What's a Jewelry maker to Do with the Skyrocketing Price of Precious Metals?

In case you have somehow missed the news, gold and silver prices are absolutely bonkers right now. Experts say it will likely continue to be bonkers. (BTW, "bonkers" is a technical term that is a synonym for "bat sh** crazy.") As I write this on January 17, 2026, sterling silver is over USD $90 per troy ounce and gold is over $4,600 per ounce.

I haven't made a raw materials order since August, hoping the price would drop a bit. What a huge mistake! Now I wish I had ordered a couple of weeks ago when it was "only" $70 a troy ounce. My wholesaler, Rio Grande, adjusts their prices daily to reflect the market, so the impact is pretty immediate. Now I am wondering if it is going to go even higher or if I should hold out for a drop? Should I learn from my past mistakes or would I be buying at the peak of the market?

I've already raised my prices to reflect the August pricing, but more price increases are inevitably on the way. Sorry, everybody. This reflects reality, and so far my attempts to bend reality to my will have failed.

For the rest of this post, I'll be talking about sterling silver, since it is what I use most in my work. The current troy ounce price tag is for ingots that have not been formed into anything usable by most handmade jewelry makers. This means manufactured materials like wire and sheet is more like $110 per troy ounce. Here's a real world example: Just one year ago, I made an order from my wholesale supplier where 20 gauge round sterling silver wire was just over $36 a troy ounce. I use this wire primarily for earring wires. The price has hovered around that for years. In contrast, my August order was about $46 per troy ounce, and that just about gave me a heart attack. It is now more than DOUBLE the August price. If I ordered today, the identical product would be $110 per troy ounce, more than 3x what it was last year.

I am sitting here not knowing what to do next, and I know many metal artists feel the same way. We want to keep doing what we love, but we are not sure the market will bear the prices we need to charge to cover our raw materials and still keep the lights on in our businesses. We don't want to invest a lot o money into jewelry that will likely sell more slowly than it did before the price hikes. My bread and butter right now is street fairs and maker markets- my experience tells me there are a lot fewer people that will buy the more expensive items.

For me, this may be the time to start experimenting with enamel, something I've wanted to do for a long time. Enamel most often uses a copper backing (though you can also use fine silver). It may be time for more mixed metal pieces. Copper prices are also rising, but is still very affordable. I love the look of brass even though I hate soldering it, but maybe it is time to master that bugbear? I'm also going to endeavor to use up the silver materials I already have on hand, so look for lots of one of a kind items.

Long term I'm thinking about changing my pricing structure to give more weight to labor and have less of a mark up on raw materials. This probably won't lower prices, but it will keep them more consistent as raw material prices fluctuate wildly. I've also heard the opinion that it isn't fair to raise prices on jewelry made with silver you've already purchased at a lower price. However, when you sell that item, you won't have enough money to buy more materials if you don't charge more right now. I think those people are not thinking about the longevity of their business and market realities. So many issues to consider, and I am bumbling through it just like everyone else. I'll keep making work and do my best to go with the flow.

Wondering why is this happening? A complicated mixture of increased demand from AI chips and GPU (another reason to hate AI, IMHO), global economic uncertainty, and at this point, speculation. I am not an economist and can't really explain it. If you are interested in more details, here's an article from ABC News.