1st fall craft show this year

[ladjr]

Terry

Really nice job on the boxes. You have some great ideas

[myshop1044]

Henry1, what you posted is not the corian clocks, That one just the insert was quite a bit more and the price
was quite a bit more. it took a while to find the perfect person for that clock, but I did sell it at 4 times the price
of the corian clocks. Again the right person for that price.

Perry B.

[TerryT]

Hey Terry,
I recognize the patterns, but not the boxes. Is that box pattern something that you came up with? They look real nice.

Hi Jerry. I felt that most boxes were too time consuming with miters, dados, etc, so I tried to come up with the most simple to build but good looking box I could and this was it. They carve and build fast, seem to sell very well and you can make a good profit on them. They will be on our site as downloadable projects in a day or two with the patterns you see in the pictures.

[myshop1044]

DickB I'm not sure I'm the one to be talking about full time employment. I am retired, I do this a a hobby. Sometime during the year it turns into a full time job. I do 3 or 4 craft shows in the spring and 3 or 4 more in the fall. I have come up with a price od $.30 a min carving time or $18.00 and hr. weather you consider that an hourly rate I don't know. It will cover my maintence time for the machine, then add the cost of the material and cost of paints, sand paper,etc.
At some point you can price yourself out of the picture. If I can keep myself in expense money that is good enought for me.

If I get a custom project, I have $50.00 up front fee for design, For the price of the design fee I will give them 1 carving out of foam for looks and adjustments. If they are happy we go from there. I then add the wood or whatever material at double the cost of the material, plus the carving time. I also consider any patterns I may have to buy. I then double that total cost , minus the design fee ,and that my way of getting a price.

[TerryT]

One of the reasons that I ask is a forum member is considering this as full-time employment. Would you be willing to offer your opinion on that? For the items that you make and sell, can you estimate what your hourly wage would be if you paid yourself?

I'm no expert but what I can tell you is this;
We have income from craft fairs and shows that range anywhere from $50 to almost $1000 for a weekend. Just depends on what your selling and where. Sale items need to be approriate for the venue.

I use $20 per hour as my time/labor estimate. What it really works out to in the end I can't say for sure. However, I make a profit on materials and machine time as well. My bookkeeper (Kathy) tells me retail sales of carved items has increased by 300 percent over last year, with our "unique gifts of wood" website and participating in craft fairs and shows. As was stated earlier, most of the sales come in the form of custom orders after a craft fair. Wood Wisdom, as a whole is up 56 percent over last year.

As far as making a living? That would depend on alot of things. It wouldn't work as a sole source of income for me but it may for someone else.

[TerryT]

Terry

Really nice job on the boxes. You have some great ideas

Thanks Leo. I hope your machine issues are resolved.

[ladjr]

Thanks, but machine still not fixed I'm waiting for parts.

[cnsranch]

Perry - do you use the $18 per hour for your finishing/sanding/assembly work as well?

[cnsranch]

Here's another question......

How to price lithos? A sign is one thing, a litho is "magical". Plus, you've got added material costs, a light source, etc.

I'm thinking about charging per square inch. Say you've got a litho with the Corian measuring 5x7, and another measuring 8x10. If you charged, say, $2 per square inch, that would make the smaller one $70, and the larger one $160.

Couple images as examples below....

What do you think?