Tuesday, December 23, 2008

pricing conundrum


I'm pretty comfortable with the pricing on my functional pieces. I could raise the prices a bit, but now doesn't seem to be the time. I am making quite a few smaller pieces for this show as the smaller pieces seem to be the ones that people purchase. I have a really hard time pricing my art pieces. A lot of work goes into them and a lot of me personally goes into them. They are so much more than production pieces. So my question for you guys: Do you have any formulas or systems that you use to arrive at prices for your pieces? Either functional or non-functional pricing schemes. Help!

5 comments:

Jerry said...

Excellent post! Not that I really have anything to offer, but I am curious about the replies that you get. I have recently begun to sell my work and pricing is very difficult for me at this point. I see that it stays that way, I guess!

chaetoons said...

Cheryl
Something that works for me -- i let the customer tell me how much they'd like to pay for my art/pottery.
When asked: "how much for this one?" i usually preface my reply with: "These (my portrait mugs) are the only ones i have set a price of $125 on. How much would you like to pay? (for the piece they are inquiring about)." So far, folks offer far more than i would have asked !!!
Chae

Allison said...

Have you looked at claystation.com? It appears to have some resources for ceramic artists -- some books, which might talk about pricing...(though I hate book titles like "how to make it as an artist").

Allison said...

Oh, just found another couple of resources:

http://www.marcmoss.net/2007/03/05/how-to-price-your-artwork/

http://www.artbizblog.com/2008/08/7-ways-to-price.html

Take with grain of salt?

Cheryl Alena Kinzel said...

Thanks for all the good ideas! Jerry, I have nothing figured out. I figure as I go along, it gets easier. I will try asking people what they would pay for items. I am usually told I price too low for my functional ware. My justification is that I feel that I am still learning and growing and as I get better, my prices will get higher. They have risen significantly over the last 3 years. Allison, thank you for all of your research. How is your holiday going?