PPP: A stitch in time

 

F I N A L S 

These are the finals for my Colours May Vary submission, the thing I struggled with most on these, wasn't the embroidery or the stitch colour or the fabric, it was the pricing. 
Etsy sells a lot of embroideries year on year, at a quick glance Etsy has over 50,000 different embroideries for offer (I put in a picture here to show how varied it is even with a basic search). 





I F  T H E  P R I C E  I S  R I G H T  

The thing that made it hard to price them, is that there really wasn't anything similar. There was a lot of text based embroidery and simple floral but not many scenes. I found one instagrammer @UsedThreads who was anywhere close to what I make, but she makes them on a different level of quality to me, hers have special hoops and have far more thread in them. She prices from £42 upwards for her work which ranges from 5". (desert landscapes pictured here are hers) 

It really calls into question how much I value my work, I originally priced them at £15 for the 4", £25 for the "6 and £40 for the 8". After speaking to friends in class, everyone kept telling me that I had really underpriced. CMV takes 40% commission also, and everyone encouraged me to put the price up. I was really nervous doing this as I was worried I might not sell anything at CMV. The general response when I told people was that even if they don't sell there, they will sell on etsy. 

 

P R A C T I C E  M A K E S  P E R F E C T 

Apart from this I was pleased with what I made, it was custom made for CMV just because I wanted to make something that stood out in the exhibition amongst a sea of prints. I did get asked whether this is something I wanted to do for my practice and I wasn't sure what to say. There does seem to be a very negative feel towards embroidery in the illustration world, as if it isn't art. There are movements within bloggers who are making this kind of work and embracing its heritage. However for me, I think it's more of a hobby than part of my practice. I do enjoy embroidery and although I wouldn't rule it out of my practice, I think it's best kept as something I work on in my own time to make a little extra money as it is very time consuming.