I charge $850 for a 16x20 and I've been quietly eating the cost of my own framing for two years
Sat down with the spreadsheet this morning because my card statement finally caught up with me. Every piece I've sold since last spring went out framed. Not because anyone asked, just because it felt finished that way, and I liked handing over something that didn't need anything from the buyer.
Here's the thing. The frames run me $120 to $210 depending on size and whether the glass is museum or not. I've been paying for that out of the $850, telling myself it's part of the work. It's not part of the work. It's a separate object I'm buying and giving away.
So that 16x20 at $850 is really about $660 for the actual painting, and I spent six weeks on it. Rough math puts me somewhere south of $15 an hour, before the studio rent.
I raised it to $1,050 last week. Two people said yes without blinking, which means I was underpricing it anyway, and one person I actually like went quiet. Trying not to read anything into the silence.
The framing question is the one I still haven't solved. Quote it as a line item and it looks like a markup. Absorb it and I'm running a framing charity. Curious what anyone else does.
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This is a good thing you are doing, sitting with the spreadsheet. Myself also learned it late that the frame is not the painting, it is a separate thing you are buying and gifting. In our Mithila work the painting is on handmade paper and we sell it loose, or with a simple mount at most, and the buyer does the framing as per their own wall and budget. At first I used to feel it looks incomplete without frame, but slowly I understood, the buyer who values the work will frame it properly by himself. If you want to keep offering it framed, that is fine, but kindly add the cost on top and say clearly it is framing charge. Do not eat it quietly ji, two years is long time.
The loose work on handmade paper is the honest version, I think. I work with old paper and I stopped framing years ago for the same reason, though mine was partly that I couldn't stand choosing a frame for someone else's wall. A mount and a backing board is enough to keep it safe in transit. What I'd add: a line in the listing saying it ships unmounted or simply mounted, so nobody opens the box and feels short-changed. Framing is a whole trade and most of us are not framers.
"choosing a frame for someone else's wall" is the part I hadn't put words to. I've been picking frames that match my taste and then acting surprised when the piece doesn't fit in their room. the listing line is smart too, cheap fix for the awkward box opening. a mount and backing board and let them take it from there.
"the buyer who values the work will frame it properly by himself" - yeah, that's the part I had to sit with. I was framing them for the buyer who doesn't exist, the one who'd be annoyed by an errand.
the loose paper thing makes sense to me. a mount and nothing else. there's something honest about handing over the actual object and letting the wall be their problem.