r/pics Aug 13 '21

I carved a tiny maple owl

Post image
53k Upvotes

View all comments

Show parent comments

8

u/unusedusername42 Aug 13 '21 edited Aug 13 '21

Thanks for good feedback! This underlines the message of my post even more but I realize that I wasn't very clear there at all.

I'm in Sweden, so I calculate as follows:

A walk to the closest wooded area to collect free material: 5 USD for effort

  • Median wage per hour for a carpenter/wood worker: 23,15 USD

  • Some extra for the design

= circa 35 USD for the product itself

  • Freight (not included here) circa 15 USD
  • Customs cost, 20% of the cost
  • VAT, 25% of the total circa 15 USD

= a total end consumer cost of 75 USD while rounding off upwards

2

u/Priff Aug 13 '21

You seem to be ignoring taxes in your calculation.

I would never charge less than 400 sek +vat for an hour's work. And you probably won't find any self employed swede that will.

At 400 I'm paying about half in taxes if I take it all as salary. But part of the cost usually goes to maintenance of tool and other long term costs.

1

u/unusedusername42 Aug 13 '21 edited Aug 13 '21

Most freelance hobby artists - including myself - do not make enough in their side gig to have to declare it here though in my experience. Good for you that you do! Do you want to share a link?

Ofc you ask whatever price you want to but I only produce and sell stuff that I would have really liked to make anyway, personally, so yeah... I am willing to pay what I'd ask myself for things that I just happened to create and that'd make others happy as a bonus

2

u/Priff Aug 13 '21

The upper limit for legal hobbyverksamhet is quite low though. 20k sek in a year. Even at 200 an hour which is pretty meh you'd only be allowed 100 hours in a full year. 2 hours a week is definitely at a hobby level, but I don't think I have any serious hobby I spend that little time on.

2

u/unusedusername42 Aug 13 '21

True. Above 2h per week I think that it is more than just a hobby, it is a small business endeavor. Glad that you are so passionate about yours! :)

I draw/paint/sculpt/sew/croquet for my own sake (primarily) though and have a demanding full time+ job so I estimate that I spend 1 - 2 hours per week on my artistic side thingies. There's no real interest to make money so I basically only ask compensation for the materials used

1

u/unusedusername42 Aug 13 '21

CONT.: ... and yes, in a place where you can not just go out and collect the materials it'd land somewhere in the 100 USD range, I reason :)

2

u/foozledaa Aug 13 '21

Yeah, that sounds pretty reasonable. I could collect fallen branches on my daily dog walks, but you've also got to boil it, then dry it, etc. and you should also probably treat it with wood preserver once it's carved too - and maybe a sealant if it's going to be kept outdoors.

2

u/schiddy Aug 13 '21

Unless it's on your own property, technically it would be stealing it. Obviously this is ridiculous when talking about a single fallen branch. But selling at volume for profit it would be stealing wood from private or public property.

1

u/foozledaa Aug 13 '21

Good point. Factor in the risks associated with being caught and fined by the forestry commission: £500.

1

u/unusedusername42 Aug 13 '21 edited Aug 13 '21

In most places I guess that that is true but we have this wonderful thing called Allemansrätten or the Right of Public Access (word by word translation: Every Man's Right).

It allows anyone to collect any amount of fresh fallen twigs or branches, but not old ones, as old branches are home to many bugs, fungi er cetera. The main rule is "Do not disturb, do not destroy" so only if I'd take anything off of living trees it is considered destruction of public property.

Link to a short description in English: https://www.naturvardsverket.se/Om-Naturvardsverket/Publikationer/ISBN/8500/978-91-620-8522-3/ - anyone who's interested can press 'Ladda ner' for an easy-to-read six page brochure