Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico)
July 8, 2005 Friday

Artists Struggle To Set Prices

by Kathaleen Roberts Journal Staff Writer

U.S. Market Is a Challenge

At last year’s Santa Fe International Folk Art Market, prices ranged
from $10 for a South African beaded doll to $60,000 for Panamanian
baskets.

After 14,000 visitors swarmed the Museum of International Folk Art
plaza for the inaugural event, the artists asked organizers for
workshops to help them better understand U.S. marketing and pricing.
On Thursday, about 100 got their wish in sessions held at St. John’s
College, sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization.

But as this weekend’s market approached, many artists still were
unsure how much to ask for their work.

Armenia’s Noushik Mikayelian brought artists making woven cloth
dolls, embroidery and wood carvings.

She wondered how to price similar objects when the costs to make them
might vary from country to country.

“They say we must say the materials are more expensive or cheaper,”
she said.

Mikayelian owns an art gallery representing artists throughout
Armenia. The Folk Art Market is his first foray into the United
States.

“The U.S. market is more free to put the right prices and to value
the work,” she said. “It’s lower in Armenia than it will be in the
U.S.”

One of her artists, Anahit Karapetian, makes silk and
gold-embroidered christening shirts. The designs date from 900 to
1,000 years ago, when monastics wove and embroidered their own Mass
costumes. Decorated with white crosses, angels and life trees, the
shirts cost $250 to $300 and are said to give health and protection
to their wearer.

France’s Agnes Paul-Depasse makes straw marquetry in an inlay
technique. She applies thousands of ribbons of wheat or rye to a wood
base. She said she wasn’t sure how to price her work, which is based
on the technique of one of France’s most celebrated cabinetmaker of
the 1930s. She spends as long as two days on a single piece.

In the end, she set her price based on the exchange rate of euros to
dollars, charging $300 for a framed marquetry mirror.

Shamula Dudeja brought hand-embroidered silks from a women’s
cooperative in India. Known as kantha stitch, the technique dates
back hundreds of years when women made quilts for babies and
bridegrooms.

Dudeja revived the technique after being diagnosed with cancer 22
years ago. Forced by her illness to leave her job as a teacher, she
met some village girls who were stitching tiny quilts from old
fabric.

“I had done it in school as a running stitch,” she said.

The women started making saris, then skirts and ponchos. They added
more color to make their designs more stylish.

“We started making it for the urban elite so we could market it,” she
said.

Dudeja launched Self Help Enterprise, which now helps 500 rural women
retain a tradition while earning extra pocket money. She designs the
patterns with four colleagues.

“In 22 years, we’ve made maybe 5,000 designs,” she said.

In India, the ponchos sell for $120. More intricate patterns may take
200 to 300 hours to complete.

“I would like to pay these girls higher wages,” Dudeja said. “But we
are not making enough money in India for these products. In America,
I would like to sell it for $500 because of the amount of work that
has gone into it. The entire economy of rural Bengal could change
because of it.”

Realistically, Dudeja said she will probably ask $200 to $250 for the
work.

“If you can have jeans in India, why can’t you have kantha in
America?” she said.

Flocking to folk

International Folk Art Market prepared for crowds this year S1