I finished my first book-matched wedge piece, titled "Red Means Go", a couple of weeks ago and sold it a week later.
Red Means Go
shellac on curly maple, cherry, and walnut
44" x 22" x 3"
© Robert Hitzig
I wanted to take it with me to the Paradise City show in October, and at least look at it a while longer, but you've got to take the sales when you get them so I'm not complaining. My personal opinion is that it is a great piece so I'm not surprised it sold so quickly. There is something about the concept I really love, two sides that are the same but not the same, going in different directions; wedges - thin to thick, thick to thin. It is simple but elegant; subtle but powerful; and best of all, slightly confusing. I'd like to do more of them but finding highly figured maple three or more inches thick isn't easy. Mills like to cut planks thinner because it costs so much more to kiln dry and thinner cuts sell much faster. If/when I get my prices to where I can make a living doing this, I could justify paying top dollar to track slabs down and have them shipped to me but at this point I'm still relying on chance encounters.
Sometimes I sell a piece that I'm not quite ready to sell. I really hate it when one sells too quickly. Six months to a year of having a piece is probably enough, after that it starts to feel old, the new work starts to push it aside and gain more attention. It also starts to take the lack of sale personally and I start to feel sorry for it. To sell in the half year period, half a year after being finished, seems to really be the perfect time to part with it. But when one sells within two months, that really is too quick. I'm sure this makes me less than the ideal salesman of my own work. I can talk about them all day but when people start getting interested in buying I start to get anxious, especially if it is one that I haven't had for that long. I'm generally happy to sell older work, but I tend to be more sad than excited about selling new pieces. I didn't really think much about this until this weekend when a couple picked the piece below. When they chose it I felt like asking them if they were sure they wanted that one, checking with them if there wasn't something else they wanted. But, when a piece is on the wall with a price on it, it is hard to backtrack and say you can't have it, not if you really want to be a professional artist. Lucky for them they were real art buyers and didn't need me to talk too much about the work, they knew what they wanted. If I had talked more I'm sure I could have talked them out of it.
Untitled
16" x 13" x 1"
Red Means Go
I wanted to take it with me to the Paradise City show in October, and at least look at it a while longer, but you've got to take the sales when you get them so I'm not complaining. My personal opinion is that it is a great piece so I'm not surprised it sold so quickly. There is something about the concept I really love, two sides that are the same but not the same, going in different directions; wedges - thin to thick, thick to thin. It is simple but elegant; subtle but powerful; and best of all, slightly confusing. I'd like to do more of them but finding highly figured maple three or more inches thick isn't easy. Mills like to cut planks thinner because it costs so much more to kiln dry and thinner cuts sell much faster. If/when I get my prices to where I can make a living doing this, I could justify paying top dollar to track slabs down and have them shipped to me but at this point I'm still relying on chance encounters.
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