Monday, June 02, 2008
The Creative STruggle
Now that the big day is drawing near--the Artisan Festival--I can't seem to motivate myself to crank out the purses. Purses are my biggest sellers for quantity. But they're the worst performers for profit. I make such a tiny profit on them that slaving away at the sewing machine for hours to make $5 per purse does NOT sound like a good business plan.
And then there's the creativity struggle. I like creating useful objects, and I like creating one of a kind ideas. I like to work BIG. So I've been painting. And not what I'm supposed to be painting--like the 3 commissions I have on the block right now. I just want to play around and make something pretty. Is that so much to ask? I feel sort of naughty for painting when I should be sewing, or at least working on my commissions.
I have been doing some sewing, which I will be showing you in the next couple of days. And I do have a stock pile of items which did not sell at the MamaMade open house. The only thing I sold that day was more than 20 Cuffees! Crazy! So I'm cranking those out like a madwoman.
Here's a detail of the painting I did this weekend. It used calico for the background, paint with a LOT of gel medium and layers of fabric for the clouds, and pastel chalk to make the sketchy marks. Then more gel medium.
I really like the look of it, but wish it was bigger. I have this desire to create really big things right now. I think it's a subconscious cry for open spaces. I WANT TO BE OUTSIDE! I WANT TO GO TO COLORADO!
Okay, I'm being weird today. I'll sign off.
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Very cool! You never cease to amaze me. Remind me when the festival is again? I need to come check out your goods!
I'm sure you've thought of this but why don't you charge $10 more per purse? Since I just paid $73 to fill up my car, that doesn't seem like asking too much to me!
Charge more for you bags, for Heaven's sake! Your bags are cool, but dear Lord your quilts are breath taking!
I dont get how you only make $5/purse.
I calculate that fabric and notions for one handbag costs me about $5-10, and I sell mine for about $30-40, and since you sell yours in the same price range, how are you making such a little profit margin?
Well, let's do a little math equation:
For each purse I use about a half yard of fabric for the outside. I use high end designer fabric for most things that I purchase for about $23 after tax. So right there we've got $11.50. Then you add in the half yard for the inside, which is also good quality, but usually solid colors, so I'll give that $5 for a half yard. 2 yards of ribbon and cording, comes out to about $3 if I don't use a zipper. And let's assume it's really simple and doesn't have a snap or button closure.
Then add in the gas that it took to go buy those things, the money I spend on marketing, booth fees, and website maintenance, and well, it's just not a lot left over. I'll put in another $5 for those things because if you divide my output of purses over all that money (and yes, I've done the real math) that's a very low estimate.
Each bag takes about 2 hours to make after I've perfected a pattern. And that's the really super simple bags.
Plus $2 for Etsy fees and the packing material to ship it.
$10+$5+$3+$5+$2= $25 divided by 3 (2 hours to make and 1 hour to sell) = $8 per hour.
Okay, so that wasn't so bad as I exaggerated earlier.