WHY DOES A TINY SCULPTURE
COST 60€-80€?
A perfectly reasonable question. They're small. I know.
But the amount of work involved doesn't shrink along with them.
Every Taraminart sculpture is an original piece of art, sculpted and painted by hand. The price doesn't just cover a lump of polymer clay and some paint.
It has to cover the time and materials that go into making the sculpture, as well as everything required to photograph it, sell it, pack it and run Taraminart as a one-person business. What goes into the price?
SCULPTING & PAINTING: 45%
This is the actual making-of-the-little-guy part. Sculpting each piece by hand, baking, sanding and correcting anything that needs correcting, then painting all the tiny details… often including a frankly unreasonable number of dots.
This process takes between 3-5 hours per sculpture, depending on the complexity of the piece.
MATERIALS: 15%
Polymer clay, acrylic paints, varnish, brushes, sculpting tools and all the other supplies that get used, worn out and replaced along the way.
PACKAGING: 15%
Boxes, stickers, business cards, labels, protective materials and all the time spent carefully packing orders so a fun-sized animal can travel halfway across the planet without experiencing an unfortunate incident.
BUSINESS, WEBSITE
& SOCIALS: 15%
Running the shop and website, paying business expenses, answering emails, doing admin, maintaining social media, updating listings and generally doing all the invisible jobs required to keep Taraminart alive and functioning.
PHOTOGRAPHY & CONTENT: 10%
Every sculpture needs to be photographed, edited and presented online. I also create the photos, graphics and other content you see on the website and social media.
The percentages above are an illustration of the different kinds of work and costs involved, rather than a literal accounting breakdown of each individual sculpture.
I hope I didn’t bore you to death and this provided some useful insight into what goes into creating my sculptures beyond the visible, hands-on labor. You're not paying 60€-80€ for 10-15 grams of polymer clay. You're paying for an original sculpture designed, sculpted, painted, photographed, listed, packed and sent out into the world by one person.
The sculpture happens to be tiny.
The job isn't.
Thank you for supporting independent art and the work that makes it possible.