Computing Prices for Handmade Jewelry

Sometimes I like to look at pictures of handmade stuff online just to get the juices going and wait for inspiration to hit. At times though, I scratch my head wondering how people come up with their prices. Some charge sooo low that you barely even cover the cost of materials. What about the time you put into making stuff...how about the packaging....the internet costs that you use to post.

It makes me kind of feel frustrated because by charging so low, the market is ultimately ruined. How can you run a handmade business when you have to compete with those that cut their costs so low...not to mention the commercially made items that are waaay cheap. Well, for those mass produced items, there's actually a chance...some people prefer quality, uniqueness and individualization ....which is where my pieces can definitely be on top..

I used to come up with a price willy nilly...just how i feel it should cost. But being that with this new jewelry line, i need to crack down and cover costs of big investments, everything has now been seriously documented. All materials are listed out and i have come up with how much each piece actually cost to make...

This includes...
- all materials used to make the items...
which will depend also on the size of the piece

- electricity costs...
whether pieces are fired once twice or more, as well as cold working costs

- expenses...
these includes overall overhead like internet fees, travel expenses, different fees and marketing costs

- investment fees
these include expenses acquired when purchasing materials

- labor ...self explanatory

Then the formula..

Item cost = materials + expenses/investment + labor

and one comes up with their formula for profit which will include a wholesale price and the retail price.

So, that's what I have done and I am sticking to my pricing.

I am actually very proud of my work and can say that what I have is not just any product off the streets that anybody can make. You need to learn how to make these art jewelry pieces and that takes time,money and practice. The materials need to be sourced out so, that has to be considered too. Then of course, the process and accessibility of firing in the kiln.

So i have re-thought my prices carefully and have come up with my formula. I needed to do this because my site/ boutique on Zalora is about to be launched any day now.... Well i haven't talked about that lately but maybe in my next post...

For now here is an update of my latest kiln firing...

Individual pics to follow....