When it comes to custom made jewelry, there’s no doubt that you’re paying for quality, exclusivity and uniqueness.
But how much more expensive is custom jewelry compared to mass-produced pieces?
Is the extra cost worth it?
The average cost of a custom diamond ring is about $4,000. Custom jewelry can cost anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars or more. It all depends on the materials, the design, and the artist.
When you’re paying for custom jewelry, you’re not only paying for the materials and the labor, but also for the artist’s time and expertise.
Custom jewelers often have years of experience and training.
They know how to work with different materials and how to create unique designs that are both beautiful and functional.
In this article, we’ll take a look at all the factors that go into pricing custom jewelry, so you can make an informed decision about whether or not it is something that is right for you.
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Manufactured vs Custom Jewelry: The Differences
Custom Jewelry implies that an item that you want to have made is unique and no one else is likely to have anything exactly like yours.
While this can be true, it also can indicate that a design that already exists is copied and a jeweler is commissioned to replicate the ring because that may be less expensive than a stamped name brand designer ring, or it will have a few different qualities or changes that are preferable for the customer in that design.
Manufactured Jewelry are items that are made in mass quantities at an industrial scale, usually for large retail chain type stores that are usually more affordable for the average person to buy.
Styles that can be found will look alike in most catalogs that come out each year and those catalogs are distributed all over first world countries for sale in malls and name brand stores.
These pieces are not considered to be “designer” pieces because they are flooding the market with pieces that are alike, rather than with designs that are uniquely made for one individual or for an exclusive brand of store, such as Tiffany & Co.
Below are a few of the differences that you can find when comparing and contrasting a manufactured jewelry line with a custom piece or designer line.
Cost
There is going to be a marked difference in the price of a ring that is being mass produced rather than one that is custom built, because a design that is made in someone’s mind is unique and must be brought to life rather than simply repeatedly copied and distributed throughout a region.
It simply takes far more man hours to sit down and start drawing out the details to build an item from scratch rather than to pick out something from a book or a common store and order it.
A manufactured ring has already had its design approved and produced for public consumption, whereas it can take weeks for a custom designer and the customer to come to the finale of perfecting what is in the mind of the customer, before the work even starts.
Every hour that is spent mining a customers preference and getting it drawn, written down on paper and editing them is equivalent to 10 hours of shopping around in stores in terms of man hour cost.
Quality
In a nutshell, the quality of a custom ring will usually tend to be far superior to a manufactured ring simply because the customer is able to specify more details about the ring, such as:
- the finished weight of the item
- types and quality of the metal materials used
- quality of gemstones selected
- and unique style options
Most manufactured jewelry that is produced for sale in retail jewelry chains simply do not have the highest quality of diamonds in them, nor the rarest of gemstones.
They tend to be lighter weight in terms of the amount of gold in the final product, which is purposeful to keep costs down.
Additionally, a gemstone that is rare will typically cost tenfold if the quality possesses deeper color, outstanding clarity or has not been treated in any way.
Gemstones found in manufactured jewelry are usually obtained from markets overseas that mine and treat them in mass to make them look better, when in fact, they are not.
95% of colored gemstones have been heat treated to enhance their color since the 1960’s, and also a vast amount of them have also been fracture filled to hide or obscure their internal inclusion flaws to improve clarity.
You may find that, in order to acquire fine colored stones nowadays, you’ll need to scour for vintage and antique items instead of new.
A custom designed ring has the chance to forego using the lesser quality diamonds and gemstones in favor of higher quality, simply by the fact that stones in a custom built ring are going be individually selected by the customer according to their preferences rather than already provided in the mass production of jewelry piece when they arrive at various stores for immediate sale.
Uniqueness
While cost and quality are not the only considerations to account for when deciding which ring to buy, probably the biggest reason why a customer would choose to have jewelry custom made is because they know that they will end up with something that signifies their own unique taste or expression that cannot be found otherwise.
Like building a custom house rather than buying a track house, their item will represent the unique qualities of the buyer in ways that a mass produced item simply can only hope to mimic.
It is said that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” and it is best realized when something is copied.
But when it comes to a custom piece of jewelry, the main idea is that no one else will be seen having what the customer and the designer have produced.
Factors That Affect The Price of Custom Jewelry
The idea of having a custom piece of jewelry made seems like a great idea at first. This is usually after months, and perhaps even years, of shopping and being disappointed in what is being offered.
However, once you realize that you will likely need to go the custom route, here are a few factors that will help to keep you grounded to reality while doing so:
General Expenses
Besides the amount of money that a customer can comfortably afford, we must also add the actual cost of what a jewelry store will want to realize as profit for having spent hours and hours of working out designs with you before starting to make your ring.
If you are budgeting and forgetting to add the profit that the Jewelry store itself wants to make above what their Bench Jeweler requires, then you may end up having to put the idea of customizing your ring off for another time in the future when you have more to spend.
Since the custom item will likely include choosing stones for it, then the cost of those stones will also need to be included to fit the budget.
Time Involved for Design Work
Here we have the consideration of figuring out how much time each person who is involved in creating a design will factor into the total expenses.
A manufactured ring has already had the design work finished and the items are out in the public domain for sale.
Since these designs are being mass produced, then the cost for the design is quickly absorbed by the volume of the sales being realized.
Each time a manufactured ring is sold in a Jewelry store, a bit of what it originally cost for the design work will be recovered.
Not so with custom work.
A customer will have to be willing to pay for the time it takes to communicate with the Jewelry store personnel, the bench jeweler, the CAD drawer, and perhaps even a gemstone dealer to get the ring design to be what is desired.
Store Workload
If a customer has chosen a time of year that is typically the busiest to have their custom design done, then they may end up paying more for their item.
There are seasons that are far busier than others, such as the Spring and Summer wedding season or Christmas.
While a customer can still get their job finished in a reasonable time frame, it will cost them more than if they commissioned the work to be done during a less busy time.
The reason for this extra expense is because there will be services and repairs for other customers that will take longer to get done during the time when a custom design is being produced.
That time delay is going to cost the store money, simply because they are not able to help those other customers in a timely manner and will want to make up for the loss of business by charging you some of the costs of their loss or delay of revenue.
While this does not seem a fair thing to do, this is known as an opportunity cost and is in fact part of the total cost considerations that you will be charged for unless you are having your customized item made at a time when the store can still fully function for others as well.
How Custom Jewelry Is Priced
So exactly who is coming up with the pricing for a piece of custom jewelry?
We have all heard of “manufactured suggested retail pricing” or MSRP before, but this does not apply in the custom world.
Oh no.
You have stepped into a world where there are wild fluctuations in price and where greed is allowed to abound because you want something that does not exist outside of your mind.
Let’s look and see if there are ways that you can determine if your prices that are being quoted are at least going to be fairly competitive with another store.
Materials
Prices will take into consideration the weight and type of gemstones and/or diamonds as well as the quality of them.
When shopping for price comparisons, make certain to be very specific about what you want and are expecting to find as a final product in your ring.
If you want a 1 carat VS2/H Old European cut diamond that has not been enhanced, then make certain that the quotes you get have those details listed and will be verifiable in the final work.
The same goes for any other stones that you may want in your ring or item. Get everything in writing since your price is supposed to reflect those details.
If you want your ring to have a specific minimum final weight of 12 grams of 18K gold for example, then make certain that the estimates include this information and that there will be verification of it. Pricing depends on the type of base materials that you want to use.
Timeframe
If you want your ring to be finished by a specified date, make certain that the quote includes this information and that the Manager signs off to acknowledge it.
Since time is of the essence and you are likely paying to elbow out other customers to some extent, then make sure you will receive your item when promised or no dice.
Pricing reflects a deadline that you have established and that the store agrees to in writing.
Appraisal
If you want Certification for any of the gemstones done by a Certified GIA Gemologist, make sure that this information is promised to you in writing too.
The pricing for your custom work should include this certification since the work is unique and needed for insurance purposes.
Custom Jewelry falls into an entirely different price point than manufactured jewelry; and because of that, you may realize that you can cut some of the cost by supplying some or all of your own stones if you have them.
You may also skip most of the design hours by bringing a picture of an item that you want replicated rather than spending months trying to get a CAD drawing and wax mold perfected.
Ask around to see if you can find a reputable jewelry store who is confident in the abilities of their bench jeweler to see if they are able to accommodate your requests.
Why Custom Jewelry Can Be More Expensive
Customized jewelry is usually more expensive because of the time it takes to have it made and because of the quality of gems that you may want to have upgraded.
We are living in an Era where custom goldsmithing is beginning to become a diminished art due to the expense it costs for making each individualized item, as well as the overhead cost.
It seems that it makes more sense for people to choose from items that are manufactured, but that leaves little for a goldsmith to do other than sizing and repairs.
By now you also have an idea that a lot more goes into having a piece of custom jewelry made than if you simply bought it already manufactured and displayed in a jewelry store.
Sometimes, we can “order” jewelry from a person who has already made their own molds and designs apart from large manufacturers, and who can also offer you their designs that in some ways can be tweaked to make them more personal.
This will cut out the middleman and can make your item more affordable. These people can often be found on online sites such as Etsy and a huge host of others.
If you find that having a customized designed ring is going to bust your budget, then consider simply having something “personalized” instead.
Personalizing a piece of jewelry simply means adding a feature on it that is unique to you rather than designed from scratch from the ground up.
Is Custom Made Jewelry Worth It?
Those people that have had custom jewelry made will usually have a very good result, while at the same time, they would also admit to having had many delays and frustrations with the entire process.
You must decide if what you want and how you want it is going to be imperative to your happiness and state of mind, or if you can just as easily settle for buying an item that has become just as rare, such as antique Art Deco Era jewelry instead.
There are other options if you have the time to look into the possibilities.
To each their own.
Final Thoughts
Custom made jewelry is not for everyone and that is perfectly understandable.
It can be a costly and time-consuming endeavor with no guarantee of satisfaction in the end.
If you have your heart set on having something designed just for you, then do your research first, be patient, and brace yourself for some disappointment along the way.
It may be worth it in the end.