Woohoo - I've been treasuried!
In message , Dwyn writes
Yippee!!!. I love the earth below us necklace.
Alas it would cost me a whole weeks retirement pension. Hugs Shirley
Congrats! Gorgeous necklace too.
Aloha, Maren HiloBeads: Beads - Beading Supplies - Hand-made Jewelry
OH BOY, that is so true!! 8-)) Mind you, I love those Wave signature beads of yours and they are not expensive.
Elayne and I also love the Earth Below Us necklace the best. With a couple of others coming in a close second.
Heather
Thank you! I think I'm under-charging on the wave beads - but I appreciate that designers that want to use them and resell the finished pieces need some room to be able to mark them up!
When it comes to pricing the lampwork beads - the formula is something like this
time + premium for uber expensive glass + degree of difficulty + uniqueness or artist's reputation
The first factor - time - is the most expensive, in a piece, generally.
So if you see, say, simple lampwork spacers - regular size - they tend to run about $1.00 each, and you can generally make 5 of them in 5 minutes.If it takes you 10 minutes to make them - you can try charging $2.00 each, but you aren't likely to get it. No matter how famous you are! ;-) If you make them out of dichroic glass - which is about $20 / ounce, vs regular glass - which is about $14 / pound - you can charge more.
Dichroic glass is harder to work and have it come out pretty - so there should also be a premium for the increased difficulty - although that's harder to get at the spacer bead level, really.
Of course, that 5 minutes doesn't include annealing, cleaning, photographing, listing for sale, or the 5 years it took you to get the skills to make 5 beads consistent in size, or the $3,000 you spent on equipment to do it. ;-)
There you go - the pricing secret!
On Jul 17, 4:07 am, Dwyn wrote: [...]
Or if you're me it'll take you the best part of an hour :) to make 5, but then, I'm a newbie with very little practice. I sell them for $1 after they're annealed, less before (yes, I have sold un-annealed spacers but locally only).
BTW, Kalera has her 'microminis' listed at $1.50 each, minis at $2, wisp minis at $2.50, see
The teeny beads are harder to make - there is less room for error. If a bead is out of round, then, you can add more glass, but then it isn't small any more - you have to get them right the first time.
It takes practice to make beads - practice, practice, practice. It's like learning to play a musical instrument!
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