things have stopped be crazy for just long enough for me to talk more about this! So, I was inspired by a (lost to me, sorry) tiktok by a knitter who labeled everything in her craft fair booth by how many hours she spent working on it. As someone who designs and manufactures all of my merch by hand- 😵💫😰😮💨
Even when we “mass produce” something by doing a batch of a dozen or so, it really is horrifying to think about how severely crafters, artists, makers are likely to be underpaying themselves, just recoup any money at all. I was inspired also, by the notion adopted by many artists on social media:
So, I set out to design a $20 doll. A little eye of providence, as made popular by none other than the US Treasury, with little leggies. Something I ought to be able to quickly make at low price point, but with room for a little flair. but Uh oh.
[text on design reads: I wanted to make a TWENTY dollar doll. Artists are always saying we love to pass around the same TWENTY dollar bill and hey, I could use a turn. I could keep it simple, and pay myself fairly. I kept track of my time and materials expended, the bare minimum I ought to ask for. For instance, this took an hour to write and edit. Drawing it into a design took 4 hours. Custom fabric costs $34 a yard to print. It costs $7 more dollars to ship to me. I knew from TWENTY years experience/vibes that to be worth my while I should make at least 10. That upped things to $102 of new fabric, plus some scraps from previous projects. At least I had enough to make a dozen of my TWENTY dollar doll, at that point. It took 6 hard working hours to sew all of them. (Here, I estimate, knowing there’s a decent chance I’m lowballing myself and the rest of this math will be thrown out of undervalued whack!) I figured that to start, I’d pay myself the state minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. I calculated that if I pay myself that and add my material expenses, it would take $189 to break even. Divide that per doll. A bit surprised we managed it, but, hey! That came in under TWENTY ! There’s one problem, though. While $15.75 ain’t bad for the customer, it’s bad for me. I can’t guarantee these sell out, and either way I gotta pay rent and utilities over $1k a month. I gotta eat. I gotta pay taxes. I have to pay for thread, and machinery upkeep, and an occasional refresh of my tools as they wear and tear. I have to cope with venture capitalists destroying the largest fabric retailer in the country this past year, (RIP Joann, you crafty bitch) and 100% tariffs on the foreign made fabric that remains. Not to mention I spent TWENTY thousand on a degree in sewing. I’ve honed my ability nearly every day for TWENTY years. In any field that sort of expert would deserve better than minimum wage. So, lets keep all that simple and say I pay myself at twice minimum wage, okay? (I sheepishly asked my office worker wife what her hourly is like and HAHAHAHA. Don’t go to art school, kids.) Uhh. Oops. Now the TWENTY dollar doll cost TWENTY THREE dollars. And, ugh. Speaking of college… I broke my back working 80+ hour weeks when I was TWENTY years old, so now I have to pay for doctors and drugs to keep my body functional enough to sit and work from 7 or 8 AM until 4 PM Monday thru Friday. My arthritic ass certainly can’t manage a brick and mortar retail job on top of manufacturing. So add on $9 to ship inventory to a shop, and the 30% overhead they charge because they too are small business owners trying to keep the lights on. Respect. Divide that by twelve again. Ahhh fuck. “Our communal TWENTY dollar bill” we small artists keep passing around is closer to $30.65 now. Sorry guys, but THIS TWENTY DOLLAR DOLL COST THIRTY DOLLARS. ]
In writing the text for the design itself, and tabulating my costs, I realized that even the very simple $20 doll I had in mind was very stupid to sell at that price point. In the time the fabric took to ship, my first month at the consignment shop I designed it to eventually debut at flopped. (Couldn’t sell a single skull in October??) I don’t have to run the numbers again to know my estimated “profit” gets worse as I pivot to selling some online where I have to absorb both shipping costs and fees.
Now the last step of this art is what my audience makes of it. What *your* takeaway is about art and commerce and labor. You are welcome to buy it at either $20 or $30. I will recover my material expenses if I can sell more than half of my stock at the lower price, but possibly not my labor. Still, I have a life to lead that costs money. Breaking even ain’t nothing! 20 bucks is 20 bucks, so thank you friend.
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