Landseer
04-14-2006, 10:00 PM
I have an inquiry from someone who likes 3 of my long sold architectural antique panels on my web site and wants an estimate on casts to build into the brick wall. As is often the case these inquiries rarely pan out, but it raises some interesting thoughts I thought I'd bring up here.
First, one of the panels is this one pictured below, the original was 36" wide and 30" tall more or less- a pretty good sized piece. The design is fairly simple, though I have never done a face before, this is more of a mask and it's not the entire head so it might present a minor difficulty but I don't see it as being extreme.
The photo is so nicely straight on I can scale off it to mark landmarks on the clay model.
One issue I see is the size, and clay will want to warp or crack, so I might have to use a clay that has a course grog instead of the medium to help on that.
The other issue is price, the lady wants a concrete copy and assumed I have the original to simply mold, the amount of time and materials involved to sculpt this would be more than most people would ever pay for a non custom commission, this isn't like a one-of-a-kind portrait bust of someone's late father!
I would welcome the motivation to make the design and use it in my line, it may or may not ever sell but the one cast - but that's the chance one takes with development of products and so one. OTH if I sold a bunch more over time it would be well worth the initial effort and outlay.
The design frankly doesn't excite me- it's not exactly one I would have chosen off my site and thought YEAH!!! I want to make that one!!
So I figured if the lady wants one and is willing to pay for part of my time on this (I keep the model, all rights and mold of course) then I could do it. I just came up with a "what's it worth to me to do this model" figure of $500 plus the going price I come up with for the cast and shipping.
If I charged a per hour fee like a minimal $15 the cost would l be totally insane- no one would be crazy enough to pay it for something like this.
I doubt she will go for it, but if I'm going to spend all the time it will take to sculpt a model, then it should be one I KNOW will sell many casts of or have other clients demanding like my 3 piece winged dragon panel.
Since I don't know if this would ever sell then I need to make some up front money on it and take the chance other casts will sell, if not then I have at least something for my time plus the cast she would want would be charged at the going price for a cast of this size, crating and shipping- it could run her $1000 when all is said and done there.
Any thoughts on any of this?
First, one of the panels is this one pictured below, the original was 36" wide and 30" tall more or less- a pretty good sized piece. The design is fairly simple, though I have never done a face before, this is more of a mask and it's not the entire head so it might present a minor difficulty but I don't see it as being extreme.
The photo is so nicely straight on I can scale off it to mark landmarks on the clay model.
One issue I see is the size, and clay will want to warp or crack, so I might have to use a clay that has a course grog instead of the medium to help on that.
The other issue is price, the lady wants a concrete copy and assumed I have the original to simply mold, the amount of time and materials involved to sculpt this would be more than most people would ever pay for a non custom commission, this isn't like a one-of-a-kind portrait bust of someone's late father!
I would welcome the motivation to make the design and use it in my line, it may or may not ever sell but the one cast - but that's the chance one takes with development of products and so one. OTH if I sold a bunch more over time it would be well worth the initial effort and outlay.
The design frankly doesn't excite me- it's not exactly one I would have chosen off my site and thought YEAH!!! I want to make that one!!
So I figured if the lady wants one and is willing to pay for part of my time on this (I keep the model, all rights and mold of course) then I could do it. I just came up with a "what's it worth to me to do this model" figure of $500 plus the going price I come up with for the cast and shipping.
If I charged a per hour fee like a minimal $15 the cost would l be totally insane- no one would be crazy enough to pay it for something like this.
I doubt she will go for it, but if I'm going to spend all the time it will take to sculpt a model, then it should be one I KNOW will sell many casts of or have other clients demanding like my 3 piece winged dragon panel.
Since I don't know if this would ever sell then I need to make some up front money on it and take the chance other casts will sell, if not then I have at least something for my time plus the cast she would want would be charged at the going price for a cast of this size, crating and shipping- it could run her $1000 when all is said and done there.
Any thoughts on any of this?