How much to charge?

[Sebastian duran]

Hello everyone,

My name is Sebastian and I’m a bench Jewler. I came across a job that required some engraving and that led into the rabbit hole of hand engraving. I fell in love with this art and I wanted to learn more so I went into the internet and found Sams training videos. It’s
only been about 3 months since I started this journey. I want to get out there more but I need some guidance.

Attached are a couple of practice articles. C&c is welcomes.

My question is, When do I know I’m ready to get commissions and get my self out there more? Also how much should I charge?

Thank you for your time.

 

[ByrnBucks]

Welcome Sebastian, for a few months in you appear to be practicing an assortment of styles. I’m a beginner as well, I think you’ll find that you’ve just made the first big step into ”getting yourself out there”. Doing some showing and asking some of these fine gentlemen here for advise will lead you further on this journey in a few months than one walking alone could discover in years.
A few of the first things “just from watching others and myself dive in” Maybe add your location to your profile and you may find someone in your area to talk shop with. Also where are you at tool wise, hand pushing, hammer and chisel, air assist?
It’s a wonderful and deeeeep rabbit hole haha keep going it only gets better and more satisfying with every layer. Cant wait to see more of your stuff and I hope you have a wonderful day. BB

 

[Sebastian duran]

Thank you for the reply ByrnBucks. I will follow your advice in hopes I can find more people in my area to talk shop with. In terms of tools, I’m using the air assist.
ill be posting more work and I would love to see your work. check out my instagram- sd._.collections as well.

 

[papart1]

it's like a Black Hole!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Sebastian duran]

very deep hole!!!!!!

 

[ByrnBucks]

Thank you for the reply ByrnBucks. I will follow your advice in hopes I can find more people in my area to talk shop with. In terms of tools, I’m using the air assist.
ill be posting more work and I would love to see your work. check out my instagram- sd._.collections as well.

Sebastian, as far as my pieces I have too stand on the shoulders of much better men than myself. Although only through his selfless and very much appreciate educational materials I would consider Sam Alfano my personal teacher. Theses designs are his, and as I read somewhere “A good design done poorly will always appear superior to a poor design executed perfectly.”
I currently lack refined design ability but you appear to have the eye for it so you’ve got a leg up on that. It’s also been said that cutting is the easy part, and after getting my hours in under the scope I totally agree.
Lastly before I took on my first commission I made gifts for co-workers and friends It’s a little awkward presenting someone with a piece they didn’t ask for or even know you were dabbling in but once you get a couple out there people talk and are generally amazed at the activity and will quickly ask “You want to do a gun“ haha Personally I’m like give me a few more years. Anyways the requests will start availing themselves then you can worry about pricing and figuring all that stuff out. Later BB

 

[John B.]

Some very nice engraving and sentiments.

 

[Sebastian duran]

yea I agree with John. Very nice work Byrn Bucks. We are all here to improve and help each other out. So don’t mind asking if anyone sees something that I can help with.
Also, Sam is great inspiration and he has the blessing to teach this beautiful art. He has helped tons by watching his videos.
My approach has been social media. But word of mouth is seems to be huge in this industry.

 

[monk]

the level of self doubt that most artists have can be a killer to a possable lucrative career. look at the quality of your work. compare that to the variety of wok you see here on the forum. if you do this in an objective manner, you'll find your work is perhaps more advanced than those with a similar time at the bench.
take a survey of all time spent with clients, all materials, postage, phone and miscl. office expense. by not knowing all this, you may wll nd up giving some of yer time and materials away for free. so, only you can determine what †o chage for a given work.

 

[T.G.III]

Watch this demonstration Brian Powley gave at Scott Pilkington's engrave-in , its a great learning piece for wire border inlay but also goes into an in-depth explanation on pricing, worth the investment in time to watch it.

 

[Sebastian duran]

the level of self doubt that most artists have can be a killer to a possable lucrative career. look at the quality of your work. compare that to the variety of wok you see here on the forum. if you do this in an objective manner, you'll find your work is perhaps more advanced than those with a similar time at the bench.
take a survey of all time spent with clients, all materials, postage, phone and miscl. office expense. by not knowing all this, you may wll nd up giving some of yer time and materials away for free. so, only you can determine what †o chage for a given work.

Thank you so much for the advice.

 

[Sebastian duran]

Watch this demonstration Brian Powley gave at Scott Pilkington's engrave-in , its a great learning piece for wire border inlay but also goes into an in-depth explanation on pricing, worth the investment in time to watch it.

I’ve never hear it broken down like that. Fantastic video!

 

[allan621]

If you're going to be doing hand engraved lettering for jewelry the most important thing is a minimum price. For me, one letter to 20 letters is the same price. My minimum price for a store is 30 dollars. If I do both sides of a charm that's 60 dollars. This is the wholesale price. Anything past 20 letters gets charged an extra dollar per letter. You will make more money with a good minimum price than if you tried to figure an individual price for each job. The store may charge 50 to 70 dollars or more as a minimum retail price.

I like the fact that you are hand drawing letters and some of them look pretty good. Hand drawing helps you adapt letters to shape of a piece better than computer engraving. Plus hand engraving is naturally deeper, which people like.

There aren't many hand letter engravers for jewelry. When I started there were far more jewelry engravers than firearm and knife. That has completely reversed leading to a hole in the market. Use that to your advantage.

Allan

 

[Sebastian duran]

If you're going to be doing hand engraved lettering for jewelry the most important thing is a minimum price. For me, one letter to 20 letters is the same price. My minimum price for a store is 30 dollars. If I do both sides of a charm that's 60 dollars. This is the wholesale price. Anything past 20 letters gets charged an extra dollar per letter. You will make more money with a good minimum price than if you tried to figure an individual price for each job. The store may charge 50 to 70 dollars or more as a minimum retail price.

I like the fact that you are hand drawing letters and some of them look pretty good. Hand drawing helps you adapt letters to shape of a piece better than computer engraving. Plus hand engraving is naturally deeper, which people like.

There aren't many hand letter engravers for jewelry. When I started there were far more jewelry engravers than firearm and knife. That has completely reversed leading to a hole in the market. Use that to your advantage.

Allan

charging that way for hand lettering sounds like a perfect way to go. that gives me a perfect guide.
I just hope that the gap is still there since most people do go the computer route.
Thank you so much for your time.