I finally calculated my hourly rate on a recent commission and I'm not proud of it

I took a commission last month for a clients' wedding invitation suite, pressed flowers, hand-painted, twenty-five pieces. They wanted original watercolor originals, not prints. I quoted $1,800 for the set, which I thought was fair given the detail work and the materials.

I sat down yesterday and actually tracked the hours. Sixty-three hours from initial sketches to final washes, not counting the sourcing of the flowers or the trips to the paper store. That comes to roughly $28.50 an hour. Less than I made as a graduate teaching assistant in 2003.

The work is beautiful. The client is thrilled. And I cannot figure out where I went wrong in my estimate except that I have never been good at accounting for the invisible labor, the thinking time, the false starts, the week I spent testing paper to get the right sizing for wet-on-wet on a heavily textured surface. I charged for the painting. I forgot to charge for everything that makes the painting possible.

I raised my studio rate by 15 percent this morning. It still feels like I'm guessing.

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Inês Costa·4w

I've done this math too, more times than I care to. It's a particular kind of hollow feeling, isn't it, knowing the work is good and that someone else will treasure it, but sitting alone with the number and realising what your own time comes to.

Twenty-five originals though, hand-painted, pressed flowers, at that level of detail. Sixty-three hours sounds like you were maybe even conservative. I think the part that stings most is that the client is thrilled and the work is beautiful, so you did everything right, and the calculation still doesn't sit well.

I don't have an answer. I've tried raising my prices and it feels like I'm making it up, and I've tried not counting the hours and that feels like lying to myself. Just wanted to say I understand the feeling. The work stays good, and the math stays stubborn.

Niall Doherty·4w

Ah sure you've the right of it. The maths doesn't lie but it also doesn't know what it's talking about, if that makes any sense at all. Twenty-five watercolour originals with pressed flowers, Jesus, that's not a commission, that's a month of your life you'll never get back. And you did it beautifully and the client's thrilled and you're right, the number still stings.

I did a run of wedding invitations myself a few years back, linocut, hand-pulled on a little proofing press I had at the time. Twenty-eight invites, each one printed twice for the envelope liners too, what was I thinking. I quoted what felt like a fortune and then added it up after and it worked out at something daft, maybe twenty quid an hour, and that was before the ink costs and the paper I'd cocked up and the new lino when I sliced through a hare's ear on the third carve.

The thing I keep coming back to is, you can't really charge for the years you spent getting good enough to make it look easy. That's the bit that doesn't show up in the hours. Doesn't make the number feel any better when you're looking at it though, does it. Grand work anyway, twenty-five pieces. You've nothing to be ashamed of except your pricing.

Margaret HsuOP·4w

Twenty-eight linocut invitations with envelope liners, that's the kind of thing you only do once, and only if you're young enough not to know better. I admire the ambition but I wince at the maths alongside you.

The pressed flowers are what got me. They're unpredictable, they don't cooperate with deadlines, and they certainly don't care about your hourly rate. I spent three mornings just waiting for specimens to dry properly before I could paint over them. That time doesn't show up in the finished piece but it was real enough while I was standing there watching petals curl.

You're right that the number stings regardless. I keep wondering whether the answer is simply to charge more and risk losing the clients, or to accept that some work will always be a labour of love and plan accordingly. I haven't settled it yet.

Margaret HsuOP·4w

That's exactly it. You do everything right and the math still comes back with a number that makes you wince. Twenty-five originals at that level of detail, you're right, sixty-three hours was probably conservative. I know there were moments I didn't track, small things, thinking time, that I simply didn't count because I didn't want to know.

I've tried raising my rates and lost commissions. I've tried lowering them and resented the work. There doesn't seem to be a comfortable middle, only a series of compromises that feel wrong in different ways.

What have you found that works best for you, in the end? Or are you still searching as well?

Dimitra Vasilakis·4w

Oh I felt this in my knees. The math never lies, does it.

I've done that same calculation after a commission and sat there staring at the number like it's someone else's bad decision. Sixty-three hours of hand-work for 28 bucks an hour, and that's before you count the years it took to get good enough to do work that someone wants to pay for at all.

The thing that gets me is how we price the object, not the time. You think about what the market will bear for a wedding suite, not what your hour is worth. And the client's thrilled, the work's beautiful, so on paper it's a success. But you can't eat thrilled.

I don't have a clean answer. I've started tracking hours as I go now, not after, and adding a buffer I feel ridiculous charging. Then I look at the number and think, well, that's still less than a plumber. And a plumber doesn't have to source pressed flowers.

Anyway. You're not alone in this. The work sounds lovely, by the way. Pressed flowers in watercolor is a patient person's game.

Margaret HsuOP·4w

You've put your finger on exactly the problem. We price what we think someone will pay for the object, not what the work is actually worth. And the years of practice that go into making something that looks effortless, those don't appear on the invoice either.

I've been thinking about whether I'd do it differently next time. Quote by the hour up front, or at least give a range. But then I wonder how many clients would balk at that number before they've seen the work. It's a hard thing to solve.