Pricing Your Work: Part Two
I once had a gallery customer ask me, “What is the best value in your shop?” as he was shopping the pottery wall. For a moment, I was stumped. It was an odd question to ask someone who sells art. I explained that the value of any piece I sold was largely up to the buyer, and frankly if he just wanted the most bang for his buck, he should go buy a China-made mug from Walmart. You can drink the same amount of coffee out of a mug that’s mass-produced as you can out of a handmade one. But if you’re shopping for mugs in a gallery, I presume you’re seeking a more meaningful experience.
The mugs, earrings, prints, and cards that artists create cannot be compared to anything you’d find in a department store. Artists understand this. Most art lovers and collectors do as well. Because my gallery saw a great deal of tourist traffic, some customers needed a bit of education on why handmade matters.
We often equate “value” with getting our money’s worth. In art, I believe it has a deeper meaning.
The value of a piece of art is defined by the impact it has on our lives. This applies as much to creating art as it does to selling and buying it. You’ll hear me say this often: we create because we must, because we have decided that expressing ourselves artistically has more value than paid time off or health benefits. Living your life as a self-supporting artist offers rewards that go far beyond money.
Each piece you create is worth more than the materials that went into it and more than time it took to make it. Every piece carries your years of experience and the essence of your creativity.
Still, you ultimately decide how you price your work. It’s perfectly acceptable to desire a certain amount for a piece, even when that means holding onto that piece until someone is willing to pay your asking price. It is also completely fine to price a piece higher simply because you love it.
When a piece came out of my kiln with a truly beautiful glaze, I priced it higher, knowing how special it felt to me, even if a similar piece did not carry the same emotional weight. When pricing my own work, I would imagine how I’d feel if a piece went home with a customer and I had the amount of money in its place. If I felt sad or unsettled, I knew I hadn’t priced the piece high enough. That simple exercise helped guide me to my pricing structure.
Pricing your art is a business decision that can be made easier by thoughtfully considering the value of the work, your creativity and yourself. Context, experience, and intention all play a role in pricing. If you find yourself stuck or confused, please feel free to contact me. I work with artists individually to help them develop pricing that feels both sustainable and aligned with their values.