No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on April 5, 2011

Or don’t under sell yourself. Your time and talent is worth something.

Something to think about, minimum wage in the United States ranges from $5.25 in Minnesota to $8.67 in Washington with most states around $7.25 per hour. Not a whole lot of money but if it takes you 4 hours to make something and you price it at $20.00 then you aren’t even making the minimum in Minnesota and you aren’t even taking materials costs into account.

Pricing should be a simple formula time + materials cost = price. But there are so many factors that are in there. Can you figure out how long it takes you to make one of something or do you do things in sets? If you do things in sets then divide the total amount of time to make the objects by the number of objects to get the amount of time you should charge for one. Is there drying time before you can do the next step in the project?

Trying to break down exactly how long it takes you to make something is not an exact science so we tend to ballpark how long it takes to make something. I know it takes me 4 hours to make a basic puppet from cutting fabric to final product with eyes and hair.

I know that my materials cost is approximately $10 to 14 per puppet including hair and eyeballs. The fabric is ½ a yard of fleece and ½ a yard of fuzzy fleece which is about 8 dollars not on sale and about 6 on sale. Half a long feather boa is 2 dollars when on sale and about 3 when not. Ping pong balls run about 25 cents a piece. Velcro is about 20 cents a patch. Rhinestones are about 5 cents a stone when not on sale but a bag can last you a while.

So we have (4 hours X $7.25 (since I live in New York)) + $10= $39 per puppet for a basic puppet which I should round up to $40.

(For the VI: This is a picture of two puppets I call Phluzzies. The one on the left has a blue head and arms with a lighter fuzzy blue tube shaped body. The hair on top is a blue fuzzy boa. On top of the head are two ping pong balls with black Velcro circles in the middle of the ball and a single blue rhinestone in the middle of the Velcro. The puppet on the right has a yellow head and arms with a shaggy red body. The hair on top is a red fuzzy boa. On top of the head are two ping pong balls with black Velcro circles in the middle of the ball and a single red rhinestone in the middle of the Velcro.)

However I tend to sell these puppets for between 20 to 30 dollars per puppet at conventions because that is what the market will bear. So I am selling them at a bit of a loss for my time. I will not sell for less than materials.

Don’t undervalue what you do because once the price is set then trying to raise the price can be very hard to do. I found that out with the phluzzies. I didn’t take my time into account before pricing them and now people expect them to be 20 to 30 dollars depending on materials.

I am grateful for being paid a living wage for a puppet along with materials.

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Tags: Art, crafty tuesday, Creativity

Posted By Kathleen David on April 4, 2011

Due to some pretty vigorous attacks to the main frame. So I have no idea when I will be posting this there but you can always find me at my main blog https://kathwp.malibulist.com/

Peter is back! He is taking Caroline off to school. She is so happy to see him again. She is use to having both of us around that it throws her off when one of us is gone for more than a day. She had fun with me and we did a lot of activities together but she knows I was distracting her from the fact that Daddy was on the West Coast again.

Yesterday we ran some errands and watched MegaMind, which I had only seen once. It is pretty funny even during a second viewing. Today is pretty much a typical Monday on tap.

I’m going to say that Butler is going to take it all since they played basically this UConn team last year so they have had a year to plan. It is no longer a Cinderella story because Butler has gotten to this same point for two years now.

Off to put the house back in order.

I am grateful for Caroline’s glee at seeing her Father.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 3, 2011

Who saw that coming? According to the ESPN bracket mavens there were two people who go this far and one picked Butler and one picked UConn. So someone will be right once the dust settles. They have found that interest has waned since most of the brackets were busted. So March madness seems more about the brackets than the teams.

Saw Hop yesterday. It was a fun silly film with lots of good voices and some great acting by the humans we see. I am starting to believe that James Marsden can do anything as an actor. He is brilliant here but then he was brilliant in “Enchanted” too. Don’t think through the plot too hard since it is very basic and doesn’t ask much from you. Just enjoy Hank Azaria as a chick and Hugh Laurie as a Bunny. Russel Brand does a good job as EB and he even makes a cameo within the context of the film which is kind of fun. But again I urge you not to think too hard while watching it. Afterwards the girls met the Easter Bunny and got some really cool Hop memorabilia including the coveted silly bands.

Today Caroline and I are going to run a few errands with the rest of the day at home or at the park if it is not too windy. Last night we had a sleepover which I do with her on occasion when Peter is out of town. Except for the cats fighting outside the door and my iPhone beeping because I forgot to silence one of the alerts, it was a good sleep over.

I am grateful that Peter is having fun at WonderCon. He will be a lot easier to spot today since he will be looking more like himself. (I’ll explain in a day or so if he doesn’t)

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 2, 2011

Peter name was even brought up in one of the spoofs. I found that funny since I knew from the headline that it was not true. Bt for everyone else for a little bit it was plausible because he has worked with IDW before and Marvel has allowed him a few exceptions from his exclusive contract but they have been very few and far between.

I took Caroline to the family swim that they have on Friday at the local Y. She swam around and played in the water for almost an hour. I called a halt because my legs were giving out since I spent most of that hour either swimming or treading water near her. I have been working on building muscle and endurance but that was a prime example that I need to work more and harder.

We watched the beginning of the Mets game at dinner. I saw the end of the game as well. Same o’ Mets. They are such teases. I know that the money matters are hanging heavy over their heads and that they are trying to find someone to be a co-owner for the team to help with the debt but considering what they are charging for a bottle of water, they shouldn’t be that bad off if they can get butts in the seats. They did nothing in the off season and are trying to make it work with what they have which wasn’t working last year. Orioles won as did the Braves so not totally a lost day of baseball.

Today I am taking Caroline and a friend of hers to see HOP. I have some idea what to expect so I plan to turn my brain off at the door and just go along for the ride. I have a feeling we have seen the best jokes in the Trailers.

Then tomorrow is all about the cleaning unless the weather is really nice then we are going to go to the playground so Caroline can run around a bit and get winter out of her limbs.

Peter is having fun at WonderCon. I am sure he’ll tell all about his adventures when he gets back. I am hoping for pictures. His panel for Activision is at 4:30 at WonderCon. No, I don’t know which room it is in but I am sure you can find out.

I have to fax my letter of intent for DragonCon this year. I will be going and might have something interesting to do. Pipework is being laid now. I just have to figure out how we can pull it off.

I am grateful to things that lessen stress in my life.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 1, 2011

Anything I read today I am taking with a serious grain of salt especially if it is on a fan page or an industry page. Today people take great glee in creating and crafting news stories that are possibly plausible but not very likely. I plan to celebrate by keeping off the Internet and keeping my drink in front of me.

And considering some of the teams that are starting up today in baseball, I have to say it is the perfect day for it. Because when their season goes to pot after starting strong, they can point to today and say, “April Fools.”

Today is going to be a catch-up day for me. This afternoon I plan to take Caroline to the family swim at our local Y and then out for dinner which I promised we would do about two weeks ago. But this morning and this early afternoon I plan to get some organization to parts of the chaos around here. We’ll see how far I get.

Most of tomorrow will be spend with Caroline and her bestest friend who I am taking to see Hop and then out to lunch. We planned this last week and Caroline has been looking forward to it all week.

There might be some time to do some art in there somewhere. Sunday is looking pretty clear right now.

Peter is out at WonderCon this weekend and he will be at the Activision panel on Saturday at 4:30. Other than that, he really doesn’t plan to be anywhere else to sign nor does he have a table. It is probably the freest he has been at a convention in years. So he plans to see the convention including some panels he wants to scope out.

I am grateful for things that make cleaning faster and easier.

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