"Wow!! That is Expensive!!!"

by MaryAnn Carroll

For any of us who make beads and/or jewelry, I would guess that this is a reaction that you have probably heard, whether mumbled to their friend or made directly to you at some time.

Well.... I say...

"You get what you pay for!"

After my most recent glaze firing, I was once again faced with the dilema of pricing.  I try to be fair, but also, I put a lot of time into my work to make a high quality product, so I'm not going to give them away.  What I do is this... I base my prices on the amount of time that I put into each bead.  Beads that are basic rounds with one glaze take the least amount of time so they are the least expensive.  If a round bead, however, is large, then it takes up more room in the kiln which means fewer beads in that firing (beads cannot touch each other during a glaze firing).  In that case, that bead would be priced higher do to that fact.

Then, we have the beads above which were created from porcelain clay at the same time.  They are basically the same size (I don't measure while making beads) and both glazed.  The beads on the right cost more than the beads on the left.  Although you might think that the beads on the left look like they have two glazes, they don't.  They have one glaze that "breaks" on the edge of a ceramic piece.  This simply means that while the glaze is melting in the kiln, certain areas will puddle in greater amounts and edges, bumps, etc. will not.  Both very cool.....  but the time invested was different.

And then we have these expensive little babies that you see above.  Well....I LOVE the look (picture doesn't do them justice, but the time invested far exceeds that of some of my other beads.... 

And they all came out of this little kiln shown above.  This is a doll kiln, which is perfect for the amount that I am able to create at one time.

I also own these ceramic beads above.  I believe that they are manufactured in China.  While there is nothing wrong with them and some do have some of the same effects as my handmade, they were most likely produced in a factory, which is why the price is considerably lower than handmade ceramic beads.

Those, most likely, came from a kiln such as the one above.

So.... I hope that you learned a little more about why those of us who create handmade might need to charge more......

Like they sometimes say, "Wow!!  That is expensive!!"

I say.......

"Yup! You get what you pay for."

To see a funny little video about pricing at shows, click HERE for one of Patty's posts.

Hard Decisions

Some times, as a business woman, you have to make decisions that are hard. For me, one of the hardest decisions is deciding how to price my items! That's been one of my biggest struggles since I started Rose Works Jewelry, and I have a feeling it will continue to be a process I struggle with. 

Fortunately, over the last year, I've come to a place where I'm fairly confident in the pricing of most of my pieces.  Most of my earrings and wire work are at prices that I'm comfortable with and that I think pretty accurately reflect my time invested and the materials used. What I have always struggled with, and continue to struggle with, is the price of my woven work.

When I first started out selling my bead weaving I priced it pretty low. A large part of that was a lack of confidence in my own work. It was also, though, a lack of knowledge of what else was out there, and what other people charged for similar work.  

Over time I have raised my prices some, but I've known from what I've read and what others have told me that my prices were still too low.  Let me give you an example. The piece pictured below, Amelia, is currently listed for $25. Now the cost fator going into is pretty small, seed beads are cheap, so that doesn't affect the end price too much. But how long do you think it took me to make? Any guesses? 

I don't know precisely, because I didn't track it, but a brick stitch piece like that usually takes me around 6 hours. And I'm only charging $25...that means that if I don't even count the cost of the beads I'm only making a little over $4/hr for my labor! This is not a sweat-shop and I think most would agree that my time is worth more than that.

Because of this, I'm going to be raising prices on my woven pieces. I'm still doing research and figuring things out, so it'll probably be a week before you see the changes, but if you've had your eye on any of my woven work, now is the time to buy it! 

I'll admit that I'm really nervous about making this change. In this economy it's scary to be raising my prices, but I don't want to undercut my fellow beadweavers. I also think it's time that I actually earn a little bit more of what my time is worth. 

There are a lot of resources out there that talk about pricing your work, but here's just two that I've recently looked at. Bead Nerd and Home Based Jewelry Business.

I want to say a big thanks to Smadar, she's not only an incredible bead weaver, she's also been kind enough to spend some time lately giving me advice on the pricing issue and other questions I've had about the beading world. Be sure to go check out her shop! The picture below is just one of her awesome pieces :)