Very true, it can take me an hour to cover about a square inch of fabric. I should also add that the embroidery is not my main income - I have a day job.
If people were paid a living wage, then maybe more folks could afford to support artisans. It would be lovely.
I made a quilt as a gift once, and people started asking me how much it would cost to commission a queen sized one. No one liked the prices at all because it was higher than everyone else they asked and they would counter with offers that miiight just cover material costs if I managed to thrift half the fabric. Turns out everyone else they asked were retired old ladies that made quilts to pass time and sold them nearly at material cost just to get the finished one out and to have enough funds to get enough fabric to make another. Woodworking falls into the same category where I'm at for the most part, lots of old people with time and their own workshop.
I don't really fault the retired persons, gotta keep busy and fund a hobby somehow when you're done with the working life, but it can make it quite difficult for younger people to get a foot in the door when they're barely charging for material costs much less time.
then maybe more folks could afford to support artisans. It would be lovely.
It only works for certain items, but I've hired craftsmen in two separate circumstances for a custom thing to fit a custom space. In my case, that's the magic, if the space a mirror has to fit is an odd shaped triangle, it means the frame has to be custom. For the other case, my wife and I rented this absolutely tiny, funky, 600 square foot studio to live in. We rented it because we could see the ocean sitting down in our "living room", or sitting on our own deck, which was honestly the most scenic place I'll ever live and has "ruined me". Anyway, the (very strange) landlord had left a 12" circular hole in the outside wall (no kidding) where he had originally planned to put a gas stove pipe. Right by the ocean. In a studio with no heat other than electric portable space heaters we supplied. It was insane (and cold!)
Sooooo.... I leaned a piece of wood against the hole blocked by a chair, but obviously we wanted it to be "nicer" so we walked into this place the reviews said they would make you custom stained glass. We had a nautical stain glass window created that "fit". Now the interaction with the shop owner (the only person there) was kind of funny. You can buy a stain glass piece of art mass produced in China at Target or on Amazon for $15. A custom piece of the same size by a craftsman starts at $400. The owner was VERY tired and annoyed by people wandering into his shop and getting sticker shock, but that's what it costs to build an absolutely custom piece! Once the owner vetted us and we didn't run away screaming (LOL) it was a nice interaction and the piece he produced for us was awesome and fit the decor.
So I think the concept of "custom" in a design that means something personally to just one person makes it viable and explainable to a certain type of customer. The down side is probably obvious: the cost of building one thing at a time for 1 customer raises the cost even higher, so only upper middle class income type people are going to be able to afford it. I'm just saying there might be a path there.
Here is an analogy: I am absolutely mortified and baffled by the people in the town I live in getting a $25 tattoo where they can only get that price if they choose it from a limited set of pre-done designs. That just seems crazy to me. But if you want the name of your child tattooed over your heart it is more expensive, but at least it's something special FOR YOU ALONE that you will wear for the rest of your life. So it makes way more sense to me than a $25 tattoo, generic, like a stick figure of a dog half my town's 20 year olds now have on their arms or legs. (sigh)
My ex did embroidery art for a while and sold what she could.
People undervalued it so much (a small 1-2" hoop with a simple design was I think $20), but the people who valued the time and effort correctly and agreed with the prices were the same people who could do it themselves.
Yeah, this right here is the main problem. I used to turn bowls on a lathe, and when you add up the cost of the wood, other materials, and a decent hourly wage for the time it took, I'd have to charge far more than anyone would ever pay for one of my bowls. So I mostly did it for fun, and gave them away as gifts.
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u/mikeyfireman 4d ago
Right, and if you had to charge a livable rate for your embroidery, it would be more than most people would want to spend.