Of course not. But the fact is, that lampwork art beads are selling better
than lampwork art jewelry right now, so costs are higher and sales lower for
the jewelry designer than the lampwork artist, in general. There are more
jewelry designers than lampwork artists, especially on ebay. It's supply
and demand.
A lot of lampwork buyers on ebay are collectors who are fine with paying a
higher price, so you are having to compete with them for auctions, as well.

--
Kandice Seeber
Air & Earth Designs
http://www.lampwork.net

Am I the only person who works with lampwork beads who faces this problem?

Tina

One really big thing about pricing beads is how they will be used.

If I'm only going to buy beads for myself, as an end product, then
paying
retail is a reasonable thing for me to to for those few beads. But if
I'm
going to put them in jewelry to sell I have to work it differently.

Take the cottage rose flowers and bunny sets for $200. What could a
necklace of those beads be sold for? According to most formulas, I
should
double the price of my materials and add in my time at $40 per hour (for
the
amount of time a fast professional would take to make it), to come up
with
wholesale and double that for a retail price. So theoretically, it
should
sell for At the very very least $900. More if it is especially well
designed.

OK then do it backwards. If a necklace of those beads could be sold for
$500, and I am selling my skills as an artist, not as a retailer, I
would
only get $250 wholesale, which would barely cover my costs to make the
necklace and get it to the gallery.

Now, I don't think THAT is reasonable.

I'm finding that when I make jewelry from a set of lampwork, my mark up
on
materials is very small, and I can't make more than a profit of $20 or
$30
on a necklace that will sell at the gallery for $150 to $200.

Tina