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How to Commission

If you seriously think of commissioning a piece, the first step is to pay a sketch fee. This puts you on a list of people definitely wanting a carving, and buys you a drawing. The sketch fee for a small to medium sized piece is generally $150.00. The fee for a larger piece can run more.

Before I do the sketch, I like to know what price range we are talking about for the final commissioned piece. This helps me to know how many details I can put into the drawing. Once you pay the sketch fee, you are not committed to buying anything other than the drawing. If you decide to go ahead with a commission, the $150.00 fee will be subtracted from the final finished cost of the piece.

Commissioned items cost a little bit more than a ready made piece of art since they take a little bit more time, especially because of the email correspondence and brainstorming time required to come up with an idea that will suit you and me.

The process of coming up with a commission idea can sometimes take a number of emails. Photographs are useful to me as I come up with ideas. Sometimes multiple versions of a sketch are needed in order to come up with a drawing you and I feel happy with, and in this case extra sketch fees based on an hourly rate may apply.

After the sketch, if you decide you do not want to proceed, all that you have lost is the sketch fee. Either artist or customer can decide to stop the commissioning process at this point.

After you see the sketch and you decide to proceed, I send you a mini contract stating financial details, projected date of completion, shipping address, etc. I don’t start to carve until the contract and sketch have been signed/dated/returned to me. I also ask for an advance of one half of the total finished cost of the piece. Balance due is paid upon my completion of work and before pickup or shipping. Large commissions generally take five months from start to completion, smaller ones can take less time. If I have a number of commissions lined up, this could push the time to more than 5 months. Most of my commissions are made in the winter.

For commissioned items there are no exchanges or returns.

I prefer payment by check but also can do credit card.

Feel free to ask me any questions. I can give you names of other people who have have ordered custom made pieces of my art so you can ask how well the process worked for them.

Please check out my commissions page to see examples of commissioned art.