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Everything shown in my Marquetry Gallery is available for sale unless noted underneath the thumbnail as “-- sold --". I keep pictures of sold items up to showcase my entire portfolio. Also, if a certain design catches someone’s eye, they may request a work similar to it.
I welcome inquiries for custom work. In fact, some of the most interesting pieces I’ve made to date have been based on requests from my patrons. There are two types of requests I generally get.
The first is when someone likes the style of my work, but would like to see a particular animal or landscape that I have not yet created. Usually, if I feel the theme will be appealing to others, I will make several unique variations from a single, original design. If requested, I will verify the design with the customer before any production begins. After all the color variations are complete, I then give the commissioning customer first choice from all the variations.
In this situation, the price will be based on the size and complexity of the design, and the rarity of the materials used. However, I take into account the fact that the design and cutting time is divided by the number of unique variations I create, thus the overall cost of each individual piece is lower.
The second is a request for a completely custom and unique piece, specifically designed for one and only one patron. This could be a situation where a person wants a piece personalized with their name, or a specific family location, saying, or even a pet with its name. Clearly, in this case I would not be able to easily market unique variations of such a personalized item.
Other cases could be design requests for which I feel – based on past experience or current market trends – additional unique variations would not sell well.
Finally, in some cases a person wants to know that the work they commissioned is absolutely one of a kind, having not even limited color variations of the design. This will of course generally push the pricing higher than an equivalent piece with unique variations, as the design fee and cutting time for the work will no longer be spread out among four to eight items. However, for many, having a guaranteed one-of-a-kind piece in both design and execution is well worth the additional cost.
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