She was kind about it, genuinely curious. She had bought a small one last spring, 18 by 24, and wrote to ask how I arrived at the price. Not to argue. She wanted to understand.

I tried to answer honestly and it came out badly. I said something about hours, then corrected myself because the hours are not really the thing. A print can take four hours of work and a year of being able to make it. The paper is cheap. The seawater is free, I walk down with a bucket. The cyanotype chemicals cost less than a good dinner.

What costs is the two hundred sheets that went into the bin before the one that worked. The September I ruined a whole batch because I got the exposure wrong and did not notice until the next morning. The fact that I cannot make these in winter, so all the money I need for the year gets made between April and October.

I ended up sending her a voice note, which felt very unprofessional, and she replied that it was the best answer she had ever had from an artist. Then she bought another one.

I still don't have a clean way to say it in writing. "It is the failures you are paying for, mostly" sounds like a complaint. But it is true.