Part 2 - Clay Connections July 2022: The Issue of Pricing Your Work
Cirrelda: I used to sell at the Los Ranchos Growers market for a couple of years and then at book fairs, I made wooden boxes to display my tiles alongside the books we published. The whole pricing thing has always been really hard. At Los Ranchos Growers Market friends would come up and I would say, “Have a 6-inch tile that I’ve spent 3 hours on for 15 dollars.” It was not great. My Etsy shop started in 2009 -- I love their set up, it’s an affordable fee. I don’t like what they have done in past couple of years where they’re pressuring artists to have free shipping and stuff like that, though. I have over 100 sales on my shop of my house number tiles. I got to a point where I was adjusting the price to make it be worthwhile for me. I charge 15 dollars per number tile, then a set of 4 would be $60. That was higher than at the Growers Market. A really nice “arts and crafts” tile website is charging so much more than I ever did. I just took the house number tiles off of my Etsy because I don’t want to have that take up my time anymore. Since I have retired from teaching, I am do “pop up” sales once a month. My Etsy shop is more of a showcase these days. I was part of a gallery for a few years. I’m inspired by a young artist in Santa Fe who makes one-of-a-kind hand-painted bowls selling at the Hecho a Mano gallery. She charges $150 for her hand-painted bowls, similar to all the hand-painting that I do. And it’s encouraging me to charge more.
Adam Emery - screenshot taken from zoom.
Sheila: What about you Adam, are you selling your pieces?
Adam: I am, I did the studio tour last year. And, that gave me a good chunk of money. I’ve got a repeat customer come to the shop last few months and buy pieces. And I sell from the shop. And then another show.
Sheila: Good for you.
Mo: What studio tour are you in?
Adam: The Santa Fe Studio Tour.
Sheila: Are you doing it this year?
Adam: Yes.
Leonard: Adam did you happen to see in eNews the show that’s in New Orleans?
Adam: I did. I was thinking of doing them again.
Leonard: I saw it and thought about you right away.
Cirrelda: So, Adam the person that keeps coming back to you, is that a good relationship? Is that somebody you feel good about making stuff for them? Do they ask you to make specific things?
Adam: They buy. Uh, some of the work is just bad, and my grandparents have told me that people will buy the bad stuff even if you don’t like it.
Cirrelda: Haha.
Sheila: How are you determining your price for things, Adam?
Adam: I do small work under 10 dollars. And then I have some small work, 40 to 50, 60 dollars. And then large sculptures from100 to1000, depending on the work, the time I put into it.
SatShabad Khalsa - screenshot taken from zoom.
Leonard: SatShabad? You bought my slab roller correct?
SatShabad Khalsa: I did. Yes, I like having it. I don’t use it too often, but I’m glad I have it.
Leonard: Good. How are you doing your sales?
SatShabad: Well, I haven’t been in any shows in quite a while. I’ve done the Contemporary Clay Fair a few times and some school shows in Espanola. So, here I am just kind of interested in hearing how other people are doing, so thank you. When I have priced my stuff, sometimes it was based on where the show was. Like if it was at a school show, I wouldn’t put my best work there so I didn’t need to price very high. But for other places, I guess I might have a similar way to Steve. I base on size, and maybe how long it took me. But if it’s a smaller thing, but maybe took me a really long time, that would be something I’d price higher. Also based on how much I like it or not, hahaha. I rarely do it by time because I take a while to do things, so that’s maybe not getting close to like If I were to have a hourly rate for myself, I wouldn’t get anyone near me. Let’s see, I have, depending on what show, like if we do charge tax or keeping my credit card fees, I add that in. Let’s see. Like I have on occasion, in different shows, I have done really well sometimes, and then not great the next time. Sometimes I hear that my prices are too low. In a way I think that kind of depends on each person, the buyers, their perspective or where they’re coming from financially with this. They say that something is worth more and they can pay more. So, when I’ve heard that prices are too low, I try and raise them a little bit. But then they didn’t sell. I don’t know, there are so many factors. And I don’t know if it has to do with my prices or not, those times that things don’t sell. But yeah, these days I’m mostly just spending my time in class, I’m in Sheila’s class right now, at the college. I don’t have much time to focus on sales really right now -- I‘m just practicing my skills and my designs and that kind of thing. I usually do sales when I have enough hand-building work. Now I’m focusing on learning on the wheel, and so wanting to get my skill level to where I like it, you know whenever I feel like I’m a little bit closer. I might this fall or winter look in to for things to sell, just trying to get into my thing ahead of time. Thanks to everyone for the inspiration.
Judy Nelson-Moore - screenshot from zoom.
Leonard: Okay Judy, it’s you.
Judy Nelson-Moore: So, we had this sentence in the announcement that said, do you make work to sell? And I’m the person who doesn’t fall into that category. I don’t really make work for sale. But I do sell my work. I’ve participated in group shows. And I have a show coming up in Taos where the work will be for sale. The way I used to price my work is I would go around to galleries and look at prices others were charging. I’m a sculptor, by the way. I feel like pricing sculpture is really kind of a different animal. If you go by the hourly-rate you could really be way off. I mean some stuff don’t take very long to make, but they sell for a lotta money, from other artists. But some sculptures that I make take forever and they don’t sell for anything. But anyway, I would go around to different galleries, I would look at work what I thought was sort of comparable in size of my work, and contrast, and I would try and figure out, okay how does that compare with what I would offer my work for sale. And I found that sculptural work is just all over the world in terms of price. So, I gave up that idea. Now what I do, is I look at the work and I say, “How much am I willing to let this go for?” I only put work in that I’m really proud of, what I really like, the rest of it goes under the hammer. And then I look at that and I say, how much am I willing to let go of these for. There’s also some consideration for if it’s too low, people won’t value it and they won’t buy it. If it’s too high, of course they won’t buy it either because they can’t afford it. So, those are the two considerations, “What am I willing to let it go for.” And “How much will indicate its value to whoever’s going to buy it.” Very vague, can’t do a spreadsheet on it, I don’t think. So, that’s my method.
Leonard: I get all the time from the guys at work. There’s a bowl that has a price on it that says $50 or $60 they say, “No you can get more for it.” And I charge a little bit more. I’m doing multiple glazes, the crystals really grow well, and I really like the piece and the way the glaze plays, has a lot to do with the cost. If the glaze is just kind of on there, and it didn’t run the way I wanted it, then it doesn’t have the same effect to me.
Judy: The aesthetic qualities.
Sheila: I think all of you mentioned that, so that’s I think something very significant. Steve and Elaine and SatShabad—all mentioned that, how much they liked the piece. Determined what they would ask.
SatShabad: How much you would be willing to let it go for. That could be a problem too, because if you’re pricing something you don’t love lower. You don’t actually love it maybe.
Sheila: I don’t think anybody realizes the clay can do magic and then it can do – just where it’s placed and everything. These things just aren’t reproduceable most of the time.
Judy: I really wish there was some other way to get my work out into the hands of people who love it, without having to sell it. Certainly, I am not going to give it away, they’re not going to value that, that’s not the way things work in our society. But I really wish there was a way I could give it out to people. Because I feel like we need art in our world, we really need art in our world, especially now, we need people who are looking at art, having it open it up their minds to new possibilities and new ideas. That is what I would really like my work to do in the world. But I haven’t figured out yet how to do that without that commercial aspect of it.
Cirrelda: I love that you bring that up Judy, I’m wondering about trading. I’m also wondering about a book my husband and daughter have read, called The Gift by Lewis Hyde. It talks about the power of giving. I know a lot of public places have art that’s been donated by the artist to be in a specific place. And I know the place is really happy to get it for free. I am throwing those out there because I think that’s a really important point you have, about art needing to be out.
Sheila: And that’s like the mosaic pieces that you do, Cirrelda, they’re beautifying spaces, it’s such a legacy that you create. That magazine that you shared, the mosaics. It’s kind of also what Judy is talking about, but it’s not so easy with a piece that hangs on the wall or sits on a pedestal.
Mo: Another thing is teaching. I think someone like Judy that I’ve actually been able to sit in a class with, and Andrea, and other people. That’s where it’s not a physical piece that I have, but that’s certainly a part of carrying your legacy forward. I just had a class last weekend in precious metal clay, people get so excited to learn how to do this in their art. I have been excited to be a part of that. Frankly, the years I have spent teaching a lot of classes, I have made a lot more money as far as just the money thing. And I love it. So, for me, I have to weigh those two things, I love being here my hand in the clay, I also love teaching which takes a lot of time and effort to think about.
Judy: I’m going to be doing a workshop in Taos, the first weekend in September [2022]. So, anybody who wants to learn how to do paper clay and a trip to Taos – watch for the announcement on eNews.
Mo: I’m going to try to get in on that, so if anyone wants to drive up for the workshop together, let me know.
