In the precious metal family, silver is next in line behind gold, and in recent years silver has been going through a noticeable pricing growth spurt.  Even though gold continues to be more expensive than silver, the percentage increase in price for silver has surpassed that for gold, showing that silver prices are rising faster.  To show the trend for the past 10 years use this link http://www.kitco.com/charts/historicalsilver.html and tick the 2000-2012 box at the bottom.

We all know that silver is a precious metal used to make beautiful accessories, but it's also a very important industrial metal often used in electronic equipment, batteries, solar panels, paint, cutlery and even water purification and some medicines.  This means that the various demands for silver play a huge role in the price increase and hit several markets well beyond the jewellery-making industry.

As the need for raw material silver increases, so does the cost, and the value, of finished pieces like jewellery.

Foreign currencies and precious metals markets fluctuate weekly according to the London Spot Market.  The jewellery-component supply firms who carry stock of precious metal items, eg sterling silver pins, adjust the value of that stock each week in relation to the Spot Market determination, and that adjusts the prices of those items to buyers like me.  I’m also affected by the value of the Australian dollar in relation to the US dollar, as most of my materials are bought from US firms and artists.

I don’t adjust my stock value or my prices according to the weekly Spot Market decisions made by my suppliers.  What I paid for a component remains the value used in costing a finished piece of jewellery, even though some sterling silver components that I stocked up on in 2007 would now cost me more than twice as much to re-order.