your mold on
file instead of shipping it back and forth which gets costly.
We generally cast 18kt. yellow and also platinum.
Good luck,
Laurie
Thanks for the incredible response (both on list and off) you all are
very resourceful. If anyone has had any BAD experiences, please feel
free to relate that to me as well (off list if you feel most
comfortable). I feel this is just as valuable as the positive
feedback.
Also, I was looking at All Star Casting in NY, if anybody had any
experience with them I would greatly appreciate it.
For many reasons I prefer to cast here in the U.S. (or Canada) so
thanks to those who offered outside sources. I don’t doubt the
quality but I want to have the production here to have more control
over my copyright and that sort of thing.
Mike and All
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Mike
Also, when you do a production line what percentage of the casting
/ finishing sourced outside of your studio makes up the final cost
of the piece. I'm looking at about 50% right now which I think may
be too high
I double my casting/finishing/metal costs from my casters to get my
wholesale prices. Then they get doubled again for the retail price.
That’s right: 4 X cost = retail. I sometimes add more for studio
overhead, if the market will allow. I also add more if I work on the
piece after getting it from the caster, such as in the pieces that I
set stones into. The castings sell well at these prices, at juried
shows and fairly good craft stores. The prices are not competitive
with imports. Some of the best advice I ever got for my business was
from a jeweler friend who took me to a big import store to see all
the attractive jewelry there at very low prices. She told me to look
at it and then promptly forget it. We don’t want to even think about
it when we are pricing our work. Make it irrelevant in our minds.
This concept works for me.
M’lou Brubaker, Jeweler
Goodland, MN
www.craftswomen.com
I had another question on this subject:
What do you all prefer: having a company cast and clip and then you
do all the finishing yourself? Or having the casting company do all
the finishing so all you have to do is polish?
Or do any of you have one company cast while another company does the
finishing? If you do the third option, do you think this puts the
jewelry in peril of getting lost between companies? I’m not kidding,
I’ve heard stories…
Mike
Some of the best advice I ever got for my business was from a
jeweler friend who took me to a big import store to see all the
attractive jewelry there at very low prices. She told me to look at
it and then promptly forget it. We don't want to even think about
it when we are pricing our work. Make it irrelevant in our minds.
This concept works for me.
I like that advice. Mass produced jewelry is not ‘art’ in any sense.
Even if you’re not producing something you consider ‘art’. I consider
what I cut to be much higher class, than what you would get from say
thaigem.com or one of those houses that a cutter will produce 20
stones a day (have you ever looked at the polish on one of those
stones, or the amount of windowing/fisheye??).
If someone doesn’t want to pay for what we produce, then they are
the ones looking for a $100 item for $2 on ebay.
Craig
www.creativecutgems.com