I just returned from dinner at a local Chinese food restaurant where my husband and I shared a main and entre to the tune of $35.00. Not an unusual price for this sort of meal.
This is a meal that is consumed in about 30 minutes and will be GONE by tomorrow.
I’ve priced my mugs at $35.00 and actually wondered if that was too high.
My mugs are handmade – thrown individually – glazed with my specially developed glaze, fired twice, then decorated further with decals and gold lustre and fired a third time. There is no way that the price can be completely calculated, but it would be high – not even counting the time that I don’t even charge for…
This mug can be used multiple times, give great enjoyment and is aesthetically pleasing.
So why don’t people see that value?
We all constantly pay for meals in the $50-70.00 range and don’t think any thing about it.
But paying $50-70.00 for a plate is considered expensive…why??
I’m sure you each have had these same thoughts…I just needed to vent today.
Peace out.
Marian
Yours are certainly worth that price yet at a local market my friends and I would do well to get $15 for ours. If you are selling online perhaps you will find more discerning customers.
but that’s my point…why is a mug only worth $15.00 when you can pay $15.00 at Macca’s drive thru for a hamburger meal…makes no sense!
That was a great analogy marian! When we are a show we should have a poster with a picture of a plate of food and then one of our piece with a price. I bet people never realize that when they are looking.
maybe…I think I consider myself an artist and to some – pottery is not considered art, but craft and therefore, not worthy, of the bigger price. It’s a conundrum!
Thanks for reading and commenting!
OH BOY DO I HAVE THOUGHTS!! Before I was a full time potter, I was a receptionist. It has always amazed me that, by dint of compensation, my ability to answer the phone politely is more valuable than my skill as a potter.
$35 is definitely not too much for a mug! But I know what you mean, I used to dicker myself down all the time. I stopped doing it once I established for myself an equation on which to base pricing, as opposed to just how much I think it seems like it “should” be. I worked backward: determined how much I needed to make, and then divided by how many pounds of clay i use in a year. My prices went up but I make more money. I just put the pots out there, with the prices, and never apologize or explain. If it’s not to self-promotory, here are the links to the two posts while I was working out my equation.
http://finemessblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/pots-by-pound.html
http://finemessblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/pots-by-pound-part-ii-valuable-input.html
i am working on a third one, in my head, called The Life-Changing Magic of Doing the Math. 🙂
This is awesome! Thanks for the reminder of your posts-they are great. Can I reference them in a blog post follow up?
I plan to do the same – just put my work out there, and if it doesn’t sell…well….then I’ll have to rethink it all!
Thanks so much for reading and commenting!