Working out cost of making pots.

This jug came out of the kiln

It has no lip, but in the Michael Cardew book a Portrait

by Garth Clark

There is one of a similar design without a lip

and that is called a jug.

It's black slip on white slip with a honey glaze.

I need to iron my black material as a background to get a better shot.

but otherwise it's a pot I'm very pleased with.

I've had to work out my material costs for making pots.

I've come up with a simple guide.

Luckily I have always kept a record of how many pots come from each Glaze firing

so I've been able to work out an average from each firing.

which for me works out at 36.

so the cost of two firings divided by 36 gives me a firing cost per pot.

Based upon how many are made from One Tonne of clay I have worked out an average of 750 pots

I can work out how much it costs to fire each pot as an average

add this to the cost of clay per tonne divided by 750

gives me a clay cost per pot.

I've also been able to work out how much glaze material I use

to glaze the 750 pots so the cost of this divided by 750

gives me a glaze cost per pot

Does this make sense so far, I'm beginning to loose myself in all this.

average pots made per tonne of clay = 750

average clay cost per pot

average glaze cost per pot

average firing cost per pot

add to these how long it takes me to work through a tonne of clay

so lets say 4 months.

so add 4 months rent.

Then it all falls down if you try to work out the man hours used to make these 750 pots

based on 48 hours per week at 18 weeks

that comes to 864 hours

so what rate do you charge your own time at ?

It doesn't quite work like that does it.

But for the tax man purposes the figures in red above are what they want to know.

So I hope this helps.