In beading design jewelry, many jewelry designers feel that they are true "artists" if they
only design and produce one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces. Yes they may feel like they are true artists but they are probably also "starving artists" as well.
Unless you are a well known designer or are able to design and produce pieces very quickly while still creating a unique and quality product, it can be difficult to sell one-of-a-kind items and still make a profit. This is only because they can be very expensive to produce and you must charge a higher ticket price to recover your designing costs.
Beading design jewelry as in one-of-a-kind pieces results in higher costs not only from the cost of materials used (because its hard to justify the purchasing of bulk materials when you are only making one item from it), but also the cost of the designing time involved. As you already know, your time spent in designing an item makes up the majority of the cost in producing it. The time necessary for planning, experimentation and the development of your idea are all part of your designing costs.
For example, say it took you a total of 9 hours to plan, experiment and develop an idea, in other words designing time. If you charge $15 an hour for labor you would calculate your designing time at $135 (9 x $15). If you were to use this time to produce only one item, then you would have to add $135 to the cost of making it, plus any materials used, the labor in finishing it, and of course your overhead and selling costs.
Let's break this down into your pricing formula to see how much it would cost for you to make only one item.
design time $135
materials $28
labor (say it took you three hours to actually
make and finish the item, 3 x $15) $45
overhead $8.00
Total cost $216
Your one-of-a-kind unique jewelry item is now valued at over $200, and that's only your wholesale price.For a production item, the designing cost can be spread over a number of pieces keeping the per-item cost lower. Using the same example above lets see how much the cost would be if your were to use that same design to produce say 35 production items. First you divide your designing time by the amount of items you plan to produce $135 divide 35 = $3.85. Each item will cost you $3.85 in designing time.
Let's again break this down into your pricing formula to see how much it would cost for you to make 33 pieces of the same design:
design time $3.85
materials $17.50
labour (2 x $15) $30.00
overhead $8.00
Total Cost $59.35
Notice that your material costs are less because you are now able to order the materials needed in quantity at a lower cost. And because you are producing in quantity (in an assembly line style) your labor is also lower cutting your production time down to two hours. The total cost of this same design produced 35 times is now only $59.35. A price which a larger market can absorb.
While you may prefer beading design jewelry as one-of-a-kind items, you can now see why the majority of jewelry designers find that they must produce in quantity -
a business must make constant sales in order to survive.Although many jewelry designers still produce some one-of-a-kind unique jewelry items, they will also design production items and produce in quantity, also known as "bread and butter" items in order to support themselves between their one-of-a-kind sales. It's these "bread and butter" items that make their home jewelry business economically feasible.
Having some one-of-a-kind pieces in your inventory is good. Many collectors purchase only one-of-a-kind work and are prepared to pay for it. Also having a unique one-of-a-kind piece on display in your booth or studio will show what you are capable of doing, and act as a center piece amongst your line of production items. Your one-of-a-kind items can act as a drawing card to bring customers into your booth, thus helping sell your production pieces even if the one-of-a-kind piece itself is not sold.
At first you may feel that production items lose their uniqueness and handcrafted appeal, but remember although they are all made of the same material with the same design, and they essentially all look the same, they are still handmade whether you produce 30 items at a time or one by one, and you probably won't find two exactly the same.
So, although they are called production jewelry, they each still differ in some detail, however slightly, and they each have their own unique characteristics which customers can appreciate-especially if they can purchase them at an affordable price. If your designs are unique, then your production pieces are still considered "unique jewelry."
Producing Limited Numbered Editions
Another alternative to creating one-of-a-kind pieces is to produce limited number editions. Beading design jewelry in limited number editions, is an excellent way to demand a higher price for your work then in producing in
large quantities.People like one-of-a-kind jewelry but many cannot afford the prices charged for them, thus buying limited numbered editions is the next best thing.
n pricing your work for limited numbered editions you would use the same formula as in producing in quantity except that your designing costs are only divided by the limited number of items made with that design.
Each item in your line of limited numbered editions should be numbered and signed. Along with the number you should put the total number that were produced, i.e.: 8/15. This will allow the customer to know exactly how many items with that particular unique design were made. You probably cannot put the number and your signature on the item itself, so be sure to write it on a card attached to the piece with a little explanation about the design or or what inspired you to create it.
Whether you are designing unique jewelry as one-of-a-kind or limited editions
always be sure to let your customers know. Having this information attached to your jewelry items is a great selling point and can increase your sales substantially.
Many collectors will only purchase unique jewelry designs as one-of-a-kinds or limited editions - if they don't realize that your piece falls in this category then you could possibly lose a sale. So use this information to your advantage and include it with every piece. But be sure that if you say you only produced 15 in that design, then only produce 15.
Feel free to reprint and republish this article as long as it remains intact and unchanged, including the bio box.
Author Gloria Browne of
Beading Design Jewelry offers hundreds of ideas and tips to inspire you to design and create unique bead jewelry designs that will give you an edge in the market place. A great resource for inspiration and innovation in marketing and designing handmade bead jewelry. Visit her
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