There several reasons why handmade things tend to be not in the cheapest range. That's fair enough for them to be there and let's have a closer look why.
If we work through the whole design process of a handmade thing we can find out how much time and effort are involved in the process of creation:
- Designing Phase where you make the sketches on the paper or use some specific software for designing your final good. Definitely that takes time and in case of using a software also expenses for purchasing a licence. Add the time to calculate material usage and size, etc.
- Getting Ready for Production Phase in which you have a look on what you have in terms of materials to produce a bespoke order or maybe you need to go and buy something?(in this case you invest money and your time to make a purchase)
- Pattern Phase where comes the time to create a pattern and apply to the bespoke order (creator invests time in research and pattern creation).
- Creation Phase: the actual process of making the final good. Time investment and also lots of efforts. In case something goes wrong we start from scratch of from the place where mistake was made. It's all done with hands and no machine work is involved. Every stitch and loop is under control and that's why handmade gives a different result that id one of a kind and couldn't be repeated. No wonder why Coco Chanel has always given preference to manual labor. Master doesn't try to save material to save costs, always tries to achieve best quality as this is his image on the market. In factories the whole process is designed to save as much as possible on quantities and produce standard things. Handmade is unique. Every unique handmade thing has it's character, soul and history because every master devotes a time of his life to make it. His time is valuable like yours.
- Marketing Phase: time investment to take a picture of your product and promote it. In case of a custom order master may just take a picture for memory of portfolio, however in any other case this phase takes place.
- Promise Delivery is the phase where master ships the ready product. Sometimes we deliver in person, sometimes by shipping and in any of those cases we do invest time and effort by using getting to post office of exchange place with the person who ordered. On top we do buy materials for wrapping the order, investing time by creating a label and instructions of how to take care of the thing.
Do you still think master's time and creativity doesn't deserve to be paid? In this case you can try to create something on your own and try to set a fair value :) Share your experience!
P.S. I have came across several REALLY good articles on the topic. So gladly sharing the links with you:
Really useful article and good links!
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