Islay
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Do you think you can actually save money by crafting things?I'm not talking about getting a free bench by carving your own wood (obviously this is cheaper), but by doing things like card making, knitted gifts or whatever.
Everyone I speak to seems to think that it's impossible, but I'm convinced that I save money. I used to spend £2 or so on a nice card for every single event, and now I spend a tenner on enough stuff to make 20-30 cards.
I also knit a lot of gifts, and while wool isn't the cheapest thing ever, I find I'm spending under a tenner for a lot of gifts (I am going to have to come up with something other than socks at some point...) where I once would have spent at least £15-20.
What do you think? I just wrote a massive blog post on how I keep trying new crafts and how I'm justifying them to myself, and it made me think....
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lettucewoman
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not only can you save money you can also make money! 
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sean
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A lot depends on how you cost your time.
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Stacey
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| sean wrote: | | A lot depends on how you cost your time. |
Beaten to it by Sean 
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Islay
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That's true - I kind of don't think about that so much because I have the time, and I know I'd prefer to be doing things like knitting a pair of socks than being at work, so I'm prepared not to take that into the calculation.
Lettucewoman your jewellery is lovely, by the way! I love the twisty twizzlyness (ermm... you know what I mean)
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lettucewoman
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| Islay wrote: | That's true - I kind of don't think about that so much because I have the time, and I know I'd prefer to be doing things like knitting a pair of socks than being at work, so I'm prepared not to take that into the calculation.
Lettucewoman your jewellery is lovely, by the way! I love the twisty twizzlyness (ermm... you know what I mean) |
 thanks!
I cost out my time as a proportion of the price.. I don't cost out my jewellry as one shoud because it would make it prohibitively expensive, but i do make a small profit which helps to pay the leccy bill... 
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colour it green
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| sean wrote: | | A lot depends on how you cost your time. |
I think costing your time in only comes into effect if you are either selling your goods, or giving up paid employment to make them
When it comes to a gift.. the time and effort you put in is part of the gift, and if you are time rich and money poor, that's what you can give.
The crafts themselves.. it depends. you can definitely spend more on yarn than you can buy garments for.. but if you regard it as a hobby too, then you are getting something out of it yourself
other crafts.. such as I made some lovely thigns out of a shrunk felted jumper.. the costs were nil.
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judith
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| colour it green wrote: | | you can definitely spend more on yarn than you can buy garments for.. |
Absolutely, but as with most of these things you have to compare like with like. A one-off hand-knitted cardie will set you back £120 at the very least in the shops.
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marigold
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My friends, family and I have pretty much abandoned obligatory birthday/Christmas gift-giving now - that saves a lot of money (and time) . We still give gifts, but only on an ad hoc basis - jar of jam, home-grown produce/cuttings/pot plants, inexpensive CS book on a subject the recipient is interested in etc.
I sometimes make cards because I enjoy making them, especially if I can create something from materials already in the house, but you can buy nice cards really cheaply in charity shops (e.g. 3 birthday cards for 99p in the Mind shop, 20 Xmas Charity cards for £3-4 from a supermarket) and it's hard to beat that in terms of cost and time taken.
I'm trying to "cost" all my money-saving activities by including minimum wage for my time - I know it's not just about the money, but it does help to focus my mind on what's worth doing and what isn't. I can still do things that aren't particularly cost-effective, but I don't delude myself that I'm saving money.
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colour it green
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| judith wrote: | | colour it green wrote: | | you can definitely spend more on yarn than you can buy garments for.. |
Absolutely, but as with most of these things you have to compare like with like. A one-off hand-knitted cardie will set you back £120 at the very least in the shops. |
very true. I spose i was thinking of all those fluffy scarves everyone made back a long..
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colour it green
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| marigold wrote: | | My friends, family and I have pretty much abandoned obligatory birthday/Christmas gift-giving now - that saves a lot of money (and time) . We still give gifts, but only on an ad hoc basis - jar of jam, home-grown produce/cuttings/pot plants, inexpensive CS book on a subject the recipient is interested in etc. |
I agreed some time ago with friends and family that for that winter festival thingy we give homemade thigs. most of the time it is something I was making anyway, like I made lots of damson jelly. I'll give some as gifts. I'll get back things I didn't make.. its all nice feelgood stuff.
| Quote: | | I'm trying to "cost" all my money-saving activities by including minimum wage for my time - I know it's not just about the money, but it does help to focus my mind on what's worth doing and what isn't. I can still do things that aren't particularly cost-effective, but I don't delude myself that I'm saving money. |
I can see your point - it is worth knowing just how many hours went into saving money and was it worth it.. could you have used your time and energy better.. etc
But I dont see the point in actually putting a sum of money against it.. not unless you are actually losing it somewhere, or if you need to include it in pricing your goods.
in the same way i would not cost a game of badminton as cost of the court + 1 hour of my time at min wage.. this is my free time.. this is how i am spending it. I'm not losing out. nor do i include my time in my figures for raising pigs or chickens for eggs.. I don't charge myself for my time.. no money changes hands.. it's just a question of whether the gain is worth the effort.
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wipka84
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If you find pleasure in doing a craft, then its unlikely you'll need to cost your time. After all the reward is not the monetary saving, but the pleasure in spending the time doing the hobby.
Watching tv whilst pleasurable to some isn't going to produce much at the end of it, except perhaps a bit of knowledge at the end. Leisure activities will reward you with fitness. Whilst jogging or walking is virtually free and will give the same benefit as a game of badmington, the cost of the court if you find badmington more pleasurable will negate the added expense.
So back to the cards, if your enjoying it and doing this craft during your free time, rather than time you need to set aside to earn a crust, you could in theory offset a monetary sum for pleasure and only add a bit for the wage rather than the full minimum wage per hour.
I guess a lot of craft sellers settle for £ per hour well below the minimum wage because it doesnt feel like work and are getting additional non-monetary benefit. if they didnt i guess there wouldnt be so many craft sellers around.
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marigold
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| colour it green wrote: |
| Quote: | | I'm trying to "cost" all my money-saving activities by including minimum wage for my time - I know it's not just about the money, but it does help to focus my mind on what's worth doing and what isn't. I can still do things that aren't particularly cost-effective, but I don't delude myself that I'm saving money. |
I can see your point - it is worth knowing just how many hours went into saving money and was it worth it.. could you have used your time and energy better.. etc
But I dont see the point in actually putting a sum of money against it.. not unless you are actually losing it somewhere, or if you need to include it in pricing your goods.
in the same way i would not cost a game of badminton as cost of the court + 1 hour of my time at min wage.. this is my free time.. this is how i am spending it. I'm not losing out. nor do i include my time in my figures for raising pigs or chickens for eggs.. I don't charge myself for my time.. no money changes hands.. it's just a question of whether the gain is worth the effort. |
I decided to use an actual sum of money because I couldn't think of any other easy measure to use - I'm not saying anyone else should do that, but thought I'd mention it in case it was of interest. I've developed a lot of time-wasting habits since I've been off work and I need to find a way of focusing my mind on what's worth doing and what isn't. I don't have a lot of time or money to "spend" and I really need to be aware of the value of what I'm doing - "monetising" it is a crude, but quite useful measure (for me, at the moment).
Stuff like knitting myself a jumper has multiple values - for the cost of the yarn I get a unique garment that would cost a lot more to buy made by someone else, plus the therapeutic value of the actual knitting, plus the satisfaction of having made something lovely, plus the warm glow when people admire my work. BUT at my slow knitting speed it wouldn't be remotely worth trying to make garments to sell and I only knit socks/scarves as gifts for very favoured people!
Going off-topic a bit - I recently spent time saving myself £42 off my car insurance - by the time I'd faffed about on various comparison sites and phoned my current insurers to beat them down I had spent a good one and a half hours of my time. That's well worth the effort to me now, but it wouldn't have been when I earnt more than that per hour at work (unless of course I had stolen the time from my employers ).
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colour it green
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I see your point. I guess i have done it in reverse.. you know.. looked at something I wanted to buy and then asked myself if i was willing to work for x hours to get it.
I'm the same with knitting.. too slow to make money on it.. only close family get gifts.. in fact.. it's Septmber.. I ought to get on with it.... but bah its sunny - ... off outside
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marigold
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| colour it green wrote: | | but bah its sunny - ... off outside |
Same here and I'm wondering why I'm faffing about on t'internet when i should be going for a walk to work off some of my flubber  .
Seeya later!
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Frewen Feltmaker
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| wipka84 wrote: | | I guess a lot of craft sellers settle for £ per hour well below the minimum wage because it doesnt feel like work and are getting additional non-monetary benefit. if they didnt i guess there wouldnt be so many craft sellers around. |
...and others settle for below below minumum wage because the the crafters mentioned above undercut the market
I had an opportunity yesterday to discuss representation at a craft gallery for my hats. I didn't pursue it, and if the lady (who was lovely) asked me to supply her I would decline at the moment. She looked almost disappointed when I told her I only took commissions.
The time taken to make stock for her would eat considerably into my time developing as a better more rounded and accomplished feltmaker and pay me a pittance. I need my time for developing my felt skills and gaining exhibition space.
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Stacey
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| Frewen Feltmaker wrote: | | The time taken to make stock for her would eat considerably into my time developing as a better more rounded and accomplished feltmaker and pay me a pittance. I need my time for developing my felt skills and gaining exhibition space. |
Very pertinent. I didn't get paid pittance which was kind of the allure but I was very aware that I had to start selling way before I'd had enough time to develop what I really wanted to do. Hence giving the whole lot up and going back to school. I'm still taking on work that I don't want to just because I need the money but I watched someone (in a slightly different field) become very succesful very quickly and I vowed I didn't want to become like that as she had absolutely no time for developing her work. It becomes like factory line production very quickly.
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fishfish
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my catapult bussines started as just a hobby and gifts,making stuff for gifts is so personal,i made a knife for a mate on a remote scottish island and he treasures it.
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lettucewoman
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| Frewen Feltmaker wrote: | | wipka84 wrote: | | I guess a lot of craft sellers settle for £ per hour well below the minimum wage because it doesnt feel like work and are getting additional non-monetary benefit. if they didnt i guess there wouldnt be so many craft sellers around. |
...and others settle for below below minumum wage because the the crafters mentioned above undercut the market
I had an opportunity yesterday to discuss representation at a craft gallery for my hats. I didn't pursue it, and if the lady (who was lovely) asked me to supply her I would decline at the moment. She looked almost disappointed when I told her I only took commissions.
The time taken to make stock for her would eat considerably into my time developing as a better more rounded and accomplished feltmaker and pay me a pittance. I need my time for developing my felt skills and gaining exhibition space. |
This is a very good point!! I hadn't really thought of it, but I can see how one could be caught up in producing dozens of items and not have time to hone ones skills...so I think I'll stop trying to get my stuff into shops, and concentrate on parties and commissions.
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Bodrighy
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I mentally give myself £10 an hour then add any costs for materials, things like finishings etc. Most money comes from the smaller items as they are made quickly and can be sold cheaply, the people who make money in shops and galleries are few and far between.
Pete
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Frewen Feltmaker
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At the moment I'm sort of thinking that in the art field you need to have several strings to your bow - you need exhibition space and credibility, you need to have some sort of teaching/workshop branch and you need some kind of studio selling/commission work too. If you can get paid print space in the magazines/periodicals then so much the better, and of course, a book !
Even if you get all that together it still might not be enough though 
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marigold
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| Frewen Feltmaker wrote: | At the moment I'm sort of thinking that in the art field you need to have several strings to your bow - you need exhibition space and credibility, you need to have some sort of teaching/workshop branch and you need some kind of studio selling/commission work too. If you can get paid print space in the magazines/periodicals then so much the better, and of course, a book !
Even if you get all that together it still might not be enough though |
You missed out "a well-paid spouse/fat pension/trust fund" . I think it probably also helps to have someone other than yourself to promote your work (and do the household chores).
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Frewen Feltmaker
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Oh yes - silly me
I also forgot "lots of friends in high places "- just one or two in the RA would do darling - or failing that Charles Saachi
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alice
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| Frewen Feltmaker wrote: | At the moment I'm sort of thinking that in the art field you need to have several strings to your bow - you need exhibition space and credibility, you need to have some sort of teaching/workshop branch and you need some kind of studio selling/commission work too. If you can get paid print space in the magazines/periodicals then so much the better, and of course, a book !
Even if you get all that together it still might not be enough though |
And a beautifully produced and photographed, *popular* blog never does any harm either
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Frewen Feltmaker
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Trust me - I'm trying - even if the photography is a bit pants
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lettucewoman
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....or more than one string to your bow...I had a productive morning at the craft sale this morning...however what sold the best was the fudge I made to sell "on the side"  ....Im registered with the local authority now so am going to alternate the monthly fairs I do between food and jewellery.
A friend of mine has started making cards, pictures ,magnets etc from his amazing photography of the Forest wildlife, ponies, donkeys, trees...he's only been going less than a year and he's making enough to live on, and is making money from the local gift shops selling his stuff. His USP is the fact that he does not photoshop any of his pictures...they are as they were taken, and he is really good. However to start with he also did gardening ..he's making enough to stop that now
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RichardW
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| lettucewoman wrote: | | His USP is the fact that he does not photoshop any of his pictures |
That made me laugh. Was not long ago when every one would have not photoshopped any thing. To photoshop would have been a USP then.
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lettucewoman
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| RichardW wrote: | | lettucewoman wrote: | | His USP is the fact that he does not photoshop any of his pictures |
That made me laugh. Was not long ago when every one would have not photoshopped any thing. To photoshop would have been a USP then. |
yes i guess you are right! He des it to distinguish himself from other photographic card sellers who enhance the colours so much a robin looks like a fire engine!!!!
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Mutton
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If you sell at the same craft fares, with pretty much the same product, you'll probably saturate the market in a couple of years. IMHO
If you are anywhere near a University town, that might be a place to sell in from time to time - if the students are buying Christmas presents etc, or stuff to pretty up their homes-from-home (at start of term) then every three years you have a totally fresh set of purchasers.
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