Custom commissions are some of the most rewarding work in fine jewelry — and some of the most reliably under-priced. The single biggest margin leak in custom shops is the hour that didn't get billed: the texts back and forth, the third sketch revision, the "quick" stone-search that took an afternoon. Let's build a pricing framework that captures all of it.
The Five Real Cost Buckets
A custom-commission price should cover five things, all of which are routinely underestimated:
- Materials — gold, stones, findings, casting fees. The easy part to price.
- Bench labor — the goldsmith's actual hands-on work.
- Design labor — sketches, CAD, revisions. Frequently free, frequently shouldn't be.
- Customer-facing time — the consultations, follow-up emails, fitting appointments, post-delivery adjustments.
- Margin — the actual profit you keep above all costs.
A Realistic Hourly Cost
The fully loaded cost of a skilled goldsmith in the U.S. — wages, employer taxes, benefits, the slice of rent and equipment they consume — is typically $80–$140/hr. Owner-operators sometimes pay themselves less than this; that is a choice, not a discount. The customer should still be billed at market rate.
Design and consultation labor (often the owner) is typically billed at $100–$200/hr, depending on market and reputation. Famous designers in major cities go higher.
The Five-Bucket Pricing Formula
For a typical commission, the math works like:
Final price = (Materials × markup) + (Total labor hours × loaded hourly cost) + Margin
Materials markup in fine jewelry is typically 2.0× to 2.5× cost (sometimes higher for sourced stones with carrying-risk). Margin on top of all costs should be 25–40% of total before margin is added — meaning the final price ends up being 1.33× to 1.67× your true cost.
Concrete example: a custom engagement ring with a customer-supplied stone and a designed setting in 18K gold:
- Gold and findings at cost: $400. Marked up 2.2× = $880.
- Bench labor: 8 hours at $100/hr = $800.
- Design + CAD: 4 hours at $150/hr = $600.
- Customer-facing time across 3 consultations + emails: 5 hours at $150/hr = $750.
- Subtotal cost basis: $3,030.
- Add 35% margin: $1,061.
- Final price: $4,091. Round to $4,100.
The Hours You Forgot to Count
If that $4,100 number sounds high relative to what you'd typically quote, it's because most jewelers don't count the consultation hours, the email back-and-forth, or the design revisions. They quote the materials + bench labor and call it a day. The result is a "profitable" $2,400 quote that, by the time the ring is delivered, has actually consumed $2,200 in true cost — leaving $200 of margin on a piece that took 5 weeks of intermittent attention.
Track the hours for one commission. All of them. The sales call. The 14 text messages. The CAD revisions. The fitting. You will be horrified, and then you will start pricing correctly.
The 50% Deposit Rule
Always take 50% upfront, non-refundable, before any design work begins. Yes, even from the customer who "would never back out." A non-trivial percentage of custom inquiries — we see roughly 8–15% — die between the first consultation and the deposit. If you've done four hours of design work for free, that's a $600 loss every eight inquiries. Across a year, this adds up to real money.
The deposit also clarifies the customer's seriousness. The serious ones pay it without blinking. The not-serious ones reveal themselves immediately, and you've saved yourself the design hours.
The Hidden Win: Repeat Custom Customers
The customer who pays a fair price and gets a piece they love comes back. The customer who got a "deal" and then watched you spend two months on revisions you weren't billing for? They come back too — for the next deal. Pricing correctly attracts the customers who actually fund the business.
What To Do This Week
For the next custom inquiry that lands in your inbox: track every minute. The reply emails. The sketch time. The consultation. The CAD. The ordering. The fitting. At the end of the project, multiply the total hours by your fully loaded rate. Compare that to what you actually charged. The gap is your subsidy. Stop providing it.