A Doodle

We got an envelope in our mail that had a nice texture and color..... now it's a doodle.

More Little Quillies

More little quillies to add to the Rockefeller Rug.

Pricing Your Work 4

Costs

The March/April/May 2011 Rug Hooking Magazine includes an article "Accepting a Commission" by Maddy Fraioli. (pages 68-73).  In her article, Maddy writes about knowing how much time it takes you to complete a rug and the amount of wool you use in each one.  This is information I don't have.  Most of my hooking is done in the evenings and I use as much wool from my stash as it takes to complete the piece.  I don't keep track of either, and by doing so I don't have exact information to calculate the value of my rug.

Maddy suggests hookers measure off 6" x 6" squares and hook each in a different cut (#4, #6, #8, #9, #10) being sure to keep track of the time that it takes to complete each square and the amount of wool needed for the hooking.  These time studies will give you an accurate labor time for a square foot of hooking (multiply each recorded time by 4) and a precise measurement of the wool you use. A hooker needs to only run the time studies for the cuts she or he usually uses.  Hooking a rug in a wide cut would take less time than a fine cut with intricate shading, therefore, the cost for a primitive rug would be less per square foot.

Maddy says that she does not want to change the costs of her rugs to meet the geographic or economic market. She wants to charge what she feels is a fair price that reflects her skill, experience, and fine materials.  She writes that she would want $25 an hour in labor cost. Other hookers may charge a different per hour wage as their needs and expenses may differ.

Ms. Fraioli also provides a pricing worksheet in her article:

Basic Price:     

                        Hourly wage per square foot based  

                        on your time studies per cut                ______
Type of design:
                         Original design. Add $16.00              ______
                         Purchased pattern. Add pattern
                         cost plus "up charge"                           ______

Type of Wool:  

                         Custom-dyed wool. Add $29.50          ______

                         Purchased as-is wool. Add $16.50       ______

Type of shading: 

                         Intricate (75% fine cut) Add $18         ______

                         Intricate (50% fine cut) Add $10        ______

                         Medium cut (#5 to #8) Add $8.50      ______

                         Wide cut (#9, #10) Add $7.50             ______

Sculptural Hooking: 

                         Add $18                                                   ______

Aesthetic, Quality, and Difficulty:

                         Add, depending on cut, up to $75       ______

Finishing:

                         Add $45                                                   _______

Price per Square Foot:

                         Add all the lines                                    ______

Number of Square Feet:

                         Inches of width x inches of length

                         divided by 144                                      _______

Total Price of Rug:

                        Multiply the price per square foot

                        by the number of square feet.               _______      

Now I need to do the time studies in cuts #3 to #8 as they are the cuts I normally use.  Whether or not I choose to ever sell a rug, it's important to have an idea of the market and insurance values. 

Pricing Your Work 3

How Much?

Taking Ashley Martineau's advice, I checked out some hand hooked rugs for sale on Etsy.  I looked at 21 new rugs, being sure they were sold by the artist. Not all the rug sellers list all the details. Some didn't list backing material, or size of wool cut, or how the edges were finished. So this pricing was done on the cost per square foot only.
I multiplied the inches of width by height and then divided by 144 (the number of inches in a square foot). I then divided the cost by the square footage.  Prices were very inconsistent: rugs with a burlap backing ranged from $40 per square foot to $125 per square foot.  Linen backing costs ranged from $61 to $294 a square foot.  None of the rugs I looked at were fine cut or finely shaded.  Some had a whipped edge, and some had a twill binding.
To determine a price I averaged all 21 rugs.  The final cost came out to be $121 per square foot.  It would be interesting to speak with the artists who charged much less or much more to understand their reasoning.

Pricing Your Work 2

What to Charge

Christine Little writes in her blog, "How to value and price hand hooked rugs...." Christine brings up a common remark made by people viewing hand work, "I can buy the same thing down the street for a fraction of the price." Many folks don't understand the talent, materials, and traditional methods that are a part of hand hooked rugs.  They compare them to pieces that come from other countries that may have been made by machine and of materials other than pure wool.

She writes, also, about the disservice done to fellow artisans by people who sell their rugs for only the cost of materials disregarding the labor involved.  Christine writes that this pricing "does little to educate the buying market of the true value of our talents." 

The Rug Hooking Guild of Nova Scotia developed a chart to help artists price their rugs and mats for sale and for setting a value for insurance purposes:

Criteria

Amount per square foot

Basic price on burlap, monks cloth and rug warp...$80.00

Basic price on linen..................................................$90.00

Original design, depending on complexity....$12.00-20.00

Dyed new wool, custom dyed by hooker..................$30.00

Dyed new wool, purchased.........................................$6.00

Recycled wool, as is....................................................$6.00

Recycled wool, over dyed.........................................$10.00

Intricate shading, 75% of work.................................$15.00

Intricate shading, 50% of work................................$10.00

Fine cut strips (#3 and 4).........................................$10.00

Wide cut strips, (#5-8)...............................................$8.00

Sculptured hooking..................................................$20.00

Other materials (fibers, roving, metallic threads, embellishments, etc.) Recover Cost

Marketing costs (gallery commissions, promotional flyers, fees, etc)....Recover Cost

Quality of work and finishing..............................Subjective

Visual appeal........................................................Subjective

Basic price includes backing, printed commercial pattern and allowance for time/labor.

Adapted design category was deleted because of copyright issues.

Quality of work and visual appeal are the "WOW" factor and must be evaluated by the artist.