A long time ago in another life, in a distant galaxy,
I produced a simple free form sculpture around 9 inches high x 5 inches wide similar to the one shown below. It was in a local gallery for £180 and did not sell, lots of people liked it but alas a year later it was still gathering dust. I refused to lower the price as it was reflective of how long it had taken and it being a one off it would stay at this price.
I decided as with all my work to move it around galleries and took it to one I sell in 20 miles away. Liz my wife told me to double the price as she believed it was too cheap and the reason it was not selling, I laughed, so Liz laid down a challenge, double the price and when it sells I would give her half, so I put it up to £360 and took it to the gallery.
It sold within a couple of weeks and was a bitter sweet lesson,
no I have not heard the last of it to this day, but working in the job Liz does she knows a lot more about selling interior items than I do so I decided that perhaps I should swallow my pride and listen
Best advice I took on board, sell cheap it is cheap.
For the same gallery h sculpture sold in I made a 32 inch dia x 4 inch high burr elm wide rim bowl the gallery owner put a retail price of £435 on it and placed it on a £2000 reclaimed Oak rectory table, 50% commission so I was up for £217.50 the wood was around £30 and it took me less than a day to turn even back in 2005.
The gallery owner was talking to a local chap who was less than impressed with the price 'who on earth is going to pay £435 for a bowl' to which the gallery owner replied was 'well if you can find another one like it in the world I will give you this one for free'.
Within a month a chap and his wife that liked my work came in and purchased the Elm bowl and another of my pieces at £160, totaling £595 on one sell.
This was way back in 2005 ish. No it doesn't happen every week, but if you don't aim high and strive to achieve and break the mind set then how can you expect to achieve what has not been achieved before.
It is often said how easy it is to make pieces but how hard it is to sell them. To a degree this is of course correct, unless you invest time in research to learn about marketing, product design who and how to sell your items to then it will always be true.
Producing something different helps, a bowl is a bowl is a bowl, or is it, ? trick is to make your bowls stand out, make people decide they just have to have them.
If you bowls are like other bowls, my small rice shaped bowls for instance then learn to turn them fast/efficiently so you can make dozens if not more in a day then you can sell them at a price many people can afford, sell lots and have a good bread and butter range that pays the bills.
Of course this is my perspective and just my thoughts.
One thing I can say however no one in turning is going to be a millionaire not unless you have two million to start with.