On Wednesday morning I shipped out my last commission furniture piece for a long time. Perhaps forever.
Last year I closed the ordering form on my personal site. And since then I have worked through the backlog of orders, chipping away until Wednesday when I dropped off a crate at the depot across the river.
For the last 10 years, commission work has been a third to half my income. The other half is writing and teaching. Commissions kept us afloat as we paid Madeline’s tuition at Ohio State and Katherine’s at Spalding University.
During the last three years, Lost Art Press, the commission work and the number of new designs in my sketchbooks took root, bloomed and became overgrown. And last year I had to make a choice.
- Double or triple my prices for commissions to (likely) reduce them. As I build vernacular-inspired pieces, and I have a strong proletariat streak, that didn’t feel right.
- Hire people to help out on both the commissions and shoulder some of my responsibilities for the press. That would put me back into managing other people’s work on a day-to-day basis. I’d rather get a simultaneous root canal/vasectomy without even an aspirin. I want to do the work, not manage it.
- Shut down commissions and build work on spec.
I chose door No. 3.
In the coming months, I’ll occasionally list a piece for sale here on the blog. Lucy and I have decided we can afford the hit to my income (thanks to a debt-free life). This will free me to write and edit more books, build furniture pieces that have been struggling in the birth canal and to stay outwardly sane.
I’ve enjoyed working with customers since I took my first commission for a Shop of the Crafters Morris chair in 1997 from a couple in Texas. Since then, I’ve built some crazy stuff that made me a better woodworker. And I’ve met some people I now call friends.
I’ll miss some aspects of commission work. And now I am about to get into the truck and head to the lumberyard to build something for… who knows?
— Christopher Schwarz
“I want to do the work, not manage it.”
This is so important.
This world seems designed to promote people out of doing what they love.
I left my last job because I ended up running the business rather than doing the doing, and I had to demote myself several levels (and take a 50% pay cut) to get back to real fulfilling work.
There’s this constant pressure to take the money, pay off the mortgage, save for your kids, but it took me nearly 20 years of my career to realise that mere income is poor compensation for losing the chance to do the work that feeds your soul.
Congrats!! I’m excited to see where the wind leads you.
Craft like the wind!
Would love to be in your position, I gave up my business years ago to get where you are at, somehow I took the wrong “fork” and ended up in injection molding while it affords a fairly comfortable lifestyle financially and I still create in the evenings and weekends I long for just woodworking on my terms full time, at this point I don’t think I could give up the 401k match and the we will just give you another 5% + health benefits so I just have to accept I sold my soul… for the time being anyways…
Mark
https://www.instagram.com/kessler_woodworks/?hl=en
I enjoy watching how things in the world evolve. To see where you were at the magazine almost, what, 30 years ago to today is just fascinating. I hope I live long enough to see how the story ends.
Eppur si muove.
I’m still waiting for the cat shelves you will end up making in the bench room that go all the way around the room and maybe even access to the upper floors. Maybe even a small enclosure with different levels and holes for the cats to peek out of. Or maybe one day you will find yourself making bird houses and writing a special book about the process.
We should run a contest for the title of that book. Only rule is it cannot contain the word ‘xen’. 🙂
I am pretty sure this trip to the lumberyard will be the one that finally sparks the birdhouse book
“A Larkist’s Birdhouse Book”
There is no book, but he does have a birdhouse article.
YES! The 101 stick-built bird houses and it’s logical follow-up; The ultimate guide to repurposed pallet-wood bird feeders!
All jokes aside – I am usually troubled by your moves and ultimately happy after a period of time as you put yourself and your business’ in a position to positively affect your followers. I think it will be fun to see what you “get into” in the coming years.
Most of all, thank you for tons of good snarky, fun reading and books I am proud to have on my shelves and finally the teaching you have provided through print and video and simply living your life!
Door #3 – Good for you!
Great place to be Congrats
Good for you. Enjoy the time and thanks for sharing.
If you are getting your vasectomy done from the root-canal end or worse, vice-versa, you might want to reconsider that aspirin.
I am sure that is a weight off of your shoulders.
Despite your proletarian leanings, or perhaps because of them, I encourage you to increase prices on your spec work to see what the market will pay. We all know it is hard for craftspeople to get fair money for their work; if you are in a position to command a premium price, you should. It helps other craftspeople do the same.
I understand the wish to ‘do the work, not manage it’. For the 27 years I was artist/graphic designer/photographer in marketing for a multi-national corporation I was told that I would never advance in the organization if I continued to resist being a manager. It was managers who said this and could not grasp when I said I had the work I wanted to do. Nevertheless I became one of those rare VPs who had no one working for them, and was better compensated than most people who hold such vocations as mine. I was fortunate to be in an unusual corporation. Had it been a different experience I would NOT have hesitated to go elsewhere.
Do what makes you happy in life when it is possible. Decide what price you are willing to pay for the privilege. And never forget so many who are never realistically presented with the alternative. I, too, deliberately stayed debt-free, but I am aware every day that I am old enough to be one of the last of that generation who had corporate funded retirement plans, profit sharing, voluntary 401K plans, great medical benefits, etc. Those were the long gone days when companies cared about the employees who made them successful.
“When one door closes, another one opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”
Words by Alexander Graham Bell
Chris now you can enjoy some free time with your lovely wife as well. While I am sure you have taken some time off. While it is not easy at the moment I hope you both will have some time in the future to enjoy each other’s company. All the best Chris.
What is/what goes into the green box?
A folding campaign table I built earlier this year.
I am really enjoying Campaign Furniture. Where can I find latches for the drawer front of the Campaign Secretary?
Call Orion Henderson ant Horton Brasses. He can import what he doesn’t carry and color all the components so they are the same hue.
So long and thanks for all the fish (chairs)!
The campaign table goes into the green box, then that is crated in the plywood box in the background?
Do standard carriers handle wooden crates normally or do you need to use a freight hauler?
Thanks!
Depends on the weight and dimensions. This one was 45 lbs. and went via UPS.
I’m glad to hear you’ve found a way to be happy and keep your self sane. Giving up commissions might just give you more enjoyment in the shop if not as much time and quality is better than quantity!
Congratulations! I guess I’ll have to build my own stump/antler/rabbit hide Game of Thrones chair.
Right on Chris, my good friend Tom McLaughlin in New Hampshire decided recently to do basically the same thing, hopefully it pays the bills. Having been a woodworker/woodturner my entire life (over 60 years) I never could figure how to make a living of it but it is people like myself who are your and Tom’s biggest supporters.
What the hell have you got against root canals? They are great things. Seriously.
Chris,
Congrats on stepping back. I know I could have never worked on commissioned pieces with out going barking at the moon nuts. My hat is off to anyone that does it. BTW, glad I got my chair when I did :-).
ken