Pricing a wire wrap gold/amethyst ring

I am making some wire-wrap rings to sell at craft shows. My cost breaks down
like this: 3 dollars for the 14KT square gold-filled wire, 25.00 for the
AAA grade Amethyst 18x13 oval cut stone. I think I paid about 5.00 shipping,
so that is abt $33 total cost. Later on, if I can start buying in qty, the
costs will go down. A lot of time goes into making one. So to make it worth
while, I probably should get 4-5 times cost. I am thinking that is not out
of line with the usual markup of retail jewelry. So is it reasonable to
price them at $140 ea.?

Your pricing method only considers the cost of your materials and not the most
important, your time. You might cut costs by buying in bulk, but your biggest
return (in the long run) is being able to produce more in less time. The method
I use works with materials whose cost is negligable as well as costly. First, I
would figure out precisely how long it takes to make the piece and decide how
much you want to earn per hour. Since I have been making wire jewelry for more
than ten years, I pay myself 18 dollars an hour. To this I add double the cost
of the materials. If prone to giving discounts or high overhead, maybe X 2.5.
So if I use $2 worth of materials and spend 20 minutes making a bracelet the
retail price I set is $10. If someone wants ten or more of this item, my
wholesale pice is half that because after making several of the same item, the
time it takes to make it is reduced drastically. In other words, if it takes 20
minutes to make the first one, by the time I've made 5, it's only taking 10
minutes, cause I don't have to think about each step anymore. So, using your
materials and my formula, I would have to spend 4 or 5 hours making the ring in
order to set the price at $140. Hope this is helpful,
-MarbleMyke