what to charge

[stellablu]

Does anyone have a “rule of thumb” for what to charge for a fused glass piece?

[Stephen Richard]

My “rule of thumb” will not be the same as yours.  Among the variables are;

Time

Materials

Number of firings

complexity

Uniqueness

process(es)

Overheads

experience

self worth

what the market will bear

placing – expensive or moderately expensive gallery

etc.

It really does depend on a wide range of variables, not just size or time.

Stephen Richard

blogs at: http://www.verrier-glass.blogspot.com/   and  http://www.glasstips.blogspot.com/

[1-big-dog]

I have a “rule of thumb” that I use when I do not have any better information. It is a SWAG (silly wild ass guess) I have found in many projects, whether it is carpentry, glass, or whatever, that the materials seem to cost about half of the whole project. Turning that around, you could say, that if you don’t have any better information, think about charging twice what the materials cost you to make the item. Of course, if you have precise information about your particular circumstances, that is much better, but this works in a pinch.

[thomas decker]

sounds like as good a rule as any.

[geodesia]

I’ve just opened an Etsy store. I am not a skilled artist…but glass is my craft, a lot of people say they like the stuff I make, and it piles up and I can’t use it all, after all. So I am trying to sell enough of it to fund my hobby. That said, I try to set prices respectful of people who want to make a business of selling their glass…but at the low end, because I want sales, and because I’m still a beginner.

In general, I take cost of materials, plus I pay myself 9.00/hr of labor involved, and a couple of bucks overhead—more for more kiln cycles—and figure around 2.5 times that number. Then I look on Etsy to see if other people are pricing similarly, and adjust if it looks like I’m overpriced. It usually doesn’t.

 

–Katherine T.

http://geodesia.wordpress.com

[wordana]

I usually look at what the market will bear, what seems to be the average price for similar items, etc. Especially for pendants, pricing them based solely on the glass used would be giving them away (or at least, giving them away too cheap). You have to think about what your time is worth, the energy to run the kiln, etc.

Dana W.

http://www.jestersbaubles.com

[Anonymous]

I’ll add to Richard’s excellent list of factors:  why are you selling?

If you are selling to offset costs of fusing for a hobby, you will price very differently if you are fusing to put food on the table.  We have a lot of customers who sell items at ridiculously low prices (and they know it) because they just want to buy some more glass and make more stuff 

---

Paul
FusedGlass.Org
Helios Kiln Glass Studio
PaulTarlow.com

 

[rgilbert]

For years, many crafters went by the 3x rule: multiply your cost by 3 in order to come up with a price. But Richard’s and Paul’s factors are important and should factor into the equation.

Sometimes the market determines the price in ways you cannot imagine and sometimes a chief factor is why you’re in the business of selling.

Local artists sell their work at wildly different prices and I would like to add two other factors to consider: quality and artistic appeal. One fuser sells pins made of scrap pieces laid on top of each other in what looks like a haphazard fashion and sells her creations for $30-$40 a pop. The feel and look of the glass is not entirely consistent and the pieces of glass (I call it a bird’s nest effect) that stick out could catch on something which might be fine if they didn’t just look like someone dropped a bit of glass into a kiln and called it good. The finish and aesthetic appeal of the pieces doesn’t justify a $30 price tag to me, but I’m sure there are buyers out there.

Another fuser sells pendants at $10-20 each. They are simple, two-three layer pieces that have a monochromic scheme, usually, but sometimes she adds several colors to a single pendant. The finish of the pieces is smooth and square. Sometimes the entire top layer is dichroic. While not terribly adventurous or artistic, at $10 she sells a lot of product (depending on the venue). She’s putting the money she’s making into the pendants into buying more glass in order to “experiment” with different designs and such. As she’s growing more confident in her abilities (her stuff is nicely made) she’s experimenting and some of her new designs are really quite beautiful.

 

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