There are several ways to calculate how to price your hand made craft items. As a jewelry designer, I have had to deal with this issue when selling both retail and wholesale, as I do both.

1. Your cost for materials. With something like jewelry I purchase my materials at wholesale prices, however I when I calculate my cost I add in retail price for each item. So let's say I purchased five briolette cut orange sapphires on ebay for $6, but the retail price on these items would be $20 a stone. I charge the $20 a stone when calculating my retail price; however, with wholesale I use my actual cost for times.

2. Your time spent producing the end product. If you are a crafter like most of us, you don't punch in on a time clock, so the exact amount of time you spend creating a piece from conception to end result could be a total of 15 hours, off and on for days. Maybe you only spent 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there making your item, but your time does matter. So make an estimate of the amount of time spent each day on that one product. When I make an intricate necklace, it might take me four days to finish the necklace. My actual time spent making each component took me 4 hours a day, for a total of 12 hours on that one piece. That makes this piece special. For jewelry making, it is not unheard of to pay yourself as much as $20 an hour. Therefore, the total labor for the example necklace would be $240 + $100 for materials, total retail cost for this item would be $340.

Now this might change if I were making something like earrings. It might take me 20 minutes to make a pair of earrings, so how much should I charge for labor? $20 divided by 60 = .33 a minute. $0.33 x 20 = $6.60 + $20(materials) round up = $27 for a pair of earrings. These are retail prices.

If you were selling items wholesale, I reduce my labor charge by half and charge actual cost for materials. You can still make a profit on wholesale, but there is one other advantage, consistent repeat business. You can also offer discounts for retail customers who are ordering large quantities of your product, say a %30 discount off retail. This is good if you sell products that can be used for weddings, or office party gifts.

3. Overhead and advertising. If you run your own website, any type of advertising, even your cost of electric, phone, and internet can be figured into the end cost of your product. Let's say for example that you have a website where you sell your products

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