What to charge
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What goes into a piece
- Resin and hardener, by actual volume including what stays in the cup.
- Mold cost divided by the pulls that mold will give.
- Pigments, inclusions and any substrate.
- Consumables: gloves, cups, sticks, abrasives, surface covering.
- Labor, including finishing, which is usually longer than pouring.
- Failures, as a percentage, because it never reaches zero.
Amortize the mold
A silicone mold costs real money and gives a finite number of good pulls. Dividing its cost across that number is the difference between a piece that looks profitable and one that is, and it is the line beginners never include.
Count the failures honestly
Bubbles, tacky patches, demolding damage and yellowing are routine. Track the real rate over a month rather than assuming the good days are typical, because the material in a scrapped piece is gone and so is the time.
Cure time is lead time
Days between pouring and shipping is capacity you cannot compress, and it limits how fast you can turn an order around regardless of how quickly you work. Quoting turnaround on pour time rather than full cure is how a maker ends up shipping pieces still reacting.
Finishing is most of the labor
Sanding and polishing a cast piece routinely takes longer than making it, and it is the part people forget when quoting. Time one piece end to end, including the finishing, and use that number.
The protection is a cost of goods
Gloves used properly are consumed in quantity. Putting them in the costing rather than treating them as overhead keeps them from being quietly rationed when margins tighten, which is the worst possible economy here.
Price for the piece you will actually sell
Resin work photographs better than it sells, and the first version of a product is usually slower to make than the tenth. Costing from the first one overprices it and costing from a hoped-for tenth underprices it, so time a middle one once the process has settled.