Commissions are a two edged sword.

It is usually a good thing to be commissioned to make a work – it’s an item that is sold before it’s even made. It can be exciting to start work intent on a particular piece to a specific purpose. There’s a little frisson of excitement while choosing the wood, deciding color and patterns with an image in mind.

But of course there are buts:

• It can limit an artist’s creativity, a customer might want everything exactly so, and the turner is just crafting something to their end.
• The artist may underestimate the time and materials, resulting in a disappointing payday. If I quote a price, I won’t go back to the client with a revised price.

• If the artist has free rein, the client may not like the result, request changes, or even turn down the art work.

There are ways to alleviate some of these: only take the commission that’s interesting works for me, don’t do the things I wouldn’t do normally. For example, I don’t take orders for custom croquet sets, chess sets or salad bowls sets. There are artists who don’t mind making something “to spec”, I’m not one of them.

The cost of a piece is often tricky. One gets better with experience. I’m not in the habit of tracking my time when I work on something for myself, I often spend several sessions of varying times on a piece, (all the while working on other pieces) so I often have a hazy idea of how long it takes to make something from beginning to end. I do try to give the customer a range of potential cost – from $200 to $250 gives me a little bit of wiggle room if I run into an issue.

And even if the artist has license to make something they want, it would be in everyone’s interest to find out some basic info about size and color and wood and cost and timeline.

Commissions are exciting, they can be a chance to flex muscles that aren’t often challenged, an opportunity to explore some fun byway that leads to new ideas and unique possibilities. It’s a good way to get new work out there in the world.