Commissioning Work
When requesting to Commission a piece of jewellery from the studio, please try to see that it takes not only loving this Work, but also a level of understanding and certainly the appreciation of the effort and expertise that will pour into making your one of a kind jewellery. And trust with the one who will spends all these many hours making your jewellery. Working on Commissions was traditionally a large part of the way jewellery artists and craftsmen throughout history worked. Perhaps until modern casting and manufacturing and the big commercial jewellery industry took over. And so it was in this studio. This modern commercialism has made the possibility of ordering a commissioned jewel all the more special. Much of my earlier work was created through commissions, and yet for various reasons outlined farther down this page, I have in recent years grown more and more selective in regard to which commission work I would be ready to take.
One way to begin is by imagining the piece of jewellery you wish me to make for you. Consider trying to prepare draft sketches of your wishes and design ideas. Think of any symbols you feel a need for or connection to, what shade of gold you like, which Gemstones. If it is a ring, please make sure to take the correct size. Most of the rings I make are very difficult to re-size! Consider how wide you like it to be, think of the size and shapes of the stones you wish to include in the jewellery. With the addition of 3D modelling, the way I now design, has opened the space for the customer to be more involved in the design process if they wish to. You can see some of these possibilities for seeing the design in different stages at the 3D example page. * That page is new and will be expanded to show a wider range of options for viewing a model, from screen recordings, to an interactive 3D viewer, to photorealistic image. You would be able to see renderings that looks very close to how the actual jewellery will be once it is completed in gold and gemstones.
It is great when a customer knows what he/she wants; however if I feel it is not right for the piece, I may not agree to certain design requests.
During the years there were, at times, issues with commissioned jewellery. The main being estimating cost before starting on a project. What was often a near impossible [but understandably natural] expectation. But guessing all the unknown variables can be misleading. Every commissioned piece of jewellery is ‘one of a kind’, requiring an unknown amount of work to create. Additional issues like the time it takes to complete a project [not the same thing as the amount of work]. And things that can happens along the way.
With much consideration I have tried to design an arrangement, which allows for the share of risks, and maximum freedom for both parties.
please see the Commission Agreement on the next page.