Your ultimate guide to buying and pricing handmade jewelry. Part 2.

This entry is going to put the basic definitions in  Part 1 to use as we continue to explore the intricacies of jewelry valuation.

Let's make four identical rings (see picture above): one from fine silver, one from fine ( or  pure) gold (24K), one from 14K gold and one from pure platinum. Although the rings have identical geometry, their weight will be very different due to the difference in  the density of the four metals. (The following table contains simplifications to make it easier to follow). Every ring has a volume of 0.576 cc.

                    The     silver   (Density:10.5 gr/cc) ring will weight :   6.1 gr or 3.92 dwt
                    The     24K    (Density:19.3 gr/cc) ring will weight : 11.1 gr or 7.13 dwt
                    The     14K    (Density:12.9 gr/cc) ring will weight :   7.4 gr or 4.76 dwt
                    The Platinum  (Density:21.4 gr/cc) ring will weight : 12.3 gr or 7.91 dwt

Here comes the tricky question: What is the weighth of the precious metal in each of the above rings. You could say - Hey, it ain't tricky, we just calculated that !

Or did we?
The silver   ring is pure silver, and it will have                                        3.92 dwt of silver content
The  24K   ring is pure gold, consequently it will have                                         7.13 dwt of gold content
The 14K   ring contains only 58.33% (by weighth) gold, consequently it will have 2.77 dwt gold content
The Plat  ring  is pure platinum, consequently it will have                                      7.91 dwt plat. content

Only one task left for today, and that is to  calculate how much money we need to spend on the precious
metals market if we want to make these rings.

Note: this is only one part of the PRODUCTION COSTS as you will see next time when we dig even deeper into the dark realities of life!


At the moment of writing this, the NY spot stands at (remember 1 TO=20 dwt):
                              Gold  : $1202.20/TO
                              Silver : $17.97/TO
                              Plat    : $1523.00/TO

From here it is just easy math:

The silver ring will cost    $ 3.52
The  24K   ring will cost  $ 428.58
The 14K   ring will cost   $ 166.50
The Plat  ring will cost     $ 602.35

One more interesting thing: If we could go back in time and purchased the metals fo rthis project in 2005, we could get away with the following costs:


The silver ring   $ 1.39
The  24K         $ 149.00
The 14K          $ 57.89
The Plat           $ 340.00



See you next time!

CAD to finish

Here are some photos of  custom designs I made with the help of CAD and the finished pieces side by side. CAD is very useful in designing jewelry as well as presenting the design to the customer. The pieces are then created by the most appropriate and cost efficient method: sometimes the CAD files are sent to a company to produce a wax model on a rapid prototyping machine or on a CNC mill. Alternatively I can hand carve a model from wax . In either case the model is used in the lost wax casting process to produce a metal object that is then finished by hand. In some cases when it is economically feasible and technically possible I fabricate the piece directly from sheet metal and other basic components according to the blue print made in the CAD software.

© Pal Gooz All rights reserved. 
Wedding ring : Rubelite tourmaline Torusring TM by Glenn Lehrer ,  Lehrer Designs Inc. . Diamonds
Designed in CAD, hand carved, cast in platinum 950 and 18K YG

© Pal Gooz All rights reserved. 
 Euroshank wedding band: canary diamond.
Designed in CAD, handcarved, cast in PD 950

© Pal Gooz All rights reserved.   
 Palladium ring, natural light yellow sapphire, Oval Concave Brilliant TM cut by Richard Homer of concavegems .
  Designed in CAD, rapid prototyped, cast in PD950

  

 © Pal Gooz All rights reserved.
Engagement ring, Aquamarine Square Cushion Concave Apex TM cut by Richard Homer of concavegems , diamonds 
Designed in CAD, hand  fabricated from palladium 950 and 18K royal yellow gold


  

Bedtime stories for the Artlover (Part 1): Secret in the Forest Box by 2Roses

Bed Time Stories will be a regular feature on my blog. I will select and publish exceptional pieces of art with interesting stories that tie each piece into a strong context  with society, history, people and provide insight into inner workings of the artists mind. I hope that it will provide an understanding of art in a plain language, that is so sadly missing from many collections and publications. If you got one that you would like to share, please send me a message!

So here it about an old house, two ferocious artists and an urban gang by 2Roses jewelry    :

Secret in the Forest Box, originally uploaded by 2Roses Jewelry. Media: Plum boughs, Honduran mahogany. Lined with California redwood. The box also features a secret compartment.Size: 9.5”L x 4”W x 6”H.
 © 2Roses Jewelry All rights reserved.


"  Lots of things came together to make this box. The plum wood was harvested from a tree on our property. As I was trimming the tree, the red color of the bark was just too pretty to trash.
    The mahogany was salvaged from a historical Southern California home slated for demolition due to urban renewal. The home was built in 1895 by a wealthy industrialist and featured many luxuries and technological advancements for the time, including the first alarm system installed in a home. The home was featured in the first issue of Architectural Digest in 1920.
   The curator of the local Historical Society obtained permission from the City Council for 2Roses to reclaim the wood just hours before the entire house was bulldozed. We received that permission in a phone call at 10:30 pm. The bulldozers were scheduled to start the teardown at 7 am the next morning. 
   By the time we got our tools together and rushed to the house, two gangs of thieves were already at work striping the copper plumbing out of the walls. Things got pretty confrontive when we showed up. The thieves were from different local hispanic gangs and they had already worked out a truce to strip the house. They saw us a rival gang trying to intrude on their turf and they were ready to throw down to defend it.
  We eventually convinced them that we were from the historical society and really didn't care about the copper pipes, that we were after the woodwork. The gangbangers thought this was hilarious that the "blancos" would come out in the middle of the night to steal old wood. They actually ended up helping us a bit. "


About 2Roses Jewelry :

"2 Roses is artistic collaboration between jewelry designers Corliss Rose, and John Rose. The studio is driven by the principles of exploration and experimentation. 2 Roses have made their mark on American Art Jewelry with a individualistic style that has combined a dizzying array of highly unorthodox materials and techniques ranging from the medieval to the space-age."

 " 2Roses world-class inventory management system ensures our Just-In-Time manufacturing process meets global demand for stuff. "
 © 2Roses Jewelry All rights reserved.

Corliss and John are truly eclectic, imaginative and very creative people buzzing with life and humor. Their art simply cannot fit any box as they are ready to play with anything that crosses their path. 

The following is a little sample, randomly selected from their extensive body of work.

  © 2Roses Jewelry All rights reserved.

  © 2Roses Jewelry All rights reserved.

Your ultimate guide to buying and pricing handmade jewelry. Part 1.

I have decided to write about buying and pricing handcrafted jewelry! Let me first assure you that there is nothing specific about pricing handmade jewelry or any other handmade crafts. So the title is misleading, but I stick with it nonetheless! I choose it intentionally to point out misconceptions associated with jewelry purchase. It is not intended to be a tutorial, nor it is intended to be full guide! However it will be a long series of blogposts, because I want make my point using a lot of examples, detailed description of work processes and critical analysis of my and other jewelers' pieces.

So what does the word misconception mean? According to Wikipedia: "A misconception happens when a person believes in a concept which is objectively false."

What kind of misconception many people have when buying jewelry? First and foremost is that they are buying precious metals and stones. The sad truth is hidden in the first sentence of this paragraph. When buying jewelry, people buying man created objects that are often made from precious metals and gemstones. So what is the difference? The difference is the the same as in buying 2000 pounds of steel, aluminum, plastic, glass and textile versus buying an automobile.

Before we plunge in the details I will summarize the most common measurements used the jewelry industry. This will help you tremendously later.

Density: Density is defined as an objects mass per unit volume.
Specific weight is defined as an objects weight per unit volume.
For detailed physics lessons the reader referred to other web sites and manuals.
In the future I will use density, acknowledging that specific weight may be more appropriate.

We need this definition to understand a few basic ideas about jewelry prices. The following example will show you the practical application of this definition:
You want to make a ring in platinum, 14K gold, 18K gold and sterling silver and would like to know how much metal you need to make this ring. If you say, well in my experience 3 grams of 18K gold is enough, therefore I will buy 3 grams of each of the other metals, then you are already screwed up on several fronts. Your 3 grams of platinum will not be nearly enough to make the ring, while you will have bought too much silver and generated a lot of scrap, that you will have to recycle.
How is this? Since the density of platinum is much higher than that of silver, equal weight of them will give you a longer silver wire, than platinum wire.Exactly how much longer? If you need 3 grams of sterling silver to make a ring, then you will need 6.21 grams of platinum, 4.38 g of 18K gold, 3.75 g of 14K gold to make that ring.

Now I will show you this information translated into materials costs. Today's spot (market or cash price. This is the current price in the physical market for immediate delivery of gold) prices for gold: ~$941/troy ounce, silver ~$13.07/troy ounce, platinum ~$1047/troy ounce.
Hey wait a minute! You were talking about 3 grams of silver, now you are giving me the prices on WHAT ounce! Troy ounce. This is the traditional weight unit used by precious metal markets. Is it confusing? Yes, but if we would like to understand the Chinese, we gotta speak Chinese, right?

So allow me to continue. The market price of gold is given for "pure" gold. As we mostly make jewelry from gold alloys, we need to translate these prices into karat gold prices. Gold is alloyed mostly with copper,zink and silver, but their prices are negligible in this case, so don't bother.

Definition: karat: means how many parts (by weighth) of gold you have in the alloy if by tradition we say that fine gold contains 24 parts of gold in 24 parts of the metal (5 grams of 24K gold contains 5 grams of gold). For example 14 K contains 14 parts gold and 10 parts of other metals. It means that the gold content of 14 K alloy is 100*14/24% or 58.33333.%. 18 K gold has 100*18/24 or 75% of gold in it.

That's it for today, I gotta do some work now. We will continue soon. Hey, why dont you sign up for updates?

Etsy Front Page 1/27/09 deelind

Etsy Front Page 1/27/09 deelind, originally uploaded by Etsy Front Pagers.

Dear Deelind did it again!

My artists statement - explained, but not finished.


I am currently trying to define myself as jewelry artist. I have been (mostly intuitively) making pieces that show - maybe too much - diversity. I keep telling myself: this no good, because people will have a hard time to identify you. But maybe that is exactly what it is, and more. I have been studying little cells and tiny molecules - all part of the great wonder life - for a long time. And one thing always amuses me: how is it possible, when everything in the universe is governed by strict physical and chemical laws, the manifestations and movements of matter and life are ever so varied. Let's see it through an example. The branching of trees (blood vessels, bronchy, kidneys, glands...) are governed by apparently strict rules and a few very simple (haha) fundamental mechanisms. Do not worry, I am not going to elaborate on these, at least not now. The result are however strikingly varied: from tree to tree, from my vasculature to yours. More than that the results are really amazingly random. Oh yes, we sometimes clearly see ( tree) and other times may not have a clue (kidneys)about the orchestrating force behind these fractal structures, but the result is always different, individual, unrepeatable.
In conclusion, I believe that trough my jewelry i would like to create a synthesis and deeper understanding of of this duality of the universe.

As one example I post this photo that I took of one of my latest creations. The shank of the ring is very regular, geometric. It's cross section is a section of a circle. The shank is split along the lines of two exponential curves. The surface is mirror finished. Two gold nuggets made by melting some scrap gold ( resulting in forms that would be excruciatingly difficult if not impossible to define by any functions currently known to humankind)are of randomly different sizes. They therefore can be fit between the shanks in different positions, one sticking out slightly more than the other. A (green)diamond (a geometric shape!) is set in each of the gold blobs. Note, that none of them are perfectly centered, because the highest point of the blobs are not centered as well. This way the irregularity of the gold nuggets resulted in a creations that is impossible to recreate if we follow the simple rules: make a ring shank from a low dome wire 10 mm wide,2 mm high. Split the shanks along the lines that are defined by x=a*y2(squared)+b. Form two blobs by melting some gold and solder the between the shanks. Set a diamond into each on the highest point of the gold blobs. Finish.

The picture is interesting because the reflection on the ring is that of a sculptured tree, forged iron. Circle is complete, next.

Hey We have made the front page on Etsy!
Thank you Deelind, and Gulinoartware.