High Value

The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever— do not abandon the works of your hands. Psalm 138:8 (NIV)

I love weekends. This was one particularly good. I drove over the bridge to spend the afternoon with Vicki. http://amarkonmywall.wordpress.com/ Not only did we eat delicious shrimp and clam chowder at Fourth Street Shrimp Store, but we talked crafts. We shared the joy of naming pieces, finding just the right title to express what we envisioned when we put the piece together. How naming a creation gives it life and substance. The toil of getting an idea from your head to your hands. The disappointment when it doesn’t turn out exactly right, and the surprise when sometimes, it turns out even better. Vicki took me to where she teaches felting. It’s in a great art center with a fascinating museum. I enjoyed seeing some glass work on display there. Vicki’s been telling me that she had an order to place some of her creations at an art gallery. I was impressed, but I was REALLY impressed when she took me to see the place, and I realized it was the Florida Craftsman Gallery. http://www.floridacraftsmen.net/ Getting admitted to sell your work there is a big, big deal. I had to tease her about being hot stuff now. While everyone who sees her work knows how beautiful it is, I am not sure Vicki understands it herself. In the gallery, we oohed and ahhed over some of the other work for sale there. A little clay pot with a unique textured finish sold for $68.00, and we both agreed it was fairly priced. We admired a finely crafted pair of earrings for $48 with tiny honeybees as well. It led us to a discussion on how to set prices for our handiwork, and we commiserated about the difficulties in knowing how much to ask. How do you put a value on the time, materials and skill it takes to put something together? Both of us are guilty of pricing our things too low. I saw fused glass pendants in heart shapes in the gallery. They sold for $20.00 each, but just a few months ago, I sold even nicer ones for $5.00! Ack! Why are we willing to pay a good price for other’s work, but we undersell our own? I guess it is because we don’t have the skills to do the other things, and so, value their efforts when we don’t hold our own skills in such high esteem. We need to remember that those who don’t how to felt or fuse glass will feel that same sense of awe and delight over our creations that we do over pottery and silversmithing. I think the same thing happens to some of us when we can’t understand how God might love us. We see our failings, and it interferes with our acceptance of His love. God made us and we are His creation, but He does not place His value on us because of what we do or how we act. Our worth comes from His great love for us, flaws and all.