Can we talk about something that isn't that fun?

You know what it is? It's pricing, and it's not that fun to do or think about. I was doing some reading on the etsy forums and came across this thread about how much people pay themselves per hour. I don't necessarily have a set price per hour. In fact, I don't really know how long it takes me to make anything because I don't ever sit down and create items from start to finish in one sitting.

A reply by etsy user cabinhollow said this:

Supplies + Labor + Profit = Wholesale
Wholesale + Labor to sell + Profit = Retail

This concept makes sense to me, but I'm a little concerned that if I was accurately pricing my items following this model my items wouldn't be affordable to me. I'm not really interested in making things that I couldn't personally afford. I think handmade should be available to everyone.

Another thing I have difficulty with is cost of supplies. A lot of my supplies are from the thrift store. I also have a lot of new fabric and plenty of cast off clothing from my family members that I got for free. I have tried figuring out how to calculate fabric costs, but I ended up with such a small decimal point that I had to round it up to 1 cent. Does anyone have any tips with this? How do you calculate this cost?

See? This isn't that much fun. I think the point for now (for me!) is to time myself on a few projects, like pouch and wallet making. I just want a general idea to help me price things a bit better and make more accurate creative goals. Maybe we'll cover this in Indie Business?

And for something fun, here's a choice new mug I got at an estate sale last weekend.



It was pretty much free as everything was half off and this mug was originally priced a whopping 25 cents. This is my new second favorite mug, preceded by "Make Love Not Midnight Snacks" and followed by "Ladies Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society," which I do not believe I've shared here yet!

I have some fun new wallets to share tomorrow. I'll try not to be so late!