Weekend work...

[merimask]

Well.   It was a lovely weekend, but due to an injury (just a leetle one!  I am okay!) I did NOT get to ride my bike.  Which sucked, because it was SO beautiful.  

However, as long as I had to stay inside, I managed to catch up on some Etsy orders including this piece:
 A purple and white unicorn.   I sort of borrowed the Kirin design I did for Magicarade, plus some purple & minus the kirin whiskers.  I hope she likes it...it seems elegant to me.

On a whim, I bought a "how to" book and taught myself how to make knotted hemp necklaces.  I wanted something sturdier for my beloved Beach Heart glass pendant.   Naturally (because I do everything the difficult way) I bought the thinnest hemp I could find & picked a fairly complex twisting knot for my first project.  It turned out great, by the way (I must take pictures), but holy cow...I know people sell these at craft shows and on beaches for not a lot of money.  HOW do they make it worth their while to do so?  Is this yet another example of amateur artisans underpaying themselves?  'Cause I made a 14 inch long hemp necklace and it took almost three hours to make it, & if I charged my usual price for a three hour project it'd be a $100 hemp necklace at least.  :-/   

I used to undercharge for my work too (some say I still do)...it's a common problem artists & artisans face; what price to charge for doing something you love to do?  My Dad had great advice on the subject though (he was a graphic artist...did package design.  If you ever see the Moosehead beer label, you're looking at my Dad's work).

Lifted from my brother John's DevArt journal, Dad's words of wisdom regarding not charging enough for your art:

- (he had an argument with me, because i had charged $25 for a drawing that took me 20 minutes, it's important to note that at the time i was also 22 years old). "What are you doing? If we were in New York, the boys and I would drag you out into an alley and beat the shit out of you. Don't bring down your industry. Keep the value of what is the rarest of all the talents. It took you 22 years AND 20 minutes to do that piece of artwork. Charge accordingly."

So every time someone asks me how long it takes me to make one of my masks, I say "Forty-three years AND three hours".   Kind of puts it all in perspective.  
 
Anyway I hope you are all happy & healthy this week.  Spring is in the air!  How glorious is that?  ^__^ 

EDIT:  I just realized Sasuke is happening RIGHT NOW in Japan.  Say a prayer/ cross your fingers/ send happy thoughts to the other side of the planet for my favorite ninja fisherman.  ^_^

Comments

[ramblinsuze.livejournal.com]

Heh. Your dad was kinda awesome. :)

I think that you can pick up speed with knotting projects like that over time, so they probably figure it's not worth that much. I dunno though. I'm flabbergasted by people who knit and crochet things and then sell them for next to nothing. They think it's no big deal, but I can barely manage to make a scarf! lol It's all in your perspective, I suppose.

[merimask.livejournal.com]

Dad was an original. ^_^

The speed thing is a factor. People are shocked at how fast I make my masks...but the first one I ever made was a simple fox and it took at least 8 hours. So I suppose I could get faster at making knots, but not by much.

I guess it's all about perspective, for sure. No one buys a house in the Hamptons with the money they made selling hemp bracelets on a beach. Most crafts are sold (it seems to me) more as a hobby than a profession. Unless you live in a 3rd world country.

[kelkyag]

So what did your father think your brother should be charging for a twenty-minute drawing ...?

Spiffy unicorn. I like the colors and the fishhook motif. Nontraditional, but presumably the person who ordered it was expecting that?

[merimask.livejournal.com]

Charging for graphic artwork in the advertising world is tricky because there's your hourly rate, plus your mockup, plus your R&D, plus the cost of a finished, ready for print & publication design...all these things can be charged separately. It depends on whether you are buying a single piece or paying for a project.

This site lays it all out pretty succinctly because it lifted its copy almost verbatim from the North American Graphic Artist's Guild handbook re: pricing. http://blueflavor.com/blog/2006/apr/25/pricing-project/ But, there's still a lot of leeway. The NAGAG will tell you straight off that an established artist (like my Dad was & my brother is) can command rates up to $600 per hour for project work.

Dad was just trying to get John to think about the value of a design that's going to be used for marketing purposes. To John, it was 20 minutes out of his time. But to the company he did the drawing for, it was a letterhead, a sign, a tee shirt & baseball cap logo...an identity. Something like that is worth a heck of a lot more than $25.

The unicorn mask commission was already a "fantasy" unicorn with bright lavenders & purples in it, so the non-traditional designs were fine with her 'cause they were a good excuse for more purple. ^_^

[kelkyag]

Selling a design with rights to reproduce it & use it on different media, especially if it was created to spec, seems like a different game than selling something, not to be copied or the like, you made because you felt like it that someone happens to like? The time spent drawing may be similar, but the time spent figuring out what the client wants adds up to far more.

... not a space I have any experience in, from the business side.

[merimask.livejournal.com]

Yes exactly...selling graphic art for advertising/packaging/promotional purposes is very complicated & the value as such greatly increases.

Even for my kind of business, there is a huge difference between selling a single mask on Etsy that I made according to whim &, for instance, the work I did for Cirque.

In the end Cirque bought the rights to the design, which meant they are able to reproduce it & use it promotionally any way they choose, & I cannot anymore (except to promote my business by saying "this is the design work I did for Cirque"). Even though it wasn't any bigger than, say, the mask you commissioned from me, they paid a chunk of money because it was a different kind of purchase entirely.

I knew when I was growing up, watching Dad work & how he worked, that I didn't want to work in quite the same way he did (even though I was sure I did want to be an artist). I got my wish, & I'm happy. I'm a free agent & have no boss; I can create whatever I want & the only constraint I have is the one the market places on me. My brother went the route that my Dad took (only John has pushed it even further than Dad ever did)...he has clients to answer to but then, since he is selling his ideas he gets a LOT more money for that than I get for my individual pieces. There's security (& financial rewards) in that line of work that I'll never have.

[kelkyag]

It sounds like your brother enjoys different parts of the process than you do, too.

[golden-meliades.livejournal.com]

Wah! I thought of you yesterday when it was so darned pretty, knowing a ride for you would be out. I sure hope riding is an option again soon! (PS: Riding is still out of the question, here, so I wasn't out having fun when you weren't. This place is still covered in ice, though thanks to this weekend I can now see the brown of the lane. IF it isn't windy...because we are usually very windy here, the reason I miss most of the bike rides I miss...I might try going out on Tuesday.)

Oh, I wanted to tell you...I won a draw on DevArt. And somehow, I'm not surprised. When I saw this necklace...or more accurately, when I read the description on it...I just felt like I was SUPPOSED to have it. I don't know why, it was instant. And in the end, my name got drawn. One wonders...

Here, wanna see? http://azhuresjewels.deviantart.com/art/Fortuna-108879343

[merimask.livejournal.com]

Agh...I know. :-( It was 55 degrees here yesterday (that's like...13 in Canadian!) which is approaching my happiest biking temp (60) and plenty warm enough for a nice ride (though probably I'd still need gloves). And yet, here I sat.

Oh well...today is going to be just as warm & tomorrow, warmer still. I may yet make it out there.

The necklace is AWESOME, really! Stunning, with all those pretty pearls and even the kanji for "good luck"...how serendipitous! I can see you wearing it, too. It does look like it was made for you. Congratulations. ^_^ What a nice way to start the week!

[madshutterbug.livejournal.com]

Two points, on pricing.

I've had people tell me when they ask how much for a 16x20 double-matted and framed landscape, '$XX !!? It's a photograph! I can do that.'

And I answer, So? Go ahead.

The price includes my time, my talent (and your comment on how many years, plus the time for the specific piece is Right On The Mark), plus production, materials, and time for that. Don't want to pay that? No skin off my nose, mate.

And, since a fair portion of what I do involves people, when it's a planned project, I pay my models. I don't specially figure that expense into those pieces. Some of that work is waiting for other bits to be done for larger composit pieces, so there's potentially a lot of time between making photograph and completing piece.

I use the rate I am paid after nearly 30 years as a Registered Nurse to start figuring how much to pay a live model. If they bring experience, they may already ask established rates. If they are new to modeling, they might expect to only work Time for CD/Time for Prints, but I pay. Brand new models, I drop $10 off what I make. Some experience, or doing figure modeling, I pay a lot closer to what I make as a Professional.

Because they are, too, or are becoming one.

[merimask.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. When people complain about pricing, it's because they really don't understand that there's MORE than just that one piece of work they are paying for. They're paying for your time but also, your ability (which in my opinion is worth more than your time). Also, if they were to purchase all the things you used to get to the finished product (for you it would be an expensive camera with all the special lenses, a good printer, a good photoshop program or perhaps developing supplies depending if you use digital or traditional photography methods, a model's time, lighting equipment, a studio)...it'd add up to thousands of dollars to get the same quality & that's not even taking artistic vision into account.

Look into Artist's Guilds...they all supply the current rates for your discipline & are good to use as a guideline. Applying the same hourly rate for different professions doesn't really work (unfortunately for nursing which, I think, is a profession that is sorely underpaid for the job they are asked to do).

[madshutterbug.livejournal.com]

In my case it doesn't seem to be too far off, particularly for 'beginning' models. I've worked with a couple who are more established and bring an impressive resume. Their fees were rather different, and a tad more than what I've recently paid someone for about six hours work. One of the pros charges $600 US for a full day, and $100 for a single hour. The other was a bit less, I'm recalling $140 for a couple hours in studio.

I simply figure, for myself as the photographer, I really should not be asking much less than what I make (bare minimum) as an RN, and add into that more than the 'hourly' rate (I'm salaried, not hourly, but the hourly breakdown is listed in my job description) by including what health insurance and other benefits add in. After all, without my 'day job' I'd need to be paying for the latter myself.

This comes up to somewhere around $60 US for an hour of time, if someone is contracting me for a private commission, plus expenses listed to include equipment, post-processing time, and printing. Burning a CD/DVD is figured into the printing expenses.

[chibi-kaz.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting question, what to charge. I make gerdany (ukrainian netted bead-woven necklaces) mainly for fun. (click http://www.flickr.com/photos/sfandra/sets/72157606744625166/ to see some) I'm often told "Oh, you should sell these!".... and recently I went onto Etsy to see what people were asking for this type of necklace. I was staggered. Some seemed to me to be practically GIVING them away, and others seemed to be staggeringly overcharging for very simple patterns. So I'm still waffling over putting my craft out there, turning a hobby into a business of any sort (even if a lazy and unimportant one), because there's a delicate balance these days of what will sell at a given price versus the value of my time and effort and skill.

I suppose to a certain extent, I'm a "teach a man to fish" type -- I'm happy to spend hours teaching someone how to make a gerdany, far happier than just selling one....

[merimask.livejournal.com]

Those necklaces are lovely! Very beautiful work.

I guess it comes down to a question of what you want to call your career. I have only one trick: I make stuff & I make it single-mindedly and with very little need for direction from outside. A person like me needs to turn that into a career, 'cause being THAT driven leaves me no room for any other kind of profession. I can work with the same medium day after day, year after year, without pause & without tiring of it, because I keep making new designs & pushing the limits of that one medium further & further. For someone like me, it's not hard to part with my pieces 'cause I know there will always be more & bigger & better.

Some people are creative in a much broader sense (like you!)...they enjoy trying many different mediums. Once they complete a project, they move on to a new project in a totally different genre. For someone like you, parting with a piece would be really difficult because each thing you make represents so much time learning, experimenting, perfecting that ONE piece...it's not something you plan to make many of & it would be a real loss if you sold it. There's no amount of money that can compensate you adequately for something like that.

[fantasyforever.livejournal.com]

I love the jewel in the forehead :D Nice touch!

And I am at a constant battle with myself and possible clients on pricing ~_~ I'm really insecure about myself (and thusly, my artwork), so half the time I'm going "I don't charge enough" or "I think I charge too much D:"

Then you have some people offering graphic design or artwork really really cheaply, and the clients want to know why you can't offer prices that low too @_@

[merimask.livejournal.com]

Thank you...I'm not even sure what it is exactly. Some kind of purple stone (probably dyed jade).

It's very important to be VERY confident as an artist, if you plan to make a career of it, because you have to be your own best advocate. If you don't think your work is worth much, no one else will.

You don't have to be PERFECT, but you do need to understand what it is that you do really well, isolate that, & be able to articulate that in negotiations. I really believe every artist has some ONE thing that they do that makes them stand out, & if they can do that thing reliably there's value to it.

You should hear my brother defend the value of his work. He's got some killer one-liners that really put cheap clients in their place. As an artist you always have to defend your prices (even when you reach my brother's level)...so you have to get good at it.

[tallymark.livejournal.com]

So, I've been stalking your journal since I discovered it via your tutorial, so I figure I may as well just ask: is it okay if I friend you? ^_^;; I like following independent artists through livejournal. One to keep track of the awesome crafty stuff they're doing, and two, to get stuff just like this--discussions on the art of...art business. Lol.

By the way, love the purple unicorn!

[merimask.livejournal.com]

Cool..I friend you back! ^_^ LOVE the cute Sessy icon BTW, he looks all adorable & friendly & not likely to poison you with his doggy breath.

[tallymark.livejournal.com]

Yay! And awww, thanks! I tend to draw him cuddly, lol. ^_^;