Jewelry Making
Track metal by weight and stones by the piece — down to the cent.
Jewelry has the widest gap between what a piece looks like it costs and what it actually costs. Metal is priced by weight and moves with the market; stones, chain, and findings are easy to lose track of; and the hours at the bench — the real value — almost never make it into the price.
CrafterBy costs metal by the gram at your current rate, tracks every finding and stone per piece, and adds bench labor at a rate you set. When silver jumps, every piece that uses it reprices at once — so your wholesale and retail prices stay honest instead of slowly going underwater.
The challenge
- Not costing metal by the current price per gram
- Losing track of findings, chain, and small stones
- Undervaluing bench and design time
- No clean split between wholesale and retail price
How CrafterBy helps
- Cost metal by weight at a rate you update as the market moves
- Track stones, chain, and findings per piece
- Add bench labor at your hourly rate
- Set wholesale and retail prices side by side
How to price your Jewelry Making work
- 1Add each metal as a material priced per gram at today's rate.
- 2Weigh the finished piece (minus stones) to get metal used.
- 3Add stones, chain, ear wires, and clasps as individual components.
- 4Add bench time — fabrication, setting, finishing — at your labor rate.
- 5Set a wholesale margin and a retail margin (often 2× wholesale).
Worked example
Sterling silver ring with a 6mm stone
- Sterling silver, 8 g @ $1.05/g$8.40
- Faceted gemstone (6mm)$14.00
- Solder, flux, finishing consumables$1.60
- Bench labor — fabricate + set (1.25 hr @ $30)$37.50
Wholesale near $88, retail near $140 — both anchored to a real cost, not a guess.
Common pricing mistakes
Pricing from metal weight only and giving away the bench hours.
Not updating the metal rate, so a silver spike quietly erases margin.
Setting retail without a wholesale price, then losing money on stockist orders.
What you'll cost & track
Materials you'd track
Equipment run-cost
Price products like
Frequently asked questions
How do I price handmade jewelry?
Cost the metal by weight at today's rate, add every stone and finding, then add your bench time at a real hourly rate. Set a wholesale margin and a retail margin on top of that true cost — never price from materials alone.
How do I handle changing silver and gold prices?
Keep each metal as a material with a price per gram and update it as the market moves. In CrafterBy, changing that one rate reprices every piece that uses the metal automatically.
What's a typical wholesale-to-retail markup for jewelry?
Keystone (2× wholesale) is the common starting point, but only works when your wholesale price already covers a true cost with profit. Start from cost, set wholesale, then double for retail.