#61: Navigating Uncertain Times: Strategies for Jewelers Facing Rising Metal Prices

In this episode of The Jeweler's View, host Courtney Gray, a seasoned metalsmith educator and business strategist, addresses the current challenge of rising metal prices. Courtney shares her personal experience and offers strategies for managing uncertainty and maintaining a sustainable jewelry business. She introduces the 'STILL' framework—Stop, Take a breath, Investigate, Listen, and Learn—as a method to make thoughtful, rather than panic-driven, decisions. Courtney also previews an upcoming panel discussion with industry experts on coping with material cost increases. Finally, she reassures listeners that while the market is shifting, the demand for jewelry and its significance endures.

Transcript

#61: Navigating Uncertain Times: Strategies for Jewelers Facing Rising Metal Prices

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Welcome to The Jeweler's View. I'm Courtney Gray, metalsmith educator and creative business strategist. After 25 years in the jewelry industry, running one of the country's top metalsmithing schools, coaching artists, advising companies and organizations, and hosting interviews with some of the best in the craft.

I finally created the kind of support I wish I'd had from the start. This podcast is a part of that. Each week I share the lessons I had to learn the hard way so you can build a rhythm that supports your creative work, your values, and the life and business you actually want. Find tools, coaching and my transform course@courtneygrayarts.com and let's get to work. 

Courtney Gray: Hey friend. Welcome back to The Jeweler's View. I wanna start by naming what's really happening right now. Not just the numbers, but the thoughts that come with them. [00:01:00] Metal prices have been rising fast furiously. This is insane. We haven't seen anything quite like this. Silver and gold feels out of reach in ways many of us haven't experienced before.

And when that happens, the questions get heavier. Can I keep making the way I've been making? Do I raise prices? Do I change materials? Do I need to pivot? And for some of you, maybe quietly, maybe out loud, another thought creeps in. Is this the moment I stop making jewelry altogether, that thought does not mean you're weak or you're being dramatic.

It means you're human. You care about building something sustainable. I have a quick note for you before we jump into this a little deeper. Over the next few weeks, I'm gonna be sharing a special panel conversation focused on exactly this, navigating rising [00:02:00] gold and silver and metal prices in general.

This is gonna be with Jeanette Caines , Bette Barnett, Holly Gage, and Melissa Muir. If material costs have been on your mind, just know this is coming. We'll get into it soon, and I'll let you know how to hear that panel when it's live. So here's the thing.

One of the most dangerous mindsets during moments like this is the, this is forever story. When prices spike or markets shift, it can feel like this is how it's going to be from now on, I missed my window.

The version of jewelry making I love doesn't exist anymore. When we believe that quitting can start to feel a little bit like relief, but here's something important to remember. Markets move, materials fluctuate. Industries shift all the time. What feels permanent in the moment often isn't. So this part matters.[00:03:00]

Even with rising prices, people are still buying jewelry, they're buying engagement rings. Wedding bands, meaningful gifts, heirloom remakes, pieces that mark milestones and identity adornment doesn't disappear. When costs rise, it changes, but it doesn't vanish.

What does change is how we price, present, and sometimes design our work. The desire for jewelry, for meaning, symbolism, beauty is still very much alive. This isn't going anywhere. I've personally been in moments where quitting crossed my mind too. Not because I didn't love the work, but because the pressure felt relentless I'm gonna tell you a secret. When I was running the school, our overhead averaged about 30,000 a month, not 3000, 30,000 a month. [00:04:00] That number carried weight every day. When things felt uncertain, my instinct was always to layer, add programming, add offers, add more ways to bring in income and revenue.

And yes, some of that honestly worked. We sustained that overhead for over eight years in the new location and seven years before that at a lower overhead. But what I didn't see clearly at the time was, how much strain constant layering created. I overwhelmed my team, my own nervous system by adding things instead of slowing down to really look at what was already working.

And that's the parallel I want you to hear now. Rising metal costs can feel like a verdict. . This doesn't work anymore, but more often it's a trigger, not a final answer, a trigger [00:05:00] that asks, what's sustainable now? What needs refinement, what deserves to stay, and what might need to change a little bit.

It does not automatically mean you failed. Your work isn't viable, or jewelry is over, and it definitely doesn't mean you have to decide everything today. Go slow with this. I know it's tough.

This is where I want to offer a way to slow the moment down before making big decisions.

I just learned this myself it's called the still framework. Still, S-T-I-L-L stands for Stop. Take a breath, investigate, listen, and learn. There's a lot of ways to spin this. I've heard it done different ways, but let's do it this way today. So the S stop before you quit.

Before you overhaul your entire business, [00:06:00] before you assume this is the end of the road. Sell all your materials, pause, take a breath. Rising costs are gonna activate survival mode. No clean decision comes from a dysregulated body or panic. We don't make clear decisions when we're panicked. That's just simple truth.

All right, here's the I investigate ask. Which pieces are most affected by my material changes? Which ones are still selling? Where are my margins actually getting squeezed? This is about information, not judgment, not rash decisions. Here's the L, the first L. Listen. Listen to your sales patterns, your customer behavior, your own energy around different types of work.

Sometimes your body already knows what's no longer [00:07:00] sustainable. And finally, learn instead of reacting, I want you to ask, what is this moment teaching me about my business? Where have I been operating on autopilot? What's asking to evolve? Not disappear?

So let's go through still again, one more time. Stop before you quit. Take a pause, take a breath, investigate, listen and learn.

If you've had the thought, maybe I'm done with jewelry pause before taking that as a truth. Ask instead, am I done or am I just freaked out and overwhelmed? Am I uninterested or am I simply exhausted and need a little bit of a reset? Am I called to leave or am I being asked to adjust to refine? There's a big difference, and you don't have to [00:08:00] answer that today.

Just put it in the back burner, maybe write it down next week we're gonna get practical. We're gonna look at how to identify what's actually supporting you financially and see your steady sellers really clearly so you know what's working and what's not,

we're gonna access what's worth continuing and what may need to shift, not from fear, but from clarity, from data, from information. Because decisions made from steadiness last longer than decisions made from panic and take it from me. They cause a lot less disrupt in your world.

One last thing before you go. The panel episode on gold and silver pricing is coming up soon, and it's designed to be practical study reassuring, not fear-based. Let's hear from these other women who are feeling the effects of the market change to get the link in any follow-up resources that we're [00:09:00] gonna have from that panel.

The best place to stay connected is my email list. If you're not on that list, jump on my website, courtney gray arts.com. And you can also follow me on Instagram where we'll be announcing when this panel will be live at @courtneygrayarts. I'll share everything there.

If things feel uncertain right now, that doesn't mean your work has lost value. People are still buying jewelry, meaning still matters. Listen, this is one of the oldest craft businesses in existence. Trust me, it's not going anywhere. Adornment still holds power. The question isn't whether jewelry still works.

The question is how you want to work within this moment with clarity, intention, and care. Patience. I'll see you next week, onward and upward. 

Thanks for listening to The Jeweler's View. If today's episode gave [00:10:00] you something to think about, consider sending it to a friend or share it on social and tag me at Courtney Gray Arts. You'll find tools, coaching resources, and the transform course@courtneygrayarts.com. And if no one's told you this lately, remember you're not behind.

You're becoming exactly the kind of maker your business needs and that kind of depth. It takes time. I'll be back next week, same time, same tough love, onward and upward. I.

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