Post a Comment On: Stephanie Cake

So I've been making mosaics again. Of the pique assiette/picassiette variety. (for you non-Francais speakers, that loosely translates as "plate scrounger" or something like that. In the world of mosiac related creativity it refers to mosaics made with bits of broken plates, china, glass chards, yadayada.)

It's grueling work but I really enjoy it. Breaking the plates and china involves more than just taking a hammer to them. I also have to use tile nippers to snip the shards into attractive and useful pieces. Some plates are a real headache to nip too. Lotsa blisters on the nipper holding hand. And lotsa cuts from all the little broken shards. And then there's the grouting. Worse cuts from working the grout into the seams... and yes, I do wear gloves but those plate shards are mean sons-a-bitches. Grout gets into the cuts (ouch!) and overall turns my hands into crusty old granny hands.

But its so worth it once the piece is done. I really love mosaics and I'm so glad to be making them again. It's been over two years since I've produced anything and I'm working on some really cool pieces now. I'll post pictures soon... but I'm sure you're wondering what else there is to the sad little tale. You know shard cuts and grout hands can't be all. You know there's more to the story.... ;o)

So, once upon a little time (to quote the great Laurie Miller)....
I started making mosaics a few years ago on a whim. I had seen pique assiette work in a magazine by an artist who used a lot of three dimensional china items. She made these cool picture and mirror frames and had mosaic-ed her bathroom in teacup shards. As always I had one of my brilliants inspirations and thought "I can do that!" This time I actually finished not just one but 2 projects. They were little dresser trays, painted in pastels, with buttons and keys and pastel colored plates shards in the mosaic design. One had a 3D lemon from a vase (hooray for the $ Store!) and the other had a dolphin/Flipper head from a figurine (yay for Goodwill!). They were really cute and I was proud of them.

I posted images of them on my website and ended up selling one (the dolphin) and giving the other (lemon) to my mother-in-law for her birthday. And then I got a call from a lady who had seen my website and was nuts over my work. And this is where it all spiraled down the proverbial toilet.

I won't name names because I'm sure this woman didn't really mean me any harm or at least I want to keep thinking that. It helps me sleep at night, ya know? I also have to take responsbility for my own misery. But anywho, lets call her CC. CC lives in the southern midwest area... not Texas but one of the states near TX if you get my drift. She is an interior designer and was getting ready for some majorly huge home show and thought my mosaics were the bee's knees.

I worked out a deal to make a sample for her (it was a vase) and sold it to her at a reduced retail price - because I had come up with wholesale minimums and one piece didn't meet it. Keep in mind, she didn't haggle with me over this reduced price. My dumb ass had come up with it as a policy in hopes of hooking shop owners' interest so I could land some flat out sales and not deal with consignment. The reduced price was a little more than what I had planned to charge for wholesale and I figured I was going to come out ahead regardless - if she decided not to work with me I had still made a little money and if she did place an order than it was worth it in the long run. Bad move. Offering someone a price reduction right off the bat in an art related B2B business deal is just like bathing in a bucket of blood before tripping blindly through a lion's den.

She received the sample and called to oooh and aaaah and coo over it. She wanted to talk about a major commission. Her customers were going to LOVE my work! I was going to get GREAT exposure! She wanted to take my work to the home show where it would be seen by some very important people. And on and on and on.

And then she wanted to talk about volume pricing. My wholesale price was great and all but could we maybe find cheaper bases (I was using galvanized tin buckets and potting vases) to lower the price? And what if she sent me some china, would that help? Could we knock off some of the cost if I didn't have to work so hard to find or purchase china and plates?? She chipped away at me over a period of time about this stuff. All the while blowing smoke up my ass about how great my work was and how she wad going to help make a big name for me.

And she wore me down. Admittedly my self esteem wasn't great at the time. I was finally back in the corporate world but still a little shaky (I guess I never really got unshaky at that paticular job... but that's another story altogether). I still wanted to make things happen with my creativity. I still had a pipedream about figuring out the perfect cottage industry which would get me written up in Mary Engelbriet HOME and Martha Stewart LIVING and make me a minor celebrity. So I agreed to a riduculously low price per piece. In hindsight I wouldn't make ballons animals for this price much less something as labor intensive as pique assiette mosaic.

She broke my resolve to never undersell my artwork. She really had me convinced that it was a mutually beneficial deal. So I said ok. She did send me a huge box of plates and china and other doo-dads and I have to admit that was a good thing. She sent me some beautiful stuff. But it was nothing unique. In fact it was all from TJ Maxx and Marshalls and she left the price tags on all of it so I can estimate what her net cost was and hind sight being 20/20, it wasn't really a fair trade off.

Her first order was a trial - 15 vases for the upcoming home show (because I couldn't promise the dozens she really wanted in a short period of time - I think she must have thought I wiggled my nose and made mosaic-ed vases appear). And I started working. And I worked. And I worked. And I worked. I had bleeding blisters from cutting china. It was winter so I was working in my kitchen (never a good idea) and I was constantly stepping on little china shards. I worked over 18 hours straight 2 weekends in a row. Not to mention working on them every night after work. I was getting odd looks at work because I always had grout under my fingernails and bandaids on practically every finger from all the cuts. What a nightmare. I was the sole employee of a little mosiac sweatshop. I also sunk a considerable amount of time tracking down cheaper galvanized tins (ended up resorting to trips to about a dozen Wal-marts because they happened to have them) and Capodimonte style 3D china flowers ($ Store saved the day once again)

So I finally finished and shipped them to her on time. She emailed to let me know that they had arrived but that a couple of them had gotten chipped in transit (despite tons of bubble wrap and newspaper, I suppose the capodimonte style flowers were fragile). She mentioned that she would send them back. Maybe I could fix them or something. I imagined perhaps being able to pop out the ruined flower and grout another one back in. oh my brilliant ideas!

And then she ordered a few more in another style for a spring show. And again I cranked out more (actually not as many this time because she wanted to see what I had done with a theme request). And then she got a little spotty with communication. And then I got a check for about half of what I had expected - net 3o days payment terms on the first shipment. And then I got a box from her. A box containing the damaged vases. Except it wasn't "a couple" of vases and it wasn't just chipped roses. It was approximately half of the vases I had made and all but 2 or 3 of them looked like someone had stood on them. Literally. The tin was bent, the grout cracked beyond repair and the flowers destroyed. I felt about as crushed as those vases when I opened that box.

And then she questions me about the invoice I sent her for the second batch. She insinuated that we had agreed on yet a lower price for that particular batch. I lost it at that point. I told her in no uncertain terms had we ever discussed any price changes and that I was on the losing end of the deal even at the higher price. She sent me a check for the total amount of the second invoice and I never heard from her again.

So I stopped making mosaics. I was totally burnt out and got a pain in my stomach everytime I looked at my tile nippers. I also spent a lot of time kicking myself and second guessing and blaming myself and over analyzing what I could have done differently. But I finally came to the conclusion that, other than being incredibly gullible and naive, I didn't do anything wrong. She took advantage of me. I needed to stand up for myself. Instead I let a fast talking shrewd business woman who had absolutely no clue about the creative process to get one over on me.

Since then I have seriously worked on my confidence and self esteem with regared to my artwork. I have turned down several commissions if people weren't willing to pay what I think I'm worth. I'd rather make something and have people admire it and keep it for myself than slave over something and send it out in the world for a pittance.

The mosaics I'm making now are for me. I'd like to have a show at some point. But until then I will have a wonderful collection of pique assiette. Unless I get a good offer, of course. Grin!

On a related note, anyone who wants to unload their broken or unwanted china on me - please feel free! You can send to my attention @ PO Box 423, Reisterstown, MD 21136. Plates, bowls, mugs platters, vases... its all good! Antiquey/flowery looking stuff works great - like blue willow knockoffs. Gaudy little figurines and chopstick rests are super too. (Note: Correlware is no good because it is actually glass. Really thick stoneware is also a hassle because its impossible to break and cut.... not to be choosy when I'm out here begging but, well, you know how it is...)