Start With the True Cost of a Single Mug

Most potters undercharge because they never sit down and add up what a piece actually costs them. They think about the clay, maybe the glaze, and then pluck a number out of the air that feels "about right" compared to what they saw at a craft fair last summer. That is not pricing — that is guessing, and it usually means you are paying for the privilege of working.

Pick one item you make often: a mug, a bowl, a small vase. Follow it through every stage, from the bag of clay to the bubble wrap. Write down real numbers in pounds and pence, not approximations. Once you have done it for one shape, you can do it for everything else in a fraction of the time, and you will never again feel that sinking feeling when someone asks "how much?"

Materials and Firing: The Costs That Hide in Plain Sight

Clay is the easiest cost to calculate. If a 12.5kg bag of stoneware costs £22, that is roughly £1.76 per kilo. A mug using 400g of clay plus trimmings and a little wastage sits at about £1. Glaze is harder to pin down, but a sensible estimate for a dipped mid-range glaze is 20–40p per piece. Decorative slips, oxides, transfers and wax resist all add a little more.

Firing is where most people guess badly. Work out what one full kiln load costs you in electricity — for a mid-sized electric kiln that is often somewhere between £12 and £25. Then count how many pieces fit. If 50 mugs go in, each firing costs about 50p per mug, and you usually fire twice: once for bisque, once for glaze. That is roughly £1 per mug in firing alone, before you have touched a wheel.

• Clay, glaze, slips and oxides
• Bisque and glaze firings, based on load cost
• Kiln shelves, props and wadding
• Packaging: boxes, tissue, tape, labels, business cards
• Breakages — add 10–15% to cover the pieces that crack, warp or sell as seconds

Pay Yourself for the Hours You Actually Work

Time is the cost potters most often give away. If a mug takes 15 minutes to throw, 10 to trim, 10 to handle, 10 to glaze and 5 to load and unload the kiln, that is 50 minutes of skilled work. At £15 an hour — a modest rate for someone with years of practice — that mug carries £12.50 of labour before materials are added.

Do not fall into the trap of thinking your time is free because you enjoy it. Enjoyment is a wonderful reason to make pots; it is not a subsidy for the person buying them. You would not expect a carpenter to charge only for the timber. If you want to keep your prices accessible, lower the hourly rate deliberately and understand that you have made that choice — rather than pretending the hours do not exist.

Add the Studio Overheads Everyone Forgets

Your studio does not run on clay and good intentions. Rent or mortgage on the space, heating, insurance, kiln elements, servicing, wheel maintenance, shelving, tools, water, waste disposal, card reader fees, website hosting, market stall pitches, and the fuel to get to those markets all need to be recovered somewhere.

Add up your annual overheads and divide by the number of pieces you realistically sell in a year. If you sell 400 pieces and your overheads come to £3,000, that is £7.50 per piece. It sounds brutal, but it is honest — and if the number feels impossible, the answer is usually to make fewer, better, more expensive pieces rather than to make more and charge less.

Turn Costs Into a Retail Price

Add your materials, firing, overheads and labour together, then apply a markup. A common approach is to multiply total cost by three or four for retail, which gives you room for the things that always come up: a gallery taking 40–50% commission, a wholesale enquiry needing roughly half your retail price, or a fair where someone knocks over a bowl.

Check your figure against the market, but as a sanity check rather than a rule. If comparable handmade mugs sell for £28 and your honest calculation comes to £34, do not drop to £28 — look at whether you can trim wasted time, simplify your glaze palette, or improve your photographs so the value is obvious. If your calculation lands at £18 and others are at £30, you have found the room to pay yourself properly.

Hold Your Price With Confidence

Once you have a defensible number, stop apologising for it. Say the price clearly, without a nervous laugh or a trailing "or nearest offer". If someone says it is expensive, you can reply warmly: "It is — it is a hand-thrown piece that took me several hours and two firings to make." You do not need to justify yourself at length, and you should never discount on the spot.

When you raise prices, apply the new rate to new work rather than re-pricing what is already on the shelf, and give regular stockists a month or two of notice in writing. Charge less for genuine seconds and be clear about why they are seconds. And remember that a piece which sells instantly at a fair may simply have been underpriced — the goal is not to sell out, but to build a sustainable practice you can keep returning to.