and that's the first time i've re-written a post title.....i'ts not like me to have expletives on my blog so this is not the time to start.....
anywho a customer came to me with a request could you make me 3 new mugs to go with the one i bought last month????? i thought about it considering our 'policy' is we don't do commissions!!!! so why did i say yes???......hhmmmmm.... still not sure why... so here's the drama i made the mugs and had to glaze fire them twice as i wasn't happy with the glaze thickness, so eventually months later here we go, the new mugs went to their new home...
well last month they came back to me, the customer says can i have a chat...sure i say... and out of the basket come these mugs that are apples and pears next to the original...'oh' i say!! and could you remake them, at this point i'm thinking - i'd rather give you your money back than try and replicate this particular cup who's form i have moved on from.... so what did i say????
sure!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hehehe that'll teach me, so my strategy is make 4 the same and send them on their way, taking back the original cup and the new ones....
so here they are in the raw...freshly faceted handles complete with scrolly bits....
You can come on over to my blog and use an expletive if you want, clearly I don't mind the use! The mugs look great, sadly you can never get back in $$ the time spent with miss picky. Beautiful mugs though :)
ReplyDeleteI liked that my father use to think all mugs should be different.
ReplyDeleteHe loved his coffee black with no sugar.
He wanted to know if he picked up a mug it would be full of coffee and nothing else.
Thus- no matching mugs.
Works for me but customers- what is with all the matching?
but with that said they are great mugs!
ReplyDeleteThey're lovely and elegant mugs, Ang. I try like hell not to say I will "match" anything. I'm not a factory in China. I'm not that good. I plead ineptitude. I had a guy come to me this past Christmas to have me make a "Saltine" cracker Christmas ornament for him, in observation of the upcoming birth of his grandchild. I won't explain the reason, except to say it's a play on the family name. So I did, a slab of white porcelaneous stoneware, punched through with the holes a cracker would have, randomly lumpy exterior (again, like a cracker), stamped with the appropriate words to observe the child's birth. I glazed it in the ash glaze I usually use, which is a bit celadonis (not like a cracker, but the best I had to do the job and let them see the stamped words). I got it in the pre-Xmas open studio firing and I was happy with it. (Well, as happy as I will ever be about a fired cracker>) He paid for it, but it was clear he thought it was the wrong color for a cracker. I would have said, "Listen, it's NOT A CRACKER. It's a Christmas ornament, for crissakes." I didn't say that, more or less just holding my tongue to see if he'd pay me. He did, grumbling. New rule: No more imitation baked good will come out of Hatchville Pottery.
ReplyDeletehehe ta trace...i don't know why but every request i get seems to come out wrong...i just don't work that way however i think these guys are close to the original and i'm happy with that, they'll be in that black glaze recipe i sent you..
ReplyDeletehey cwg, me too and thants generally my option for muggage as the kitchen cupboard with testify!! don't get the matching never have...mix it up baby!
thanks..
hi hollis great story, peeps have no idea really, did he expect you to spend 6 months developing glaze for said cracker???? no he expected it to magically appear!! ha yep no more imitation baked goods! excellent new rule...so odd that i didn't remember the original mug, it is very elegant and was a challenge to get the subtle curve right...
i'm no good at matching things i've already made either, mostly because it doesn't interest me but i've gone down that road and it's not a pleasant one. i had a small local retailer call recently to tell me that a woman got one of my cups and wanted 24 more. i'm not in a position to turn down that many so i said i will proceed after you call her and ask her if she realizes that the cups will be similar but not identical. the retailer kept saying ok, well, then when are you gonna be done and i kept saying... well, i don't know because i haven't gotten the word from her that she's ok with similar as opposed to identical. i took 3 phone calls for him to understand and 3 weeks later i got the go ahead but it wasn't 24 anymore, it was 6.
ReplyDeleteI don't like making anything someone has asked me to make. Odd, not really sure why. I guess it takes the fun out of it for me. I'm such a rebel, don't like doing what anyone says. Wild rebel potter. Yea, right! In reality, I probably would have tried to match the previous cups too.
ReplyDeletehey jim, hahaa isnt that the way it almost sounds like a ruse to get us to make the work we agree and then the clinch comes!!! hope the 6 were appreciated..
ReplyDeletehi patricia, i know its all front eh!! i kinda felt bad coz she really did love the 1st mug and i just didnt remember the subtle curve in it..i do now!!
I refuse orders asking me to match something I've made. What I will do sometimes is make some similar items and give the customer first choice if she is so inclined.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I can get pretty rebellious when given a "special request" -I don't like doing anything I'm told to do -ha! I've always put way too much pressure on myself when it comes to commissions and will usually create two to lessen the stress. A good comment to the customer was probably that you've moved on to other forms -though I'm sure that wouldn't have satisfied her need to match!
ReplyDeletehahaa i used to be very certain that i couldnt match things, now just to get these babys through the kiln and see how ive gone..
ReplyDeletehey cindy its so great to hear that lots of peep just don't like being told what to do!! hhehehe,.. i had a good day throwing clay was just right ahhh...