What Goes Into My Jewelry

All my customers are surprised about the quality of my work for the price they pay for one of my creations.  The biggest problem I encounter as a self-representing designer is competition with sellers based in the Orient or Middle East where labor is cheap.  They hire workers to bead bracelets for them and pay them $2 for 30 or more finished pieces.  I notice on EBay there are sellers representing their work as "handmade" or "artisan" work and selling tons of bracelets for $1 or $2 at auction.  Then there are the sellers like myself that take the time to make a quality piece using quality materials.  It's difficult to compete in the current economy where everyone is trying to save a buck and customers rarely understand the difference between products.

What I'd like my customers to understand that on average, it takes roughly 3 to 4 hours to make one of my beadwork and charm bracelet sets.  Each charm has to be hand constructed.  Each seed beadwork section has to be constructed bead-by-bead.  I use crimp covers and wire guardians for a more durable and professional looking product.  To make a more affordable piece, I mix precious metals with plated metals, but the plated metals used in a piece have heavy plating and will not flake off like some of the cheaper products.  The seed beads used in my products are either from the Czech Republic or are Japanese Delicas.  I require the beads to be of a uniform size and shape before I will use them in my work.  The glass beads, charms and gemstones used are A or B quality and purchased from distributors in the United States.  The findings come from companies like Tierra Cast and Fire Mountain in the United States.  What the customer gets in the end is a jewelry set that will last for years.

Many times when I am auctioning my jewelry, I am paying the customer to take the piece.  I have shipping and transportation costs in procuring materials, I have to pay for the materials, I have to take and edit photos, I have to pay listing fees to put them on sites like Etsy or EBay, and I have to pay the sites a portion of my sale.  If a jewelry set is sold for $20 and I pay shipping, I am not even paying myself for the time I spend in making the piece.  I list my work online for 25 to 30% below what they normally sell for at artisan fairs since I am not having to sit in a booth marketing my work, so the customer is already getting a major discount on the piece.  And I never make the same exact item twice.  Plus I am offering the customer an extension of myself in my work.  Every piece takes time and thought and has a story of its own.