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.