Hello Roberta,
You didn’t say what kind of work you are doing. That will have a
huge bearing on what you can charge and more importantly what people
will be willing to pay you. Your time is worth exactly what people
will pay you for it.
If you are doing repairs and straightforward custom work, consult
David Geller’s Blue Book. It is based on about $125 an hour (at
retail) plus 3 key materials. Under the Geller contract plan a
goldsmith is paid one third of the labor per job for what they do (if
I remember right). Very similar to auto mechanics and time estimate
manuals. The more work one can do in a given time, the more one can
make per hour. If you are really fast and good, you can make as much
as $40 to $50 an hour as a goldsmith working for someone using the
Geller plan.
If you are doing trade work, normally you can get away with half of
Geller’s rates if you are supplying materials, picking up and
delivering, etc, but you have to be good. Wholesale clients tend to
be very price sensitive and some will beat you up over $5, especially
for low to mid-level skilled work and work of lower quality (i.e.
thinned shanks, lumpy solder joints, crooked stones, etc). There is
an old adage about three things commonly wanted with jewelry trade
work. Price, speed and quality. You can pick any two, I get to set
the other one.
If you are creating totally unique jewelry, trial and error is
probably the only way you will be able to figure out how much your
work is worth. Pricing is based on perceived value as opposed to a
time plus materials formula. David Yurman’s silver jewelry is a great
example of the difference between perceived value versus cost of
materials and time. That is something you can have almost complete
control over and is determined by such things as your artistic talent
and your marketing savvy (think David Yurman again, a modern master
at combining the two), your attitude towards your jewelry and your
clients, your venue such as craft shows and farmer’s markets as
opposed to private high-end galleries, that sort of thing. The more
exclusive the venue, the clientele and your jewelry, the more you
can charge for your work, as a general rule.
You will also find that the more exclusive your skills, the more you
can charge. Metalsmiths that can size rings are a dime a dozen so to
speak, and have tons of competition thereby making their value
comparatively low per job. Hourly pay becomes a function of speed and
accuracy. But expert fabricators or highly experienced and skilled
hand engravers are much harder to find, therefore speed becomes a
little less of an issue, precision and skill become more important
and they can charge more per job as well as per hour. Pure supply and
demand. There is also the issue of the value of pieces being worked
on. Sizing 10K gold rings is not nearly as prized a skill as the
ability to accurately, safely and dependably size delicate and highly
valuable platinum rings set with large, fragile stones. This is where
even trade work becomes more trust centered than price driven.
Probably not the answer you were looking for but this is not a
cut-and-dried subject.
Dave