How to Price Polymer Clay Earrings, With a Calculator

To price polymer clay earrings, add up a pair's share of the clay, the findings, any jump rings, glaze or resin, the earring card and bag, and the oven, then the minutes it takes to condition, cut, bake, sand, drill and assemble the pair, and price for the margin you want after fees. A pair of polymer clay earrings is under a dollar of materials and a quarter of an hour of work, so the price is almost all time. In the example below, studs made in a batch cost $2.58 and sell for $6, dangles cost $5.95 and sell for $13, and layered statement earrings cost $12.50 and sell for $27. Wholesale only works for pairs made in batches. Below is what a pair costs, prices, wholesale, children's jewelry, and a free calculator.

The short version

• Cost a pair: clay, findings, jump rings and glaze, card and bag, oven.
• Time a batch and divide by the pairs: studs 6 minutes, dangles 15, statement pairs 30 here.
• Price = cost ÷ (1 − margin − fees), rounded up to a dollar.
• Price online higher than at markets: platform fees are about three times card fees.
• Wholesale needs batch-made designs; a one-off pair at a wholesale price leaves about a dollar.
• Earrings made for children are children's products, with testing rules.
• TaroStack keeps clay colors and findings counted and every design costed. More below.

What a pair costs

Casco Clay Studio, a made-up polymer clay jeweler in Portland, Maine, I use in these examples, buys clay in 2-ounce blocks at $3:

A block makes about 30 pairs of studs, 10 pairs of dangles or 4 statement pairs. The findings cost as much as the clay or more, so buy them in quantity from a supplier who states the metal. The minutes cover conditioning and rolling the clay, cutting, baking, sanding the edges, drilling, and assembling the findings and carding the pair; time a whole batch and divide. How to price jewelry in other materials is in how to price handmade jewelry.

Prices

Each price is the cost divided by (1 − 0.50 − 0.03), rounded up to a dollar. Online, platform and payment fees come to about 10%, so the same dangles need $5.95 ÷ (1 − 0.50 − 0.10) = $14.88, about $15; a shop that charges the same price in both places earns less on every online sale. How to put your own time into a price is in how to price handmade items.

Wholesale

A boutique that sells dangles for $13 to $14 needs to buy them at about $7. Made one at a time, at 15 minutes a pair, that leaves $1.05. Made in a batch of 20 from one cane or one set of cutters, the dangles take about 9 minutes a pair, cost $3.95, and leave $3.05 at $7. So the wholesale line is a few designs made in batches, and the one-off and statement pairs stay at markets and online. How to set a wholesale price that holds up is in how to price handmade items for wholesale.

Children's jewelry

Earrings designed or intended mainly for children 12 and under are children's products, which need third-party testing and a Children's Product Certificate (CPSC). Cartoon colors, a kids' section of the shop or a "for girls" listing can make a pair a children's product, so a maker who doesn't test keeps the designs, displays and listings aimed at adults. This is general information, not legal advice.

Get the calculator

Download the polymer clay earring pricing calculator. Type what a block of clay costs and how many pairs it makes, the findings, jump rings and glaze, the card and bag, the oven, the minutes a pair takes, your hourly rate, fees, the margin you want and a wholesale price. It works out the cost of a pair, its price rounded up to a dollar, what's left, and what the wholesale price leaves. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

Clay in forty colors, findings in gold, silver and stainless, fifty designs, two boutiques reordering their best sellers, a market every Saturday and an online shop. A sheet can't say whether there's enough terracotta clay and gold hoops for the boutique's reorder, how many pairs of each design went to the market, or which designs earn their time.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps clay colors and findings counted and every design costed.

Supplies in stock. Each clay color, finding and card is an item, counted on a phone and kept at what you paid, and units convert: clay bought by the block, used by the gram; findings by the hundred, used by the pair.

Designs as recipes. Each design is a recipe of its clay, findings and card, so recording a batch takes them off stock at what you paid and gives the cost of a pair. Boutique reorders are sales orders that show whether the pairs, or the clay and hoops to make them, are on the shelf while you're still typing.

And what each design earns. The reorder list works in days of cover so the gold hoops don't run out before a market, and margins are reported by product and by customer, so the boutique and the market can be compared.

Recipes, batches, sales orders and margins by product and customer 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.

Questions people also ask

How much should I charge for polymer clay earrings?

Cost a pair with your time, then divide by one minus your margin and fees. In the example, dangles costing $5.95 sell for $13 at markets and about $15 online.

How much does it cost to make polymer clay earrings?

In the example, 58 cents to $2.50 of clay, findings, card and bag a pair, and $2.58 to $12.50 with 6 to 30 minutes of time at $20 an hour.

How do you price polymer clay earrings for wholesale?

Make the wholesale designs in batches so the minutes fall. In the example, batch-made dangles cost $3.95 and leave $3.05 at a $7 wholesale price; one-off dangles would leave $1.05.

Why are polymer clay earrings so expensive?

The clay is cheap; the time isn't. A pair of dangles is 95 cents of materials and 15 minutes of work, which is $5 at $20 an hour before fees or margin.