[Jewelry making - Article 00933] - Re: [Orchid] Selling only original designs?

[Lisa Bialac-Jehle]

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    Um...yeah...I make a comfortable though not a Bill Gatsian level of
    living. All of my work is original, and the only repair work I do is
    on my own pieces. I do make some commissions, but they are along the
    line of: "Ooooh....I loved that blue ring of yours that my friend
    Jolene bought. Can you make something like that for
    me?"...or....."Here's the ring that my ex-mother in law gave me. I
    hate it. Can we make something with the stones?". Then I do sketches
    and we come to an agreement, but it is always my design and my
    style. 

    Was it your understanding that, "commission", meant the customer
    saying, "do whatever I tell you to, in whatever style I am paying
    you to do it in"? Unless they love your style, that doesn't work. For
    the most part, I make what I like to make and sell it. If it doesn't
    sell after a while, it is probably for good reason, or I have put it
    into the wrong market. I guess doing it this way works, at least it
    has for me. Its the only way I have ever worked. Sixteen years now
    and counting....lol...but then maybe no one told me that doing it my
    way wouldn't be any way to make a living. 

    Truth is, I just started making stuff and people started buying it.
    Wish I could sound more practical, or even more calculating about
    it, but then that's just the way I work. Some far more successful
    friends have unsuccessfully attempted to verbally beat me about the
    ears on occasion, in the hopes that I might become more driven, but
    it seems to be against my nature. 

    Did you think that making a living this way was an impossibility, or
    at least unlikely? Well....there are a thousand ways to...excuse the
    expression....skin a cat....my way is just one. 

    Lisa, (Off to Phoenix again next week. Pity, as the weather here is
    lovely for a change.) Topanga, CA USA
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