On Pricing

Now, I am clearly not an expert on this matter. Considering the 3 sales I've made thus far are to family and my boyfriend's mother (these are still much appreciated and very exciting, but I still feel like I have to prove myself to the outside world), perhaps I'm completely off on my pricing.

Anyway, a recent thread on the etsy forums got me thinking. Someone asked how everyone else priced. For those that have a concrete formula, good for you! There is so much to take into account that I can't seem to follow any one. There is a whole SERIES of articles on etsy titled "The Art of Pricing," all of which seem to tell me something slightly different. Or, rather, they build on each other to create a complex equation for your business. You start with wage + cost of materials, then add in competitive pricing, but don't forget to price the item for what it's worth (don't lowball yourself!), discounts and bundling and tiered pricing oh my! I admit I haven't read all of these. I start to panic a little bit only a few sentences in because it's all too much for my brain to comprehend at the moment.

Instead of me badly summarizing this, I will share the link with you.
The series is here: http://www.etsy.com/storque/search/tags/art-of-pricing/ and I encourage reading it to any interested in pricing. And to any that are brave enough.

When setting all of this up, I agonized over pricing my pieces. I didn't want to price them too high, but not too low either, but I still felt the time and effort being put in was worth a lot, and I do have to make a certain amount of money if I want to continue this instead of finding a 4th job to juggle, and it went on.

So, I decided to round. I hate numbers. I hate the business of accounting and such. There is no way in hell you could convince me that I should spend hours of my time figuring out the exact direct and indirect costs, the exact wage I need (want? I will think about need when this is actually pulling in the money of a part-time job), and then factor in what I should actually charge in order to stay competitive, etc.

Once upon a time a local successful jeweler told me to charge materials + an hourly wage I thought my time was worth. While I think my time is worth much more than Walmart would, had I used this equation I'd never have a sale in my life because the prices would be so over the top. There are a LOT of hours put into many of these pieces. At $15/hour some of my chains would be starting at $180...before cost of materials. As cool as I think they are, I'm not so sure others would agree.

So, I use a little bit of this and a little bit of that and...it seems to work for me. Cost of materials + time spent/difficulty of piece + considering prices of similar pieces in etsyland + comparing it to other pieces in my shop + is it OOAK? = my equation. Roughly. Because then I have to think about taxes/etsy/paypal fees/and most recently paid advertising. I haven't really factored those things in yet, I mostly just take them out. Packaging is figured into shipping prices. And that's how I've done it so far. I really do try to price accordingly with every piece. The higher priced pieces? Took me hours of finishing. The lower priced? A fraction of that time from start to finish.

When I sell a piece, it gets to be even more fun. Then I have Price of sale - paypal fees - etsy fees - cost of materials = Price B. I take Price B and go from there...50% to income, 20% to savings, 10% to my investor (aka dad) to pay him back for materials, 10% more to go towards buying tools and silver and such. Depending on what my exact needs are this 10% may be more of a saving for a big item in the future.

And that's my novel on pricing and my business plan that may or may not work out in the long run. It kind of reminds me when you're a kid and you like to play teacher when you don't know what you're doing. Or you are pretending to run a store. That's kind of what I'm doing...pretending to run a store. It's like playtime...I get to make stuff that I love making. And then as an added bonus, people give me money for it!

I need a new torch.

I knew this was going to happen.

As I have been working away on my pieces I've come to realize a few things. Ok, several things. Things like torches, stone setting tools, wire, solder, and liver of sulfur. You know, the things that make the jewelry world go 'round.

I DO have a basic setup right now, clearly. However, I am very, very limited in what I can fabricate. Actually I'm limited in casting to an extent as well...if I want to add stones the piece has to be small/thin enough when I get it back in silver form. My little torch just doesn't create enough heat for larger pieces. I made a pendant over the weekend that just.barely.soldered. And really, it's not that big.

I have a piece of silver that wants to be a cuff bracelet, but there's no way I could ever heat it enough.

There is this list that's growing larger every day, things I thought I could live without (for now) but it turns out I can't. Things that I'm quickly running out of because I assumed I had more supplies left over. So far, we have: leather mallet, solder pick (HOW am I surviving without this?!), liver of sulfur, bunches of pliers (round and flat and reverse and...), wire wire wire - both square AND round, copper, bezel wire, earring thing (this is a new find), stone setting tools (pushers and whatnot...the burnisher is not cutting it, unfortunately), more silver sheet, dremel bits for drilling...oi.

Until I buy some of this stuff, I'm sort of stuck. Like no more earrings at this point as I'm out of wire and ear wires. I'm willing to work smaller until I can save up for a big torch, however I'm not willing to stop making earrings and some other simple pieces that are more affordable. I've barely sold 2 pieces and I'm already spending the "materials" money from them. Oops?

It's just the little things...

Today on etsy I discovered hearting.

Ok, I actually knew about this before. If you heart something you like something, for those of you new to this. I can heart items AND whole shops which is quite convenient because it beats trying to write down every shop I like and keep track of where I wrote it. It's then stored for me and anyone else on etsy can see who hearts certain shops and pieces.

What I did discover today is that there are TWO WHOLE PEOPLE that I don't know who HEART MY SHOP! And one person that I do know!

And there are other people who heart specific items!

It's such a small thing but...exciting! I may need some help coming back to the real world when I actually sell a piece.


Oh, and by the way, items are listed on my etsy if you missed that part :)

www.cholulajewelry.etsy.com

Spread the word!

Still on hold?

I have a dozen or so pieces polished, stones set, and ready to go.

So what's the hold up?

Pictures. Photographs. This is painful to admit. I love photography, I've been told for a long time that I'm good at it, and yet I can't seem to get a decent picture of a ring or a pair of earrings.

I'm told I need a lightbox, which is fine and seems easy enough, but then I still need to buy different lights for it. Right now I really need to work with what I have, but I'm starting to feel like it's not possible to get a decent picture.

Everything I've read reiterates that the photograph is key. And, of course it is. No one in their right mind is going to give you money for a piece when the photograph is terrible.

So that's the hold up.

I did discover an interesting backdrop in the indoor herb garden. I figured that light would be the best of all we had in the house, and it was interesting. My best photo was from that little session. I did take some other decent ones wearing the jewelry, but I don't exactly have model hands (I have hands that get torn apart by metal and barn work, not to mention nails bitten down to the quick and cuticles that go as soon as there's no more nail) and the pictures aren't that appealing to look at.

Perhaps in the future if I tweak it a bit it can be my unique twist on jewelry photography. Getting a decent shot of a ring sitting on basil is a bit tricky, though.

And now for the photo examples. I won't just tell you how bad I am, I'll show you!

The one that turned out the best:

This is one I'd consider "decent"...minus my ugly hands.

And this is what the majority of it looked like:

Please note that these are unedited and I haven't cropped. Ideally, I'd crop in to show the detail on the ring. The last one may not look SO bad small and uncropped...but any larger and you can really see just how much I suck.

Not too much of an update.

My goal for this blog is to include at least one picture per post. Thus far I'm not doing very well.

Aside from that, though, I have plans for a couple of old pieces that need some work. One ring I've been planning on inlaying myrtle wood for about 5 years. The other is a plain, medium-width band that has a flattened top and told me it wanted a stone and some silver added on. It's funny how some old pieces are coming to my attention now; before this I had mostly given up on them as attempts that didn't quite make the cut. However, I LOVE recycling my materials and hate wasting metal. I think it adds a nice challenge to the work and something different if I make myself use up my scraps. That's kind of how the cuff bracelets came along and they seem to be popular with several people who have seen them (pictured above).

I plan on listing some pieces by the end of this weekend, even if they are not new. This includes the cuff bracelet above. I am so excited about the etsy community and I really hope that when I get things going I can become more involved; maybe even join a street team.

Lastly, silver tubing has so many uses! Bezels, bales, (bails? I have seen both used quite a bit, but I can't figure out which is the correct spelling), making circle cut outs, etc. I am going to have fun with this material.

grinding away

I have been spending the few hours of free time here and there finishing my recently cast pieces. It's a long, arduous process, made even more so by my lack of equipment. I am definitely missing the grinder and the dremel I had at my disposal in college. I'm slowly building up the calluses as well as slowly destroying my recently manicured nails. I'm not giving up on them yet, though!

The most exciting bit of news is that I'm getting a torch set up sooner than I thought! When my order arrives and I have solder boards I will have a small space in my dad's garage for my work bench. This means adding stones to the rings I created with that intention as well as the pendants, and fabricating work! As much as I like casting, I've been feeling extremely limited lately working only in wax. It's a much different mindset to create a sculpture by taking away rather than building up. I like building better. I could never be a stone carver...my mind just can't plan ahead like that.

There are still a lot of things I want to make, not limited to:

1. Wide variety of stacking rings
2. " " bracelets
3. More organic bezels, bezels that are part of the piece instead of just sitting on top of it
4. Bezel set faceted stones using SS tubing
5. soft square rings
6. Incorporating textiles
7. Incorporating copper
8. Earrings! Post earrings, hoop earrings, ear wire earrings. This is more for the business side of things than anything else...as I know that most people like earrings and they are something I could potentially sell relatively cheaply and make fairly easily. Watch me eat my words as I try for hours to solder earring posts on.

Right now I want to play with simple and small and fun. That is likely because the majority of the pieces I'm working on finishing right now are big and bold and I'm recognizing that big and bold is not for most. Before I can really work small, however, these nails need to be significantly shorter. :P

finally.

I finally ordered my supplies from Rio Grande. Unfortunately prices have gone up significantly since my last catalog (2004, I believe), so my birthday money did not quite stretch as far as I had hoped. But it should be enough to get going with the finishing steps. A polishing kit is on its way, along with steel shot cleaner for round 2. Pickling Acid for cleaning after any torch work, though I still need a crockpot to put it in! I also ordered a few things for stone settings, including some new itty bitty cabachons (3mm - carnelian, citrine, jade) and a burnisher to set them.

I also got a few soldering boards. My dad has a torch that I am crossing my fingers has enough power to heat up the rings I want to put the stones on!

My copper tongs and burnisher are on back order, however, so that's too bad. I can't use the pickle without the tongs, so hopefully it won't be long.

Last thing on the list is a strainer for the shot and I will be good to go.

I have so much that I want to make right now and so many ideas from magazines and other jewelry makers that I need to start DOING. I have drawn designs and saved all sorts of pictures on the computer to the point that I don't think I can process anymore until I get some of them out...need to make room!