SRTolton

I'm thinking of doing a new tutorial for all of you internet wire wrappers out there.  So far, I've thought and intro to prong settings might be a good topic, but I could also do two stone pendants and the difficulties specific to those.  Any thoughts or topic suggestions?

To all 51 of my watchers a big shiny thank you!  I don't have the time to thank everyone individually for every fave and watch, but rest assured that I've visited every one of your pages to take a look.  It means a lot to me.

A coworker and I were talking one day and the subject of where the collective-we-designers are at, or are moving towards stylistically came up.  Architecture, being the relatively long lasting building block of the fabric of our lives may be an indicator. We're past post-modern (or po-mo as it is lovingly described), but where does that leave us?  He was of the opinion that we are moving into, if not already in an era of technological rococo.  And you know what?  I think he's right.  This makes a certain amount of sense to me as it could very well be our response to stark minimalism and strong, pure form.  And guess what- if you look at the newest, sharpest, conceptual architecture, it tends to use algorithms to create beautiful, complex (...but necessary?) skins and layered quasi organic but mathematical forms.  Computers are used to calculate function to the micro state and use that data to create the visible minutiae that are reflective of functional intricacy,  

But it's not just architecture that makes me think he's right.  When working on this fav.me/d5hxatu I started to think about how much elaborate jewellery I have been seeing on dA.  Oodles of pieces that layer of organic shapes, and symmetrical, intricate patterns that use a lot of technical skill.

I don't really have any conclusion from this, but it will be interesting to see if this trend continues and if we will look back and see this as a technological rococo, or if we veer in some other direction.  What do you think?  Is he right?

So I was looking through the music on the work server.  And found this.  Colour me stunned as if by a 2x4.  Watch this and you will not regret it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdTELo…

This is one of the most terrifying tasks you end up having to figure out if you decided to sell your work.  There are answers all over the internet, and it all seems to come down to- It Depends.

So, let's have a bit of a story time following a bit of my experiences and a recent mini "experiment" of sort.  But before that: how do you figure out how much to charge for a piece, be it 2D art, sculpture, jewellery, sewing, etc?  Have you had any defining moments when you figured out what worked for you?  Still struggling?

As I've started doing a bit more wrapping than usual recently, I've noticed that I've "leveled up" to a certain extent.  (You've been seeing more of the cream of the crop here, the less glamorous or less than perfect pieces staying safely off the internet.   )   That being the case, I've started to think more about how I price things.  There's something about putting a price on something that makes you look at what you're working on with new eyes.  You ask yourself- how much would I pay for this? - and inevitably get two answers:

A)  Why would I buy that?  I can make it.  Look at that mistake.  And that one.  And goodness, don't look at that one.  I've seen so much better.  (Which is such a non-helpful answer)  

Or B)  Its one of a kind!  Never to be remade!  I spent so much of my short, short life giving life to this piece of brilliance!  It's priceless!  PRICELESS I SAY!!11!!  (Which is quite obviously not helpful either.)

What is your answer if I were to ask you this question for this piece?  fav.me/d5hx9a9

I then ask my mother.  "Oh mother, holder of all knowledge, great, wise and benevolent matriarch, how much should I sell this for?"  Once again I get two answers- "I would never buy that!" and "I think you should sell it for ___ (insert price about $5 less than the materials)", unless it involves gold, red or pearls in a small, elegant shape which she will promptly acquire of a special family rate.  I really think my family has become desensitized by my making all sorts of things lying upside down on the couch with my feet sticking in the air while listening to music and then leaving it on the kitchen table.  You just don't usually do that with silver, gold and gems.

You try a complete stranger but they give you a weird look and walk away, or look like you've stabbing them with toothpicks because they don't want to offend you so you say "nevermind" and leave the poor soul alone.

So as a compromise, way back when, I basically ended up totaling up the cost of the materials x 2/2.5 that amount.  I then progressed on to materials+time at minimum wage as I had gotten fast enough with good enough results that the price was reasonable.  Needless to say, I wasn't making enough to cover materials at first- a lot just wasn't that great and got scrapped and reused, in addition to my inability to work properly without a fairly massive stash of everything and the need to buy proper tools.  (Thank you so much for the financial support parents!  <3)  If this gives you any idea- I'm currently living out of 2 suitcases for 4 months.  I brought about 1/8th of all my packing space in supplies and tools and have bought about the same since getting here.  Happily, I do work through all of it at a pretty even pace so it all gets rotated out and doesn't just take up space.

EXPERIMENT PREP:

Anyway, the materials+time seemed to work the best.  But how much should I make and hour?  This isn't my profession.  I'm not a master of the art.  I have however, been practicing on and off for about 6 years.  How much does a person with that skill set at my skill level get paid an hour?  How to figure this out?  Having some experience selling on commission as well as personally at fairs and through word of mouth I've had some exposure as to how much it seems people will pay.  So going on that, I made an Excel sheet listing my most commonly used materials and hours used.  I then submitted the data for the 30 items I have sitting around and looked at the results.  Did they look right to me?  I kept adjusting the hourly wage until on average the prices looked right to me, and reflective of what I hoped was an objective view of my new skill level.  I now have a formula I can work with and tweak individually if I need to.  This process tends to make the complexity of the project (therefore time used) be the defining quantity.

EXPERIMENT TIME:

But.  Here's the but.  I put a piece up on Etsy.  I priced it using my magic spreadsheet.   I then searched some keywords I had used to look for similar items and arranged the results by price.  My piece was one of the most, if not the most technically complex item made of some of the highest quality/rarity of material on that page.  It was in the middle page 2 of 9 arranged cheapest to $$$, where the price jumped $10 from top to bottom.  What does that say?  Is it reflective of answer B) to one's question to oneself by people who are given freedom by the internet to choose a price out of their head?  (Considering how many shops on etsy can be considered successful.)  Am I just charging too little?  I've had some people tell me this.  I've had many others who've looked longingly at a piece that was just out of their range.

So, what the moral of this story is, I'm not quite sure, other than it has turned out to be quite a bit longer than I expected!  Best of luck to everyone out there struggling with the same questions.  

P.S.In the process of this little experiment I also stumbled upon a lot of examples of a pet peeve of mine: the use of extremely expensive materials which are used by someone without the skill level to do them justice.  I understand that if you have the money you can do whatever you like, and to that person it looks amazing.  They worked hard on it, they're expressing something important to themselves, and inevitably everyone has to start somewhere.  But somewhere inside of me cringes and thinks about how drop dead amazing that special thing could be.  Potential is lost and I guess I feel metal and stones are things that are ripped out the of the Earth in some very not nice ways, and given that, you should try to make the most of what you have.  If one thinks of an apprenticeship program, one starts with simple jobs in cheap material.  Then once you can do that well, you move up.  But then again, to someone out there, it probably look like I too am not living up to the potential of my materials -some of my stuff sucks.  But unless its bad to the point I'll cut it up for scrap, its money wasted and I have to sell it.  *sigh*