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I laughed. “There is no materials cost for this project.” “How can that be?” Allow me to explain. I start by using a piece of scrap blue foam as the base for my sculpture. I just trace the profile of dog’s head on it. Now if I’d bought a piece of foam, the cost of this piece would be, maybe, fifty cents. |
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You can see that some parts of the sculpture still show the blue of bare foam. If I were planning on casting this I’d have used clay over the whole surface to make it very smooth because the details would show up in the final. But, I was planning on doing direct mache which tends to obscure details so there was no need to go overboard in making things smooth. It took me about two hours to get to this point from the original drawing. |
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The key with papier-macheing is to not get the paper too wet with paste. If there’s too much paste, it will form airbubbles as it dries. Those reduce the structural integrity. |
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Each layer takes about 45 minutes to do. If I were going into a mold I could work faster because only the first layer — which is the top layer in a mold — matters. The other layers can be all wrinkly and they’ll have no impact on the level of detail in the finished product. With direct mache every single layer and every piece of paper matters because each one obscures the original sculpture or has the potential to introduce an unwanted wrinkle. For this, I did five layers of mache. White, brown, white, brown, white. That’s fairly standard. The same number of layers in a mold would take about forty-five minutes total. So why didn’t I make a mold? Time. Making the mold would mean less active working time, but I’d also have to wait for it to dry before using it. A damp mold means that it would take forever for the mache to dry. So using a mold would mean less time for me, but a longer overall process. Plus, I knew this was a one-off. We won’t need to make a copy of this. |
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Warning: If you do this and discover that the mache is still damp inside, make sure you tape the thing back together and dry it. If you let the two halves dry separately they will warp, which is unpleasant. |
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This is pretty fast, I don’t think it took more than half an hour. |
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Here’s a shot of the finished head and my design sketch. |
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And here, because I like the final effect, is a detail of the paint job on the dog. All told, I spent between seven to ten hours making this and spent maybe a dollar in materials.
This is one of the hard things about making puppets, explaining that the major cost is in the labor. And don’t worry, the producer of the show totally got it. It’s just interesting that it’s a conversation that I have to have almost every time I build a puppet. I think people make estimates based on puppets they built in elementary school.
So… figuring that I’m skilled labor, how much do you think something like a simple puppet head costs?
Seven to ten hours should equal at least $350 to $500.
Having seen some of the masks made for Carnivale in Venice , I think I have some concept of the amount of labor involved in making a papier-mache’ puppet.
7-10 hours is not an insignificant amount of effort and should be compensated justly.
The tendancy to undervalue skills and effort/labor seems to be pretty universal among people not directly involved in the craft.
Artists tend to undervalue their own time, too.
Gorgeous! Thanks for linking to that.
I was taught in my graphic design class that skilled creative labor should have a base pay of about a dollar a minute. This is early career freelance price, so the price starts going up from there.
These are graphic design prices. The puppet industry could be significantly different. I expect a price between 4 and 6 hundred for a professional, custom made puppet would be fair, though.
I run into this all the time working as a sound designer. Doubly frustrating is that there’s no finished physical product (unless it’s a cd, which is increasingly rarer), so i usually don’t even get asked about getting paid up front for materials. Triply frustrating is the fact that when theatres cut back on set and lights (or do a “minimalist” production) they often expect the sound design to “pick up the slack”.
sigh…don’t mean to rant.
My husband is an audio engineer and he runs into similar issues. Please, feel free to rant.
Great post (and a very nice puppet)! As a fellow sculptor I can attest to the message, many people tend to forget the labor when it comes to the construction of a physical object, since they’re often thinking of prices along the lines of mass-produced items they’d find in a store. I work in the toy and collectible-figure industry, and occasionally I’m approached by collectors who want a one-of-a-kind item to display. These personal jobs rarely pan out though, if I’m thinking in the “hundreds” of dollars, they’re probably thinking in the “dozens”. I try to prorate for smaller clients when I have the time, but we all know you can only go so low.
Yes. I’ve also had people contact me about special puppets of them or family members and you can almost see the spit-take via email.
Exactly! I’ve been finding on the personal projects that it’s almost better not to bid on them, but say that I consider offers instead. People tend to take it a little more seriously when they have to come up with their own number, which I can then accept or politely decline. It’s not always easy to get people to make a first offer though, I’m sure some of them are thinking, “Dang, why did I offer $40 for a week’s worth of sculpting? He might have done it for $25.”
This is wonderful!
I love step by steps, and this one is clear.
Great dog head!
For some reason when I try clicking on a pic, I get redirected to your bio page???
Hm. Mathieu which picture were you clicking on? I’m not having the same problem.
Having the same problems as Mathieu. When I click on any of the photos it goes to your bio page. Tried it in both Firefox 3 and IE 7
Whoops… now it’s working. Strange.
Yes, the step-by-step is awesome. It makes me want to go out and get some materials and try it. I think I will.
Your dog head is excellent. It must be sweet having a talent like that and being able to make money with it.
You should! It’s very satisfying.
FYI, if you decide to use waterbased clay, make sure you use some sort of resist on the sculpture, like soap or vaseline, to keep the mache from permanently adhering to it.
I’d say a minimum of 35 dollars per hour, probably closer to 50 with your qualifications. Of course, you can charge what you want. 🙂
By the way, not sure what you changed, but I can comment on my iPod again. Which is very helpful; especially at work. 🙂
Hrm. It seems like the only place where crafts people can really charge amateur customers the “real” price is in the wedding industry. 🙂
Thanks for the detailed description, and the breakdown. I had no idea what it takes for a pro to do this kind of job.
Yeah, but the wedding industry is its own racket. And they’ve got Bridezillas to deal with, so the emotional distress is much higher.
I’m an amateur puppet maker, who works with a lot of local kids’ productions.
I love the work, but I’ve never considered becoming professional – partly because of the physical effort (my back is always dying after a big puppet job) and partly because I realised early on how hard it would be to make a living. The kinds of prices you would have to charge to cover the labour involved would dissuade most people from hiring you.
It’s a paradox – you can’t make a living because no one can afford you.
Makes a fabulous and fulfilling hobby, though.
Forgive me, but I’m going to lecture you a little.
If the puppet is hurting your back then you need to rebuild it so that it is balanced and doesn’t hurt you. I’ve worked a 125 lb. puppet and I weigh 127. No pain, because it was well-balanced.
Second, I’ve been making a living as a puppeteer for nineteen years. You totally can do this, but it involves educating the people who do the hiring. I’d say that the vast majority of the time when I break the costs down for companies they get it and come up with the money. But yes, you have to put extra effort in to explain it to them.
So if you have a passion for it, start charging what you are worth. You’ll be surprised.
Sorry – should have clarified – my back hurts because I have a terrible habit of sitting on the floor while I’m making the puppets, and I slouch. Completely my own fault. Could be managed by some commonsense OH&S. But I am always amazed how physically draining the process of making anything is.
And you’re right. I think I really meant to say that I’m too chicken and lazy to try to do it professionally. Plus I’m lucky in that I like my day job.
But I have toyed with the idea of trying to go more professional, perhaps combine the two jobs in a part-time arrangement. Thanks for the good advice and encouragement.
And thanks for the great dog head breakdown. I work mainly in foam, but I’ve never tried combining it with clay as the base for papier mache. Now I’m feeling all inspired.
Oh! That. Yes, well, sitting on the floor is so much easier unless you have a massive work bench but it does sort of kill one’s posture.
I do encourage making your hobby pay. If nothing else, it means that you can buy better toys.
I approached bidding this job as if it were a jewelry project, because that is what I’m familiar with, and came up with $750 – $950 in labor costs. Most people have an easier time paying craftspeople working with gold and platinum, even though, in some ways, that is easier than working with foam and fiberglass. Granted, a laser costs significantly more than a glue gun or band saw, and I’m carrying a hell of a lot more liability when setting a clients diamond, but most people incorrectly correlate value of material with value of labor performed.
Being a writer I always justify the rate I get paid not necessarily by the time taken to finish a piece (eg. three hours for a book review), but by the time taken to learn my craft to the point where I can produce it to the required standard (X years in education, training, blogging, learning, getting rejected, etc).
It’s like the old joke about the plumber who turns up to fix a busted water heater, spends two minutes with a spanner and charges a hundred dollars. When asked to justify the bill he itemises it thus:
New bolt: $1
Labour: $2
Knowing where to apply both: $97
That seems very fast to me. It also doesn’t include meeting times, set up and clean up…
I say beautiful work done very efficiently.
People underestimate the value of your time and overestimate the value of physical objects – especially because they are expecting a physical item as the product. This likely has to do with a culture where wonderful and amazing things are molded from plastic in china for next to nothing. You, however, seem to underestimate the value of the physical items you use – foam, bandsaw, clay, other shaping tools, paper, ‘glue’ – all which are materials used and require purchasing (at some point). Of course, the bandsaw and clay are yours and can be reused but they sometimes need a new blade or a little more clay.
These things should all be calculated into the costs as well as your time. Also, what you should get paid has to do with what the customer can pay and what it is worth to them. Obviously the local high school production is not going to pay a lot, but they won’t get a professional dog.
I would say a custom dog like that should run the theater around 500-1000 USD for time and material. If they want, we could have them made in china out of plastic for 10 dollars each but they’d have to order a minimum of 1000.
Actually, I don’t underestimate them. On larger projects I always include “miscellaneous” line item for things like a stick of hot glue, a bit of paint. On small projects, like this one, where the total materials cost (including amortizing equipment wear) would be less than $5, it doesn’t make sense for me to spend time to make a separate materials invoice. Owning those things already is part of why I charge the rates I do.
I’m always interested in how other people work. How do you charge for the things you already own?
I just have to ask – was Buster your model? It looks so much like him.
I was thinking of him as I was working, but I had pictures of yellow labs on the desk.
Its a battle we all face,
Everytime, its amazing how often the work we do is Undervalued by the producers, and directors, or who ever else we have to deal with,Good to hear this was a positive working expierence for you
Hi James! Good to see you here.
Nice looking dog, Mary. I agree you should be adequately compensated for the skill, workmanship and your experience in creating the piece. $500 – $650 would be my estimate. By the way, by blue foam, do you mean the marine foam (like buoys?) Great job! Diane
It’s lovely, Mary! It expresses so much!
That was an awesome post! And I had no idea that you can sand papier-mache!
Indeed you can! It’s one of my favorite things to build puppets with because it is lightweight and durable.
They are durable? Now that’s another thing that I didn’t know.
Heck yeah. I got sold on papier mache after meeting a Russian puppeteer. He’d fled with his puppets tucked in a bag. When I saw them they were close to twenty years old and looked like polished porcelain. I’m using his mache technique.
Now they won’t handle getting soaked, it’s true, but the beautiful thing about mache is that it will flex before breaking. Something like fiberglass with just crack and you don’t know it’s coming until too late. I just did a mache demonstration day before yesterday in which we threw the piece against the wall. It bounced. Danced on it. No damage. Banged it against the corner of the table repeatedly. Which introduced a shallow ding. It rocks. Is dirt-cheap and non-toxic.
Haha, that demonstration must’ve been fun to watch.
Maybe I’ll take a camera in and repeat the experiment.
The fact that you are even able to repeat the experiment says a lot about the durability. 🙂
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