Spent a month on a bust and the materials cost more than the labor
Just priced a commission for a portrait bust. Cararra block, good one, ran me $1,400 before I even picked up a chisel. The work itself took four weeks. I told the client $3,800 and they said yes before I finished the sentence. That's the part that gets me. I could've said $6,000 and they'd have nodded.
I billed $2,400 for a month of my time and nobody blinked. Still can't decide if I'm the fool or they are.
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Honey, that stone don't care how long you worked on it, and neither do they. I been selling quilts my whole life and you can price the cotton and the thread all day, but the years of know-how that make your hands do what they do, that's the part that don't show up on no receipt. And the thing is, the ones who love what you make, they can't tell you what it's worth either. They just know they want it.
Sounds to me like you underpriced what a month of your life is worth, not what the bust is worth. Don't be so quick to call yourself the fool. The client paid what they thought it was worth to them, and they said yes before you even finished. That tells you something right there. Next one, trust that. And don't let it make you bitter, child. Just let it teach you.
Quilts. Now there's a real comparison. Stone doesn't care, but a quilt keeps somebody warm, and there's a human measure to that. A bust just sits there and looks at you.
You're right about the know-how part. Forty years of knowing when to stop, when to push harder on the marble, what a block will and won't do. Nobody pays for that up front and the invoice line says "labor." Always has.
I don't know that I underpriced the month. I think I priced the month and gave the rest away. The client got the deal, not me. But I said yes to my own number, so I can't be too sore about it.