Turning clay into functional pottery is absolutely satisfying. The only downside to making pottery is there is the tendency to build up a hoard of pieces you’ve made. Possibly the best way to reduce the stockpile of your beautiful pots is to sell them. Whether you sell online through a platform like Etsy or in person at fairs or galleries, the money earned from sales can be fed right back into your craft. Before you can accept money for your work, you and your customers need to know what your work is worth. Knowing how to accurately price your art is one of the most daunting topics in the art world, but there are some techniques to simplify the process. Below are three effective methods of finding the best price for your pottery to sell.
Most Accurate: The Pricing Formula
For those of you looking for a way to price your work that takes out all guesswork, use a formula. The pricing formula can be one of the most accurate methods to make sure you get the best price. A quick google search will give you several different formulae, but they generally include the same things: cost of materials, your time, and a multiplier.
It really can be that simple. If you buy a 25 pound bag of clay for $15, and you make a mug with one pound of clay, the material cost for that mug is $0.60. Next, determine the value of your time. If you want to earn $15 per hour, that’s your hourly rate. For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume it takes you 20 minutes to make a one pound mug. Add $0.60 and 20 minutes at $15/hr to end up with $5.60. That’s the basic raw cost of your mug.
One general rule is to double your raw cost to determine your wholesale price, then double that again for your retail price. With the previous example, your wholesale price will be $11.20 and retail will be $22.40. Sometimes the formula wants you to triple the wholesale price to land at a retail. It’s really up to you to play with exactly how you multiply the raw cost of your work to find the price you are happy with.
This formula approach comes with both pros and cons. The positive side of this method is it can be extremely accurate. Using a formula like this removes a lot of subjectivity while providing enough margin for potential profit to sustain your art practice. The biggest con is that it can become overly complicated. If you calculate exactly how much clay you use, plus the amount of glaze on each piece, it can quickly seem overwhelming. The good news is you can decide how simple or complex your pricing formula will be.
Accurately Based on Time: The Hourly Rate
If calculating a price based on a rigid formula is not your cup of tea, you could assign an hourly rate to your work. Let’s assume you are earning $15 per hour again. As you sit at the wheel to throw a batch of mugs, how long will it take to throw ten? How long to attach handles, decorate, and glaze those ten? For ease of calculating, we will assume you can throw ten mugs in one hour. Attaching handles is another hour. Then one more hour for decorating and glazing. It will take three hours to make ten mugs. At $15/hr, those ten mugs equal $45. Divide that up and each mug is equal to $4.50.
With this pricing method, you only have to worry about simple math. There is also plenty of flexibility in landing on a final price you are happy with. Is your work extremely detailed and you spend several hours on one piece? Price it higher. Are you a production potter pumping out huge numbers of pieces daily? Your prices might be lower. It is a good idea to play with the hourly rate based on the time you put into each piece. You could even take your hourly price and multiply that to land on a wholesale and retail price.
Accurately Support the Market: Comparing Other Artists
Now I know that telling artists to compare themselves to others is not very popular. However, it can be a simple way to determine what your work can sell for. To do this, just search through Etsy or Instagram for pottery similar to yours. What does that mean exactly? Let’s use Etsy as an example. Have one of your mugs handy and start browsing Etsy for other handmade mugs. You are sure to find some that are mind-blowing in their detail and the artist’s skill as well as more conservative, simple mugs.
Look through all of these mugs and think about where your mug will fit. If you are brand new to clay and are selling your first batch, find another artist who is new to making and see what their prices are. If you have been making for decades with a defined style and quality, find other artists established in their craft. Comparing your work to others in this way will show you where you can fit in, and what sorts of prices you can expect.
The benefit of this method is you find where you fit in the art market without over or undervaluing what you are producing. If you are asking $50 for your mug and not selling anything, you might find that others are making regular sales at a similar quality of work for $30. The same thing goes if you are not asking enough and undervaluing your work.
Bonus: Wildcard Weight
This is a pretty fun method of pricing your work, but it also comes with a lot of unknowns. Basically, you could assign a price to your work based entirely on how heavy it is. One pound of clay? Price that piece at $10. Five pounds of clay? Price it at $40. What is wonderful about this method is how easy and arbitrary it is. That is also the biggest drawback.
If you go with this method, all of your prices will be consistent. One pound of clay for $10 means every mug, bowl, vase, and dish can be priced at $10. Where this method is sorely lacking is it ignores your time and other potential overhead costs. Pricing solely based on weight can be the quickest and easiest method by far. You should also understand the risk of not accounting for other very important costs.
Find What Works for You
You really are the only one who can determine what price to sell your pottery. Some things to definitely consider when pricing your work is the amount of time and materials invested into each piece. Hopefully these techniques help you come to a sustainable and happy price for any work you are selling. As long as you are able to earn enough money to keep making pottery, with some extra money to reinvest or support your life, then you have very little to worry about.
Further Reading
After you know your prices, you will need great photos of your work: How to Photograph Your Pottery: Take Professional Quality Photos with Minimal Equipment
Looking for some great books for inspiration and techniques?: 5 of the Best Pottery Books For Inspiration