"Derek Andrews" wrote in message

Maxprop wrote:
The decision I'd have to make would be whether the fair market rates for
my
turnings would allow me to turn for a living. In addition, I'd more than
likely have to make the effort to be able to turn a 10" bowl in less time
to
enable myself to sell my turnings for competitive prices.


If you want to make a living, you cannot allow 'fair market rate' to
dictate the price you ask for your products. You have to figure out how
much it costs YOU to make the product and to sell it. If it does not sell
for that price, you do not have a commercially viable product for YOUR
market.

That's pretty much what I said, stated differently. Ultimately the market
determines the commercial viability of your product. Whether you call that
the "fair market rate" or the commercial viability of your product is
irrelevant. It's simply a matter of perspective, viewed from the market's
viewpoint or from that of the artist.

There are exceptions, such as loss-leaders, but you cannot afford too many
products that are not designed to afford you an acceptable income. For
example, I make much more profit from $10 bottle stoppers than I do from
a c.$200 OOAK piece. I make very few OOAK's and they often sit in my
studio for several years before they sell. BUT, they do serve a purpose.
They become a focus of attention, they start conversations with customers,
and they tell a lot about the art of woodturning and give more perceived
worth to the less expensive items. And of course, they do sell eventually,
and it means that when someone comes in with a credit card burning a hole
in their wallet, I have something to sell them.

There are other ways to compete other than on price. Indeed, as I said
before, the lowest acceptable price must be set by your costs and income
expectations. By adding unique design, select wood grains, packaging and
other marketing tactics, you can increase this baseline price by adding
something unique to your product so that a comparison cannot be made to
other turned products on price alone.

In other words, create a market of your own. Sadly such markets tend to be,
um, limited in scope. That said, some turners have done well with self-made
markets.

The hardest lesson to learn is that selling is not about you and your
work, but about your customer and what you and your product can do for
them.

Which returns to my original premise: the market determines what sells and
for what price. Many manufacturers of durable goods build their products to
a price, generally determined through exhaustive market research, that the
market will find acceptable or even attractive. Artists and artisans, OTOH,
tend to create from their imaginations, execute from their skills, and
attempt to sell. Which is probably why the term "starving artist" is so
commonly bantered about.

Max