This is the thing, most ceramic artists drastically underprice their work, and I am included in this general statement. Let me break it down for you:
The urchin bowl:
retail price: 45$
gallery %: 50%
that leaves me with $22.50, right?
WRONG!!!
i had to send that bowl,so lets add about 10 bucks for postage, shipping supplies and promotional materials
so now, the bowl is worth 12.50
then I have to pay my bills, buy supplies, etc.
leaving me with about, oh, NOTHING.
A fellow artist complained to me about how much I have raised my prices over the past year, and, honestly, my eyes almost popped out of my head. we should all raise our prices, hell, i know i am going to. at some point, I would like to pay myself, maybe take a real vacation, or heck, be able to afford health insurance.
This also brings me to "the haggler", you should be ashamed of yourself. I have not paid myself a pay check in 2 years of business, and when you say to me that you want a discount, what i hear is that you don't think my work is worth the pittance that i receive after all is said and done. So, please, unless it is in the discount section of my etsy shop, labeled with the word, DISCOUNT, stop asking me to give away my work for less than free.
whoever came up with this whole system has gotten on my bad side. I don't want to price myself out of the market, and hopefully people will look at my work and appreciate the education, thought, time, creativity and resources behind it and will not flinch at the price tag. Most of us make everything we sell by hand, which is a rare and beautiful thing in a world full of walmart, that is worth something isn't it?.
For the sake of all ceramic artists out there, when you pick up a $45 mug, understand that it is actually worth about $100, and you are paying the artist, who slaved for years to learn how to make that mug, and works hours and hours making pots and accounting, and cleaning and shipping every single day, very close to nothing.
And you, artists, stop selling your work for nothing!!! (remember there is some self talk happening for me here)
I am not so much complaining here, I know that I have it made, I get to make stuff for a living, no longer spending the majority of my time rolling burritos and being treated like a retard by the general public. I can pay my rent, buy food and replenish supplies, and that feels good, it does, it feels really good. But when I get tired and everywhere I look people are basically taking money right out of my hands after I just worked an 80 hour week,that part feels really wrong.
20 comments:
I second the motion! Poeple are scared to raise prices. Not me. I work hard and have a talent. I'm at least going to make what your average blue collar worker makes. My mugs are $42. The only people that comment on the price are other potters. Ha! The general public sees the detail and the uniqueness and understands that, for the most part.
See the problem is, potters (or ceramicists) seem to constantly compare themselves to other potters when pricing. STOP IT! Painters don't do that.
I say stop worrying about what other potters think and focus on your own shit.
You rock Heather. Thanks for letting me borrow your soap box.
You said it, sister!
I am always pushing my fellow ceramicists to push up their prices. You my dear, have prices that are entirely too low. And I say that in the most loving way possible. I saw your work at the Museum of Folk Art in SF and choked when I saw how inexpensively the work was priced. Your work is AMAZING and so labor intensive. That urchin bowl should be more like $110.
Judging from your posts here and on FB, it seems like you work about 12+ hours a day. If you raise your prices, it's possible you may sell less, but that means you make less work, which equals a more sane 8 hour day. Which is more time to drink beer-- yay!
I also think it would be nice if galleries took 35% instead of the standard 50....
rock on kyle!
thanks whitney!
I haven't raised prices in almost a year, and be warned, it is time!
I got put off by all the "economic crisis" talk in the fall, and put a lid on my plans for a while..
and now I am busier,more tired, and just as broke!
First, I agree, potters must stop undervaluing their work. We work hard and deserve to make enough money to live comfortably.
I have friends who are production potters and sell their mugs from $9-$12. I make far less of them and sell mine for $20-$30. No difference really besides how we look at the work...It's far more precious to me.
Looking at your work I would say you could double the price and not lose business. There's a lot of labor, time and passion there.
When I set my prices I assumed I would lose 50% on average to business expenses everything from materials to commissions.
As someone who has spent years hauling my stuff around and setting up and tearing down I now see the benefit of gallery sales. All I have to do is make and deliver and they send me checks! The keep the shop hours, keep the shop, market, merchandise, do the paperwork, pay the electric bill and do the dusting. They deserve the money too. Realistically I would say 40% is the minimum I would want to pay and 50% the max. Every time I have dealt with someone taking less than 40% they've been on such a tight budget they couldn't effectively do their jobs.
I recommend getting out the pencil and paper. Write down how much money you need to make a living. Write down What pieces you make and how much you get for them, then figure out what you have to make minus 50% costs to meet your needs.
When you know that number look at what sells well everywhere and make more of them and start searching for more ways to market them.
I have found sales from my home are doing very well for me. In fact I am doing one again this weekend.
Take names and addresses everywhere you go, email addresses too. Keeping current customers is easier than getting new ones.
This isn't the easiest time to survive, but it can be done. I'm having an unplanned sale this weekend because I have a massive electric bill that won't get paid any other way. I also have a representative on the road for me who will be selling my work for me. Between us I hope to make that bill and buy some groceries too. Next is the mortgage.
hate to be an a**hole here, but if you are getting what you need off a 20 dollar mug, then how come you can't pay your bills?
*thumbs up* 100% ;)
I once attended a workshop with Takeshi Yasuda in Switzerland. He told us the follwing story: He had to work a lot to fill his shelves, the prices were rather low and he could sell well. So again he had to spend a lot of time to fill the empty space on his shelves. After thinking the whole thing over he came to the following conclusion: double the price! He lost some of his old customers (they were surprised to see the new price label) but he got new customers.
He was not forced to work so hard again, and he made a better profit:
Think it over!
Carlos
Heather,
I'm building and maintaining a business just like everyone else. Sometimes things happen to throw the plan off.
I had a couple shows tank because of weather. I had 3 cars go down with massive repair bills at once. I have some people representing me who are behind in paying me to the tune of about $4000. Life happened to them. We're working on it.
I'm doing OK most of the time. So All I am advocating is some planning ahead look at the real numbers. Obviously since I am having an unplanned emergency sale I don't have enough of a cushion yet, but I'm working on it. I can do that, or quit and frankly I can't imagine life without clay.
You've got some great stuff out there Heather. I think you should be able to pay yourself. That's all I'm saying. Best of luck.
If you have a regular sale do not lower your prices. You have a few special, unique pieces in its design. I consider you to be a very creative artist. I love your work.
It's scary, indeed.
It's hard to make "art" and sell it as pottery.
Pottery seems, by nature and with few exceptions, to have a ceiling -- a price point beyond which the public won't buy.
And one of the snares that entraps us who make our living in clay is that we can usually find one or two who will pay the higher prices. But one cannot build a marketing strategy upon those one or two exceptions. There are no Medici anymore.
And so we spend half of our time making "stuff" about which we care, we dream, we feel...
...and the other half devising emperor's new clothes in which to wrap that "stuff" in an attempt to fool the public into forgetting that it's "just a pot".
The urchin bowl is amazing... and under priced! At least double your current price. There are people that will pay this much.
Your rant has echoed my feelings completely. "Regular" people-- our buyers-- don't understand the work that goes into each piece, or the extra uncounted hours (and dollars) spent on shipping, labeling, pricing, marketing, accounting, etc. When they ask for a discount, they are just looking for a deal and not realizing what a slap in the face it is to the artist.
Your work is beautiful. Raise your prices, they are worth it. I've been following your work for a while (via etsy and your blog) and been entranced by the textures and forms you create.
wow!
thanks for this engaging conversation.
I raised the price of the urchin bowls today by 30%, and will do so again in a few more months. Though I do think that the price should be double what it is, I don't feel right making such a drastic change overnight. I usually increase the price by 20% at a time.
I'm glad you wrote what every other artist is thinking. I also need to raise my prices and need to figure out what percentage to do so.
I am fortunate enough to have an art related day job but I would like my secondary income to be less about treading water and more about actually earning! I too would love to go on a vacation.
Your rant is completely valid and no one should be asking for discounts. You have very beautiful and unique artwork and the price should reflect that.
Glad you opened the door to a sensitive subject...
Why does pottery sell for so much less than other mediums...?
-Customers and/or the Gallery should always pay for shipping
-Potters, follow her lead and raise the bar for heavens sake
-If you can't raise your prices then get out of the "mug & bowl" business and create other artful clay work that would demand a higher retail price
-Your Urchin Bowl appears that it should retail for $110 (include a gift box and proper artist tag)
-50% "commission" is not a commission, that's wholesale/retail (i.e. the artist has a minimum dollar amount for an order placed and the store or gallery and net 30 in enforced by the artist)
-Never offer inconsistent discounts
Amen!!! I have recently raised my prices, although sales on my work have slowed down tremendously in the past several months. I know the economy will pick up again & I am busy trying to find new ways to market my work. Your pieces are stunning and, to me, worth every penny.
I agree with Kyle Carpenter, you should not compare you work to others. Sometimes a mug is a mug. Sometimes a mug is a beautiful, functional item, and sometimes a ceramic piece is a stunning work of art -- such as yours.
I think if you painted a gallery room all black, no- a rich ocean blue, and placed the urchin bowl in the center on an all glass stand, you could sell it for $400. And then you could go buy some handmade mugs to support your poor artist friends!
There are so many issues here, I don't know where to start, so let me start by complimenting you on your work. It is very well done, and it is apparent that you work hard at it. I have attempted several pieces like those that you sell, and they have not turned out as successfully; also, they were quite labor intensive, so I agree that your work is underpriced. Great work!
Now that I have the niceties out of the way, I must take issue with the sense of entitlement that some have; the attitude that "Because I have decided to do it, the world owes me a living."
Wait staff are constantly complaining, about various bugaboos, like the working hours, tips, customers, etc. With me, their complaints fall on deaf ears. "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" applies to waitstaff and pottery, and any OTHER career you might choose. If you don't like being a waiter, then get a new job. Likewise, if you don't like being a potter, then get a new job. Where is it guaranteed that you will make $75K a year as a potter? or $25K, or ANY money for that matter? Nowhere, and by no-one. Your talent is only worth what anyone is willing to pay for it, which may be damn little, especially in this country. If someone doesn't care for ceramics, they could care less that you are not selling your pieces for a profit, in fact, they don't are at all. Bottom line? Do the best you can, and be quiet. You're not alone.
The day galleries take less than 50% is the day humans stop needing to breathe oxygen, it will never happen.
And what about "price-fixing?" That seems to be the call of many potters and artists. Most of you are probably too young to remember the gasoline price wars of the 60s and 70s - a station would be selling gas for $.30 a gallon, and the station across the street would say "Oh yeah? I can sell gas for $.28 a gallon!" Then the station down the street would sell it for $.27 a gallon, until the lowest price was reached.
Who benefited? The consumer.Now, it seems all companies band together and sell gas, food, whatever for the same price, and there is little choice for the buyer. There seems to be a similar situation in the pottery world, where a mug is "supposed" to sell for at least $20. One of the posters above has already said that his friends can sell mugs for $9, they have lowered the cost of production to that point.
Is it the best thing for the handmade pottery buyer to have to endure that kind of unspoken price fixing that occurs in other industries? And what makes your mug $20 better than a nice mug from target? It's handmade? So what? All I want is a nice mug to hold a beverage, and I can get that for $5 or less; is yours better made? Could be, but sometimes not. Grouping together and pricing work out of the market is not going to help anyone, especially in the face of all the imports coming in.
Lest you think I am unfeeling, both my wife and I are professional potters, and deal with these issues all the time. They are not easy issues to confront, but you have to pay your money and take your chances, and just hope for the best. If you have quality work, it will be recognized.
"There's no safety net,
you get what you get,
What'd you settle for?"
-Henry Rollins
OMG, Henry Rollins, you just made me soooooo mad.
"What is better about your mug than a mug from target?" How about that heather made it- with her hands and imagination- and not some machine pumping out millions at a time.
"Servers complaining all the time" Yeah about a living wage. We're not complaining that our stock portfolios aren't bringin' in what they used too, we're complaining because we can't buy books for school or pay for our son's daycare.
Anyway, Heather... Your work is absolutely magical. It is clear the hours you put into each vessel and sculpture. I would not expect to pay less than $100 for something handmade that had that kind of detail and precision. And I am a starving student... But I would still consider saving for a piece at that price on my shoestring budget. That is because your work is worth that. It's very valuable.
I do agree, however, with Charles' comment on the value of the gallery. They also deserve to be compensated, which is yet another reason to raise your prices. They are your marketing team, your store front, public relations officer, and your cashier. They too, work hard though we don't always see it as the public doesn't always see how hard we work on our pieces.
Also, perhaps galleries also have to have high percentages because we tend to ask less than enough for our work? Maybe?
P.S. I love your work! ;)
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