Take 2--or Double Take

I really enjoyed the polka dot flower brooch I made this week. On the strength of it I asked myself a couple of questions:

• how would it look in a hand-dyed cotton homespun fabric?
• how long does it actually take to make one of these brooches?

Here's how it looks. And it took fifteen minutes to make after I'd assembled all the materials and worked out the technique on a previous incarnation.

 So what? Well, one of the topics for this weeks Make Craft Your Business class was pricing. We've been pointed to this formula as a good guide. It suggests a fair retail price is four times the cost of materials plus time. Yep, four times! That's to cover all sorts of things like finding and purchasing supplies, developing designs, labelling, promoting, etc, etc, etc. Not to speak of overheads. Now I'm no-where near making my living from my crafts, but it's a worthwhile question, particularly if I'm going to be more intentional about what I make to sell.

 I don't have an estimate for the time and materials I used to dye this fabric. It was a few years ago, but I know that good quilting cottons, whether hand-dyed or commercially printed retail for $24 per meter. This flower takes just under 10 cm of fabric, The brooch back costs 40 cents. The big question then becomes, "What price should I put on my time?"

 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this difficult topic. I can tell you that when I pulled out the brooch in class and presented my figures, we were all struggling to know how to reconcile the issue. I deliberately did this with something I don't feel too precious about. In fact, by the end of the day I wasn't even sure that I liked the brooch. I'm a bit happier with it this morning. And the possibility of selling kits helps. 

Christmas Time

There's some sort of strange time phenomenon that occurs at this time of year. Life seems to slow down and speed up in rather disconcerting ways. All of a sudden it's a week before Christmas and I'm nowhere near ready for it.

I can't quite remember the circumstances in which I made this little crochet heart. I do remember it was Christmas time and I must have been in some sort of time bubble, because there are an awful lot of little stitches there. It's come to light this week while I'm packing and moving. What started as the Studio project has resulted in practically my entire house being rearranged. I guess that just underlines how much difference it's going to make to have space set aside for all my creative stuff. Of course when this phase is done, I'll have a spare bedroom to set up, but that will be next year. For now I need to move enough stuff to make a welcoming space for some Christmas festivities. And arrange the studio space well enough that I can complete some of the gifts I have planned.

Time Machine

Where did my morning go? Usually posting is towards the top of my daily "to do" list, but here it is nearly half past one and I'm just sitting down to the computer. Well at least I got my current knitting project finished. Here it is--a blue scarf for a girl who turns seventeen today: Therein lies another question: where did my week go? The recipient of this scarf is two states and two days postage away from where I am. This should have been in the mail by Wednesday, Thursday at the latest--in an express pack--but here it is just coming off my needles. And while we're at it, where did the years go? It wasn't so long ago I first met her as a five year old . . . Somehow time's going by faster than I can keep up and there's not much I can do about it. Except in this case, say, "Happy Birthday" from afar and give my friend A a sneak peak of what should be in her hands already. It will be in the mail tomorrow. I'll spare you the, "my, how you've grown!" and "it seems only yesterday" . . .