What do you do when you don't like the pen?

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DurocShark

DurocShark

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Joined
Jul 26, 2008
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Location
Anaheim, CA
I was commissioned for this pen:

MapleCocoRetro.jpg


The customer loves it. Exactly what she asked for, etc etc etc.

I think it's fugly. But it's going out into the wild with my name on it. (Not literally...)

Have you guys ever been asked to do a pen you thought was ugly? Did you do it? Did you refuse? I'm wondering if I should have refused...
 
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I don't have to be asked to make an ugly pens, I just do it, all the time.

Really the only thing I see wrong with that pen is it look real heavy, probably because of the kit.
 
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I was doing a demonstration once and turned a pen that would have wound up salvaged for parts if someone hadn't insisted I give it to her. In her defense, she'd probably never seen a wooden pen before.
 
I have to agree with you it is not nicest looking pen, but there's a lot of work involved. You have to question some peoples taste. Your workmenship is fine though. That is one time two different types of blanks didn't work.
I have a piece of wood with a bunch of dowles in it. On those dowles are completed pen blanks that for one reason or another did turn out like I have thought they would. I just disassemble the pen and made a different one. That is the one reason I buy 5 extra sets of tubes when I order and new style pen kit or I reorder pen kits. Some time it is the kit didn't look right with the blank or some other reason I didn't like it when it was finished. The pen I use here on my computer desk is a slimlime with spalted maple blank and a acrylic center band and a gold kit. Just not the pretty pen I have visioned, so I use it, The other blanks maybe assembled into a pen some day I have them labled as to what kind of a kit they came out of so who know somebody make like them in the future.
 
Yeah, I made it a bit heavier than I had to. But that's what she wanted. She liked the "curves" of one of my other pens... A slim that I gave a similar shape to. But it looked better on the slim.

I just really didn't like the bottom half being coco with the top half being maple. It's what she wanted, but yech.

Sigh. At least I have another commission for a walnut/tulip (maybe) herringbone on an El Grande rollerball that just came in to help me recover.

;)
 
I think it's up to us, the pen makers, to visualize the pen before making it, even as a customer describes what they want and guide them to a nice pen.

Just because they see two seperate pens and say "I'd like the bottom like this and the top like that", we should step up with our "professional" opinion and say "No, that's lile wearing bright green socks with a dark blue suit, they won't match well".

I agree with you, I don't believe I would have assembled that one! :)
 
Remember the old saying 'one man's trash is another man's treasure?' Some people look at the 'nice' ones & think something that we think as a mistake is just the thing. But when someone has their mind made up, why not deliver. If they're happy....... at least you've got one more pen in circulation & may get more orders out of it.
 
I just did a pen and a pencil for my first internet order made to order for a customer. I wasn't too keen on the choices but for $120 I would do just about anything. (no Cav, not that, I have some standards) I am hoping that when they receive them next week they don't ask for their money back, lol.
 
Hey -- focus on the checking account balance instead of the product! I personally think a lot of the stuff in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is ugly, but someone's disagreeing with me all the way to the bank!
 
You might include a card that tells which woods were used, what style
it is, and the fact that it was made "TO EXACT SPECIFICATIONS for
Mrs. So-And-So" .. and that custom pen orders are accepted ...

.. which tells the customer that it was made this way because someone
paid you to make it this way .. without stating your own preference one
way or the other, without putting down someone's taste .. but still getting
the word out that they can order exactly what they want and you'll come
through with the goods. :biggrin:
 
I am a custom home builder who really cares about my finished product and I deal with this all the time with client selections. I build CUSTOM homes so folks can get exactly what they want. As long as they don't ask me to compromise my quality standards then everything else is just personal taste. I will always give them my opinion and try to sway them to something more appropriate but in the end, their choice wins.

The same would apply on CUSTOM pens. If I was asked to only do a friction finish or to turn one and leave it way under turned, then I would refuse. Otherwise, it is all a matter of personal preference and taste.
 
Hi,

The important thing about this pen is that you have a satified customer that goes around shoing it and saying that it was made exclusively for her.

In my book that's all what count.

I made a pen once out of scrap rotten wood from an old man family barn That pen ended up looking like sh.. but the man who order it showed it around his family and i got to make 25 more.

An happy custommer is an returning one.:))
 
As a pen maker, our opinion doesn't count, it is the customers opinion that counts, as an artist, you have the power to decide what you will sell and what you won't. Which one are you? Before you answer that one, consider the term "starving artist".
 
Ugly or not, its what the customer asked for ... I'm reminded of one of the lessons of life my father taught me when I was a boy ...

"The customer isn't always right, ... but they have all the money!"
 
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The workmanship on the pen is quality. Each of us is entitled to having our personal preferences. If everyone liked the same thing none of us would be allowed to exercise our creativity. Nice that she wanted you to make her a handcrafted pen and was willing to pay $100 to you for your work. Both of you received something you wanted.
 
Sometimes you have to balance your artistic scruples and your bottom line, especially nowadays. Your customer was happy with it, and that's always important. It's not like you have to wear a t-shirt made with a picture, and the caption "I made this ugly friggin' pen...". :wink:
 
Remember also, the saying..."the customer is always right". If they want a baseball bat on the top and a broomhandle on the bottom, we should make it and charge the hell outa them.

I have a customer who pulled up the oak flooring from their dad's house after he passed away. It is just plain white oak, about 60-70 years old. Dry as a popcorn fart. They called the old man Poppie, so the wood is now called Poppiewood. They gave me about 10' and it is 3/4" x 4" and they want pens for all the family. That's about 10 pens. I am trying to make them all different with some kind of accent in the pen. So far is one with a long Celtic Cross, one with a turquoise inlaid cross, one with walnut swirls top and bottom and one segmented with oak and DIW and the next one will be segmented with Padauk for the son who is a Univ. of TX alumni. From there it gets more difficult but it turned very plain wood with no figure and no color into pens that have a little class.

I didn't like the idea originally and started to talk them out of it but "the customer is always right" and now I have a commission that I am kinda enjoying the challenge and making a few bucks.

I don't turn down any kind of pen the customer wants
 
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As long as it is to the specs of the customer and the quality of workmanship is there, take the money and run.
This was a "commissioned" piece, you did what the customer wanted. It was not a creation gone bad by mistake.
Now, if I make a bummer of a pen, I'll remake or toss into my 'shop pen' pile. Those pens are used by me in situations where the pen might get lost or messed up. Recently, a lady saw one of these discards and exclaimed it was the most beautiful pen she had ever seen and openly suggested she wanted it. I didn't give it to her, not because I'm stingy but because I don't want a lousy piece of my work to get out where other folks can see it. If I'm not proud no one gets. That's my attitude.
 
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