Honestly our prices aren't even high considering the huge amount of work that goes into what we do. What we deserve is to actually be well paid and then get some reparations on top of that lmao

Every time I see a bead artist break down their pricing, they always give themselves "minimum wage", which as we know is less than half of an actual living wage. We deserve a living wage for our art, but I know none of us actually gets that
Beadwork is my full time job, I've charged up to 200$ for a single piece because I need to make rent and pay bills and some of these large pieces take me days or even a week to complete.
I give myself minimum wage for my labour, I don't charge for the hours I spend packing and shipping orders, Etsy takes a cut, and I still have to charge upwards of 100$ for many pieces because beadwork is hard fucking work. It's a slow process, literally one bead at a time.
I constantly struggle with balancing paying myself a fair wage, keeping my work accessible, not giving people a lowball idea of what beadwork actually costs therefore undercutting other artists... its not easy.
We ALL deserve a living wage for our labour, we deserve to not be paying costs like that out of pocket, but peoples' image of what these things "should" cost is totally skewed by a bunch of factors.
People devalue our work because it's feminized labour. They devalue our work because it's done by Indigenous people. And they devalue our work because corporations have egregiously underpaid workers making shoddy products then passing those stolen "savings" onto the customer.
Our work can and often does last lifetimes. There's beadwork in families including my own family that is half a century old or more and still in pristine condition. We as Indigenous people know how to make things to last.
And allllll of these factors, including basic fucking decency, is why you should never criticize an Indigenous bead artist's prices, because I can all but promise you they are still undercharging no matter what the listed price. Tip your local bead worker today.
This thread is inspired by: https://t.co/cX42wOpDwT

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🌿𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒓 : 𝑫𝒉𝒓𝒖𝒗𝒂 & 𝑽𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒏𝒖

Once upon a time there was a Raja named Uttānapāda born of Svayambhuva Manu,1st man on earth.He had 2 beautiful wives - Suniti & Suruchi & two sons were born of them Dhruva & Uttama respectively.
#talesofkrishna https://t.co/E85MTPkF9W


Now Suniti was the daughter of a tribal chief while Suruchi was the daughter of a rich king. Hence Suruchi was always favored the most by Raja while Suniti was ignored. But while Suniti was gentle & kind hearted by nature Suruchi was venomous inside.
#KrishnaLeela


The story is of a time when ideally the eldest son of the king becomes the heir to the throne. Hence the sinhasan of the Raja belonged to Dhruva.This is why Suruchi who was the 2nd wife nourished poison in her heart for Dhruva as she knew her son will never get the throne.


One day when Dhruva was just 5 years old he went on to sit on his father's lap. Suruchi, the jealous queen, got enraged and shoved him away from Raja as she never wanted Raja to shower Dhruva with his fatherly affection.


Dhruva protested questioning his step mother "why can't i sit on my own father's lap?" A furious Suruchi berated him saying "only God can allow him that privilege. Go ask him"