Crafty Tuesday: Don't Sell Yourself Short
This weekend I didn’t sell any puppets. Had a lot of people taking pictures with them. There were a lot of smiles and the rest but no sales. I didn’t not drop my prices on them even though if I had taken about ten to thirty dollars less I would have sold at least two and probably more. But I didn’t drop the price because the price that I set is my price that I have calculated so I am not selling things for a loss.
I learned that from an artist that I admire greatly. He told me to figure out how much I was spending for materials per puppet and how much time per puppet and to multiply the time by at least minimum wage if not a little more since this was a set of skills that I had spent time refining. I did that and found that I was selling everything at a loss. Some puppets more of a loss and some less, but all were being sold for materials if that. I gave it real thought and next time my prices were higher. I got complaints from people that they were higher than the previous convention. But I stuck to my guns. I need to get back what I put into a puppet. It is not worth my time if I don’t.
So the simple formula is
Materials Cost + (amount of time x minimum wage) = price of the object d’art.
Materials cost covers how much material that goes into the object. Now this can get tricky because artists tend to buy things to do more than one projects. I know that for a basic puppet body I will be using a little less than a yard of fabric. The fabric can run from $3.00 a yard to $14.00 a yard depending on sales and the kind of fabric I am using and if I have a coupon. I figure when all is said and done it is about 5 a yard. The fuzzy fabric is a little more expensive but I need a little less of it so about $5.00. Eyes will run from about a dollar to 20 dollars depending on the eyes. On my phluzzies I figure about 3.00 for the eyeballs. One feather boa will give me about 2 to 3 heads of phluzzie hair so 2.00 about. The foam is about another 3 dollars. So that is 18 to 20 for materials.
Time is tricky to calculate but I know it takes me 4 hours to go from fabric to full puppet with a basic set of clothes. I know this because I have been doing it for a long time. It uses to take longer but I have learned tricks and methods to make them more efficiently. Minimum wage is currently $7.25 in New York as of Jan. 2012. So simple math would say that my labor cost would be $29.00 so overall I am selling myself ten dollars short.
According to the formula, 18 + 29 = 47 and I was selling the Phluzzies for 30 at NYCC. I am shorting myself 17 dollars. But I know that I can’t sell them at that price so $30.00 is what they were. If I sold them for $20.00, I would just make my materials cost barely. Because I know I won’t sell any if I price them at 47 per puppet.
Other things that need to be thought about is the time it took to create the puppet pattern that one uses and the patterns for the clothing and the rest. Research and development of one’s skills is another set of costs that don’t really get factored in to the final price of art.
I am grateful when I get paid what I am really worth.
I learned that from an artist that I admire greatly. He told me to figure out how much I was spending for materials per puppet and how much time per puppet and to multiply the time by at least minimum wage if not a little more since this was a set of skills that I had spent time refining. I did that and found that I was selling everything at a loss. Some puppets more of a loss and some less, but all were being sold for materials if that. I gave it real thought and next time my prices were higher. I got complaints from people that they were higher than the previous convention. But I stuck to my guns. I need to get back what I put into a puppet. It is not worth my time if I don’t.
So the simple formula is
Materials Cost + (amount of time x minimum wage) = price of the object d’art.
Materials cost covers how much material that goes into the object. Now this can get tricky because artists tend to buy things to do more than one projects. I know that for a basic puppet body I will be using a little less than a yard of fabric. The fabric can run from $3.00 a yard to $14.00 a yard depending on sales and the kind of fabric I am using and if I have a coupon. I figure when all is said and done it is about 5 a yard. The fuzzy fabric is a little more expensive but I need a little less of it so about $5.00. Eyes will run from about a dollar to 20 dollars depending on the eyes. On my phluzzies I figure about 3.00 for the eyeballs. One feather boa will give me about 2 to 3 heads of phluzzie hair so 2.00 about. The foam is about another 3 dollars. So that is 18 to 20 for materials.
Time is tricky to calculate but I know it takes me 4 hours to go from fabric to full puppet with a basic set of clothes. I know this because I have been doing it for a long time. It uses to take longer but I have learned tricks and methods to make them more efficiently. Minimum wage is currently $7.25 in New York as of Jan. 2012. So simple math would say that my labor cost would be $29.00 so overall I am selling myself ten dollars short.
According to the formula, 18 + 29 = 47 and I was selling the Phluzzies for 30 at NYCC. I am shorting myself 17 dollars. But I know that I can’t sell them at that price so $30.00 is what they were. If I sold them for $20.00, I would just make my materials cost barely. Because I know I won’t sell any if I price them at 47 per puppet.
Other things that need to be thought about is the time it took to create the puppet pattern that one uses and the patterns for the clothing and the rest. Research and development of one’s skills is another set of costs that don’t really get factored in to the final price of art.
I am grateful when I get paid what I am really worth.