Finished intarsia joinery: how much can I sell it for?

How much can I sell my intarsia joinery for? This is the question I get asked all the time. So I know at least some of you are considering trying to sell your work.

So how much are they worth?

Early days: a typical scenario

You’ve gotten started with an exciting new woodworking skill called Intarsia. You can’t get enough of that. Your family and friends are really impressed with the things you are doing. So each new piece easily finds a home.

You are happy to give your finished pieces to your close friends and family. But then friends of friends start wanting pieces. It occurs to you that while you certainly enjoy doing them, there are costs involved other than your time. And even if you don’t feel like you need to get paid for your time, it would be nice to get some kind of reward for your work.

Median intarsia seizure

Well, maybe it’s not a crisis, but now you start to think that it might be good to sell some intarsia pieces to recoup the costs. And how much easier it is to get the boss to agree to a new machine in his shop if he’s showing a performance. “Well, dear heart, I’ve already earned a few shillings and with that money I can buy a new one – insert your preference here – so I can make my intarsia even more efficiently and then I can easily make that new coffee table you’ve always wanted and so deserve.” Woffle woffle woffle.

The big question: “How much are they worth?

“How long is a piece of string?

The Golden rule. “They are worth what customers pay for them”

Which doesn’t really tell you anything. So let’s take a look at a couple of pricing scenarios.

The academic approach

A Master of Business will instruct you to do something like this. First calculate your total cost of production.

Material costs

* Wood including any waste – $ Very little

* Plywood Backing – $ A small amount

* Hangers from a frame store – a few cents

consumables

* Sandpaper: $ more than you initially imagined, but still not much

* Glue – a few cents more

* Finished with varnish or oil – $ a few dollars

General expenses

* Workshop rent: it may be your garage, but someone had to pay for it at some point.

* Phone

* Electricity

* Broom to sweep

* bla bla bla

Marketing

* Cost of stall at local flea market/boot sale

* Travel cost to get there

* Your time sitting behind the booth all day.

Profit

* The cream on top that you deserve over and above your salary for running your own business. And now the big one.

Plowing

* Your local mechanic charges $50 (or $60 or $70) per hour to repair your car. And it’s probably the first-year trainee who’s done the job anyway. Your masterpiece took 84 hours to make (you’ve carefully noted the hours) and it looks fabulous. You’re not greedy, so maybe $20 an hour is fine. That makes $1680 plus the $50 for all the materials etc. $1700+. You probably won’t get it at your local flea market.

Ok let’s be less ambitious and work for $5 an hour, I don’t really need anything, this is just a hobby. And I’m sure I must have been wrong in those hours, let’s assume it was only 40 hours of work. So $200 plus a little more for materials, let’s say $220 total. That sounds more reasonable, so regardless of business degree, what we’ve really been doing is guessing at the price. Surely there is a better way. You’re right, there is.

a part Sitting all day in the sun at a local flea market hoping a punter with $220 in his pocket will pass by is fine once in a while, but it’s not a regular and reliable stream of income. Oh, you say, but if you take your work to a local gallery, they want 40%, or 50% or more for them. And all they have to do is hang it on the wall, I had to put in all the effort to do it. Shock. But if you go the gallery route, you don’t have to go around all day, every day, looking for clients. They do that. That’s what you pay them for. And they have to spend the money to make their gallery look good, not you. We always try to make quality carpentry to be able to interest the best galleries in the country. Way to go. Happy to pay their share as long as they keep them on trucks.

The two month rule

I take my finished woodwork to the local craft gallery and talk to the owner. After some discussion, we came to an agreed starting price and percentage. Listen to the owner. If they are good, they know their market. Your beautiful intarsia is hung on the wall. Let’s hope it’s the first thing the client sees when he enters the gallery for the first time.

* If the work is sold in less than two months it is too cheap.

* If it takes much longer than two months to sell it, it is too expensive.

* And you guessed it, if it sells in about two months, the price is fair.

The first time I did this, I wore 2 frog intarsias on Thursday. Both sold that weekend. Priced too low, but I knew there was a market.

Good, now you know the price for which you can sell them. But maybe you’ll only make $5 an hour based on how long it took you to make your first one.

So what have you gained: the knowledge that you can’t expect your customers to pay for your inefficiency.

So what can you do about it? There are many ways to optimize your production. You will make your 20th frog much faster than your first. As you get more experienced, you will come up with all sorts of shortcuts. But that is another article.