I think Achim that you need to factor in the cost of the machine,
wood, and the time of the operator, at the very least at minimum rate
in the UK. If you look at the cost of a loaf of bread or a pint of
beer or lager, or the cost of fuel, it, in no way, reflects the true
cost of the product. The action of supply and demand will dictate the
cost of anything. The suppliers to our suppliers will charge what the
public are prepared to pay, less a bit of profit. People like Mike
(Agnes Husband, and Shirley's husband turn their bobbins by machine,
yes, but the machines still need an operator! They still need to
replace chucks, chisels, wood, aluminium, wire etc. And then there's
the expertise of the individual. Would you rewire a house, or repair
a car if you'd never done anything like it before, and without
training? Mike I know personally, and he spends many hours in his
work area making bobbins. At the price they charge for them, they are
most certainly not overpriced. And I am not saying this because they
are friends. I am saying it because nobody would produce anything
just for the fun of it, and then 'give it away', thereby having to
fund their hobby or their full time occupation! By that, I don't mean
giving away a piece of lace, but do we give it all away, or do we keep
some of it ourselves? If we had a use for the item, we would keep
it. However, if we made lace just for the fun of it and then gave
every piece of it away, would we soon get tired of buying thread,
replacing prickings, pillows, bobbins etc, no matter how cheap?
IMHO we'd think twice about it.
Sue in EY
On 24 May 2009, at 21:08, Achim Siebert wrote:
The "lathe" you refer to that makes bobbins all by itself, is not a
lathe as such, but a computerized machine that turns out lace
bobbins by the thousands.
And that's where I don't understand that those bobbins are still
rather expensive. I suspect those bobbins are way overprized and
many seller just try to fleece us lace makers.
And then there's those cheap "danish" bobbins that are made from
wood not much better than toothpicks - destroying threads and even
hands. Or some bobbins on ebay that look really nice on the pictures
- but are unusable. Or take those aluminium bobbins we talked about
recently - those are certainly machine made and I'd think they are
not worth more than 20p a bobbin.
Of course I appreciate nice handmade bobbins and I understand they
have their price - and I pay that gladly if I like them. It's a
wonderful experience to work with bobbins where each of them has its
own little story behind it.
What I missed were smooth machine made bobbins for a reasonable
price. When I had the time (and guts ;)) to do a piece needing more
than 200 pairs I had to postpone it because I simply couldn't find
affordable bobbins in sufficient quality.
-
To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line:
unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to
[email protected]
