Understanding Our Prices

Soul Society Jewelry is committed to promoting transparency and understanding in all aspects possible. Read below to understand how and why our pieces are priced the way they are, and what your dollar goes towards when you support the Soul Society.

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When you’ve grown up knowing nothing but an ultra consumerist world in which we only see the product, rather than the work and the love that went into the product as well as the human behind it, anything above the dirt cheap prices we see on the likes of marketplaces such as Shein and Temu can come across as a bit of a shock.

So why, in a world of ultra affordable and dirt cheap options that can be at your door almost instantly, would a small artist choose to exist on the opposite end of the spectrum?

Soul Society Jewelry is proud of being a sustainable operation in which pieces are slow and thoughtfully made over hours and days, with great care and attention to detail. No effort, no matter how great, is too much effort for our designer if it means adding the perfect component or finishing touch to any of our already one of a kind pieces.

When you’ve poured your life and entire soul into supporting your craft and your business, it’s hard to see your efforts as anything but priceless. But how does one quantify a priceless effort as must be done to share an item with the world? Here is what our designer considers when calculating prices:

Materials:
Soul Society Jewelry prefers to source their materials from small businesses and independent sellers from around the world, stopping at nothing to find the highest quality materials available - regardless of affordability. Each and every material used in a Soul Society piece comes with a cost, both inherent (the price of the actual material) and related (such as taxes and shipping fees). Any and all related materials costs are factored into the price work up.

Skill, technique and complexity:
Even the simplest looking pieces require a certain degree of skill to meet our high standards. Our designer employs various techniques and skills to bring Soul Society pieces to life, which are factored in along with the complexity of design when pricing.

Labor pt I - direct labor:
Soul Society pieces are constructed with great love and care over hours and days, with high requirements of focus and attention. While Soul Society Jewelry does not use an hourly rate, no effort is overlooked when considering how the required labor will be calculated into the price. 

Labor pt II - small business upkeep:
The difference between running your own small business and working for a traditional business is that one isn’t necessarily paid an hourly wage to cover any time they spend working or any expenses required for the normal operation of business. Part of supporting a small business means you are in part helping to support those “unpaid” hours and related business costs, like shopify shop fees and subscriptions, shipping, packaging, and marketing materials, product photo props, etc.

One of a Kind Nature:
An artists creative vision is made up of the millions of pieces of inspiration they’ve collected over their lifetimes, along with their personal life experiences and emotions. Once executed through the lens of their own skill set and techniques, you have something that can never be found anywhere else in the world: while creations may be superficially imitated, there is a deeply personal aspect to original artwork that remains irreplicable.
Combined with our “one of one” design policy, this one of a kind nature is an important factor in understanding the value of SoulSocietyJewelry pieces.

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The wonderful thing about value is that as a consumer, you get to decide what’s valuable to you and what’s not. Some may find innumerable value in supporting an artists vision and helping them make a living. Others may find more value in a bargain that works for their budget, or simply don’t care for the artistic aspect as much. Value as we know it is totally subjective. Just as an artist isn’t wrong for seeing immense value in their work and pricing it as such, a consumer isn’t wrong for agreeing or disagreeing with that as per their own notions of value.

Our designer has committed herself to providing nothing but the best for her patrons, no matter what the cost and no matter what the effort. If you choose to support Soul Society Jewelry, whether it’s monetarily or simply by liking and sharing our posts on our socials, you choose to support keeping a creatives dream alive, and Soul Society Jewelry thanks you for it.