IMPORTANT
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
