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Greetings! I have a customer that is requesting this decorative glass oval be replicated. This glass was familiar, as this same design is in the doors over at the Cattleman's Restaurant here in Sunnyvale. I am presuming they were mass produced for the door company. Heck, Pat Mackle probably made them. I thought maybe this same design may have crossed someone else's path too, and that they might have a vector file available. Or maybe this exists on one of those vector art compilation CDs, or maybe one of you vector wizards would like to do it for me, but I don't know. Having to vectorize this, might cause me to lose my will to live. On the other hand, my price for doing this might cause the customer to lose his will to have it replaced. I'll generously trade you some beans for a vector file? Any leads appreciated. SWM, kickin' the lami. ...ouch!
Yes Larry,
I recognize that panel. They were depth etched and double chipped on 1/4" plate. I may still have the original camera films around here unless
I returned them to the door company. All you would have to do is vector one quarter of the design and dupe it.
Originally I had hand cut my master out of rubylith, but it dried up and disintegrated several decades ago.
Pat
Tony,
Speaking only as a user of the site, I usually check the board to see if anyone has added anything to a post. I assume any new post has at least some shred of merit and pertains to solving a problem or supporting the thread. So, when I go to a post and see some line out of some movie that has absolutely nothing to do with the post, I somehow feel as though that person wasted my time. Maybe it doesn't bother other people, but after a while, it gets really old. I am sure everyone here could add a line from their favorite movie to every thread, but again, it would be a total waste of time for the ones who only come here to get information. You guys were doing that a lot with lines from Dead Man, so we let you create that Dead Man post so your group could banter away. I never go to the thread anymore. I figure that group "gets" it, and the rest of us don't, but at least you have a place to play it out.
From an administrator point of view, at least none of the movie lines are intended to insult or degrade anyone. and Maybe the lines are tolerable to the rest of the people?
My only other suggestion would be for your group to go to a site like Canaca.com and register a domain, build a site, and put a Dead Man bulletin board on it.
Cheers,
Mike Jackson
Mike Jackson / co-administrator Golden Era Studios
Vintage Ornamental Clip art
Jackson Hole, WY
I gave the customer a quote of $1584, figured I was probably taking it easy on him. Kinda figured how much is $1500 damage to your car... not very much, these days. I haven't heard back from him...maybe he's in shock. Or maybe he's lookin' around elsewhere. I'm not so sure how many could pull it off locally, and cheaper...I would hope not.
That's one thing that isn't discussed too much around here, price. If anyone would like to chime in on what they would charge, feel free. I figured half the work was creating the art in the computer.
-Larry
Last edited by Larry White on Fri Oct 26, 2007 9:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
Ouch....grouchy old folks....I guess I'm one of those;=) Actually I understand trying to keep things on track but the "Deadman thing " is amusing as heck. While putting a page or 2 together for Amal a while back I decided to rent the flick and see if I'd get it. I didn't....but the spirit of just plain fun mixed with doing cool work is infectious. It also took me the longest time to work out who the "Lady" in Whites shop was. The meet itself happens at a time of year when it's just plain impossible for me to get away from work. Larry's been kind enuf to send me an invite each time which he knows I can't take him up on, but I keep them in a folder of cool "SignGuy" stuff I've collected over the years. SO...in an effort to keep this on topic, do others save practically everything as well? I have multiple Esoteric catalogues extra T-Shirts for everywhere I've been (I'm a sucker for Butler's work) letters and notes from anyone sign related that were hand written. Those ones are so often incredibly creative.
I am older than Mike by some degree (though Ray has me beat by a couple) and I don't get the references either. Having said that, one once in a while I overlook and take no more offense than an occaisional pun or jab because we are all friends. That is what keeps the spark of frienship alive. However, I don't like to see an informative post cluttered with any jibberish to the point that it is difficult to get the basic information. That is precisely what I don't like about other sites which go on for many posts off topic then back. I don't live online and consider it a waste of time, reading through so much stuff to get to the heart of a topic.
I am not in favor of spoiling the fun though and having a Deadman area is great fun, even if it is not for me cause I don't "get" it. If a reference pops up once in a while in other posts, I can ignore it. I really appreciate the value of what Tony, Larry and others bring to the forum and want to encourage them to continue.
Hey, if you're ever in the neighborhood (Hayward, CA), stop on by and I'll try to explain it to ya. Bring an unfinshed glass panel and we'll work on 'em. Maybe throw a few steaks on the grill, have some hot strong black coffee, and watch a western movie or two. You're always welcome in Machine!
Larry,
Regarding the price you quoted:
I probably would have quoted more like $1573.47, but I guess we're pretty close.
What size is it? It looks like about 24" x 48"? Of course, that's not terribly relevant. Kind of like charging by the letter for a sign.
If, as Pat stated, they are depth etched and double-chipped, both of those factors add to the time of a surface etch, single chip. And, of course, your point about vectorizing the art is one of the major time-factors involved.
I appreciate the fact that you threw out a number to us. Sometimes I'm hesitant to do that because I'm self conscious about what my peers think of my pricing. And then I look at guys who say, "Yeah well, I spent 20 minuts designing this and then aonther 10 minutes to cut the mask. Sandblasting, from start to finish was 5 minutes and then after 3 minutes of gilding, 30 seconds to paint the outlines and 10 seconds of cleanup, I got my check fo $5000."
I just can't relate to that as I often agonize over design and fuss too much over execution, forgetting to be grounded by the IOAFS mantra.
Anyway, I think your price is reasonabe. If the moment we quote something our customers always immediatey get giddy and shake our hands, we may want to rethink our pricing. It's a healthy thing to see people walk away from time to time because they can't afford the talent and skill we bring to the table.
Besides, it gives you time to watch "Dead Man" one more time.
I'm with you Dan, I also appreciate seeing what others charge. When discussing how I figure pricing with friends and other signartist, I explain that I just pick a few numbers and then see what makes me feel good. Althought I think about how long it might take to complete the task, I never price by the hour or sq ft..... the great thing about choosing to do work that's not competitive is just that...it's not competitive. Now don't get me wrong here, I've never made more than 50K a year , and some years I'm doing great at 20K . Oviously I want to do more work, but I don't need to lower my pricing to do that. I'm about to start a small chevron shaped piece , 1/4"x12"x16", a little chipping, gilding,damar, paint...and the charge is $1580 (popular number here on this subject ). That price doesn't sound like a high too me, and for people who see money as "appreciation", it's not a high price to them either..and those kind of people are the ones I want to do business with. That's why I love what I do, and am selective with who I do it with. My gilded bird charge started at $1380 for just straight 23Karate gilding ...but when the architects wanted something different, they willingly paid an additional $870 for a more multipule karate gild . I just love clients who love to "appreciate"............
Hey guys, thanks for the replies. This customer is the home owner whose daughter accidently broke the glass. I think if it was for some corporate client I'd probably be charging about 50% more. I kinda wanted to help the guy out. To me, a lot of those corporate customers just look at it as numbers on paper. If they want it, they'll get it. A friend of mine once told me, if you're selling your life, get as much as you can. Another one is, find that fine line where they say "ouch", but still buy it. It's all a juggling act I guess.
BTW- The glass 20 x 42" and is 1/8 over 1/8" laminated, the glass was included in my price and was going to cost me $90.22. I was figuring a slight depth carve, but a single chip (hopefully). I would also consider vending out the computer design replication.
I sent the photo off to Dave at Pre-Cut Patterns, Inc. and he quoted me a very reasonable price to vectorize the design. This is what was returned to me in vector form:
Upon my first examination, it looks real clean. They also sell pre-cut sandblast stencils of a wide variety of things.
You might also want to investigate Vector Magic, an online vector generator which traces a bitmap image better than some of the other programs, and it's free!
Denver Chapter of the Letterheads