I am new here and thanks for having me I'm pretty excited to find a forum like this I have a question I have been carving for a couple of yrs now and people are asking how much for this or that how do you charge buy the amount of time you spent or the size of the piece also I have a couple wanting me to carve a spirit in a tree what do you charge for work you have to travel to do thanks for any info
I charge by the quality of the piece. If I do 2 foot eagle that takes ten hours and looks like crap when i'm done, I dont charge by the time or size...I charge by the quality. If i do a 2 foot eagle that takes 1 hour to carve and looks totally awesome when I'm done, I dont charge by the time or size either...charge by the quality and whatever you feel happy with getting for it.
I don't mean for this to be construed as being disrespectful but all our carvings (from 10 time champions to beginners) are only worth what people are willing to pay for them. For me personally, It's not always about the money since I find gratification in knowing someone else appreciates my work enough to purchase it. However, the reality of it all is that there are indeed expenses to be covered in the process.....mostly time.
After doing a few carvings with consistency you should have an idea of the time involved. Therefore you shouldn't let your abilities be exploited for something that cost less than what a similar tradesman would be making at their regular job. Add $10 or so for gas, oil, chains, saw wear & tear etc. Traveling expenses should be realistic if you are seperating it from the cost of your carving.
Inconsistent pricing will come back to bite you with word of mouth customers. You need to have consistency with your pricing but let the customer know up front what they are getting or giving up by spending more or less. I have found it helpful to have three bears (or whatever) the same size next to each other, each with different amounts of detail and/or wood type to show customers what they can expect. Upon completion, I tag all my carvings with the size, wood type, and price. If an undecided customer is local, I try to sweeten the deal by offering free delivery and only budge on price as a last resort.
With all that being said you will find most carvers on par at $100/ft. (Highly respected carvers more....Beginners less) Under the prevailing economic climate many carvers however find themselve's giving up a little more to make a sale and pay the bills these days.
Yup! This is where the rubber meets the road! You have to be more creative with pricing than with the carving. Where do you carve? Is it a big money pocket? Do they prefer regional works? Fantasy? Just bears? How do you compare in quality to others doing similar works about you? Better be honest with yourself here! It's all a big game you better figger out as you go, cause to a lot of us it means making a living, not just a sale. Show us a picture and I'm sure a lot of folks will tell ya a lot of things. Some you may not wanna hear, others will just offer help. Doc
The right price is the one that makes both you and the customer happy. Unfortunately, some customers don't act happy in an effort to get a better deal. NOT your fault. NOT your problem. How happy do you want to be???
I recently was asked to carve an on site eagle for someone who didnt ask price. I got it started one day when I had a little extra time, knowing I wouldnt finish it for awhile. I got a call later asking how much, wondering if they could afford it. Shes an old friend of the family, so, mistake #2 by me gave her a good price, she in return said how much!?!?!? So(mistake #3) I bettered the price by a bit, and seamed to smooth her over. A few days later I hear she reccomended me to others because I was so reasonable on pricing!!!! Like said above, Make yourself happy!!!!
The discount coming back to bite you is an old story to the small business. It's important to let the customer know it's a discounted price. If giving a receipt or invoice, it should show the full price and the discount.
Wow, I should have read this thread before I posted about the auction prices above. This answers a lot of questions for me. I haven't really ever sold anything. What I've made, I've either given away to friends, or made as a donation. Now I have a 4 foot salmon to sell. Cool!! Time to start making some money.
Thanks, carving veterans, for the sage advise, Mike
normally a tree spirit is just a deep relief carving not a full sculpture so do,nt over price. i like to make 100 an hour with my skill level the quality and symmetry are off but my speed usually makes up for it. sometimes i make more sometimes less, pricing is an art unto itself.
Time & Materials.... once you have a system down for moving, and processing your carvings, you can set lavels. I use the #'s 1-8. A level one, means move the log once, rough it out once, finish carve it, and burn, and varnish it( 20 minute to 3 hour carvings) depending on complexity of the carving I usually price level 1 carvings that are from 6" tall to 3' tall from $35 to $275 on average. THe number levels progress the harder it is to move a log, rarety of the shape, or type of wood used, amount of time spent curing the carving, and amount of times I have to rework the carving to get a certain look. Some carvings I have done have a section painted that takes many hours, and it a series of repeated steps in the process to achieve a look.
