Hmmm.. pricing of works done is always difficult. A lot is going to depend upon what your venue is, Are you in an Art Show, Craft Show, Rummage Sale, holiday show such as ones put on by the church, etc.
What kind of wood are you using?
Are you going to charge for your time and if so how much are you going to charge? This is a big one as it can add a whole lot to the cost of the piece that you are going to make. For instance a customer asks you to make their portrait for them. It takes you, lets arbitrarily chose an amount of time, to design the pattern of 2 hrs. It might take you another 3 hrs to cut it out and another hour sanding and finishing. Ok here is the big question - What to charge. If you charge lets say $15 for the portrait that you just cut you are not being paid for the time to design and cut it and finish it very much. You spent around 5 hrs total doing all the steps to make that portrait. Lets say that your wood was cheap and it only cost a couple of dollars at the craft store. So $15 - $2 = $13. Ok cost of the wood is taken care of. $13 / 5hs = $2.60 / hr. for the labor to design and make this portrait. This is where what kind of venue comes into play. If it is a craft fair, rummage sale, church sponsored event then this kind of pricing is expected by the customer. However if you are in say an Art Show where folks there are expecting to pay a lot more for works of art then you can charge accordingly.
Personally I feel that we as scrollers seldom get paid a lot for our time to design and create the items we want to sell. For a portrait being designed, cut and finished depending upon the complexity of the cutting pricing it in the $30 - $40 range is not too unexpected. Since you are the the one doing all the steps to produce the work you can set the price lower or higher as need be.
Hope this helps a bit.
DW
