On top of that, I personally haven’t reassessed my prices since I initially calculated the costs for me to sell wholesale, when I attended Scotland’s Trade Fair at the SECC in 2024.
To work out the costs, I had carefully timed myself making various items in the workshop, then made the assumption that I could probably make more than one item in an hour, and priced accordingly. The mistake I made at that point was not taking in to consideration the extra time it may take to cut and polish different types of rock, and some are three times as hard as flagstone. I also didn’t charge any more for bespoke and the time it takes me to discuss designs with a customer should have be factored into the costs.
I really hadn’t placed the importance on how many minutes or even hours in my working day that I spend chatting with customers, because I’m open to the public I feel it’s somewhat expected. But when I’m pricing and taking into consideration my hourly overheads and my hourly pay, I had greatly underestimated how much time I’d taken away from working.
I’m nearly at the end of my 25th year in business since graduating, and I’m quite happy to admit the learning curve I still find myself in at this point in my career. I also feel, because I’m there on the shop floor watching my local customers considering their purchases, that I don’t always gauge the room as well as I think I do, and often assume that people are thinking I’m expensive when actually it’s sometimes the opposite.
Recently I had a customer contact me to ask if the work was actually made of silver or just plated. Because I’ve only ever worked in silver, the question threw me, she asked because there was no hallmark, I explained it was under 7.5g of silver therefore no hallmarking was required. I also figured that the price should make that obvious but the reality is many well known designer brands sell plated base metal jewellery and it’s not something people raise an eyebrow at, they buy for the name and don’t care whether it’s precious metal. I’m occasionally asked to repair such items (designer brands like Chanel and Vivienne Westwood) and have discovered quite often I can’t physically do repairs because of the cheap material.
My hallmark changed after the first 10 years, it was LB in a chamfered square until I had to re register it and then I chose to add Gallacher onto the end after a gap in making when Bain wasn’t used, and so now it’s LBG in a chamfered rectangle.
As it stands, my monthly overheads for having a retail outlet in Thurso comes to around £1000 each month, this is before I pay myself, before I consider the expensive specialist machinery and equipment and workshop sundries, or the shop sundries or goods. The retail price also has to include tax, profit and if wholesale then that retailer takes at least half, and they may also pay VAT so that’s another chunk.
I really hope that the customer understands the issues that makers find themselves in, we understand jewellery is a luxury item, but if we are to continue to support the arts and crafts we must think hard about what we’re buying and that something will hopefully be handmade and that has meaning.
I’ve put up my prices and I will be trying very hard not to apologise for it like I normally do, self deprecation is my usual line of defence but in this case I’ve given myself a pep talk and will see how 2026 pans out.
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