Christmas rush orders?

[Jeff Fuchs]

You have a two year waiting list and someone expects you do drop everything to do the impossible? Not a chance!

If you accommodated this person, you would create a rushed piece that you might not want to put your name on.

In the past you have posted about people who want you to teach classes, etc. This is a sign that you are in demand, which is great, but being in demand does not mean you have to accept all demands.

Clearly you don't want to throw away a perfectly good commission, but this person needs to understand that you have obligations.

Congratulations on your success (which is deserved), and lets hope we all have such troubles in the future.

[Heidi Maiers]

Thanks for the congrats Jeff! I didn't even consider taking this one on even for a second because it is physically impossible. Even if I were to drop my other projects, quite my job, cancel my vacation, and work on it 24 hours a day, and persuade the foundry to put it first on their list and pay their employees overtime to work on it, then overnight deliver it, it still couldn't be done in 2 weeks.

Really I think the best thing to do for an order that comes this close to christmas is to offer a gift certificate as Terri suggests. If the person really wants a piece of Your work, they will wait and the subject will enjoy being involved in the process.

If they want just any sculpture and don't care about the quality as long as they can have it in 2 weeks, then it is better that the person find someone else who doesn't take as much pride in their work.

Painting is a little different story because it's probably more realistic that a painting can be completed in 2 weeks so I was wondering how many of you have had clients that demanded you drop everything and do theirs as a christmas rush order and how you handled it.