Follow the Money!

Samson did not understand the meaning of

"friendship."

I am sitting (actually mostly pacing) in my studio and I’m hitting the wall. Not literally, but like the runner, I’m hitting the wall. I am supposed to price my stuff for the art show! I am avoiding it. And I am late. Poor Ray is waiting for my prices.

We were with friends last night, and the question came up, “Why do you do this? Is it for the money? Is it to fill in time? What is the real reason you are doing this?”

Another comment, “After years of creating work will you have a basement full of stuff and your kids will be wondering what to do with all these sculptures, sketches and drawings?”

There is a saying, if you want to know the motivation for something, “follow the money” and it will be revealed, that in fact it usually is for the money.

So I sat down and did a rough calculation. I added up the hours I worked on a piece and paid myself a low but reasonable dollar per hour. Then I added expenses such as overhead, kiln firings, clay and material costs, research costs, tools etc. That came to a figure I could not even dream of charging for any of my pieces.

 So the two questions remain, why do I do this? and how do I price my pieces?

During our time together with these amazing friends, who know us (me) well, we worked out a lot of things related to these two questions. I now have a much clearer idea of the “why”, so the pricing now becomes almost a none issue. I know I’m not in it for the money, (though don’t get me wrong, I like money too, and that is part of the problem!) but I am retiring, and I just need to work things out for myself. Making pieces helps me do that. The scary part is you get to see me work things out.

So, the pricing is just placing a “blessing price" on each piece. Where I don’t gouge you and your purchase blesses both you and me. You feel good about obtaining the piece for your own reasons and I feel good that you value it and actually want it in your life. That by the way is a huge “Wow” for me.

Bottom line, we have amazing friends.

“Giving an honest answer is a sign of true friendship.”

Proverbs 24:26.