Pricing of Wood Art

When I search the internet for wood art sales, I encounter a whole range of prices for wooden bowls, urns, wall hangings and other wood art pieces. Prices for a medium sized bowl range from as low at $ 40 to as high as several hundred dollars. Thie wide range in prices surely confuses, if not discourages potential customers. Of course, there is a tendency to equate price with quality. However, in viewing various offerings with my trained eye, it is obvious that price does not necessarily indicate quality. Prices seem to be higher on online shopping platforms or in galleries in tourist areas. I fear that people are being gouged at these high prices. Yes, producing a wood art piece is laborious and time consuming, and if one added up the cost of equipment, wood and labor, a high price for a wood piece might be justified if the artist only looks at this artform as a business.

 

Then, in my opinion, this person is not an artist, he or she is in a full-time woodturning business, such as a mass producer. Most wood artists with whom I am familiar do woodturning part-time and do this kind of work because of the pleasure working with wood and the satisfaction one gains from creating something unique.There are published formulas for pricing wood art, considering the wood species and the size of the object. In a general sense, I follow these guidelines, but I also consider the uniqueness of the design and the quality of the finish of a given wood artform. Many woodturners are retired from some other line of work and really turn as a hobby.

 

For those individuals, including myself, selling a piece of wood art is very satisfying and rewarding. It also reduces one’s stock in his/her house or shop, allowing for the production of more pieces.My prices may be considered low by some, but I’m not out to make a profit. A mid-sized bowl, roughly 12” in diameter will be priced between $40 - $80, unless the wood used is quite unusual. Prices vary because of unique conditions. For instance, I recently was given a Manitoba Maple (Boxelder) log with a massive amount of red coloring. Often, streaks or small patches of red are seen in these logs, but in this case the amount of redness was staggering, more than I had ever seen before. Therefore, pieces I created from this log were priced somewhat higher than usual, up to $ 95 for a mid-sized bowl. Didcussing larger bowls, such as one 15 – 20” in diameter might be priced between $100 - $ 200, again depending on the factors mentioned above. These larger pieces require a lot more sandpaper, finishing material and time than their smaller cousins.
 

Therefore, I think prices for wood art should be priced in a range that is fair to the creator, but most importantly, allows a customer the opportunity to share in the beauty and uniqueness of a beautiful piece of wood art.

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