Wire Wrapped Jewelry

In the past week, two customers inquired about metals. One was concerned about the soaring price of Sterling Silver and the other curious about how much wire you get per Troy Ounce.

This is based upon a spot price of sterling at $14.52 a Troy Ounce.

Here is the length of of wire per Troy Ounce for various gauges:
21 Ga Square Sterling Silver has 20 feet per ounce, around $1.08 per foot
21 Ga Square 14kt Gold Filled has 22.2 feet per ounce, around $2.48 per foot

16 Ga Half Round Sterling Silver has 15.4 feet per ounce, around $1.39 per foot
16 Ga Half Round 12kt Gold Filled has 17.9 feet per ounce, around $2.73 per foot

22 Ga Half Round Sterling Silver has 55.6 feet per ounce, around $ .39 per foot
22 Ga Half Round 12kt Gold Filled has 69.9 feet per ounce, around $ .70 per foot

monsterslayer.com

Remember that Monsterslayer and Rio Grande repurchase any scrap metal. They pay 75% of the Spot price of the metal towards a metal purchase. The price you pay for Sterling and Gold filled is a combination of the Spot price plus the fabrication cost of the metal. This morning the spot price of sterling was $14.52 and 21 Square wire was $21.52, so there is a $7 fabrication cost.

A ring with 8 bundle wrap wires in Sterling Silver would cost around $7.50 to make. That would include two bundle wrap wires and the wire to cover the shank.

Say you get it finished and it is terrible, just cut out the cabochon and add it to your scrap container. When you get a bit in the container, send it back for trade to Monsterslayer:
Scrap

They give you 75% of the Spot price of the metal as trade for new wire. 75% of the spot price is $10.89 an ounce. It only takes about 1/3 ounce to make a ring, or about $7.50 worth of sterling. The trade in value of that .33 ounces is around $3.60. So for $7.50 you have a sterling ring, or you spent $3.90 practicing if you wreck it.

Steve

If you have an online business, I would recommend you do as we have done and start accepting credit cards via PayPal. We have done this for several reasons.

First, a merchants account where you accept credit cards, is expensive. They charge a monthly fee, plus transaction fees. The transaction fees are usually about what PayPal charges without the monthly fees.

Secondly, we did not want anything to do with dealing with handling customer’s credit cards. One of our favorite online retailers was hacked and hundreds of customers’ credit cards were compromised. It was a nightmare for them, and they still feel the aftermath of that horror story.

PayPal lets you easily print a shipping label and packing slip. We use two-up Avery Labels so addressing packages is painless. The shipping label includes postage, so no need for a trip to the Post Office. The postage is deducted from your PayPal balance as a separate transaction, so shipping costs are easily tracked for tax purposes. PayPal can be set up to notify the buyer of the shipment.

We use Mals eCommerce, a free shopping cart. They have an easy interface to PayPal.

We use USPS Priority Mail, so the boxes are provided for free by the USPS. PayPal also has a link so we can schedule a USPS carrier pickup.

Get your account and start today:

Steve