The other day, I replied to someone’s question regarding how to price bisque for resale. I received a return email wondering how I could charge that much unless I lived in a big city. I pondered this concern and decided this would be a great topic for CMEZ as we all want fair compensation for our efforts.

It does not matter if you are in the field as a hobby or as a professional. It does not matter if you have a home studio or a commercial outlet. It is imperative that you give competitive pricing but not at the risk of losing money or giving away your product, time or talent. The basic formula for pricing is just that, a basic formula. There is always room for some modification to meet particular situations. You do have to agree on one thing however; unless you are a philanthropist or extremely benevolent, you are selling your wares for a profit.

One thing worth mentioning, it is always easier to lower your prices to make a sale than to raise the prices when you see you are losing money, but to do that, you need a basic price, or beginning point. Customers love discounts and sales, but really hate price increases.

It does not matter if you live in a small town or a big city. When pricing your wares, it is important that you consider all costs and overhead into your pricing structure. Many amateurs and even some professionals forget about recovering their expenses. In pricing you should consider the following costs: Cost of mold and replacements, cost for shipping, cost for slip, cost for tools and casting equipment and their replacement or repair, cost for chemicals, cost for kiln and kiln maintenance and repair or replacement, cost for electricity, cost for storage/rent, cost for waste removal, cost for utilities (heat, water, etc), cost for loss and errors, cost for other consumable supplies such as paints and brushes, costs for advertising, cost for loss, cost for help, and most importantly value of your time.

The following is a basic formula to figure your resale pricing (there are exceptions)

Greenware = 10-12% of mold costs
Firing = 50% of greenware price
Cleaning greenware = 50% of greenware price (and up)
Simple glazing= 150% of greenware (50% for paint, 50% for 2nd fire, 50% for time-be sure to include first firing and greenware costs)
Finished Items = 4-10 times cost of greenware (and up- depending upon time and supply costs)

For further information about pricing your ceramics, click here

Those of you who cast your own molds may or may not already be aware that Doc Holliday Molds is planning on retiring about 2000 of their ceramic molds.

Doc Holliday has some of the most beautifully detailed and high quality casting molds you can hope to find on the market today.

I discovered Doc Holliday when they introduced their Mystical line. They have incredible Dragons, Wizards, Gargoyles, Fairies and all things mystical. But one must not ignore their other lines.

Take it from me, all things ceramic are cyclical and once these are no longer available, you will kick yourself for not picking up those molds you missed.

To visit their site and check out retiring molds, just click on their link at the bottom left of my home page and be sure to tell them Majik sent ya!!

Yes, it is…it is definitely Spring here in the deep South. I am so excited. I’m anxious to get doing things again and am torn between playing in the mud or playing in the mud. We moved into a new house last summer and I am so curious to see what the spring will yield in our yard and gardens and I am chomping at the bit to get out there and start working on all the garden plans I’ve laid out in my head over the winter months.

The Forsythia is blooming, Hickory trees have popped open, daffodils everywhere. I even see my hyacinths starting to open up…WOW, I have a great start. There are a few things I don’t recognize yet, but they have buds on them as do several other flowering trees. First thing I need to do is cut back the Crepe Myrtle before it starts to bud…. Oh so much to do!!!

Yes, I am going to have problems. Lots to do outside, but there is still so much I want to get started in my casting room. As I mentioned before, we recently moved and I have several thousand molds in my workshop. Thankfully most got sorted and put away before cold weather; but there are still a hundred or so that I need to get up on shelves. There are so many items I want to get poured up and ready for sale as well as painted so I can get some pictures for my planned project classes… oh my! Spring does revitalize one, doesn’t it?

I learned while in retail sales with my brick and mortar store, that you always plan about 9 months ahead, so if I start talking Christmas, I’m not crazy. One has to do that in ceramics too because production takes time, especially if you want to turn out quality creations. So don’t get lost in all of the other things to do and the joy of being outside, be sure to ‘think ahead’ and not get caught at the last minute wanting to get things made for special occasions.

What is name branding? It is a name that is recognized for a specific product. You will find this in all fields from automobiles (Ford, Cadillac, Lamborgini) to equipment (John Deere, Kenmore, Hoover) to common household products (Pam, Lysol, Kleenex) and includes the arts (DaVinci, Piccaso, Russell, Rockwell). It is no different in the field of clay arts and ceramics. Surely you have heard of Wedgewood, Hull, Mikasa, Pfaltzgraff, etc.

Obviously the key to becoming name recognized is to have an idea that is different from another’s. Expanding that idea into a product line requires some imagination and creativity. As mentioned previously, most artist don’t start out with anything in mind more than expressing their imagination and creativity into a tangible form.

Jeanette McCall became famous because of her master baking skills. She created the wedding cake for Prince Charles and Lady Diana because of her skill and name recognition. She transferred her excellent decorating skills to ceramics and with her brush, painted designs and created ceramic sculptures that are in great demand. see Icing on the Cake

Florence Ward started as a hobby in her kitchen in the 1940s as therapy and developed molds of Victorian figures that were copied many times over by other companies and artist, but managed to get her own ‘recognition’ for her attention to details and originality. See Florence’s Ceramics. Her pieces are easily recognized by the stamp on the bottom Florences Ceramics or Florence of Pasadena.

Addis E Hull, Hull Pottery was founded in 1905 Hull pottery is distinctive primarily because of its painting technique. Many vases and objects de art were airbrushed and utility ware was most noticeably a brown glaze with white drips around the rim. They were well known for their figural cookie jars. During the Mid 80’s unionization and foreign reproduction lead to their closing their doors, but you will see their items are still popular and in high demand among collectors and decorators today. See Hull Pottery.

All are not success stories, a modern day example of this is a company called Mud Pie. They took mold cast forms and modified them by attaching bits of clay to create bows, flowers, etc. thereby creating some unique decorative pieces. I had some difficulty recently finding a reference for the Mud Pie Ceramics that I have come to know and wonder if they changed their name or dissolved their company. From small beginnings a group of ladies built a sizeable business whose trademark was that most everything was painted white and had sculpted roses or other flowers attached. There are now many companies out there with the same name which shows success can be in the name chosen, and I believe they picked a name that was too common. I do run across their items on gift shop shelves occasionally and come across specific pieces on eBay and other online sites. They are easily recognizable.