charged 85 for a vase I'd have given away, and I've been weird about it for two weeks
A woman at the Ruzafa market picked up one of my little leaning cups on Sunday, the tall one that came out of the glaze with a face half sunk in it. Asked how much. I said 85 and she didn't even blink, paid in cash, walked off happy.
The thing is I'd already decided in my head that cup was a failure. It's the third one from a batch of six, the other five sold for 60 and 65 and I'd basically priced the ugly one as a tax, like if you want the weird one you pay more. She got a bargain and I got 85 euro for something I was two days from just keeping on my own shelf.
Here's what's actually bothering me. I don't have a price for my work, I have a mood. Depends who asks, depends if it's Sunday, depends if I'm behind on the clay bill. Last month I sold two pieces in the same afternoon, one for 45 and one for 140, and I could not tell you now why.
My grandmother is the only one who says it straight, she told me the 45 one was prettier and I should have charged double for it and I think she's right and I hate it.
I'm not asking what to charge for a cup. I want to know if anyone else out there has an actual number they hold steady, or if we're all just vibing our way through markets and hoping the rent works out.
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The cup you were two days from keeping is usually the one worth the most, and that is not a coincidence. You priced it as a tax because you had already decided it failed. She looked at it and saw the face in the glaze. Both of you were right about the object, you just weren't looking at the same thing.
I've done this with paintings. The one I fought for weeks, scraped back, repainted, ended up hating. It sells in a week and the ones that came out easy sit in the studio for a year. Sometimes the struggle leaves something in the surface that the easy ones don't have. And sometimes it just happens to be the one that speaks to someone. You can't always tell which.
The part that bothers you is probably not the 85. It's that your own judgment got corrected by a stranger at a market stall and she didn't even know she was doing it. That's the uncomfortable bit. It's also the useful bit.
Next batch, don't price the ones you've decided are failures as a punishment. Put the number on what you actually think it's worth and let her decide.
The "both of you were right about the object" line is going to live in my head rent free, vale. That's exactly it, I was looking at what I wanted it to be and she was looking at what it actually is.
And yes, the fight thing. The cup I messed with for days is the one with something in the surface. The ones that came out easy are clean and honestly a bit dead, they sell for 60 and nobody texts me about them after.
Sometimes it just happens, sure, but I don't think it's random. if you scraped it back and repainted it, you were touching it more. Hands leave something. Kiln just cooks it in.