How to price handmade work: costing, margins and wholesale for makers
Updated · 10 min read
This guide is for makers who sell what they make: a jeweller with a small bench, a potter with a kiln in the garden, a leatherworker taking orders through a website, a furniture maker with a shared unit. You already know how long a piece takes. The hard part is turning that knowledge into a price that pays you, covers the workshop and still sells.
We cover the cost build-up, how to set an hourly rate you can live on, how wholesale and retail prices relate, why a commission should be priced differently from a piece on the shelf, and how to raise prices. There is one worked example with made-up round numbers.
If you make furniture, the furniture pricing guide goes deeper into overhead rates, risk buffers and the difference between margin and markup. This guide covers the same ground more broadly, across crafts and sales channels.
Key takeaways
- A price that works covers four things: materials, your time, a share of overheads and a profit for the business.
- Etsy's 2024 seller census found that sellers spend 52% of their business time making or designing, so divide your target income by making hours only, not every hour you work.
- The Crafts Council advises working out your wholesale (artist's) price first and setting a recommended retail price on top of it, with retail prices kept the same across your own shop and galleries.
- The UAL Arts Students' Union pricing guide recommends a retail price of double the accumulated cost.
- Commissions need extra for design, consultation and revisions; stock pieces need to absorb the cost of unsold work.
- Research by Fuchs, Schreier and van Osselaer (2015) found a "handmade effect": buyers found products described as handmade more attractive, especially as gifts for people close to them.
Why makers underprice
Most makers start by asking what similar work sells for and pricing just below it. That tells you what a market will bear, but not whether you can survive at that price.
The numbers suggest many makers do not. In the Crafts Council's The Market for Craft (2020), the majority of makers in every group reported a profit of less than £30,000 from selling their work in the latest financial year. Even among the most established makers, the Master Craftspeople, only 16% reported profits above £30,000.
Pricing from your costs does not guarantee a living, but it shows you the gap. If the price you need is well above what your market pays, you know you have to change something: the work, the market, your costs or your hours.
Build the price from four parts
1. Materials
Include everything that goes into the piece: metal and stones, clay and glaze, hides and thread, timber and finish, strings and fittings. Then add the less visible things: test pieces, offcuts, packaging, findings, the share of a glaze batch used. The UAL Arts Students' Union guide reminds makers that even the cost of transporting materials is part of the cost of making.
Price materials from current supplier prices, not from what you paid last year. Precious metals and some timbers move quickly, so a price on a commission quote should not outlive the materials price it was based on.
2. Your time
Your time is the largest cost in most handmade work, and the easiest to undercount.
Start with what you need to earn in a year from the business. Then divide it by the hours you can actually spend making work you sell. Those are fewer than the hours you spend working. Etsy's 2024 Global Seller Census, run with Ipsos across 2,402 sellers in six countries, found that sellers spend on average 52% of their business time making or designing, and the rest on other tasks. Photography, packing, emails, fairs, bookkeeping and social media all count as work, but no single piece pays for them directly.
The UAL Arts Students' Union guide adds a practical correction: base the year on 48 weeks, not 52, to allow for holidays and illness.
Hourly rate = target annual income ÷ annual making hours
Then record how long each piece really takes. Estimates drift. A log of actual hours for a few months is the best pricing tool you can have.
3. Overheads
Overheads are costs that do not belong to one piece: studio rent, kiln or torch fuel, power, insurance, tools and their replacement, website, accountancy, fair fees, marketing.
Add up a year of overheads and spread them over your making hours, the same way as your wage. The UAL guide uses a percentage of annual overheads for each piece; the furniture guide uses an overhead rate per hour. Either works if you use it consistently.
Selling fees belong here too, or as their own line per piece. Etsy's fees policy, for example, sets a listing fee of $0.20 per listing and a transaction fee of 6.5% of the order total, with payment processing fees on top that vary by country. A gallery takes a commission on each sale. If you leave these out, they come out of your wage.
4. Profit
Profit is not your wage. It is what the business keeps to replace tools, survive a slow month and invest. Add it as a percentage on top of materials, time and overheads. The furniture pricing guide explains why a 20% markup is not the same as a 20% margin.
Wholesale and retail
If you sell only direct, the four parts give you your price. If you sell through shops or galleries as well, you need two prices.
The Crafts Council's guide to working with galleries sets out the order: include your overheads, direct costs, time and profit to arrive at your wholesale or artist's price, then set a recommended retail price (RRP) on top. It recommends sending galleries a price list showing both, and checking what the gallery's commission is and whether it includes VAT.
How much higher should retail be? The UAL Arts Students' Union guide recommends a retail mark-up of double the accumulated cost. Doubling the wholesale price is a common convention in retail, but treat it as a starting point and check it against what the shops you want to sell through actually expect.
The rule that matters most is consistency. The Crafts Council guide quotes Jade Mellor of Gill Wing Gallery: retail prices should be the same or as close as possible on a maker's own webshop and in a gallery. If your website sells a piece for less than the gallery down the road, the gallery is unlikely to stock you for long. So set your own retail price at the RRP, and let the difference between wholesale and retail pay for your own selling costs when you sell direct.
| Channel | Who sets the price the buyer pays | What you receive |
|---|---|---|
| Your own website or studio | You, at RRP | RRP minus your selling costs |
| Marketplace | You, at RRP | RRP minus listing, transaction and payment fees |
| Gallery on sale or return | Gallery, usually at your RRP | RRP minus commission, after the sale |
| Shop buying wholesale | Shop, usually at your RRP | Wholesale price, on the shop's payment terms |
Commissions and stock are priced differently
A piece made for stock and a piece made for one client may use the same materials and take the same hours at the bench. They do not cost the same.
Commissions carry extra work before and around the making. Consultations, sketches, samples, CAD renders, glaze tests and revisions all take time, and some commissions never go ahead. Many makers charge a design fee or include a set number of revisions. Shetland Jewellery's bespoke terms, for example, set a non-refundable £50 design fee before drawings are made, deducted from the final balance if the client goes ahead, and include up to two rounds of design revisions, with further revisions possibly charged. A commission also carries risk: a ring sized for one finger or a set of plates glazed to match one kitchen is hard to sell to anyone else if the client walks away. That is part of the reason for taking a deposit, covered in payment schedules for commissions.
Stock carries the cost of waiting. A piece on the shelf has used materials and hours that are not paid for until it sells, and some will not sell at full price. Batches help: the set-up time for a glaze, a pattern or a jig is shared across many pieces. Price stock from your real sell-through, not from the assumption that everything sells.
A useful habit is to write down, for every commission, the hours spent before you started making. After ten commissions you will know what your design stage really costs.
Value is part of the price
Cost sets the floor. What a buyer is willing to pay sets the ceiling, and handmade work has an advantage there.
In four studies published in the Journal of Marketing in 2015, Christoph Fuchs, Martin Schreier and Stijn van Osselaer found that describing a product as handmade made it more attractive than the same product described as machine-made. Their explanation is that buyers see handmade objects as symbolically containing love. The effect was strongest for gifts to people close to the buyer. In the American Marketing Association's summary of the research, many participants were willing to pay up to 17% more for handmade items.
That does not mean you can charge anything. It means telling buyers how a piece was made, by whom and for what is part of pricing, not decoration. For a commission, the story is the piece itself.
A worked example
Every number in this example is made up and rounded for clarity. It is not a market price and does not come from any source. Read the currency as whatever you use.
A ceramicist makes a set of four hand-thrown mugs, either for stock or to a client's glaze and size brief.
| Line | Stock set | Commissioned set |
|---|---|---|
| Clay, glaze, kiln firing share, packaging | 20 | 20 |
| Test tiles for a new glaze | 0 | 10 |
| Making time at 25 per hour | 5 h = 125 | 5 h = 125 |
| Consultation and glaze tests at 25 per hour | 0 | 2 h = 50 |
| Overheads at 10 per making hour | 50 | 70 |
| Subtotal | 195 | 275 |
| Profit at 20% | 39 | 55 |
| Direct price (own website) | 234, round to 235 | 330 |
If the stock set also sells through shops, 235 becomes the wholesale price. Using the UAL guide's doubling, the RRP is about 470. That is a big jump, and it shows the real decision: either the work can carry 470 in the shops where it sells, or the maker should sell the set direct only, at a price consistent with whatever RRP they publish. Selling direct at 235 while a gallery sells the same set at 470 breaks the consistency rule above.
The commissioned set costs more because the extra hours are real. Quoting it at the stock price means the maker pays for the glaze tests out of their own wage.
How to raise prices
Prices should move. Materials rise, your skill grows and your waiting list may get longer. Etsy's 2024 census found that 37% of sellers said inflation and the rising cost of living had caused challenges for their business, most of them through higher material and supply costs.
A few habits make price rises easier:
- Review once a year at a fixed time, and whenever a big cost changes, such as studio rent or a new kiln.
- Apply new prices to new quotes and new stock. Honour quotes and orders you have already accepted.
- Give stockists notice. Galleries and shops print price lists and plan orders; tell them before the change takes effect.
- Put a validity period on commission quotes, so a quote from last spring does not bind you after a material price change.
- Explain once, briefly. "From 1 March my prices rise by 8% to reflect material and studio costs" is enough. No apology needed.
If you have a waiting list several months long, that is often a sign your prices are below what the market will pay.
Check your numbers after every sale
Pricing is not a one-off calculation. Compare the hours you quoted with the hours you logged, and the materials you expected with what you used. Recalculate your hourly rate and overhead share each year. Over time, your own records become a better guide than any rule of thumb.
Sources
- The Market for Craft, Crafts Council and partners, research by Morris Hargreaves McIntyre (May 2020): majority of makers reporting profit under £30,000 from selling work; 16% of Master Craftspeople above £30,000
- How to work with galleries, Crafts Council craft business resource: wholesale or artist's price before RRP, price consistency across webshop and gallery, price lists showing both, checking commission and VAT
- Knowing your creative value and how to price your work, UAL Arts Students' Union: cost build-up, transport of materials as a cost, 48-week year, retail mark-up of double the accumulated cost
- 2024 Global Etsy Seller Census, Etsy with Ipsos (2025): 52% of business time spent making or designing, 37% reporting inflation-related challenges, sample of 2,402 sellers in six markets
- Fees and Payments Policy, Etsy Help: $0.20 listing fee and 6.5% transaction fee
- Bespoke Terms and Conditions, Shetland Jewellery: £50 design fee deducted from the balance, up to two rounds of design revisions
- The Handmade Effect: What's Love Got to Do with It?, Journal of Marketing 79 (2015), University of Vienna repository: four studies on the handmade effect, stronger for gifts to loved ones
- Consumers value handmade products: What's love got to do with it?, American Marketing Association via ScienceDaily (March 2015): many participants willing to pay up to 17% more for handmade items
Questions this guide gets asked
What is the simplest pricing formula for handmade work?
Materials plus your time at an hourly rate, plus a share of overheads, plus profit. The UAL Arts Students' Union guide builds price this way and then doubles the total for the retail price. Treat any multiplier as a check against your full costs, not a replacement for them.
How do I work out my hourly rate as a maker?
Decide what you need to earn in a year, then divide it by the hours you can actually spend making. Etsy's 2024 seller census found sellers spend about half their business time making or designing, so do not divide by every hour you work. Base the year on 48 weeks rather than 52 to allow for holidays and illness.
Should my website price match my gallery price?
The Crafts Council's guide to working with galleries says retail prices should be the same, or as close as possible, on your own webshop and in the gallery. If you undercut a gallery that sells your work, you put that relationship at risk. Set your wholesale price so the retail price works everywhere.
Should commissions cost more than pieces from stock?
Usually, yes. A commission carries design time, consultations, revisions and the risk that the piece cannot be sold to anyone else. Many makers charge a design fee or build those hours into the quote. Stock pieces carry a different cost: the time and money tied up in work that has not sold yet.
How do I raise prices without losing clients?
Apply the new prices to new quotes and new stock, and honour quotes and orders you have already accepted. Give regular clients and stockists notice. Most people accept a price rise that is explained plainly and happens on a predictable cycle.
Do I need to include platform fees in my costs?
Yes. Marketplace fees, card fees and gallery commission all come out of the price before you are paid. Etsy, for example, charges a listing fee and a transaction fee on each order. Add them as costs per piece, or price high enough that the fee comes out of the margin and not out of your wage.