The business of jewelry making is NOT inexpensive, and to some, it isn't just a hobby.
"I could make that for less!"
I hear it all the time, complaints about certain jewelry items being too expensive, and a shopper making a comment that they could make a similar piece for less. But is it really? Would it be of similar quality workmanship, quality of materials?
Sometimes the difference is like dinner at a fancy restaurant vs. fast food. Both places will get you fed, but one will have an expert with years of culinary school as your chef, and the other could be just a person with no cooking experience at all. Too much of the time, shoppers confuse fillet-mignon with fast-food or first cuts with by-products, comparing handmade items made with good quality materials to mass produced pieces with poor workmanship and poor quality goods.
The quality of items available at the chain craft stores are sketchy at best.
- Where are the materials going to come from for that home-made jewelry?
- How long is it really going to take to create?
- How long before it breaks?
- How long to learn the techniques involved in creating that piece?
Jewelry isn't simply the materials involved in the final piece, but the quality of craftsmanship. There are other expenses such as tools which can be very costly, time invested learning the right ways to utilize them, combinations of techniques involved, shopping time finding those precious materials, costs of having a business so that you have access to the places that sell better quality materials, etc.
Fast food costs pennies to the actual companies that sell the food, yet people don't have problems paying tens of times more than the materials involved, the profit margin for more expensive eating establishments is usually much less. Excellent chefs are compensated for their expertise and technique, while people that flip burgers make minimum wage. Why shouldn't a jewelry designer be compensated for their time as well?
So before you or someone else falls for the I-could-make-it-for-less argument, consider all the factors that go into the cost of the piece:
How long is it going to last?
- Quality of materials
- Quality of workmanship
What are the elements of design?
- Techniques involved
- Time learning those techniques
- Originality and ingenuity
What are the materials?
- Cost of the raw goods
- Overhead business costs to access the suppliers of those materials
How to actually create the piece?
- Costs of the tools and equipment
- Time learning how to use the tools
- Time actually constructing the piece
When a fair wage is considered for the time and expertise that goes into the creation of many pieces, you'll find that a lot of the good quality Handmade jewelry items that are up for sale are actually underpriced. Consider all the enjoyment you'll receive from the wearable piece of art, and how much time and frustration you'll save picking it up from a true artisan than trying to make-due with that home-made bargain.
