To price handmade jewelry, cost one piece in full, meaning the metal by the inch or gram, the stones, the findings, the packaging, your time at a skilled hourly rate and a share of overhead, then set a price that leaves your margin after the fees of wherever it sells, and check it against similar pieces. Jewelers often use (materials × 2 + labor) × 2 as a starting point, and it's a better shortcut than materials × 3, because it counts your time. In the example below, a pair of sterling silver and pearl earrings costs $25.20 to make. At $58 at a market it leaves $31.06 after the card fee, a 54% margin; consigned to a gallery at a 60% share it leaves $9.60; and at half price wholesale it leaves $3.80, which is too thin to offer. Below is the costing, four formulas compared, what each channel leaves you, the metal price question, and a free calculator.
The short version
- Cost the metal in the amount one piece uses, by the inch or gram, at what you paid.
- Add stones, findings, packaging, your time at a skilled rate, and a share of overhead.
- (Materials × 2 + labor) × 2 is a reasonable start; materials × 3 underprices handwork.
- Check the price against similar pieces from makers at your level.
- Some galleries take work on consignment; know what your share leaves before you agree.
- When metal prices rise, recost and reprice; a few cents a piece is a lot across a collection.
- TaroStack costs every piece from what you paid for its metal and findings, and shows margins by piece and customer. More below.
What a piece costs
Sea Glass Lane, a made-up jewelry maker I use in these examples, is one person making a small line.
| Sterling silver and pearl hoops, per pair | Cost |
|---|---|
| Sterling silver wire, 20 gauge, 8 inches at $0.55 an inch | $4.40 |
| Freshwater pearls, 2 at $1.25 | $2.50 |
| Sterling ear wires, one pair | $2.20 |
| Gift box and card | $1.10 |
| Materials and packaging | $10.20 |
| Your time, 30 minutes at $25 an hour | $12.50 |
| Overhead, $350 a month ÷ 140 pieces | $2.50 |
| Full cost | $25.20 |
Two things are easy to get wrong. The metal is costed in the amount one piece uses, including what's lost cutting and filing, so measure across a batch and divide. And the time is everything: cutting, forming, soldering, pickling, polishing, photographing and packing, not only the part that feels like making. A skilled rate is fair; $25 an hour is the example's.
Four pricing formulas, compared
| Formula | Price | Profit at a market, after a 3% card fee | Margin | Wholesale at half the price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Materials × 3 | $30.60 | $4.48 | 14.6% | −$9.90 |
| (Materials × 2 + labor) × 2 | $65.80 | $38.63 | 58.7% | $7.70 |
| Full cost ÷ (1 − 45%) | $45.82 | $19.25 | 42.0% | −$2.29 |
| Full cost × 2 × 2 | $100.80 | $72.58 | 72.0% | $25.20 |
Materials × 3 is the trap: earrings with $10 of materials and half an hour of skilled work come out at $30.60, which barely covers the work. The jeweler's formula gives $65.80, because it doubles the materials and then doubles again with your labor inside. The margin formula gives $45.82, a floor. Doubling the full cost twice gives $100.80, which only works for pieces whose story or maker can carry it.
Check it against the market
Look at five pieces like yours, from makers at your level, at the markets and galleries you sell in and online. In this example, similar handmade sterling and pearl earrings sell for $45 to $70. The earrings go out at $58: above the $45.82 floor, inside the range, and a little below the jeweler's formula. If every comparable piece had been below your floor, the answer would be in the cost or the design, not a smaller margin.
What each channel leaves you
| Where it sells | You receive | Fees | Profit | Margin on what you receive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Craft market | $58.00 | $1.74 card fee | $31.06 | 53.6% |
| Your website | $58.00 | $2.94: 3% plus 30¢, and a mailer | $29.86 | 51.5% |
| Consignment at a gallery, 60% to you | $34.80 | none | $9.60 | 27.6% |
| Wholesale to a shop, at half | $29.00 | none | $3.80 | 13.1% |
Direct sales carry this piece. A gallery on consignment pays only when the piece sells, and leaves $9.60, so it's worth it for reach, not for margin. Wholesale doesn't work at $58 retail: for half price to leave you a 50% margin, the full cost would have to be $14.50. Forming ten pairs at a time instead of one cuts the time, and the time is the biggest line, but not that far. How consignment works, and how to track pieces at a gallery, is in consignment inventory example, and wholesale pricing with a line sheet is in how to price handmade items for wholesale.
When metal prices move
Sterling silver's price moves with the metal market, and so does every piece made from it. If the wire goes from $0.55 to $0.66 an inch, up 20%, the earrings cost 88 cents more, and the market profit at $58 drops from $31.06 to $30.18. One pair doesn't notice. A collection of forty designs, some with heavy chain or thick sheet, does, and the heavy pieces move most. Recost whenever you restock metal, and reprice the pieces whose margin has slipped below your floor. How to tell galleries and shops about a rise is in price increase letter.
Get the calculator
Download the handmade jewelry price calculator. Type the metal, stones, findings and packaging for one piece with what you pay, your minutes, your hourly rate, your overhead and the margin you want; it works out the full cost, the four prices, and for the price you choose, what a market, your website, wholesale and a gallery each leave you. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
One pair of earrings is easy. Forty designs in two metals are not: wire bought by the foot and the ounce at four different prices, findings by the hundred, stones by the strand, and pieces sitting in three galleries on consignment. When silver rises, which designs fell below the floor? Which gallery's pieces sell, and which have sat for six months? A spreadsheet costed last spring can't say.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each piece's cost current and its stock in view.
Every design, with its bill of materials. Each design is a recipe: metal, stones, findings and box, with sub-recipes for parts you make ahead, like jump rings. Units convert: buy wire by the foot, use it by the inch; buy ear wires by the hundred, use them by the pair. How to keep a jewelry inventory, findings to finished pieces, is in how to inventory jewelry.
Every batch, costed at what you paid. Recording a batch takes the metal and findings off stock at what you paid for each lot, FIFO, and divides by the pieces that came out good. When the wire price rises, the next batch's cost shows it, and a price-creep report per supplier shows by how much.
And margins by piece and customer. Margins are reported by product and by customer, so the designs that earn and the galleries that sell are visible, and stock that isn't moving shows how long since it last went out. Connect your Shopify store or Square, and we set it up with you.
| The question | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What do these earrings cost now? | Last spring's silver | Every batch, at what you paid |
| Silver went up: which designs slipped? | Recost forty rows | The next batch of each, costed |
| Who's raising prices? | Noticed on the invoice | Price creep, per supplier |
| Which pieces aren't selling? | A walk past the case | Days since each last went out |
Recipes, batches, true cost and margins are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.