Friday's art article - Precious metal and jewelry prices

If you're on the Cow Art and More mailing list, you may have received an email yesterday explaining that jewelry prices will be going up effective May 1. As I write this, the price of silver has gone up 50 percent since the beginning of the year. I have grappled with trying to keep jewelry prices at reasonable levels in this economy, but unfortunately, the amount of metal used in a piece of cow jewelry is the number one influencing factor in the final price of the jewelry charms, bracelets and necklaces. As the price of sterling silver goes up, I'm faced with the daunting task of managing shrinking margins with affordability to the customer. (I won't get into showing you a bunch of graphs and reports, but you can go to kitco.com and research silver, gold and platinum prices for as many months or decades as you want to.) While absorbing minimal to moderate changes in the price has been tough, I simply cannot absorb that big a price change in the raw materials without it impacting the final retail price.

So you may be asking yourself, "Why is the price changing so much?"

Simply put, precious metals also serves as an investment vehicle. As the United States economy continues to be on shaky ground, precious metals continues to grow in popularity across many economies as a way to protect against a weakening U.S. dollar. Unfortunately for those of us who use the actual metal (versus investing in shares or futures of the product), we are faced with a smaller supply available for us to use in a finished piece of jewelry, flatware, sculpture, etc.

While there are the labor costs associated with producing an actual piece of cow jewelry, the amount of metal used in the charms, necklaces, pendants and bracelets is by far the largest influencing factor. All I can ask is for your understanding in this time of price increases and know that I will HAPPILY lower prices once the precious metal markets come back down.

How to buy a bracelet for a gift

Today's art themed article to share with the group is some of my (Kathy McComb Swift) experience with helping customers buy cow jewelry charm bracelets for gifts.

1. Find out all you can about the gift recipient before you start.

• Is she allergic to any metals? Some women have issues when wearing silver.
• Does she have a metal preference? Look at the jewelry she has already. Is it mostly gold or silver?
• Does she have a charm bracelet already? Don't get her a second one unless it's a style different that what's she's got and something she's asked for. Women generally don't have multiple charm bracelets.

2. Size the bracelets she's got if you can.

• When measuring bracelets, stretch the bracelet out and measure from end to end, including the clasp.

3. Try to ascertain the style of bracelets she likes

• Does she like a nice heavy style or something lighter? I sell two different kinds on Cow Art and More to give customers good options on what to choose.

4. Don't know much about your recipient? Always order the bracelet a little larger rather than a little smaller!

• This is the most important of advice I can give. Wrist size has NOTHING to do with body weight! People think that since someone is petite, they need the smaller bracelet.
• Another way to tell what size a woman might need is to pay attention to her shoe size. Women with larger feet generally need the larger bracelet.
• In the end, it is usually easier for the gift recipient to have a couple of links snipped off at a jewelry repair shop rather than to have more soldered on.

5. Still not sure you got the right bracelet? Always ask about the return and exchange policy.

• Cow Art and More has a seven day return policy on purchases and items can be exchanged between seven and thirty days.
• I am also happy to work with customers in having them return bracelets to me to exchange for a larger size and reattach charms to that size.

6. One last piece of advice to share:

• I, personally, love wearing bracelets and am grateful that I can get them on and off by myself. If you're giving this to someone who may have difficulty navigating a clasp by herself, you might consider giving a bracelet helper as a gift.