It’s often a no‑win situation: some say my pieces are too expensive, others that I’m not charging enough for my time.
Take a £70 piece — high‑quality 940 Argentium Silver, paired with a gorgeous stone. It takes three hours to make, plus polishing, finishing, and boxing — four to five hours total. At minimum wage, that’s over £60 in labour alone.
And that’s before we even talk about skill, experience, or fair hourly rates.
On top of labour, there’s the stone, box, polishing cloth, gift bag, electricity, tools, consumables, polish.
Selling in person? Add stall rent, travel, fuel, transaction fees. Online? Website costs, platform fees, payment processing, postage, packaging, tariffs.
Even conservatively, my cost price is £85 — already £15 more than the £70 I sell for. By traditional retail maths, that piece “should” be £340. Yikes.
I spoke to an incredibly talented young jeweller just recently, and she hand-crafted a heavy silver chain which she sold to the client for £200 – and she felt embarrassed asking for that price. The cost of the materials was over £180, the ahllmarking cost another £50. She was effectively subsidising her customer by £30, and that didn’t include labour costs. Knowing how work-intensive making chains can be, she probably should have been charging at least £400 – and that would be cheap. You could say she ended up chaining herself to her workbench!
So, if I (and other like-minded creators) are working for less than minimum wage, why the hell do we do it?
I can’t speak for them, but for me, the joy comes from the creative process – making a one‑of‑a‑kind piece someone can treasure, and moving on to the next.
When someone falls in love with a piece, it’s theirs alone. Earrings might be a pair, but never identical. Similar designs may appear, but no two will ever be the same.
I believe stunning, one‑of‑a‑kind jewellery should be within reach of everyone.
I truly believe that we’re on the brink of a new Arts and Crafts movement — people turning away from mass‑produced, towards the meaningful and lasting.
Finally, if you can support an artisan whose work you love, believe me, your support means the world to them.
Thanks for reading my little blog post. If you’d like to find out more about me, my work, and the stories behind each piece, you’re always welcome to explore the rest of Stuff By Rox. You’ll find jewellery, gems, and a few unexpected treasures along the way. And if you’d like to say hello in person, keep an eye on my events page – I’d love for you to pop by, say hello, and see the sparkle up close.
