The Cost of Quality:
Why Handmade Jewelry Costs More

A customer once asked me if I’d consider making cheaper stacking rings. Truth be told, the voice inside my head responded with a very quick “absolutely not!” But it was also a fair question, and one I wanted to answer thoughtfully.

Jewelry exists at almost every imaginable price point. You can buy a ring for $20, $200, $2,000 or considerably more, and from a photograph alone, it isn’t always obvious what accounts for that difference. So what are you actually paying for when you buy handmade jewelry from a small studio like CMD?

The short answer is quality, but that word only means something if I explain what goes into it. For us, it means the materials we choose, the people who make each piece, the time and skill required to make it well, and designing with the expectation that your jewelry will actually be worn.

Handmade Jewelry Costs More to Make

There is an enormous difference between jewelry produced by the thousands and jewelry made by a small team of skilled people. CMD pieces are designed by me and handmade in our Upstate New York production studio, where we cut, form, fabricate, solder, finish, set stones and inspect jewelry in small quantities rather than sending designs through a large-scale manufacturing system.

That takes time. It also requires years of accumulated skill, careful problem solving and a tremendous amount of attention to details that most people will never consciously notice when they look at the finished piece.

We’re still a deliberately small team, and that scale allows us to stay incredibly close to what we make. From my first sketch to the final finishing and quality check, there are actual human hands involved throughout the process.

That’s part of the cost of handmade work, but it’s also part of its value.

The Materials Matter

Material is another major part of what determines the price, durability and eventual life of a piece of jewelry. Terms like gold-plated, gold vermeil, gold-filled and solid gold can sound interchangeable if you haven’t had a reason to investigate them, but they’re very different materials.

Gold-Plated Jewelry

Gold-plated jewelry has a thin layer of gold applied over another metal. It can be an accessible way to get the look of gold, but that exterior layer is relatively thin and will wear with friction, moisture, chemicals and regular use. Eventually, the underlying metal may begin to show through.

Gold Vermeil

Gold vermeil is also plated, but the base underneath the gold is sterling silver and the gold layer must meet specific thickness standards to qualify as vermeil. It generally contains more gold than inexpensive flash-plated jewelry, but it is still a surface treatment and will change with wear over time.

Gold-Filled Jewelry

Gold-filled material is what we use for many of our Everyday gold designs. Instead of applying an extremely thin plated coating, a substantially thicker layer of gold is mechanically bonded to a brass core. That gives us a material that offers much more gold at the surface than traditional plating while remaining substantially more accessible than solid gold.

It is also, quite frankly, a pain in the ass to fabricate well. A lot of jewelers avoid working with gold-fill because heat, filing and finishing have to be handled carefully so we don’t compromise that outer gold layer. Over the years, our production team has developed processes that allow us to make the architectural shapes and mixed-metal designs I love while treating the material with the care it requires.

Sterling Silver

Sterling silver is one of my tried-and-true materials. It’s durable, repairable, beautiful and gives us an excellent foundation for many of our Everyday designs at a more accessible price point than solid gold.

We also use oxidized sterling silver, which is sterling silver with a darkened surface patina. Oxidation is not a permanent black coating, so it will naturally evolve as the jewelry is worn. If you love our darker pieces, read Does Oxidized Silver Jewelry Stay Black Forever? for a much deeper explanation of what to expect.

Solid Gold

Solid gold is a different kind of investment. Unlike plated or gold-filled materials, the gold isn’t limited to an exterior layer. It can be refinished, repaired and worn for generations, which is why we use it throughout our Special Occasion jewelry and custom work.

For some projects, there may also be ways to make solid gold more approachable depending on the design, including different karats, widths or material combinations. If you love the idea of solid gold but aren’t sure what makes sense for your budget, that’s exactly the kind of conversation we can have during an appointment.

If you want to go deeper into why I love working in solid gold, read The Case for Solid.

You’re Paying for Longevity, Too

Lower price and better value aren’t always the same thing. If you buy a piece inexpensively but replace it several times because the finish wears away, a component fails or you simply stop liking how it looks, the original price doesn’t tell the whole story.

I design CMD jewelry with actual wear in mind. Rings get knocked against countertops. Bracelets collect scratches. Earrings get packed for trips. Finishes soften and change. Jewelry that becomes part of your everyday life is going to show evidence that it has been lived in, and I don’t think that’s a flaw.

What matters to me is that the piece underneath those signs of wear is fundamentally sound and worth caring for. Sterling silver can be cleaned and refinished. Solid gold can be repaired and passed along. Even our gold-filled pieces are designed to give you considerably more wear than I would expect from inexpensive plated fashion jewelry.

Quality doesn’t mean a piece will remain untouched forever. It means we begin with materials and construction worthy of being maintained.

Quality Also Means Knowing Who Made It

The price of CMD jewelry also reflects the fact that we keep production close to home. Our jewelry is made by our small production team in Upstate New York rather than being sent overseas to a large factory whose working conditions and production process are invisible to us.

Keeping that work within our own studio lets us stay connected to both the people making the jewelry and the standards of the finished piece. It also means the cost of the jewelry has to support real jobs, skilled labor and a sustainable small business rather than simply achieving the lowest possible production price.

That distinction matters to me. I want to know the people behind the work, and I want the way we make jewelry to reflect the same care I expect you to feel when you eventually wear it.

Quality Doesn’t Have to Mean Buying the Most Expensive Piece

This is an important distinction. I’m not suggesting that everyone should buy the most expensive piece of jewelry they can possibly afford. That would completely miss the point.

Sometimes sterling silver is exactly the right choice. Sometimes gold-fill lets you build the stack you want without making a solid-gold investment. Sometimes you start with one ring and add another a year later. And sometimes there is a piece you know you’re going to wear for decades, and that’s when solid gold begins to make more sense.

One of the things I love about CMD is that those materials can live next to one another. A stack doesn’t have to be all one thing to be valuable or personal. You can build slowly, mix materials and invest differently in different pieces depending on what matters most to you.

Can Old Jewelry Help Pay for Something New?

There’s another way I think about the cost of quality now that Reconstruction has become such an important part of CMD. Sometimes the valuable material you need is already sitting in your jewelry box.

Gold you no longer wear may have recyclable value that can be applied toward new materials for a Reconstruction project, and stones can sometimes be incorporated into a new design. It doesn’t make the craftsmanship free, but it can allow existing value to become part of something you’ll actually wear.

I love that idea because quality and longevity shouldn’t only mean preserving an object exactly as it began. Sometimes the most sustainable thing we can do is give good materials another life.

So, Why Does CMD Jewelry Cost What It Costs?

Because there are people behind it. Because materials matter. Because making things slowly and well costs more than making them as cheaply and quickly as possible. Because we want you to be able to wear what we make rather than treating it as disposable.

I still completely understand when someone tells me a piece isn’t within their budget. Good jewelry is an investment, and I never want to pretend otherwise. My hope is simply that when you look at a CMD price, you understand a little more about what sits behind that number.

And if you want CMD in your collection without making a large investment all at once, start where it makes sense. Explore our rings, build a stack slowly, choose the material that works for you, or join our CMD Bucks Rewards Program and let those rewards accumulate over time.

I’m never interested in making jewelry cheaper simply for the sake of making it cheaper. I am very interested in finding thoughtful ways to help you choose something well made that fits your life, your style and the investment you’re comfortable making.

That, to me, is what quality is really about.

Yours truly,
Colleen

 

© Colleen Mauer Designs. All rights reserved.
Published: February 26, 2025
Updated: August 25, 2026