I'm an ethical jeweller. I charge £40 per hour for my pieces. So when I make a piece, I charge the pro-rata rate, I charge the material coat plus 10% to cover fluctuations plus extra for profit. That's my wholesale price. To get the retail price, I times that figure by 2.6.
That's how business works. It's not just the cost of the materials plus a few quid for profit.
I'm not using my real working hours or real figures... this is just an example.
I work around 40 hours a week, and you might then go.. "so you're earning £1600 a week, you're ripping people off". But I don't. I spend around 15 hours a week doing work which doesn't involve making anything. Those 15 hours can't be billed to anyone. I need to answer emails, produce new catalogues, sometimes source new suppliers, sort through orders, update the website, create ad campaigns, write product descriptions, create boards for new design ideas, research jewellery styles, do my books etc etc. So I'm working but I'm not getting paid. I am only paid for the time I spend making products, which is around 25 hours a week. So that's £1000 a week.
But out of that, I need to pay my insurance, my website host, my email host, my advertising cost... everything. Then I can take me earnings out.
If you don't want to pay handmade prices then don't buy the pieces. Continue buying cheap, mass produced junk.