IMPORTANT

UPDATES ON SILVER PRICING AND SUPPLY

This year, the global silver market has experienced significant volatility, with prices reaching record highs and demand continuing to outpace supply. This has had a direct and unprecedented impact on the cost and availability of silver products, including Art Clay.

Below you’ll find recent letters Petra has sent, which explain the situation in more detail. They outline the reasons behind recent price increases, changes to how pricing may be managed going forward, and the current limitations on stock availability. Please take some time to read through these, if you've not already received them via email. Just click the plus sign to expand each letter.

Important points to not miss:
- We are no longer able to provide advance notice of price changes. Prices will be reviewed and adjusted as required.
- Varying purchase limits will remain in place while stock is constrained from the supplier.
- If you teach or sell your work, plan ahead. If you commit to a price for a class or commission, make sure you’ve got the metal you need. For the near future, price classes and commissions allowing for potential increases to protect yourself.

Click below to expand and read the letters.

Wareham, 2 March 2026

Hi,

A brief follow-up to my letter of 26 January regarding silver pricing.

Since our 10th January price increase, the silver market has remained highly volatile, with prices continuing to trade at multi-year highs. Demand for physical silver continues to outstrip supply.

Although there has been a slight drop from the astronomical peak we saw around 28 January, prices remain significantly higher than they were late last year.

I’d like to clarify an important point: our January increase was based on stock purchased last year. Current stock is being bought at substantially higher market rates, and as a result, further pricing adjustments will be necessary.

Reminder:

A big change is that we are no longer able to provide advance notice of price changes. Prices will be reviewed and adjusted as required.
Varying purchase limits will remain in place while stock is constrained from the supplier.
If you teach or sell your work, plan ahead. If you commit to a price for a class or commission, make sure you’ve got the metal you need. For the near future, price classes and commissions allowing for potential increases to protect yourself.

Sending my warmest wishes,
Petra

Wareham, 26 January 2026

Hello.

I’m sure you’ve been following the wild ride that is the silver and gold market. We’re in absolutely unprecedented times. For most of modern history silver and gold have moved pretty steadily, but right now we’re at record-breaking highs and it keeps climbing.

I wrote a little about this in my last letter, in short it is due to a huge demand which outstrips what silver is available (gold and silver are seen as safe investments in a turbulent world driving prices up, physical silver is now also heavily used in industry and, unlike in the past, much of it is not reclaimed and is instead lost in discarded products such as solar panels and EV car batteries).

Since November silver price has doubled; it’s jumped ~40% since we announced a price increase. Here’s a chart of the silver over the last 5 years, the orange shows how much it’s gone up in SUCH a short period of time.

In the 23 years I’ve been involved in jewellery making, we, and other, silver suppliers have never seen anything like this. With rapid changes we’re figuring out how to best manage things, whilst caring for our customers. If you rely on silver (whether clay or sheet and wire), I know you’re feeling unsettled and worried. We all long for some stability but unfortunately that isn’t coming our way in the very near future.

This leads me to two important points;

We can no longer give advance notice of silver price changes. In the past we’ve been able to plan ahead and give notice of silver price increases. Unfortunately we will no longer be able to do this and will review and adjust prices as needed (similar to what traditional silver suppliers have been doing).
Stock availability is limited, so purchase restrictions will unfortunately remain in place. Art Clay is struggling to meet demand around the world, we have a few orders waiting to be fulfilled.
If you teach or sell your work, please plan ahead and price classes and commissions allowing for more increases. If you set a price, make sure you’ve already got the silver.

By the way - I’ve seen rumours about Gold Clay production being stopped on Facebook, I can let you know this is not true but the price is increasing daily.

I do understand how hard this all is.

With my warmest wishes and hopes for a more stable situation soon,
Petra

MY LEAST FAVOURITE EMAIL TO WRITE

Hello.

You’re probably expecting this letter. I wish with all my heart that I didn’t need to send it.

I’m sure you’re painfully aware that the price of silver keeps rising. Silver had a record breaking year in 2025, with an increase of almost 160% - in just the last six months it doubled in price. If you buy any “traditional” silver like sheet or wire, you will have seen the price increase drastically over the last year.

Did you know that 2025 was the 5th year in a row in which demand for silver outweighed supply? Due to surging industrial demands, between 2016 and 2024 the yearly demand for silver increased from 992 million ounces to 1.16 billion. But over the same period, supply fell from 1.06 billion ounces to 1.02 billion. So whilst there was a surplus nine years ago, recently there is a deficit.

Not surprisingly we’ve had a significant price increase from Aida (who make Art Clay). If you’ve been with us over the last year or two, you’ll know that our two previous price increases were kept absolutely minimal (around 5 and 8%) and well below market price increases, whilst the price we paid increased substantially each time.

We kept it low hoping that the price of silver would stabilise. This has not been the case, and has left us well behind what we should be charging. The latest increase from the manufacturer of Art Clay is - not surprisingly - the biggest yet. Though we’re pleased to say it is still less than we dreaded, looking at the rate at which silver has increased!

Again, we’ve decided to not pass on the full increase, in the hope that the market may settle (though looking at predictions this seems unlikely apart from some short term dips).

Our increase will be around 32% and the new prices will come into effect Saturday 10th January.

IMPORTANT

We have a small amount of Art Clay Silver available at the pre-increase price. We’re limiting purchases before the increase so as many customers as possible have a chance to get some silver at the current price.

Art Clay Silver items already have a max purchase of 2. We are now setting a maximum total spend limit of £250 on Art Clay Silver products before 10 January at the pre-increase price. This will be handled manually.

Our site can’t manage a restriction like this, so you can still place an order for more - but if the value of Art Clay Silver products on your order is over £250, we will not process your order and it will be put on hold or refunded.

We feel this approach will be fairer than just putting up the prices without warning, or allowing just a portion of our customers to get all the pre-price increase stock. We are doing our best to be fair to all our customers during this time of volatile changes in the silver market.

Again, I’m so sorry to be writing this letter.

I understand how unsettling and worrying this all is.

Sending warm wishes,
Petra

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