I sell mine, but I hate the whole pricing issue.

My husband, on the other hand, loves to promote my work and has sold a LOT of pieces for me (and I'm thrilled that he loves to do it). I sold one today - a stained glass bowling ball for the garden (garden orb if one wants to be chi-chi). Woman didn't bat an eye when I told her a hundred bucks. She wrote the check and drove off thanking me profusely!

I'm happy!

Isn't it great to be paid for something you love to do? I was doing wood crafts in PA and was making a ton of money, and loved every minute of it.
Sunshine remember we are most critical of our own work, we see every flaw. No one else usually does, the world is going so fast now, most people don't have time to create. Shame they don't know they would be happier if they did!
Good work wench, glad she appreciated your talent.

Dena

I've sold bbs for $60, but give lots more things as gifts, BUT now I am going to start making a bunch of stuff to sell and get my arse down to Texas!!!! I am wondering what to sell my garden globe for? And Cake? And Bunny? Any suggestions???





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Yea. She's coming for sure - I can tell. Yippeeeee - good times, crazy times, fun times just ahead. Happy dance here. Congrats to all who sell. Mine are just gifts. My talents haven't been discovered by the paying crowd. I'm happy, though, just playing w/my toys. My kids and friends LOVE the gifts.

Sunshine, I asked that question a while back when I was invited to set up a booth at a church event. I was advised by the good folks here to set my price from 2 to 2 1/2 times my costs. This year I have sold some of my things to raise money for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer (American Cancer Society). Many stained glass artists charge from $175 a square foot and up.

Just a word of advice, have confidence in your pricing and hold the line. In other words, don't let people's attitude of your price scare you. Your work is one of a kind, a personal crafted piece and that deserves a price that reflects it.
Good luck!

Yes, I have sold several pieces. I hate the pricing part also. I just find that I can't or don't want to keep everything, already crowded around here. :) It helps to pay for the stuff to keep doing it. I've given to the kids of course.
calamity you do such beautiful work, I don't think I will ever get to that level. You wouldn't have any trouble selling.

Thanks for sharing gang! My heart has never been in anything as much as it is in creating these pieces. I started doing stuff just for Christmas presents (I made three terracotta birdbaths for family members. It took six months!)and then it exploded into a workshop (albeit tiny)in my basement. When I don't like something I hide it in the corner and eventually someone will notice it and tell me it's great. I think I am over critical, but I am still awed that anyone likes it so much. I am of the mind that if I make enough to keep working then that's good enough. My husband doesn't understand the concept-'cause he's used to people paying top dollar for his talents. But he's an IT exec.(I just call him a computer geek, keeps him humble). So, he isn't exactly the creative type but he is very supportive of my work.

Calamity-I would buy all three of those pieces! They are gorgeous. I wouldn't even be able to begin to price them but over $150 would be a good start in my very humble opinion. I have been talking about that cake since I first saw it!
Slow-I cannot believe you don't sell! You are very talented. I imagined a bohemian studio in your backyard where people visit you from miles around to get an original! Awesome work!
BTW, my name is Treena and I am very glad to meet you all!! I found my people!

I too have sold many pieces and give away 3 times a s many.I live in an area close to the mexican border and people in my little town are not really into the arts...they kind of want you to give it away.I have sold some of my birdbaths for $650 and others for $450 in california I see online where they sell for $1800 and up?????A lot of it depends on where you live I think.I haven't trieded to sell anything in a long time but will but my headboards in a shop here don't know price yet tho.Good Luck Annie Where do you live?

Does anyone get concerned about liability issues? Like for instance, I'm considering selling my pitcher when it's done...I have no art galleries around here, and our stuffy little town likely wouldn't even consider buying it locally...I'd have to find somewhere in Boston if I were to get serious about this. So I'll try some small stuff on eBay for a bigger audience, but won't make anything I can't ship.

But I digress...I plan on putting a little tag in it that says "Do NOT immerse" (like you see on crock-pots) to elimiinate THAT portion of the liability issue, but is there anything else that I should consider putting in there? I'm not an official business, but the world is so 'sue happy' that I don't want or need to have someone coming back to me in months/year saying it fell apart.

Do you do anything special to ensure your pieces stay intact, or put any 'disclaimer' stuff in with it to CYA on any liability issues?

I sell also..but don't like commission work, hate it and turn it down most of the time, as it turns into a big arse job for me and I get bitter....my passion of mosaicing is my pleasure and I don't want to turn it into a job...I have a job.....I only make what I like and some of it goes to a gallery.....I have been fortunate enough to have done pretty well......but selling is just a bonus for me, as I would be doing mosaics regardless........I just sold a torso, and it is financing my spending money in Mexico...that was a blessing..............but again, I would be doing mosaics anyway and giving it away or turning my humble home into Luna Park here...as far as pricing...that's torture.....hate trying to figure it out......but I don't give it away if I put a price on it......I don't care if it really sells or not, because, as I said, I only make what I like!!!

I sell many pieces. If I didn't, then my house would soon become over-crowded, and besides, I need the money in order to finance my mosaic addiction. I do not like the pricing process and I don't really enjoy commissioned pieces; I like to come up with the work myself and then have a stranger come along and appreciate it. However, often when I do a commission, then it opens up a whole new concept for me. For example, as a birthday gift, a group of women ordered a birdhouse for a co-worker who loves martinis. That was fun! I found plates that had martini pictures in the center and the word martini around the edges, and then I found glass drink stirrers with a stuffed olive on the end to use as the perch.

Back to pricing, too many artists and crafters practically give their stuff away. Too often people expect you to. At festival booths, many times we hear comments from one shopper to another, such as ''Why you can go to Michaels and buy the stuff and do it yourself!'' We don't get drawn into those discussions. Hahaha. Yep, go buy the nippers and grinders and ring saws and grout and glue and sealers and storage shelves and see how quickly your outlay adds up. One thing we have done at festivals is, if a piece doesn't sell, we mark it UP and often then it does sell.

The ''cost of materials'' formulas for pricing don't work well for us. For example, if one buys an ugly little thingie for 50 cents and embellishes it with a broken plate that cost 50 cents, and creates a beautiful unique item, then how can one apply a formula such as cost of materials times 2 or 3 or even 5 to come up with a price? Same with paintings; it's impossible to apply a ''cost of materials plus'' pricing formula there as well. The only formula that I can think of that might work in most cases is the ''so much a square foot'' formula. That would work for larger mosaic items like fireplaces, counter tops, backsplashes, etc. and would also work for paintings. For smaller items, you could apply that formula and then add extra cost for the difficulty involved.

One thing we have done at festivals is, if a piece doesn't sell, we mark it UP and often then it does sell.

Don't have anything to add. I just wanted to comment on Silvamaes post. I do that ALL the time at my garage sales and on eBay. I don't know why, but it works!!

Maria

It works because often-times people read "cheap" in the word "inexpensive." If it's high-priced, there's that mentality that "it must be WORTH something."

And, in fact, our time and effort in making these pieces IS "worth" it. That's the part that most people don't understand. As artists, we UNDERSTAND that yeah, you could "make it for less" if you only figure in your cost of materials. And for many craft items, you don't need the extra tools, etc, and yes it WOULD be cheaper to make it yourself. But SG & M require TOOLS. And a significant amount of TIME. So that automatically brings the price up.

And then there's the added factor that someone once mentioned to me...that I often times have to pass on to people I'm with when shopping crafty-things...that being the response to "I can make that item cheaper than that."
The response: "But WILL you, or WOULD you?" Most of the time, my own answer is "no" and I make sure to say out loud to that person "I agree, but I'm not likely to actually do it, and I appreciate this person who has taken the time to do it so nicely, so I'm going to buy it."
I like to make sure that people who AREN'T really crafters are "made aware" that crafters' time is worth something, and it often is a lot of time & effort in creating their works.

Oh, and mmqchdygg, sorry, when I posted my answer above, I didn't notice the dates on the previous posts. Your question was about liability, which I didn't address. We make sure that there are no sharp edges. We seal everything well. Then we tell people whether or not it can live outdoors (such as birdhouses). Then all our stuff has a life-time guarantee (my lifetime, hahaha) so if something develops a crack in the grout, for instance, I will repair it for free. If the customer drops it and breaks off a chunk, I would take it back and repair it for a nominal fee. Other than that, I don't worry about liability.

I print out little "How to care for" cards and give them to the purchaser to tell them how to treat the work. I also make sure there are no sharp spots. Also for mosaiced bowls or plates I write in paint pen on the bottom "not safe for food use."

I agree with Silvamae....I had a guy drop his BB he bought at the gallery....I fixed it....another guy bought a bowl I had mosaiced......had a little bird on it..I had left clear instructions it was an INDOOR piece only.....guess he couldn't read....and he called me and it had whelped up, etc...cause he used it as a birdbath.......I replaced it out of guilt.....but typed in BIG BOLD print care instructions...not sure if he read them, but he hasn't called me.......at the gallery, I have little cards printed up with instructions on everything....but some people just don't remember or read! I also seal well, etc...but there are flukes to everything............at least in my case.