Please look at this link:
http://whatthecraft.com/overpriced-cant-afford-handmade-pricing/

Now, what I do is somewhat different from this.

However, I still get people expecting that they can get a ring with 3-5 times the amount of precious metal in it as a slim band from Wal-mart, hand-made to their preferences, for less than the metal would cost me to buy it.

I can't do that.

If you are happy with a commercially fabricated ring, PLEASE do go to Wal-mart etc.- they buy their rings wholesale, made by people who make a few dollars a week, and there is no possible way I can compete with them on price.

Because- I, too, have expenses- the materials for your jewelry, yes, but also a mortgage, food, clothing, gas, and all the expenses you have yourself.

What I have to trade for that is my time and skill. So, yes, if you want that time and skill- I will need to get paid for it... and not at the third-world rate of a few dollars a week; I don't live there, and I have to pay USA prices myself.

I sympathize with people on a tight budge- I'm on one, too. However, I cannot work for free or at a loss to make someone's dream. That's business.

Just as I expect you expect to be paid for your work- so do I.

This is a draft of text I'm planning to add to my "About Metals" info on my website. I think it's valuable information, and while I've included some self-promotional stuff, I've tried to low-key that.

Thoughts?

Differences between Casting and Fabrication of Metals

Both fabrication (making jewelry out of mill goods like wire and sheet) and casting are wonderful techniques for jewelry... but there are differences in the end result.

Casting
Almost all jewelry you buy at a shop, especially mass-produced, is cast. The advantages are many: once one has created a good master, and a good mold from that master, one can cast an almost infinite number of that design!

Plus, there are things one can do in wax (or sometimes other materials) that would be difficult or impossible to do in metal itself; that's another great reason for casting.

However, casting has its drawbacks, too. Cast pieces are invariably more brittle than fabricated ones. Metal, like most things, expands as it heats up and contracts as it cools off. That means that the hot metal that fills the mold (which is usually a type of plaster in lost-wax casting, the most common way to cast) develops tiny holes in it as it cools into a solid from its molten state, rather like a sponge. This is unavoidable, although good casting techniques do minimize it. These tiny bubbles, though, do mean that the end result is a stiff foam rather than solid all the way through- and that makes it somewhat more likely to crack instead of bend when put under stress.

Again, good casting techniques minimize this and allow a fair amount of manipulation even of a cast piece, but it's a vulnerability of the process.

(For PMC/Art Clay fans- these are like casting but more so. The organic binder that allows them to act like clay burns off, leaving holes in the fired metals, making it more brittle than castings. This is why PMC rings, for example, are usually overbuilt when compared to cast or fabricated ones; that's necessary to correct for the increased brittleness.)

Fabrication
We metalsmiths usually use "fabrication" to cover making items individually from mill goods (purchased sheet, wire, tubing, and the like). Mill goods are denser than castings, because they have achieved their basic shape by mechanical means such as rolling in rolling mills, and the drawing out of wire. While mill goods start with ingots- which are essentially cast- the manipulation of them into the shapes needed compresses the metal and reduces the sponginess of castings.

Therefore, a piece of metal exactly the same size from a casting and a mill good will be heavier and denser in the mill good.

This can be an advantage in jewelry, because in general, the denser it is, the better it wears (given similar hardness), and the less likely it is to crack under stress.

Also, there are few shortcuts in fabrication; each piece must be made individually, and cannot be mass-produced like castings can be.

My Jewelry
Almost all my jewelry is individually fabricated from mill goods. For rings and bracelets in particular, I am just not convinced that cast work holds up as well. For these and other things... well, I'm a metals artisan because I like working with metals! It's important to me to be hands-on with every piece that I make, and my commission work is always made individually for the person who requests it.

I do have some cast pieces for sale, but when it's cast, I make that clear. And I am careful to only cast items for which the increased brittleness will not be a problem. I have myself made all the masters for my cast pieces, and do the finishing myself. (Since I am not an expert caster, I generally get an expert caster to do the casting itself, to insure the highest quality.)

For wedding and commitment rings in particular, I value being able to make each one individually, for that particular person, and keeping them informed of the process (including sending photos of their work in progress). So many things in modern life are mass-produced; I like being able to make people the exact wedding rings they want- by hand- and am always honored when I am asked to do so. I also really love that I can make these rings sturdy, suitable for hard wear for many years of committed life! I've made replacement bands for people whose wedding rings have worn out, and while I'm honored that they asked me to do that- it should not ever be necessary with my rings!

Summer is a hard time for us metalsmiths. The combination of heat from the weather, and heat from the work, gets really, really HOT.

At this point I am doing very well in dealing with my commission queue, and I'm looking forward to having some time to play with my own projects and/or R&D.

No nifty pictures just yet, but I hope I'll have some in the next week or so.

HOT!!!!

I hate summer.

Today I was doing lots of solderingf, and my Sat. student was doing lots of enameling... and it got HOT in the studio. Yeah, I could have turned on a/c, but that tends to blow her enamels around so I'd rather not.

Still: hot.

I did get a bunch of stuff done, including something that will turn up in pictures in the next day or so.

Ah, wedding season- the time when I'm in a real crunch since I make a lot of wedding rings! All the summer ones are done and sent now, though, so I've got a bit of a breather.

I've just finished a commissioned version of my "Healing Heart" scent locket. This is a pendant, not a locket, and while that means I don'thave to worry about catches and hinges, it also means that once the backing is on the thing, I have no easy way to add delicate wire with which to make the sutures. So, I added the wire before soldering tha back on... and then keeping the delicate wire from melting down while I solder5ed a couple of pretty hefty pieces of metal to each other was the trick... especially since it took at least 3 soldering operations to do!

And then, of course, there's tying the sutures in that delicate wire, without hardening it so that it cracked in the process. Sigh. Not lots of fun.

Still it's all done now, except for the final finishing. I may make another 1 or 2 of them on spec; despite the difficulties, it's a nifty piece and the only thing I've ever made where firescale is NOT a problem! :D

Next up: a couple of swcent lockets with a specific suggested design- more about that later, probably. And maybe a pair of absinthe spoons; I've got a nice design done that uses wormwood leaves as the motif, and I'll accent them with a peridot (absinthe colored!). One's for us, and the other I'll put on Etsy and my site. Plus wedding rings, naturally. :)

I haven't posted lately because I've been mostlyworking on commissions. I've got a couple finished up, and the rest with serious progress.

Although in the next wqeek or so there will be a new Borromean Ring, this one (set?) of half-round yellow gold.

At last! A really good day in the studio again!

Progress on several commissions, obviously; there will be some photos going out soon.

Also some progress on some of my own stuff: my first yellow gold sample ring is close to finished (it's 10k); I've got the prep work done on my first Trinket Ring set, all but the final polishing and setting the 2 stones; and I did a fourth prototype for Borromean Rings that looks promising, and will give a different look than the ones I currently have done.

Hopefully tomorrow will be just as satisfying!

No recent updates here because I haven't been in the studio much- I've been ill. Fortunately I'm pretty much over it, and looking forward to a solid weekend of catching up. Lots to do!

I also came up with a slightly different approach to the Borromean Rings, and I hope I have time to do a prototype in between the catching-up stuff.

Yet more annealing today- that's been my main task for a couple of days this week. Now, though, everything is annealed, so I can work on the various pieces till they get to the point where they need more annealing!

I also replaced my pickle today. and man! was that pickle depleted! When I added baking soda to it to neutralize it, it hardly fizzed at all; no wonder stuff's been taking a while to pickle lately.

This time I made it a bit stronger (I tend to favor pretty mild pickle), and also put more liquid in the pot. That's good for dimensional pieces, but it does end up taking a lot longer to heat up, so it's a mixed bag.

I fear my crock-pot pickle pot is nearing the end of its useful life. The removeable crock does not remove at this point. Oh, well- it's lasted something like 7 years, and I can afford to replace it with a different crock-pot.

Apart from the above- the annealing is mostly commissions- I did a bit more on a couple of Trinket Ring "sets" yesterday and today. They are fun!

ETA: I was amazed at the short time it took to pickle things when the pickle was not *ahem* seriously depleted. I should probably set up a yearly nag to change it.

I've got a really well-mixed commission list again. :)

It'll keep me busy, and it's got a good mix of different sorts of pieces- from wedding rings to pendants... and I think there will be time in the gaps to work on some new stuff, too.

Excellent!