Makers · 9 min
What “handmade” costs, itemised
Kiln time, breakage, and the eleven percent that never survives firing. The full numbers for one censer, in public.
"Handmade" is a word that hides a number. Here is the number for our unglazed censer, in full.
The unit economics of one censer
| Line | Cost |
|---|---|
| Clay, 1.4 kg | ¥6 |
| Throwing time, 22 min at ¥45/hr | ¥16.50 |
| First firing, share of kiln load | ¥9 |
| Second firing, 1280°C | ¥14 |
| Breakage allowance (11%) | ¥5 |
| Packing | ¥7 |
| Workshop cost per surviving piece | ¥57.50 |
The workshop sells to us at ¥96, which is a 67% margin on their own costs. That is not generous — it is roughly what a small kiln needs to stay open, pay four people, and replace a kiln every fifteen years.
We sell it at $118. After PayPal fees, shipping, and the eleven percent that arrives damaged or gets returned, our margin is about 34%. On a good month we make slightly more than we spend on photography.
The eleven percent
This is the number people find hardest to believe. Roughly eleven pieces in a hundred do not survive the second firing. The clay cracks, the glaze runs, the foot fuses to the kiln shelf. It is not a quality problem; it is what happens when you heat rock to 1280 degrees.
Every seller handles this differently. Some fire at lower temperatures so nothing breaks, and sell a heavier, duller object. Some hide the loss in a higher price. We do neither. We price the loss in, and we tell you what it is.
Why publish this
Two reasons.
The first is that a customer who knows the number stops asking for a discount, because there is nowhere for the discount to come from. The conversation gets shorter and better.
The second is less commercial. If the only thing a buyer knows about handmade goods is that they are "authentic," they will keep being surprised when the price is high and the finish is uneven. Telling them the number is the only way for the surprise to go away.
What we do not do
We do not describe a machine-made object as handmade. We do not use the word "artisan" anywhere on this site. We do not photograph a piece we have not weighed.
The catalogue is twenty pages long because of that. It could be four hundred.