What is your asking price for a copper rose?  I made one and now someone  would like several for a wedding.  Trying to figure out what would be a reasonable price for them.  Mine is around 1 /38" dia on a 1/4 x 7" stem.  Made from left over copper tubing and a bit of round stock I had kicking about. 

 

Theres not a huge amount of time involved but never really kept track while making the first.

And I guess the other burning question I have is where are you guys sourcing copper sheet if I find that larger roses are requested.  Appreciate any help guys.

 

 

Nice work!

Prices are set by the maker for the maker.. Since none of us dothings the same wat there is no basis for comparison :)

Dave

nice Mike !! 

Kinda thought it might be whatever the market might bear.  :)  I'm not much of a business person so it's awfully hard to try and wrap my head around pricing without giving it away.  Be really nice to have a little extra to go into the anvil fund if I take this on.

 

Still might need a source for copper sheet that is somewhat local.  rona and home depo don't seem to list any copper flashing on their web pages and  my never fails try to find something on the net and you go in circles to the same 3 pages.  Gotta find that something else to look for that gets me lost looking at copper  :)

 

Thanks Rob

The last ones I sold were $95.00 with one sold at $115.00. Been maybe 2 yrs since I have sold any tho. And I make them around 4"dia. heavy texture and flame colored.  Check the sheet metal shops that do high end work, tell em what you are doing (cost me a rose once years ago) and ask to purchase their scrap. works for me anyways.

Big box stores will only special order a full roll of flashing for you, prepaid. 

 

I had to go to an old-fashioned hardware store to buy copper flashing by the linear foot. Be prepared for sticker shock!

Windancer is correct, you must set your own price. 

Also John McPherson's source idea is good, since you can use such small scraps. 

 

I suggest you weigh the rose then charge $20/lb regardless of what you pay for the metal. 

Next, build another one and keep very good track of the time. 

 

Select an hourly rate appropriate for your area, I have no idea what that would be, but a minimum would be 2.5 x the average normal highly skilled manual wage for say a carpenter, auto mechanic or electrician. 

 

Add the labor cost to the materials. 

 

Another suggestion; your rose is quite beautiful, no need to sell yourself short, The stems could easily be 3/16" instead of 1/4 in case you need to buy them new. 

If you can't find copper sheet and you made the one shown from copper tubing. Why not by some easily available copper tubing at HD or Lowes.  

Thanks, gives me a few better ideas.  It's easy enough to find or buy a bunch of tubing.  But I really like the idea stacking sheet and cutting out multiple pieces and save all the effort of unrolling and flattening the tube.   Found a few places I could order from, sticker shock for sure.  But I guess as long as price covers the cost and the buyer is willing to pay

Shop rates for mechanics, welders, machinests ext, run $65. To $85. (Or more) Per hour. This certainly isn't what the labor costs, but overhead, labor and profit adds up. Now, one pricing the first one, think about how long it will take you to make the 10th one, as that's fair to your customer, fair to you is the 20th, when you have everything worked out and have made all the tools and such to make the job easyer.
Some places don't charge sales tax on lobor, in places like that, often it's best to give away tha materials, and only charge for the labor.
Always figure overhead, materials, labor and profit, if you don't you'll, one, to broke and two, make it hard for others to get a fair price for their work.

As the old saying says "There are two things that will result in a blacksmith going to hell, hitting cold iron, and not charging enough..."  Both only end up causing you to suffer.

Have to spend a bit of time and figure out how much time went into them,  kept track as best I could.  But there is a jig I made to hold the stems while using the monkey tool and setting the rivet as well as a curved chisel to cut out the calyx.  Boy did that make things quicker and easier.  Talked to the lady today and she's interested in larger roses, and maybe something cheaper than copper, say aluminum.  gotta scavenge some more and run another experiment.  That and leaves are requested.  Anyways heres pics of the latest ones.  Thinking it would be really nice to work with new copper and not old tubing with scale and such on the inside. 

That's a beautiful rose Gerald.  Nothing to much right close by.  When I can get out to Kelowna I can look around a little more.  Tried the local farm supply place that sell tin roofing.  Best they could come up with was copper coat  flashing.   Hoping I'll have a little more time soon if we have a breakup.

Gerald beat me to it. Copper gutter/standing seam roof installers frequently have scrap bins of cut offs and screw ups and might even let you buy off the roll. Sometimes a damaged or remnant roll is for sale also. $3 ish a lb. your local scrap yard might also resell scrap. Plumbers sometimes rip out BIG copper tubing while remodeling drain lines and like the gutter folks keep boxes of scrap.
This is where I scrounge.

I buy new from my local metal supplier and if they are too crazy on prices or just won't do it I go to Atlas metals in Denver.

Beautiful work Gerald!

I would hit up a plumber for some scrap tubing. If you have access to a band saw it will make splitting go a lot faster. I just use a vise for flattening it for use as soft jaws.

Sheet steel is available all over the place-new and scrap.

Aluminum would give you the option of anodizing them for color.

Brass might look nice.

To save work, and material , you may try a closed rose which would also look rather nice.

In regards to the stems, they look rather thick. You may want to use 3/16, or draw the 1/4 down to give it some texture too-although rose stems are smooth.

I have been sealing my steel roses for $60 for some time now and have gotten as high as $75 when selling on commission. Have a good friend who makes nothing but copper roses and he sells his for $85 and has no problem selling them at that price. We both agree that price is for 1 or 12.

Finished this one up today.  Had a top out of a 45 gal drum,  traced out the templates from Mark Aspery's  vol 2.  Fairly happy with how it turned out, but there are a few hours in it.  Worst was chiselling out the petals as it's a little tough to cut with the tin snips.  Coming up in April is a craft fair  hoping I can sell a few things there and buy my next batch of propane  :)

 

If you are planning on making more than a couple, do yourself and order the blanks from a company that does laser cutting (or something similar). As an example, it costs around $7 to get the blanks made around here, and the amount of time you save versus chiseling makes that well worth the investment.

I charge $125 for mine. Forge-welded hips, etc. I get orders for bouquets for 50th wedding anniversaries and such, as well as funeral arrangements. Here's a shot of some fresh forged ones. I make mine from old autobody steel and any scraps that are lying around.







Make sure y'all don't charge too little! Roses are a lot of work.
Yours
      - Rusty

Those are darned NICE Rusty. Charging too little is the second way for a blacksmith to go to hell. Roger that.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

thank you Rusty for your straight price. It makes a refreshing change. ( still to cheap though )

Remember that if you want to stay true to a rose, a leaf has three leaflets on one stem. And the thorns point down.

The roses are very nice.   and my burning question for the day is... how are you attaching the thorns?  they must be mig welded and dressed.  Unless your just that good and they are forge welded.  :)

You can cut them with a hot chisel too.

True enough matto.  Forget at times just how plastic iron is to work in especially with a little heat