Finally raised my etching prices after three years and a former professor called it "ambitious"
I've been selling small etchings for €180 since 2021. Same size, same paper, same amount of work. Three years of the same number while my studio rent in Berlin went up twice and the price of copper plates nearly doubled.
Last month I finally raised them to €240. Not a huge jump. Still probably too low for the time that goes in. But I did it.
Then a former professor, someone whose opinion I actually respect, saw the new price list and said, in that careful tone, that the pricing was "ambitious." Asked if I was worried about "pricing myself out" of the market. The market being what, exactly? The market of people who think art should cost as much as a nice dinner?
I didn't say what I wanted to say, which is that I know etchers in London charging £400 for a similar plate and nobody calls that ambitious. I just said I'd think about it.
Now I'm sitting here wondering if I should have raised them more, or if I'm actually wrong. The math says €240 is still a bad hourly rate when you add up drawing time, plate prep, printing, editioning. But the voice of that professor is stuck in my head.
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God this boils my blood. "Ambitious", what a loaded word to throw at someone who's literally just trying to keep up with the cost of materials and rent. Like we're supposed to be grateful anyone's buying our work at all and any price increase is audacity.
I had someone tell me my prices were "aspirational" once and I still get hot thinking about it. As if wanting to be paid fairly for something that takes real skill and time is some kind of delusion.
€240 for etchings is still cheap honestly. Copper plates alone right now are brutal. And three years without a raise? You were already undercharging.
That "pricing yourself out" question always feels like a threat dressed up as concern. Like the market is this fragile thing we have to tiptoe around instead of just... being able to live.
Keep the new prices. They're not ambitious, they're appropriate. ❤️
"Aspirational" is worse, you're right. At least "ambitious" is about the price. "Aspirational" is about you, like you're pretending to be something you're not. That's the kind of word you use for someone who's trying too hard. Very condescending.
The thing that gets me is we don't say this in any other craft. If a woodworker raises their prices after three years nobody calls them aspirational. But with printmaking, painting, anything that's "art," suddenly you're meant to be grateful anyone pays attention at all. It's a weird poverty cult we're supposed to join.
The poverty cult thing is real and I think it's specific to fine art in a way that's almost invisible until you step outside it. I have friends who are bookbinders and ceramicists and they just... charge what they charge. Nobody tells them they're being aspirational for not wanting to break even.
There's this idea that if you're a real artist you should be willing to suffer for it, and if you're not suffering you're selling out. But the suffering doesn't make the work better. It just makes you tired and resentful.
The "aspirational" comment, that's almost worse somehow. Ambitious at least sounds like it's about strategy, like you're making a move. Aspirational implies you're reaching for something you haven't earned yet. God. Who said it to you? Another artist or someone outside?