More tapping....

[Lucie]

I completely agree that pricing is personal. I have a basic formula, then twiddle it if it looks a bit high or low.

Materials x 2 + cost to post / hallmark / package + price for hours worked + 5% "profit".
This allows me to have "sales" periodically.

[Tabby66]

This bracelet is roughly 20mm x 170mm with a thickness of 2mm. As I said, the aluminium doesn't really cost me anything (if anything it's a bonus to get some of the stuff out of the way!!). Even if I was paying for it, the cost would be a matter of pence. To replicate the piece in sterling silver would be about £40.00 in materials.

S.M.

Okay....as a ball-park guide I would suggest £160 minimum and around £200 (maybe £220) maximum.....retail price......given, materials, quality of work, sundries costs (electric, polish, platinol/paint, tools....etc), hallmarking, time etc...

How does that sound?? Way too high?? Not as much as you thought, for retail given on average a 40-50% take on the retail price.....

...interested to hear thoughts

[Stirring Moose]

Okay....as a ball-park guide I would suggest £160 minimum and around £200 (maybe £220) maximum.....retail price......given, materials, quality of work, sundries costs (electric, polish, platinol/paint, tools....etc), hallmarking, time etc...

How does that sound?? Way too high?? Not as much as you thought, for retail given on average a 40-50% take on the retail price.....

...interested to hear thoughts

Many thanks for that, that's really the sort of info I was after. It gives me a rough area to aim for in terms of time spent on the piece, that being the main variable as everything else pretty much costs what it costs. I can see I still need to get a bit quicker in order to make anything of this but, working from these figures, it's not beyond the bounds of possibility given enough practice. I shall keep tapping...

S.M.

[camalidesign]

I think £200 is too low! If you were to sell that via a gallery, they take anything from 30 to 50 % which means you might end up with about £100 for it. If your materials are £40 then you are left with £60 for the labour, overheads and everything else, not a lot! I assume it took you a fair few hours to engrave that, having never done hand engraving myself I have no idea, but surely it would be more than 5 hours?? Basically you would end up paying yourself no more than perhaps £8-£10 per hour (if that actually taking into account your overheads), not a big hourly rate...

Sorry to be negative but really don't underprice yourself, because people will start to expect certain prices from you and it may be hard to raise them when you realise you are not making enough money on a piece. That piece is a work of art, completely hand made one off and should be priced as such I think.

I know everyone have their own way of pricing, but I think it's crucial take into account the cost of selling as well as making! If you sell yourself you have the cost/time of photographing, pricing, editing, writing descripotions, uploading to web site(s), packaging, oging to the post office, dealing with the client via email or phone which can sometimes take a fair bit of time, all of which is also money, time away from making. If you sell through a gallery they will take a large cut to cover their selling costs; premises, staff, advertising, events etc etc. I used to resent paying big commissions to galleries but I now understand why they have to, it is their way of making money of course, nobody can work for free, however nice that would be!

Sorry to get on my soap box, but just want you to get a fair price for your gorgeous cuff!

Carin

[trialuser]

Depressingly, if you type 'aluminium cuff' into the etsy search box, you'll see how little some people charge for their stuff.
Most of it is stamped or etched, you have the advantage that you hand engrave yours.
Some markets won't appreciate the difference in time and cost between engraving and etching though. Comes back to what Carole said about casting if you are in it for the profit I suppose.

[Stirring Moose]

It is indeed a problem getting people to understand the time that goes into making something from scratch. It's a mass produced, instant gratification world I guess, where so few people actually make or fix something themselves that there is little concept of what is involved. Will be looking into casting at some point as sadly this stuff has to pay its way by one means or another. The proper hand made pieces will always be where the thrill is though

S.M.

[EmmaC]

I think you have an obvious talent for engraving, it's not an easy skill to pick up, and I'm sure there is a market that will appreciate one off hand engraved works so don't get disheartened You have the added advantage that as you build a name for yourself your work will not be easy to copycat either, most people won't put in the time to learn it, so you stand out from the crowd.
Places like Etsy drive me insane as not only do you get people selling work for basically the cost of the materials, which devalues the entire industry, you also get a lot of stuff which is copies, of copies, of copies.
Once you have a few bits maybe try putting together a small leaflet/brochure of your work and send it to a few galleries. Keep going, I enjoy seeing your work

[Tabby66]

I agree that pricing is difficult and market testing and reaction helps when you put work in front of potential customers. At least the figures I gave have caused some debate, and I don't disagree Carin that these could fetch a lot more, they are beautifully done.....I have found that holding price and putting my work in front of the right audience is critical.....finding the right audience and those who are willing to spend can be tricky!!

I have also found that it is easier to bring prices down rather than put prices up if you've got it wrong

[Stirring Moose]

Also I would guess there's an element of charging enough to make it desirable. It's maybe a sad reflection on the human condition, but there are people out there who will pay mega-bucks for something just so that other people can see that they have something expensive. The problem then becomes getting well-enough known so that your work is deemed to have the necessary clout to impress the right people.

S.M.