Just a note to jewelry buyers

This is something I really should specify to custom-order customers, and really it's my own damn fault for never saying it, because by the volume of Etsy Alchemy requests, this is not something a lot of people know.

But here's the number-one way to seriously annoy a jewelry artist: Ask for "something similar to this photo," when you're really expecting an exact match.

We don't do that. Not if we're honest, anyway. That is not what an independent artisan jewelry designer is for.

I really have no problem creating jewelry inspired by something else, and I ought to start specifying that that isn't the same as exact mimic of someone else's work.


Available here and coming soon.

I'm not really angry with the customer in particular, because again, I should have specified. This isn't something people know. But I can't help but be a little annoyed, because for this order, I was provided photos, I got as close as I could, I made multiple versions of the one pair emphasizing different aspects of the original, I didn't bitch about the fact that I haven't been paid yet ... and now the customer isn't buying the second pair because it's "not quite what she was looking for" and is reasonably okay with the first but wishes it was closer to the photo.

Excuse me?

So I've now worked for free, after saying as I always do that I wanted half up front, and been told that my interpretation wasn't wanted -- just exactitude. I've turned down lucrative bids because I have integrity and will not imitate someone else's work exactly. It annoys me even more to finish the bid and then be told that exactitude was wanted.

It's not the customer's fault. She didn't know. What's making me significantly crabby is that people in general don't. My artistic integrity feels small and angry.