Have you seen the price of silver lately??

*This is a part of the Thursday rant series, a tongue in cheek look at my life.*

If you were anywhere close to me this past Tuesday afternoon, the gasp you heard come out of my mouth would have made you think it was either my last or I had swallowed a Snickers bar whole.  See, I called my casting company to get more silver jewelry made only to find out the price of silver has gone up 20 percent in the last 3 weeks alone.  (You can go to kitco.com to get historical quotes of all the precious metals.)

MAJOR GASP!

While I love making jewelry, one of the things I don't like is how working with precious metals is influenced by people using them as investments.  It puts those of us trying to make a living at this at a sometimes serious disadvantage.  While I realize this falls into the "life happens" category, and while I'm taking steps to minimize the impact to me (and customers), the uncertainty of silver prices is making it harder to plan for the future.  I can't expand with my jewelry business the way I would like to right now if I didn't have to worry about this.  (I've been considering hiring an assistant, but may hold off now, even though I really need one.)

Okay, enough gabbing.  I must get back to scour the studio on my hands and knees to find for more silver to send in for scrap.  (Now I understand why people are into dumpster diving.)