For calligraphers

Priced by the piece. Paid for the hand.

Calligraphy is the rare craft where materials round to nothing and the price is entirely the hand: envelopes at $3.25 apiece, place cards by the dozen, a wedding's worth of names due the week the guest list finally settles. The business is per-piece pricing, spoilage allowances, and deadlines. MadeKeeper keeps all three in ink.

The app is live. Free during the pilot. Founding rate $19/mo, locked for life.

No card to start. Use it free through the pilot, and lock the $19/mo founding rate for as long as you stay.

How MadeKeeper maps to your desk

Jobs priced by the piece120 envelopes at $3.25 is a $390 job — logged as one commission with its count, rate, and deadline. Add-ons like inner envelopes and returns price as their own lines.
Ink and nibs by the jobA jar of sumi and two nibs across a wedding is real cost, just small. Log it per job and your margin is honest — which, at these percentages, is mostly a formality worth having.
The spoil allowance, statedEvery calligrapher needs overage envelopes — 15% is standard. The job notes carry the policy, so 'send 138 for 120' is written down where the client agreed to it.
Weddings, events, and retail piecesEnvelope suites, day-of signage, and the market table of ready-made pieces run as separate channels — so wedding season's surge reads clearly against the steady retail drip.

One envelope job, to the penny

Say you letter 120 wedding envelopes:

  • Ink, attributed to the job$4.30
  • 2 nibs @ $2.20$4.40
  • Envelopes: client-supplied, +15% overage$0.00
Materials in the job$8.70

At $3.25 an envelope the job pays $390.00 — you keep $381.30, and the nine hours of lettering earned $42.37 each. That's the per-hour number that makes rush fees and minimums easy to defend.

Straight about what's live

Materials and true cost per piece, products (in bulk or one-of-a-kind), sales that drain stock, the was-this-fair-worth-it event math, mileage, expenses, and the year-end tax packet — all in the app today. Etsy and Square sync, your own storefront, a booth card reader, and shipping labels are building, shaped with founding makers. Nothing above describes a feature that doesn't exist without saying so. See the full live-vs-building list →

Questions calligraphers ask

How should I price envelope jobs?

Per piece, with the count, rate, and any rush fee logged on the job. Your history builds a real rate card — outer-only versus outer-and-inner, print versus flourished — priced from hours you actually recorded.

What about client-supplied paper?

It logs at zero cost with the overage policy noted on the job. If the client shorts the overage, the paper trail says the 15% was agreed — a quiet piece of professionalism that has saved many wedding-week Fridays.

Can I sell ready-made pieces too?

Yes — lettered prints, vow keepsakes, and market pieces run as products beside the commission work. Retail keeps the desk busy between weddings, and the ledger shows what each side of the business truly pays.

Ready to see your real numbers?

The app is live and free during the pilot. Lock the $19/mo founding rate for as long as you stay.

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