Tools Of The Trade Part 4: The Price Is Right?

While strategies for pricing a work may not be considered a classic tool used by the artist, the technique of calculating a fair price for a work is an essential tool for any artisan that is in business.  Without an objective method of assessing a price, we run the risk of not being able to afford to continue our artistic pursuits.

As artists, we often struggle with how to price our items since we are creating items from base materials whether they are paint, fabric, stone, or in my case, glass.  Our creations are, hopefully, worth more than the materials we used to create them from, but how much  more?

When I first started out, I had no idea of how to price my work and just kind of did the "Shot In The Dark" method.  I find this tends to be how everyone initially starts pricing their items when they first start out.  At first we're thrilled that anyone would want what we've made.

At my first show that I attended with my lampwork beads, a teenager came up and asked about buying a couple of bead that he wanted.  When he asked the price and I told him, he looked up at me as said, "Why is it so expensive?  It's just sand, isn't it?" 

I didn't know how to respond to him.  I'd just lost a $20 sale and had no idea how to answer him and educate him at the same time.  He'd obviously never been exposed artisan beads and jewelry, and in comparison to the price he could get beads at the craft store, it did seem expensive to him.

After several years of selling my beads and jewelry, I was still guessing at the worth of my work so when I found a class at last year's Bead And Button Show on pricing artist's work, I signed up immediately.   I would highly recommend it for any artists out there who are struggling with pricing there work... and you know who you are!

Finally, someone was going to tell me how much my work was worth  WRONG!  What he did do was give the class a number of factors to consider before pricing our work since everyone in the room worked in a different medium.

The instructor worked in fine jewelry using gold, platinum, diamonds and other expensive materials in the fabrication of his jewelry.  So for him, he needed to really price out how much his material cost was going to be in order to weigh whether or not he would actually complete the work since the materials could end up pricing it right out of the market--no matter how fabulous it would have been.

Fortunately, I work in glass, sterling silver and natural stone instead of gold, platinum and diamonds.  

After spending hours working out formulas, spreadsheets, material pricing, etc., I found that my material costs really didn't impact much of the final price.  The most important factor in pricing my glass work turned out to be my TIME at the torch.

Time turned out to be such a factor, that it is almost the sole basis of pricing my lampwork.  I keep track of the time I work on making the set of beads or a single bead and then multiply it by my hourly wage that I pay myself (pretend you're your own boss), and that's the price of the set.

While lampwork glass can run anywhere from $8 per pound on up past $100 per pound, there really isn't a lot of weight involved in a set of beads. If there is a lot of weight in the beads, such as a large set of tigers, then there is also an equal amount of extra time needed to work and shape that extra glass which can be translated back into time spent in that set.

Well that seems pretty cut and dry and simple doesn't it?  Not so fast.  If I'm working out a new design or trying a technique that I'm not familiar with it may go much slower initially until I get the hang of it.   Is it fair to charge the first few customers of that style twice what it will cost the rest of the customers just because I wasn't as adept at that technique?  Of course not.

If I find that my time is unusually long on a particular bead or set of beads due to technical proficiency, then I examine the finished set and figure out the amount of time it should have taken and price it based upon that instead.

When it comes to pricing my jewelry and gift items that include my beads, then I must include the prices of the silver wire, toggles, findings, stones and other items into the cost of the piece.  Fortunately, I know what those costs are and that is an easy calculation to add them into the formula with the additional time of designing and stringing the items.

I always strive to give all of my customers good value for their money, but at the same time ensure that the prices I charge enable me to continue working in this wonderful medium.

If art was priced solely based upon the materials used, then I could buy a Picaso painting for the few dollars of paint and a canvas that it took to create it.

If I ever get asked again, "It's just sand, isn't it?"  I can guarantee you I'll know how to answer them this time around.

Glass COE - Why Can't We All Just Get Along

Not all glass is created equal, which means that it is not all compatible either. While this wouldn't be a big deal if I only ever made beads using one color per bead, but that would be very boring for me and for you!

One of the first things new glass artists learn is that the COE, Coefficent Of Expansion, of the glass colors being used must all be the same. What's that, you say?

I know that sounded like a bunch of boring science-speak, so let me boil it down for you. When glass gets hot is expands. As it cools, it contracts. In order for a glass bead or any other object to survive the annealing and cooling process, the amount that each glass expands and contracts must be the same as all of the other glass in the piece.

If one color expands twice as much as the others, it will expand and contract too much, and the beautiful piece of art will crack and sometimes break apart due to the stress this incompatibility causes.

One minor exception is frit if used sparingly. Many of the frits on the market do not match the COE of the soft glass, but they have a secret that will enable them to be compatible when used on the surface of a bead as decoration. What's their secret? The lead content in the glass enables it to be compatible with glass that has a COE that is close to the frit. It is not so compatible that it can be covered with clear glass, a process known as encasing.

However, a thin layer on the surface of the bead can be used quite successfully as long the frit does not comprise more than five percent of the bead's glass. This is called the 5% Rule in glass circles.

If you have any questions or would like to suggest topics, I can be reached through this blog or through my web site or shop at

http://LampOfLuxury.com/
http://burningscentsations.etsy.com/

Have great afternoon!

What the FRIT are you talking about?

There are many decorating techniques available to beadmakers when creating a new bead, and one of the staples of our art form is call Frit. Frit is powdered glass that hot (nearly molten) beads are rolled in to apply a speckled color pattern to the bead.

It can be melted into the bead so that the bead is smooth, or left bumpy on top of the bead. Leaving it bumpy is called Sugaring the bead. This technique works great for transparent frit since it will tend to look like ice crystals on the surface of the bead, but other colors work well too.

Frit comes in a wide range of brilliant colors and sizes from a fine powder up to very large chunks (which are not used for rolling onto a bead or other item). The size of the powder affects how the final design will look.

Rolling a cooler bead in frit will cause less of it to be picked up by the bead which makes give the beadmaker control over how much color they want on their bead.

Frit comes from various suppliers in both single colors or color blends. I use both in my work, but the color blends really add a lot of pizazz. I have also created my own color blends on occasion from jars of the solid colors. Experimentation is the key with this technique and there are no limits to what can be done!

Frit is very useful, versatile and, of course, can be used in many more ways than I have time to mention here. I'll save the additional techniques for a later posting. :)

If you have any questions or would like to suggest topics, I can be reached through this blog or through my web site or shop at

http://LampOfLuxury.com/

http://burningscentsations.etsy.com/

Take Care