Pricing

Posted on November 5th, 2004 by hanfaith.
Categories: Art, General.

As my next art show approaches, I’m confronted with that age-old question of pricing.

My mosaic art is steadily becoming less of a hobby and more of an artistic venture. I love to do it, and I would equally love for it to be a viable business. Right now, my books are embarrasing. OK, so there are a lot of investment costs, but after 8 months of being in business, I have a grand total of $16 in the green. Arrrgh! I guess I also have to consider how much I have made (I could be nearing the $600 range in the red if I hadn’t sold a single mosaic). Thankfully, I have maybe 40+ mosaics ready to sell to add to that $16 at no further costs.

Anyway, I’ve been doing a lot of research on pricing artwork. I belong to a yahoo group of professional mosaic artists, and they have provided some very useful resources.

Basically, it’s come down to the pure fact that I am charging too little. And it’s a very common practise. And it needs to change if I want my artwork to be taken seriously. They advise charging 3x what you would consider charging originally - mainly because we often forget to take into account the little things that all add up. So true.

My first 30 or so pieces that I did, I would consider learning pieces. I don’t anticipate raising the prices too terribly high on those. However, my newer pieces need to go up in price if I want art collectors to not look at my work as a dollar-store commodity.

My dream is to be able to make enough income off of my mosaics to significantly contribute to the family. I’d love for Phil to be able to quit his part-time job as a contstruction worker, and only do part-time with the church. That way, he wouldn’t be so burnt out and tired most of the time.

So I guess I’ll price my new works significantly higher at this upcoming show. There’s nothing really to lose - if one person buys a piece at my new price, it would pay for 6 people buying six pieces at the old price. It’s all a learning process… and I’m loving every step of the way!

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It’s finally here!

Posted on November 5th, 2004 by hanfaith.
Categories: General.

It’s a bit late this year… but here’s what we woke up to this morning:


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