Charged 85 for a 5x7 gouache and then did the math on the frame
Ok so I finally sat down with my spreadsheet (spreadsheet is a strong word, it's a notebook with a column drawn in it) and figured out my actual hourly on the small gouaches I sell at markets.
The 5x7s are 85. People love them, they sell, I feel good handing them over.
I'm making about 11 an hour on them. Eleven. Less than the café job I quit.
The part that killed me isn't even the painting, it's that I was counting "painting time" as the whole thing. Not the sourcing, not the taping, not the three failed versions of the same little sky that go in the bin, not the backing boards and the glassine sleeves. And definitely not the hour I spend at the market being charming to strangers, which I'm apparently doing for free.
I don't want to stop making them. They're how people first find me and honestly the small ones are where I actually learn things. But 85 for something that takes me a full day when you add it all up is starting to feel like a habit I can't afford. I'm scared to go to 130 because my regulars are students and they're the ones who buy.
Anyway. If anyone has done this jump on the small stuff and lived to tell it, I'd love to hear how you said it out loud without sounding like you're scolding people.
1
1commentSaveFollow threadShare
Honey, the failed skies are the work too. That's the part nobody counts and it's the part that teaches you. I quilt and I can't tell you how many blocks I've cut wrong and set aside, and if I charged for the ones that never made it into anything, the price on what I do sell would look a whole lot different. Eleven an hour for something people carry home and keep? You're undercharging the making and the thinking both. I don't have a tidy answer for the market price, but I know you're not wrong for wanting to sit with the number.