At What Price? – Wendy Brandes
Wendy Brandes breaks down a custom piece, fee by fee
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one in an occasional series focusing on how custom designers price their work to ensure they remain competitive, cover all costs, and (of course) make a profit. Here’s how Wendy Brandes of Wendy Brandes Fine Jewelry in New York City arrived at the final charge to transform a customer’s old engagement ring into a set of three “perma-stacked” stacking rings.
Design: The customer was originally going to resize her old engagement ring, but after reading my blog, she was inspired to go for a new look instead—something that was more of a statement piece. She sent me photos of her original ring and photos of a custom stacking-ring-style engagement ring redesign that I’d done for another customer and that she particularly liked. Based on our conversations, I designed a set of three rings that are permanently attached by a fine wire. Although I created both a hand-drawn sketch and a CAD rendering for the client to approve, since the design wasn’t an intricate one, I didn’t charge a separate design fee. Total Fee: $0.
Labor/Metal: I don’t charge by the hour for labor. For a custom ring like this, I’ll talk to the customer about my ideas for her piece and get her initial go-ahead to price it—keeping her budget in mind. For this perma-stacked stacking ring, I created three separate bands: two in 18k rose gold and one in platinum. I discussed the piece with my goldsmith, who gave me a single price for labor and materials combined. I then added my markup to that price. We often work this way on relatively streamlined designs like this one. For more intricate designs, we would break out all of the labor and material costs separately. Also, I sold the gold from her original ring, and the customer got an $85 credit for the metal toward her new ring. Total Fee: $3,065.
Stones: I used the 19 diamonds set in the customer’s original engagement ring for the redesign project so there was no cost associated with the diamonds. Total Fee: $0.
Setting: The smaller stones from the original engagement ring had great variation in depth and width. In addition, the original center stone had a chip in it that had to be hidden by the setting. It was an unexpectedly labor-intensive job, more so than it would have been if we were working with uniformly cut and undamaged stones, and took a significant amount of time. Total Fee: $650.
Assembly/Final Polish: The three bands were all given a satin finish and were attached at the back by a slender gold wire. Creating the mechanism that the wire is threaded through is always a big part of this popular engagement ring style, but that is reflected in the original labor fee. Total Fee: $200.
Final Price: $3,915.
