The jewelry industry is estimated to make 230 billion dollars by the year 2015 growing 4.6% year over year, states the US department of commerce. Although this is unpredictable as we have been in a recession since the year 2008. This year the industry has grown 8% states Forbes.com. 

I myself design and sell jewelry online at Etsy.com. My sales and those of my co designers do not see this 8% incline in sales. As a matter of fact we are all facing the fact that in order to sell we have to sell at cost plus  prices, this meaning we are only selling the piece of jewelry for what we have spent to make it, and not getting all of the time we put into it. So instead of selling a piece for that we put 10 hours into charging for ten hours of work we are only charging five hours of work, In a desperate attempt to sell alongside the foreign factory made jewelry that is being sold on the penny. An example of this is in fire mountain beads and gems you can buy a pack of 12 chandelier earrings made with copper findings, beads(R), coins and multiple styles being sold for $ 20.00 for the set of 12. Those of us handcrafting these very same earrings have to sell them for $12.00 a piece to make any money, I also look at chairs and different stores to see what their average price is which is also $12.00 and I drop my price about $2 less than what they are selling for which ends me at $10.00 per pair, Which is still a decent price.

So how are we surviving the battle of factory made jewelry? Well we make our jewelry flawless, you see those factory made pieces all can have a small mistake somewhere and often times are made with inexpensive materials in order to sell them for rock bottom prices. Which in turn means they are not made to last any amount of time. How can they be? Their only goal is to mass produce, not concentrating on quality and the little things that end up being big like attaching your clasps well.   I know that when I entered the jewelry making business everyone I talked to emphasized strongly on using quality materials. The better the materials the better your name, and in the jewelry designing world your name is on your jewelry.

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Kayla Schmult is an entrepreuner, owning a business for handcrafted jewelry as well as opening another up for organic hand made beauty products. She has been running her jewelry business for three years now and started from the ground up, turning a fifty dollar bill into five hundred dollars. She knows the importance of social media from running fashion row walk and Organic West. She runs two full-time blogs for each business, as well as blogging here now for Financial Bin. She is also on her way to becomming a freelance blogger due to her desire to share with others what she has learned. She is a stay-at-home mother who takes care of her disabled husband whom she has been married to for four years and together for a year before that. She also homeschools her two children. She manages her time well I guess you can say!