A Golden Opportunity

Posted by Beth Cyr Kroh on

See below for all the details, but here is the list of designs I will be making, marked as available or claimed

Available

tree and sea, 5-7mm

mountain and sea, 5-7mm

wish upon a star, 4mm

galaxy, with 3 moissanite, 5mm

Claimed

molten, 4 - 5mm

mountain tree and sea, 6 - 7mm

yellow birch, 4-5mm

simple hammered or tooled with love, 4 - 5mm

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Hey friends!

There is a lot shifting around in the jewelry part of my business (some of you may have seen some mention on IG). If you want to read in lots of detail jump to the explanation further down the email.

One of the biggest things is that I'm shifting the focus of my rings, on making and marketing, to gold. There are quite a few designs I don't have photographed in yellow gold and am working on filling in the gaps. My plan was to make a few samples, take photos, melt those down, make a few more, photo, etc. Essentially only using a small amount of metal to create photos of all the designs.

Then I had the idea - why not offer them up for sale at a discounted rate?? It would be a win win - I don't lose out on the labor, and you could get a gold ring at a deeply discounted cost (40 - 50% off). In the end, it seems like a better use of time and resources if you can get something special out of it as well.

These are the designs I will be making in 14k gold - one in each of the designs.

  • tree and sea, 5-7mm
  • mountain and sea, 5-7mm
  • mountain tree and sea, 6-7mm
  • yellow birch, 4-5mm
  • molten, 4-5mm
  • wish upon a star, 4mm
  • galaxy, with 3 moissanite, 5mm
  • simple hammered or tooled with love, 5-6mm

 

You can browse all the ring designs .

 

The offer: I will make one in your size, within the width range listed. They would not be customizable in any way besides width and size and cannot be promised by a date before 9.30.21 (although it will most likely be sooner, I just don't want any restriction on my time for this project) Since you are on my email list, you're getting advanced notice.

How to claim: Email me! Tell me the design/s you're interested in, the width and size. I will give you the exact price. The first person to claim and pay for a design will get that design and it will be marked off the list. I will answer in the order received. I will edit this post as soon as possible to reflect the designs that have been claimed vs available. In all transparency, I do not expect there to be a mad dash to claim these, however, I have started on working on some waxes already and will be moving some designs from the available to "claimed" list next week once they are cast. In other words, if this is a big yes for you, email me before the weekend is over. And if you want more time to think about it, there is probably time since I'll only be doing 2 - 3 next week.

Pricing - because I price based upon size/width/design, I can't list all of the exact prices, but ballpark you'd be looking at $400 - $800 range for most of those.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I can't tell you how excited I am to be doing this and I hope some of these designs get to be worn by you and not just melted down after their glamour shots.

 

Behind the scenes details: For many years, the palladium/silver alloy I used was one of the most popular, if not THE most popular metal I sold. The combined cost+durability made it an excellent choice and I recommended it to couples all the time. With the drastic increase of palladium cost, I thought a shift might need to occur, but it wasn't until I tried to re-order the custom alloy that I was given a $16k minimum order quote. Ouch! For some larger jewelers/jewelry stores, that might be doable, but not for me. Not only did the cost of palladium increase, but the company I was working with drastically increased the minimum order. I was already questioning continuing to use it - the palladium cost increase seems so inflated and the "value" of the metal has only changed in that the demand by Chinese car manufacturers changed (there's more to it but basically in my understanding the car manufacturers (gov't? some regulation somewhere) changed their requirements, now requiring more palladium.

It used to be half the cost of platinum and is now 2.5 - 3x the cost depending on when you check the prices. It is kind of truly amazing that what the Chinese car manufacturers are doing would change what I offer in my business, but for right now, that is entirely the case. (plus the pandemic, world economics, who knows what else, like maybe an alien that only eats precious metals has a taste for palladium)

The past few years I've been drawn more and more to yellow gold - incorporating it often in to my artwork and using it when I can in jewelry. I've often felt like I wanted to make more in yellow gold, but I was usually attracting people to the items I already had photos for - all in the palladium/silver alloy. So if I want to keep selling these designs, I need to make them and photograph them so people can see what they look like and fall in love with yellow gold like I have.

Growing up I was all about silver. I think gold jewelry in the 80's and early 90's was, shall we say, not my style. I always thought that silver looked better on my skin, but the reality is, gold looks great on most skin tones. And over many millennia all over the world, cultures have adorned themselves in gold for a reason - jewelers love working with it! haha! I kid, but seriously, most jewelers I know love working in gold - it is truly special and feels a bit magical in handling it.

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