Price for VSC

sarah curry wrote:

> OK, Guyz (that's generic, for me :-) ) -- a rare initial post.
>
> Rita, I guess I really AM about to join the ranks of the pros, albeit
> kicking and screaming :-)
>
> And so, y'all heard about the VSC ("Vertical Surface Cover" ... for the
> newbies, I make BED quilts. I don't BELIEVE in Wuh-Wu ... Wall-h ....
> Wuh ... still can't say it, although I just MADE one for my office. So,
> this lively group invented "VSC" for me, so I could come even close
> :-) )
> And so, my boss (and a good friend) just flipped, and what started out
> in MY cubby is now on a big Wuh-WU ... WALL, in her office.
>
> [ASIDE: a GREAT VSC hanger, if I do say so myself: went to the
> hardware store, bought a great length (all it came in) of 1/2" copper
> pipe. Cut it to the right length with my handy-dandy copper-pipe cutter
> ($7 at the hardware store; $15 at the hobby shop ... pay ATTENTION,
> crafters). Picked up a couple of copper "dookers" to put on the ends,
> from a bin close to the pipe. Burnished the odd-stuff off with steel
> wool. Stuck a dooker on each end, and voila! for $5, a GORGEOUS VSC
> hanger (I didn't include the amount left over to make another one).
>
> And so, I'm gonna SELL this one (I adore Lisa, but she's GOT a quilt, a
> king-sized one that I made, on her BED. That one was a gift). It's 48"
> square, more or less (and pretty dang square, come to think of it).
> told you about it. 8" variable stars, the "glitter" fabrics. Quilted
> with the glitter-thread, in silver and gold and copper.
>
> How much? I literally haven't a clue.
>
> Still kicking and screaming (but not willing to GIVE this one away)
>
> Sarah in Las Cruces, NM

Have you got a picture up of the glittery wonder? I'm dying to see it!

-Stephanie

--
Stephanie Scales
To reply via e-mail remove .bogus from address

anyway, i'm not an expert on the price part yet, my method will probably sound
very amateur to the real pros here, but this might help:

i start by adding up the cost of materials. then i add up the hours i spend
on the piece--down to the quarter hour--and total that at my hourly rate. i
add those two together and figure in sales tax. this is how i calculate
something that is more or less unique, such as a custom quilt or garment. when
you see this figure, don't flip out, write it down somewhere, then think about
this friend and decide if you want to ask her for that much money (i know what
you're thinking right now, hang with me!). you can always write it out on the
receipt and then mark it down for her--just make sure she sees what the real
price is, for future reference, and so she doesn't mistakenly advertise your
stuff to a friend at a price you don't like.

i have done this a couple of times, and the great word of mouth more than made
up for the discount i gave on those sales. from just one client alone, i've
gotten a paying referral nearly every week since i started making things for
her--and they pay the price i ask.

on the receipt, i show the total number of hours @ my hourly rate, the total
cost of materials, the tax--everything, so the client sees that the price
really reflects the work in the piece. they always are amazed that it takes so
much time and steps. if they ask, i show them a page that lists each step in
the process, with the times i start and stop. i keep this for my own records,
it helps me with estimating future projects and shows me where i'm slowing
down. it also shows when i'm doing work that i don't bill--such as undoing
something i did wrong--and extra work that caused the cost to go up--such as
changing something at the client's request.

for things like vests and bags, and for the hand-dyed fabrics, i first did this
calculating on a grand scale by making twelve pieces (for the fabrics i dyed 30
yards in a batch), going thru all the calculations for each one, and averaging
to get a base figure to use when calling on shops.

there is a great book out that tells all about pricing your "crafts", i saw it
at the library but i can't remember the name. i'll check on it and write
again. babalu!

rowena___. in music city USA
RoStitchery Custom Sewing and Quilting
http://members.aol.com/rostitchry/home.html

sarah curry <scu...@zianet.com> writes:

"when was the last time you did something for the first time?"

I paid $325 for a 40x40 VSC at an Arts Festival back in 1991.

Barb in Willow Grove

Rowena,
This is great advice! I haven't been in this situation often but I wonder
what to do when I don't want to charge a friend or relative "full price". Can I
ask what you charge per hour for labor? I don't mean to be too nosy just trying
to get an idea...
Thanks,
Debi

Well, I ain't gonna do it until I find out what a 'dooker' is.

Judy

Singer--
To reply take out the 'spam'

Judith Puddy <jpu...@home.com> wrote in article
<JNwn3.9135$sE2.1...@news1.rdc1.bc.home.com>...

Hmph, Judy! YOU know what "dooker" is -- you just don't KNOW you know!
Would MamaSarah steer you wrong? Hmph.
A "dooker" is nothing more (or less) than a thing-a-ma-jig; very
similar, y'know, to a do-lolly.
Silly gurrlll ... you can find a copper dooker (at least at MY hardware
store) in the same aisle where you find the copper pipe. I haven't a
CLUE what it's called, but it just fits right onto the end of the pipe
(if you get the right sized dooker, which is always an important
consideration -- that the dooker be the right size -- right, John? :-)
). It's not an "elbow", and it doesn't have a "T-shape." It has a
little end that fits over the pipe, and it just blumps out to become a
bigger size ... and it looks just a whole LOT like what the fashion
gurus call a FINIAL!
Noting snidely that once Judy let her hair go gray, she lost all sense
of direction ...
Sairey

Thank you, Barb! Finally, somebody gave me a real place to "jump
from"!

I made this one for me, so I didn't keep track of my time. Already had
collected the materials, so didn't get much help there, either.

And nah, it wasn't hard to turn loose of it (how come I have NEVER had
trouble "turning loose", whether it be of my kids, or my quilts?). It's
a dandy (although I suspect the "glitters" won't photograph well, I will
take a picture of it, soon, soon, I promise ...). Looks GRAND in Lisa's
office. Indeed, much better than it looked on the back wall of my cubby
(one of those 1960's insurance office/bank things, with the tacky
5'-high panels upon which one can hang tables and shelves and the
like).

What ended up on that back wall? Well, that, too, turned out rather
well, I think. I'll tell the "Transformation of the 30-years-Shabby
Insurance Office" tale another time. Last Friday, the Powers That Be
(O, They Who Hold the Purse-Strings) announced that a whole HERD of them
were comin' to visit on Monday. And so, Lis and I got Busy (takes that
sort of thing to get Ms. Squeeze-a-Nickel-'til-the-Buffalo-squeaks to
begin to squeak herself, you see :-) ). We shopped 'til she dropped on
Saturday (remember, Lisa is recovering from the SECOND broken-collarbone
surgery, after the first titanium plate snapped as she reached for a
potato chip), and moved stuff/put stuff up on Sunday.

Sunday night, I took the last bit of the drapery fabric left over from
the law office and hemmed it, and made another copper hanger-thing (with
dookers on the ends), and Monday, I hung that puppy up ... and then
(never thought I'd see the day that I'd put the "I Love Me" stuff back
up, but I'd brought those things to the office to see if the frames
would fit anything anyone wanted to hang up ... they didn't ... but Lis
made an Executive Decision, and decided my law school diploma and
another "I love me" thingy should BE there, for the Powers) hung the "I
love me" stuff on TOP of the little drape.
The colors "go," and those really are GORGEOUS frames ("girl"-frames,
I might add -- with the little inside-mat wrapped with the same drapery
fabric). And it'll do just fine. Looks really nice, AND sorta "says"
what Lisa wants it to say.
As soon as the Pooh-bahs leave (did I mention that they just couldn't
make it down this week?), the "I Love Me" wall will be put away ... but
I think I'll keep the little drape up there. I like it. I think I'll
hang one of those frames-with-panes, with mirrors in the panes, so it'll
look like a window.
Thanks agsin, Barb. Can't ask that for this one, but I CAN now ask
what I'd thought was fair, down here in the hinterlands!
Happy,
Sairey

Ginger
(the lumberyard and hardware stores are my favorite playgroud)

"The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything." Edward
Phelps

Ginger <chanu...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:17439-379...@newsd-262.iap.bryant.webtv.net...

Susan

sarah curry wrote:

--
***
Susan Ford
Norman, Oklahoma
http://www.clueless.norman.ok.us/sf/rerhome.htm -Roses
http://www.level13.com - Collectables

"Today is not my day for the awesome responsibility of the brain."

sarah curry wrote in message <379FC5...@zianet.com>...

*snip, I want a picture of the office space w/ quilt*

> it just blumps out
Oh, well, now that you EXPLAIN it...

LOW BLOW! LOW BLOW!
Mess with us Precious Metals at your peril, she said in a steely
(or sterling silver) voice.

Judy
Chairperson of Not Dyeing
Victoria, BC
Canada

Hmmmm -- hadn't thought about that ... in fact, sorta hoped it WOULD get
that verdigris patina ...
But, being one who (once again) has other things to get in a swivet
about, I reckon a couple of things ... the ick-yuk will probably
corrode only the hanging-tabs it touches (which are easily, and quickly,
replace-able) ... and if Lisa keels over in her office, then I can go
out and get some laquer and apply it while she's in the horsepistol ...
Well, maybe this weekend ...
Grins,
Sairey

Karen in Gaviota, CA

Susan

sarah curry wrote:

--

Nah, Karen, this isn't an "endcap" -- it has THREADS in the big part,
and a hole at the end of the big part ...
So, for me, for the meantime, it's just a Dooker ...
Grins,
Sairey

sarah curry <scu...@zianet.com> wrote in article
<37A28A...@zianet.com>...