Told a client 6,500 for a limestone garden piece. He didn't blink. I've been thinking about that all week.

I quoted 6,500 for a carved limestone garden piece. About 40 inches, one block, some undercutting on the base. Six weeks of work if nothing goes wrong, which it will.

He said fine, when can you start.

That's the part that's been sitting with me. I spent two days on that number. Went back and forth, trimmed it, told myself 6,500 was already pushing it for the area. He didn't ask a single question about it.

I've been undercharging for years and I know exactly why. The first ten years I was just glad to be paid at all. That number got stuck in my head and I never moved it. Stone is slow. A block that looks fine on the outside can have a seam running through it and then you've lost a week and there's no one to bill.

My old teacher used to say if they don't flinch, you left money on the table. He said it like a joke. It isn't one.

So the question I'm chewing on is where the real floor is. I don't think it's a formula. I think it's whatever number makes you not resent the piece by the time you're finishing it. I've resented plenty.

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Ramesh Jha·2w

Sir, your words are touching some old wound in me. I am doing Mithila painting since childhood, learned from my mother, and for many years I also was just happy if somebody paid at all. When you are glad to be paid, that gladness itself becomes the cage, no? The number stays where it first landed and never moves with the years.

But your client not blinking is not only about money. It is telling you that you were the only one in the room who thought your work was small. That is the hardest thing to accept, that we ourselves have been undervaluing what our hands can do.

I do not know about limestone, my work is pigment and paper and cloth, but six weeks of one block with the undercutting, kindly do not trim that number again. If he did not blink at 6,500, he will not blink at more either. Blessings to you ji, may your hands stay steady and your price stay firm 🙏

Mateo Serrano·2w

"the gladness itself becomes the cage" joder, that one is going to live in my head rent free.

I'm nowhere near ten years in, so maybe I'm talking out of turn, but the thing I notice in my own numbers is that I price for the version of me that made the last thing, not the one making the next one. So the number creeps up by like 20 euros a piece and I feel brave. Meanwhile the work changed completely.

Mithila painting learned from your mother, that is a different weight entirely. That is not a hobby you picked up, that is inheritance. Curious what happened the first time you asked for a number that actually matched the years.

Roman PetrakOP·2w

"The version of me that made the last thing" is the sharpest way anyone has put it to me. I've been quoting the guy who was twenty years hungry, and the work has nothing to do with him anymore.

You're not talking out of turn an inch. Twenty euros a piece is how it goes, and it's how it went for me too, then one day the gap between the number and the work is wide enough to drive a truck through.

First time I asked a real number, I said it and then talked for two minutes straight to justify it, gave back half of it with my mouth before he could say anything. He took the discount. That's the part I remember. I handed it to him. So the first time I held a number without flinching, I felt sick for a day and a half. Nothing bad happened. That was the whole lesson, and it cost me nothing but the nausea.

Inheritance is the right word for the Mithila work. That's a different job than the one I do, and I'd never price it like I price a garden block.

Roman PetrakOP·2w

Mithila painting, learned from your mother. That's a different kind of slow than stone, but I'd guess the same trap. Nobody teaches you what the work is worth, they just teach you the work.

You're right that I was the only one in the room who thought it was small. Still chewing on that.

What I'd say to you is don't wait as long as I did. I wasted twenty years quoting the man I was instead of the man doing the job. You already know the cage is there. That's most of it.

Lukas Brandt·2w

The two days on the number, that is the part I recognise. Not the price itself. The trimming. You trim it down not because the work got smaller but because you are negotiating with a ghost, and the ghost is your own rate from 2011.

What I would say, and you may not want to hear it: the limestone is slow, but slowness is not the problem. Carving is slow and the client knows it is slow, that is partly what he is buying. If he did not blink at 6,500 it is because he had a number in his own head too, and his was higher than yours. Next one, quote the piece and not the hours. You will find out quickly whether the two days were necessary.

I did the same for years. Then I raised the price and lost nobody I wanted to keep.

Roman PetrakOP·2w

The ghost is from 2011. That's the part that landed. I know the year, too, which is the embarrassing bit.

You're right that he's buying the slowness. I've never framed it that way but it's true. Nobody wants a garden piece that went up in a weekend.

I can't quote the piece and not the hours, though. Not yet. I don't know another way to arrive at a number. But I can stop trimming the hours after I've added them up. That's a different habit and it's the one that's costing me.