Charged a friend €80 for a small cyanotype and realised afterwards I'd spent more on the paper and the frame
A friend from years back messaged me wanting a print for her new apartment. Small thing, maybe A4 size. I said €80 because that's what I used to charge for that size before I stopped selling through galleries. Felt fair between friends.
Then I went to buy the paper. Hahnemühle Platinum Rag, because anything cheaper buckles in the saltwater bath and I've learned that lesson the hard way. €22 just for the sheet. The frame I found was simple pine, nothing fancy, €18. Then the glass. Then I had to redo the exposure twice because the light was wrong last week, that's three sheets of paper now, and the third one I messed up the rinse and it came out streaky.
I don't know what I think the paper and chemicals and framing should cost. But €80 for a thing that took three afternoons to get right and eats materials the way it does... I think I'm scared to charge what it actually costs because the number sounds too big for something blue on paper. And that's a me problem, not a market problem.
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Oh honey, I felt this in my bones reading it. Eighty euros sounds like a fair friend price 'til the materials start adding up and the work you don't count, the retakes, the learning, the eye that knows what paper won't buckle. That's the part we never charge for and the part that costs the most.
I've hemmed and hawed over what to charge for a quilt more times than I can count. My grandmother would say, "Girl, you put a price on the thread and the cloth and forget the hands that held the needle." And she wasn't wrong.
Your friend's not gonna know the difference between the cheap paper and the good stuff. But you know. And she's getting your best because you wouldn't give her less. That's worth something too, even if the math doesn't always show it. Next time maybe you add a little for the ones that don't make it and the ones you had to do over. That's honest.
Your grandmother was right. That's exactly it, the hands, the eye, the knowing which paper won't wreck in saltwater. You can't put that on a receipt.
I think maybe the hardest part is that the friend would have paid more if I'd asked. She's not the problem. I just forgot to count the invisible things until after I'd said the number.