One of my goals for this summer was to spend more time on my metalwork hobby. I've managed to do that, and I've also managed to somehow get my work discussed in local, regional, and national media. That experience has been a bit bizarre. It feels good, of course, when strangers tell you that they like something that you've done. For some reason, it's also been fun to be trolled on the Good Morning America website.
Jasper Magazine is a publication focusing on the Columbia (South Carolina) art community, which I know very little about since I just moved here about a year ago and have been focused my way though moving, the first year of a new job, and all the stuff that comes with having a family life. I met with Mary Catherine Ballou (and her mother) who sent me some questions and came over to talk to me about my sculptures. I'm told the piece will be published on Ballou's blog soon. I'll post a link when it does. (Update 7/25/2016: Ballou's story is available here.)
In related news, the crow I've been working on is more-or-less done. This is one of the smaller sculptures I've made since I took up welding, and the first one that I've creating while tracking my work hours. As I said in the USC Today piece, I haven't sold anything yet and this isn't something I want to turn into a business. But realistically there will come a day when space issues require that I start getting rid of things. I tracked the hours so I would at least have an accurate idea how much time I had put into the piece.
I spent about ten hours making the crow. I used perhaps $10 of expendable supplies. The materials cost me, at most, a few bucks (about 20 pounds of scrap I've acquired here and there). If I pay myself $20/hour, I'm looking at a labor + materials cost of $210. You can find lots of simple "pricing guides" online like this one that suggest simply doubling the "cost" to calculate a wholesale price. Using that formula I should ask about $420 for the crow. That sounds steep to me, but maybe somebody would pay that much. The way to find out, obviously, would be to put a price tag on it. I'v already moved it inside my house, though, and it's looking pretty comfortable on a corner table, so . . . my guess is that the crow is probably here to stay.
Jasper Magazine is a publication focusing on the Columbia (South Carolina) art community, which I know very little about since I just moved here about a year ago and have been focused my way though moving, the first year of a new job, and all the stuff that comes with having a family life. I met with Mary Catherine Ballou (and her mother) who sent me some questions and came over to talk to me about my sculptures. I'm told the piece will be published on Ballou's blog soon. I'll post a link when it does. (Update 7/25/2016: Ballou's story is available here.)
In related news, the crow I've been working on is more-or-less done. This is one of the smaller sculptures I've made since I took up welding, and the first one that I've creating while tracking my work hours. As I said in the USC Today piece, I haven't sold anything yet and this isn't something I want to turn into a business. But realistically there will come a day when space issues require that I start getting rid of things. I tracked the hours so I would at least have an accurate idea how much time I had put into the piece.
I spent about ten hours making the crow. I used perhaps $10 of expendable supplies. The materials cost me, at most, a few bucks (about 20 pounds of scrap I've acquired here and there). If I pay myself $20/hour, I'm looking at a labor + materials cost of $210. You can find lots of simple "pricing guides" online like this one that suggest simply doubling the "cost" to calculate a wholesale price. Using that formula I should ask about $420 for the crow. That sounds steep to me, but maybe somebody would pay that much. The way to find out, obviously, would be to put a price tag on it. I'v already moved it inside my house, though, and it's looking pretty comfortable on a corner table, so . . . my guess is that the crow is probably here to stay.
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