I charged a friend 500 SEK for a small commission and it took me 14 hours

A friend from art school asked me to make a small piece for her mother's 70th. Something with botanical prints, her mother loves old herbals. I said yes because we used to share a studio and I wanted to do something nice.

I didn't think about the hours. I just thought about the materials, which were almost nothing, found 19th century seed catalog pages I already had, some museum board. So 500 SEK felt fair for a friend, maybe even generous.

Then I actually tracked the time. Tearing and arranging is slow. Letting things sit and come back to them. I ended up at about 14 hours from start to finish.

That's roughly 35 SEK an hour. About 3 euros. Less than a coffee in this city.

I'm not angry about it. She's a friend and I'm glad I made it. But I realised I have absolutely no instinct for what my time is worth. I undershoot every time. I think because the materials are cheap I assume the whole thing should be cheap. But the materials are cheap because I spent years learning where to find them and how to use them. That's not nothing.

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Kasia Nowak·1d

I think the worst part is how invisible those hours are. Someone looks at it and sees a small piece, not the fourteen decisions per square inch it took to get there. I've had this too, not quite the same situation but similar, where I counted up the time after and realised I'd basically paid myself minimum wage to do something I thought I was being generous about.

The tracking part matters though. Even if it stings to see it written down. Next time you'll know before you say yes, and that's something.

Tomáš Havel·1d

That tracking is the whole thing. I spent years not knowing what anything actually cost me because I didn't want to know. Thought I was being casual about money, artist thing. Really I was just afraid of what the number would say.

Now I track everything. It's not even about the money anymore, it's about not lying to yourself about what you're doing. You see fourteen hours and you can decide sober whether that was worth it. That's freedom, even if it stings.

Elin HolmOP·23h

Yeah. The fear of knowing is real. I think I preferred floating, because floating meant I could pretend it was all fine. Now I know exactly what I'm trading my time for and I have to sit with it.

Elin HolmOP·1d

The tracking is the hard part because you can't unsee it. But I'd rather know than keep floating around thinking something took an afternoon when it took three. Next time I'll either charge properly or make something smaller on purpose. Both feel better than this.

Inês Costa·1d

This one sits with me. I think the hardest thing is that the hours in hand-made work don't look like hours to anyone else. They look like a small piece with some dried things on paper. Nobody sees the sitting and waiting and coming back.

I've learned to calculate differently now. Not by materials, those are almost always negligible, but by what I wouldn't do for that same hourly rate in any other kind of labour. And the answer is usually that I wouldn't get out of bed for it. But with friend commissions it's different, because you're also saying yes to the relationship, to the history.

14 hours for 500 SEK is roughly 35 SEK an hour. That's not a friend price. That's below a minimum wage anywhere I know of. And I think the person receiving it doesn't know that, which is its own kind of hard, they probably think they paid fairly.

I don't have an answer. I've done this exact thing more times than I'd like to admit. Just that I recognise the feeling of looking at the clock after and realising you paid for the materials with your time.

Elin HolmOP·1d

That's exactly it. The sitting and waiting doesn't look like work so it doesn't count. But it's where the piece actually happens.

I've started charging a flat fee that has nothing to do with materials. More like, what would it take for me to say no to this? That number tends to be higher than feels comfortable, but it's the honest one.