Price advice: cross stitched bookmarks

Anime would be nothing without art. This forum is here for artists to discuss the art show and artists' alley.
Post Reply
mewrose
Experienced Poster
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2011 9:10 pm

Price advice: cross stitched bookmarks

Post by mewrose »

Hi everyone. I managed to snag a table for next year and I'm looking to add some new items to my repetoire. I've been experimenting with cross stitched bookmarks, and have several examples here:

My earliest ones - The stitching is very rough and I was still working out techniques. I would not be selling these.
The second batch - These are more polished, and a better example of what I'd be selling.
some gifts - These are a pair I did as Secret Santa gifts for a couple friends.

The bookmarks are backed in fleece or felt to help protect the stitching. I've taken to leaving the cloth on the top and bottom as a short fringe, after sewing a line firmly across the fabric to keep it firm unraveling further. The bookmarks are, on average, about 1-2 inches wide and 6 inches long.

Now I'm not sure what a reasonable price for these would be. They take a while to make (sewing the pokeball design itself, not the backing or ribbon hole or anything, took 2 hours, and sewing the backing takes about an hour and a half), so I don't want to shortchange myself on price. But I also don't want to charge so much that nobody would be interested. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what would be a reasonable price for something like this?
User avatar
Flemtee
Expert Poster
Posts: 59
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2011 5:58 pm
Location: Braintree, MA
Contact:

Re: Price advice: cross stitched bookmarks

Post by Flemtee »

When considering things for price, the way you picked the time apart is sometimes what it comes down to. You also have to consider how much the materials cost to make some sort of profit on them. "Highly pricing" them isn't a bad thing if the product is an original and hand made; you are selling an original that no one else will ever have! Very different from selling a print of an original. So the way I would look at it is to consider the materials it's made of and how much time it took. Unfortunately, I don't have a price for you to consider, but as an artist you most certainly don't want to short change yourself. Great work! :]
Andrew Fleming
Co-Creator/Co-Host of Wicked Anime
AB '16 Press
Co-Host of Wicked Anime Presents: Hardcore Anime! 18+ Panel
Co-Host of My Waifu's Not Weird!

Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/user/WickedAnimeReviews
Podcast - http://nerdyshow.com/wickedanime/
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/WickedAnime

Website - http://stickfiguredomain.wordpress.com
User avatar
Kogarashi
I'm Special!
Posts: 907
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:14 pm
Location: Ithaca, NY
Contact:

Re: Price advice: cross stitched bookmarks

Post by Kogarashi »

Very nice work. Even your oldest stuff looks good. :) Just a little rough along the side of the triforce bookmark.

As with anything, always start your pricing with the base cost of materials involved. Never go lower than that or you're definitely losing money. Markup for time involved to get a better idea of what to charge for the final product. Not knowing your base costs, I can't really give you a good number here, other than to say that up to $5 would not be bad. You could also go to places that sell bookmarks (like Barnes & Noble) and compare to some of their larger, more intricate bookmarks, to get an idea of what you can get away with, keeping in mind that those, unlike yours, are mass-produced (so you can probably charge a bit more).

Looking at yours, the quality of the stitching (and shading and everything) alone should justify the markup.
mewrose
Experienced Poster
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2011 9:10 pm

Re: Price advice: cross stitched bookmarks

Post by mewrose »

Thanks, guys. :) I have some tentative price ideas now, and would welcome feedback on them:

The prices on materials for one of these is negligible, so I'm entirely basing the price on the time it takes to make them. The Pokeball bookmark took about 4 hours to make total. I'm considering charging $25 for something of that complexity, up to $40 for something larger and more detailed like the Mew or the two gift bookmarks, and vary the price on other offerings based on level of detail. The mustached face or the Mario powerups might be $30, for example. The card suits bookmark took longer (smaller squares on the cloth mean more stitches) so that might be $35. Maybe $20 for something even simpler than the pokeball, for example I've designed a set of bookmarks where each bears a single zodiac symbol sewn in 2 colors with no ribbon, which should be relatively quick.
Post Reply