How do you set prices for your work? 🤑

[ElisabethB]

Hey artists, crafters, and makers! I think we can all agree that setting prices for handmade items and artwork is challenging. You need to consider the material expenses, your own time and effort, and the uniqueness of the finished item, to name just a few. How do you decide the sale prices for your work? Share your tips and learnings with us below! 😊

[JK_Fiber_Art]

Hi Elisabethb,

I'm surprised no one shared any thoughts on this - we have always struggled with this exact question.   It's easy to figure out material costs, but how does one consider their labor ?   If artists were in the same category as trades professionals (plumbers, electricians, mechanics, etc.), we could easily charge by the hour however, if we did that, we would never sell anything.  For example, I can easily put 20 plus hours into creating a small hand quilted wall hanging.  When you consider the design time, picking the materials and doing the actual work - based on let's say $75 an hour - that would be $1500 - realistically, I couldn't sell it because people just don't understand what goes into creating and making something totally unique.  And they don't consider your skill set as compared to other professionals.   We have to put a price out there that we think would work and go from there.  Depending on the size and type of the wall hanging - prices range from $100 to $500.  Bottom line, there's no exact formula that works for us - it's what you think people will pay and go from there.

jk

[GeekInStitches]

It's always so difficult to price things. I've come to recognize price shock in people's eyes, even when they try to hide it.  Pupil dilation is a dead giveaway 🙂   

I'll give some back story first, because my artwork is very different from traditional artwork.  My artwork is definitely an outlier 🙂

I've become more comfortable with pricing, but it's taken a coupe of years.  I'm in my 4th year.   I've raised prices on items steadily over the last couple of years.  Artwork went up $10-$40 from my original pricing.  I tested the waters the waters.  My first Metro Atlanta event is at the end of the month.  This may very well be a massive eye opener. 

I think I've lucked out for a few different reasons. I also have a very broad line of practical sewn items, like key fobs, microwave safe bowl holders, zipper bags, fabric bookmarks, quilted trivets and the like.

Once I amass enough of the sewn items, I move on to artwork.  I would do all artwork, but some people just aren't in love with art, but want something practical.  I've found my balance.

I have all fabric based art, all acrylic based art and a mixture of both of those.  The catch with my artwork is that it's all quilted and/or sewn at some point of the creation process.

I've been steadily increasing prices from $45 to $65+, depending on size and complexity.  These are typically between 16" x 16"  to 18" x 24"   The surprise here is that I actually started selling more after the prices went up!

I'm about to release much larger fabric pieces between $90-$140.  These are around 24" x 30", some smaller, some larger.

The canvases I use for the acrylic art tend to be single colors.  I treat the canvases like fabric by cutting them strips and shapes that are sewn together.   Sizes closer to 8x8 are around $30 and larger 20x20 are $50-$65.   The really big ones are Progressive Pride Flags that are pulled from 12 or 13 different canvas and be around $120-$150.  I paint very large canvas- like around 45" x 60".  I buy my raw 7oz canvas in bulk from Blick.  That went up around $1.50 a yard since COVID 😕

I also custom-build all of my frames with a miter saw.  This is a major Pro in my favor, because the size of what I make literally doesn't matter.

The bottom line is that I'm able to distribute my profit margins across everything to have it balance out a little higher.

I created a Behind The Artwork article a while back that goes over everything in a little more detail.

https://geekinstitches.square.site/behind-the-artwork