04/05/2020
WHY DOES JEWELRY COST SO MUCH?
Since we are all cooped up in our homes in self-quarantine due to the corvid-19 virus a/k/a coronavirus, I thought I would write a blog about jewelry to help all consumers understand the ins and outs of jewelry. I don’t know about you, but there is only so much television I can watch before I feel like my head is going to explode. Don’t even get me started about the anxiety from watching news reports these days!
Let me first start with a brief introduction. I am a disabled U.S. Naval Veteran. For years after the military deemed I was unable to perform the necessary duties needed for the military due to my disability, I was still able to work in the civilian sector for many years. Unfortunately, my disability has worsened over the years and now I am unable to work in the civilian sector as well. Throughout my life, even as a young child, I was drawn to all kinds of creative outlets – rock collecting, sketching, woodworking, painting, flower arranging, writing, cross-stitch, sewing, crochet, knitting, Tunisian crochet, and now jewelry making. I’m sure I left out a few things I’ve dabbled in over the years; but I have always had an affinity for color and stones. I suppose it was just a matter of time before I got into the jewelry business.
I’m self-taught at all my craft, which I have found interesting and fairly easy over the years. That is until I started making jewelry. I self-taught at this craft as well; however, there is so much information on the topic that I found it was easy to get confused and overwhelmed. I started this endeavor a few years ago and found that pacing myself and learning one technique well before moving on and educating myself on another was much easier. Beginning today, I’ll try to impart that knowledge on to you in smaller increments so you can be wiser and more informed when purchasing that next piece of jewelry for yourself or a loved one.
The question I get asked most is also one that I pondered on myself for many years. Why does jewelry cost so much? There are many factors involved in answering this question, so I’ll try to break it down for you – materials, time spent, design and creativity, advertising, and business expenses. Those are the big 5, although there may be other factors for each manufacturer/designer.
Materials – Depending on your price point for purchase, materials play a huge part. Let’s delve into this a bit deeper. I personally use a variety of materials and have jewelry listed at several different price points. For example, in metals I use silver and gold toned, pewter, copper, silver plated, gold plated, sterling silver, fine silver, rose gold, 14K gold, and higher karats of gold when I find it in what I deem affordable quantities. Silver and gold toned and other “toned” metals typically mean a coating has been placed over a lesser price material, such as copper and pewter. Silver plated is a thin coat of silver applied to a base metal such as copper, brass, pewter, or nickel through a process called electroplating. Because the layer of silver is thin, it can wear off your jewelry over time exposing the underlying metal. This is why people with nickel allergies sometimes have problems wearing some jewelry. If you have ever purchase costume jewelry, such as a ring, and found that over time it leaves a greenish looking mark around your finger, copper was the underlying metal. Gold plating is done in much the same as way as silver plating.
Silver, fine silver, and sterling silver is also where a lot of confusion lies. Silver is typically a shortened term for fine silver, though some people use it a little too liberally and include sterling silver and silver plated in the same terminology. Sterling silver is an alloy which means it has other metals mixed in with the silver. In order to be considered “sterling silver” it must contain 92.5% fine silver. The remaining 7.5% can be variety of other metals, though generally copper is used, which makes the silver stronger and less expensive. That is why when you purchase sterling silver it is marked .925. Also, because more of the precious metal silver is in this metal allow, it is much more expensive than silver plating and silver toned metals.
Fine Silver is nearly pure silver. It is 99.9% silver, as other elements may be inadvertently get added in the manufacturing process. Because it is so pure, fine silver is very soft which requires more work when making it into jewelry because it has to be work hardened through firing, pickling, and hammering. Fine silver is also more expensive than sterling silver.
Much like its cousin, silver, gold comes in different qualities as well. We’ve all heard the term 24K gold. This means that the gold content is pure – 24 parts pure which is where the K come in. K stands for Karat which is a measurement of purity of the gold, unlike the spelling carat which measures the weight of gemstones such as diamonds. Because 24K is pure gold, it soft and must be work hardened similar to fine silver. It is also extremely expensive and therefore rarely used in jewelry. 22K gold is generally where you start seeing some jewelry being made from gold. It is 91.67% gold and the remaining 8.33% is from other metals to make the gold alloy stronger. Much of the jewelry from the Middle Eastern countries is 20-22K gold. Much of the jewelry on today’s market is made from 10K to 18K gold. These lesser K’s of gold are cheaper for the designer and cheaper for the client.
24 karat = 99.5% pure gold and above
22 karat = 91.7 % gold
18 karat = 75.0 % gold
14 karat = 58.3 % gold
12 karat = 50.0 % gold
10 karat = 41.7 % gold
Rose gold is one of the hottest metals in the jewelry market today. Most people, however, don’t really understand what the term “rose gold” means. Let me clarify. Rose gold is made by combining copper to gold. The copper gives the gold a pinkish or rose tone; hence the name “rose gold”. You may have also heard the terms white gold and green gold. White gold means that nickel or palladium has been added to the gold to achieve that silver or white color. Green gold is made from adding zinc and silver.
Other materials used in the making of jewelry are gemstones, semi-precious gemstones, glass beads, resin and acrylic beads, wood, various metal beads, cord which can be a variety of different textiles, various metal wires, and other fibrous materials. I will discuss these other materials in other blog posts. For now, suffice to say that some of these items can be quite pricy for the jewelry designer.
Time Spent – This may sound cryptic or ambiguous to some, but it’s actually not. A lot of work and time goes into each piece of jewelry. A simple looking necklace make take an hour or longer to make. Bracelets and earrings can take even longer. Much of the time spent has to do with the design and/or materials used. For example, I like making a macramé style of jewelry that is similar to Shamballa style that is extremely popular. Shamballa is a knotting technique that includes beading similar to a rosary. The space in between the beads is usually filled with a cording made from waxed polyester, cotton, h**p, or some other fibrous textile. I prefer using waxed polyester cording and heavy cotton cording because they hold up to frequent wear. A 19-inch necklace can take me 2 or more hours just to do all the knotting and stringing of the gemstones. This doesn’t include the time it takes to affix the clasp, which includes gluing and crimping before I can actually attach the clasp. The earrings I make in this style are often made with a core of memory wire - a wire that has been heat tempered to retain its circular shape. Trust me when I say it is no easy feat to knot fine cording over a small piece of curved wire while adding beads. It takes a considerable amount of time.
Something else to consider is the intricacy of the piece of jewelry. The more delicate or ornate a piece looks, the more time that was spent to make it look that way. Sometimes a piece has to be made in separate pieces and then all those pieces assembled to make it look like the original design or drawing the artist has made prior to making the piece of jewelry. I can’t tell you how many times I have taken a piece apart and redone it just to get it to look just perfect.
Other things that people often don’t take into consideration is the time an artist has to take away from his or her crafting in order to look through tons of suppliers and compare costs just to purchase the materials needed for upcoming projects. We also spend a lot of time viewing trending jewelry markets and designs, going to trade shows, and visiting craft stores. These are all time-consuming necessities for our trade that do not get included into our pieces of art.
Design and Creativity – I know, this sounds a bit much. Let me ask you this – when you purchase a piece of artwork for your wall or a sculpture, or collectible figurine, do you consider this art? Someone had to use their creativity to design the object of your affection. It was their idea that blossomed into a piece of artwork. Jewelry is no different. Jewelry is wearable art. Every website and store you enter that sells jewelry, include those high-end jewelry retailers contains small pieces of art designed by an artist. Those high-end jewelry retailers use more high-end metals and more semi-precious stones, but a huge part of the price tag includes time spent making the piece, as well as the artist’s time designing the item using his or her creativity. Think of it in terms of you doing your job. You use your skill set and your time to produce your work whether it is for a large corporation that sells merchandise, an office that sells its expertise, or your own business selling whatever you sell, be it your time, experience, or a product. It is not easy creating continual designs of wearable art.
Advertising – Every business has to advertise their goods or services in order to be successful. After all, people can’t purchase your product unless they know your product exists. It’s the same in the jewelry business. You may have noticed a few successful slogans out there – “He went to Jared’s””, “A kiss begins with Kay”. Advertising can quickly become expensive. There are some cheaper forms of advertising out there – word of mouth, social media platforms, but let’s face it, those forms are not going to be successful until someone purchases that first piece and tells someone else how much they love it.
There’s the cost of designing and printing business cards, packaging with your logo on it, website developers (even if you develop it on a free site, there is still the cost of publishing that site and extra features), domain name purchases, printed advertising, and social media advertising. As I said before, it adds up quickly.
Business Expenses – Every business has those general and unexpected business expenses. In the jewelry business we have our assortment of tools that are not cheap. We have to have a studio, even if it’s in our own home we still have to have a designated space to work, electricity, water, and other utilities. Fuel expenses for our vehicles to get those aforementioned tradeshows and craft stores. If we chose to set up a craft show, those spaces expensive. Most start out at a couple of hundred dollars and the higher end shows and events can run into a couple of thousand dollars.
Don’t forget about all those little expenses, like taxes, shipping and handling on merchandise we purchase to make our art, shipping and handling and sometimes taxes if we include it all into our product price like I do so my clients don’t feel nickel and dimed when making a purchase. Repair costs for our tools, sketch pads, pencils, leads, erasers, computer programs to keep our inventory lists and our merchandise lists, quality cameras to take those gorgeous pictures, and the list goes on and on.
I know this post was a long one, but I hope it was informational for you. A lot of time and work goes into even the smallest piece of jewelry art, not to mention costs. I hope the next time you decide to purchase a piece of jewelry, either from Hillbilly Gems or another jewelry vendor, you feel more prepared and knowledgeable in your purchase. If you have any questions about this post, please feel free to contact me here on my page or you can contact me directly at [email protected]. Happy jewelry shopping!
