mouppe":26bhqp6n said:
I'd love to make it for a client but I couldn't realistically charge what it cost to make in terms of hours.
I disagree Mouppe, I think your work is good enough to command a realistic price. Selling your furniture might not be the way you want to go, and that's fair enough (I've been doing it for a few years and it's certainly not the road to riches!) but before I went full time I'd been selling the occasional piece for some time previously because there comes a time when you just run out of space to house your own production, or you want to experiment with different design variations around a similar theme. So unless you're especially generous with a very large circle of family and friends, there comes a time when you pretty much
have to start selling your work in order to keep developing as a maker.
Furthermore, it's pieces like your table that are some of the best items to sell. It's pointless offering bread and butter furniture, but impactful, prestige items that occupy a very visible position in the home can always find a market.
Incidentally, I think you could take that design a little bit further. I'm not sure mixing mahogany and cherry is a natural combination as they're just too similar, plus there are too many mid-priced, factory produced alternatives using these woods. But a sun burst veneer in Macassar Ebony for example is a jaw dropping feature. Another thing to consider might be a subtle touch of inlaid stringing in holly or sycamore to really make the design sing, laminate the legs from tapered lamina to produce a more subtle curve and you'd really have something special.
I asked how many hours because I can see you've got the technical ability but I wanted to see if you were
efficient enough, and you are, fifty hours is actually pretty slick. Look around for an open exhibition, enter a piece like that with an appropriate ticket price, and you might be pleasantly surprised to find out that there are people out there willing to pay for individual craftsmanship, not many it's true, but you only need one!
Good luck, and once again, very well done!