If you’ve been looking to purchase a piece of silver jewellery recently, you may have noticed that compared to a few years ago, the prices seem a little different. You are not imagining it. The cost of silver has risen significantly, and over the past year the increase has been particularly sharp.
For small jewellery businesses like ours, that change is felt quickly because silver is not just a small component in what we do. It sits at the heart of many of the pieces we create, especially our 925 sterling silver memorial jewellery which is designed to hold handwriting, ashes and other important details.
Over the past months we have done everything we can to absorb those rising costs behind the scenes. We adjusted where possible, reviewed our processes and held our prices steady for as long as we could. We know that rising costs affect everyone, and it felt important to take that pressure where we could.
But as the price of silver has continued to climb, it has reached a point where it cannot be ignored any longer. Rather than compromise on the materials we use or make changes without explanation, we felt it was better to be open about what is happening.
This is simply a note from us to explain why the price of silver is rising, how it is affecting jewellery makers and why we have chosen to continue working with the same materials and standards that have always mattered to us.
How Much Has the Price of Silver Risen?
The increase has been far from small. In 2025 alone, the price of silver rose by more than 120%, while gold increased by around 60% during the same period. When a precious metal moves by that kind of margin, it has a very real effect on the jewellery industry. Silver is a raw material that jewellery makers purchase directly, so when its price climbs this quickly, the cost of creating each piece rises with it.
Why Is the Cost of Silver Rising?
When something increases in price as dramatically as this, it’s usually not down to one single cause. It’s often the result of several different pressures happening at the same time, many of which sit beyond the jewellery industry.
One of the biggest factors for the cost of silver rising is demand. Silver is not only a precious metal used in jewellery, but it is also widely used in modern technology. Industries like solar energy, electronics and green technology are relying heavily on silver because of its conductivity and durability. And as those industries continue to grow, so does the demand for silver.
At the same time, the supply of silver has not increased at the same pace. Mining costs have risen, and bringing new silver mines into production is a long and complex process. When demand grows faster than supply, prices naturally begin to climb.
Precious metals also tend to react to wider economic uncertainty. During periods where markets feel unpredictable, investors often move towards assets like gold and silver, which are seen as more stable stores of value. That additional demand can push prices even higher.
When you combine all of these things together, it helps us to understand why the cost of silver has risen so dramatically in a relatively short space of time.
How Rising Silver Prices Affect Jewellery Makers
For many jewellery makers, ourselves included, silver is a huge part of our costs. It’s one of the main raw materials we use to create our designs and as you can expect, when the cost of silver increases, that directly feeds into the cost of making jewellery.
Unlike some expenses in a business, the price of silver is something that changes outside of our control. When the metal becomes more expensive to purchase, the cost of producing each piece rises almost immediately. For businesses that work heavily with 925 sterling silver, that impact is felt very quickly.
For smaller jewellery makers in particular, these changes can be difficult to absorb for long periods of time. Larger corporations often have bigger purchasing power or different production models that allow them to spread costs across huge volumes. However, smaller studios tend to feel those changes sooner and harder.
Because of this, many jewellery brands eventually face the same decision. They can either change the materials they use or they can adjust their prices to reflect the rising cost of silver. Each option comes with its own compromises, and every brand has to decide what matters most to them.
What Some Jewellery Brands Are Doing
Like us, many jewellery brands have had to rethink how their pieces are made to compensate for the rising costs of silver. And for many, the solution has been to reduce the amount of solid silver used in their collections and move more towards plated metals or base materials.
Large brands have recently announced that more of their ranges will now swap out 925 sterling silver for platinum plating. It’s an approach we understand, because it helps to keep their designs accessible and maintain price points that feel comfortable for customers while precious metal prices continue to rise.
Plated jewellery like this can still look beautiful, but rather than being crafted from solid silver, a thin layer of precious metal is applied to the surface of a different base metal underneath. For many fashion pieces this works well but it’s worth noting that it does also come with some differences that are worth understanding.
Platinum Plated vs Sterling Silver
As mentioned, platinum plated jewellery is created by applying a very thin layer of platinum over a base metal. At first, the piece can look very similar to solid precious metal jewellery but over time that outer layer will begin to wear away with everyday use. This is simply the nature of plating. As the layer gradually thins, the base metal beneath can start to show through.
925 sterling silver works differently. Instead of a thin surface layer, the metal runs all the way through the piece. Sterling silver contains 92.5% pure silver, which gives it both durability and value as a precious metal.
Because of this, sterling silver jewellery can be polished, restored and worn for many years without losing the material it is made from. It is one of the reasons it has remained such a widely trusted material in jewellery making.
Why We’re Continuing to Use Sterling Silver
With this in mind, we spent a long time thinking about what the right decision would be for us. As the cost of silver has continued to rise, we looked carefully at the options available and what they would mean for the jewellery we create.
Moving towards plated jewellery would certainly make things easier from a pricing perspective. It is one of the ways many brands are able to keep costs lower while precious metal prices continue to climb. But it would also mean accepting a shorter lifespan for the jewellery itself.
Silver has always been valued because it lasts. 925 sterling silver is a solid precious metal that can be worn, cared for and even polished over time without losing the material it is made from. Plating works differently because the precious metal sits only on the surface which means it will gradually wear away with regular use.
Since our jewellery is designed to be worn every day, often keeping a real part of someone’s loved one close, we believe the material it’s made from matters. We aren’t creating pretty pieces of fashion jewellery, but jewellery that holds something deeply personal, whether that is ashes, a piece of handwriting, a fingerprint or a small reminder of someone they love.
Because of that, we have always believed the material itself should be worthy of the meaning it holds. When a piece of jewellery is carrying a memory like that, it deserves to last for many years to come.
So while the cost of silver has risen, we will continue to work with real 925 sterling silver because we believe memorial jewellery should be made from a material that is made to endure, rather than one that will gradually fade.
Why Materials Matter Even More in Memorial Jewellery
Memorial jewellery will always be different to the pieces you wear for style or for an occasion. These keepsakes hold something that can often not be replaced, like ashes, a fingerprint, pawprint or real handwriting. These are details that are incredibly precious and deserve to be kept safe.
When jewellery carries that level of meaning, the material it is made from matters. It needs to be strong enough to be worn often and well made enough to last and choosing 925 sterling silver helps ensure that each piece has that durability, while still holding the beauty and value of a precious metal.
What This Means for Our Prices
Over the past months, we have done everything we could to absorb the rising cost of silver ourselves. We adjusted where possible behind the scenes and held our prices steady for as long as we realistically could. It felt important to do that because we know rising costs are something everyone is dealing with at the moment.
However, with the cost of silver increasing so significantly, there eventually comes a point where maintaining the same materials and the same level of craftsmanship becomes difficult without making small adjustments.
Any price changes we make are simply there to allow us to continue working with 925 sterling silver and creating each piece with the same care and attention that has always been part of what we do. It means we can keep making silver memorial jewellery that is designed to last, rather than changing materials or lowering the quality of the pieces we create.
Thank You for Supporting Us
Before we finish, we want to say a huge thank you to each and every one of you. To everyone who has supported us in the past, more recently, or plans to in the future, it truly means more than you might realise to a small business like ours.
Like many of you, we do not have any control over the rising cost of materials and if it were entirely up to us, we would never have to touch our prices. But the reality is that the cost of silver has changed significantly, and the only way to continue creating memorial jewellery in the same thoughtful way is to adjust alongside it.
We are incredibly grateful for the understanding our customers show and for everyone that chooses to support a small business that works with real materials like this. Thank you for allowing us to continue doing what we care about most, creating pieces that help people hold on to the memories and connections that matter the most.
