portrait engraving to be commissioned

cowboy_silversmith · Jun 12, 2007

I was at a show this last weekend and was approached by a gentleman who wanted to have a family partrait engraved. This obviously is not my forte but I said I would search out a more qualified engraver than myself and forward any contacts I might have. I explained that such a commission would reach several thousand dollars for a master engraver to execute the fine detail that he expressed to have. He seems to be genuinely serious for those of you who might be interested in the commission. Please email me your website address so that I might forward it on to this prospective client of yours.

Best regards,
Greg Pauline
greg@hiramwest.com

cowboy_silversmith · Jun 13, 2007

As of yet I have not received a single communication from a single person regarding my inquiry. So I am curious, has it gone over my head that I have missed some sort of written or unwritten protocol in my search for an engraver/artist regarding this commissioned piece? There is such a pool of talent here at this engravers cafe, I know there has to be someone who is interested in entertaining a phone call from this gentleman to discuss the possibilities of creating an extremely fine engraved work of art? Will someone please clue me in on how to identify and initiate contact with this very qualified engraver/artist.

Best regards,
Greg Pauline

pilkguns · Jun 13, 2007

Greg, no protocol being broken, I just think that 99% of those engravers who would feel comfortable doing a portrait, (which for me is the ultimate engraving skill, because the client is going to know EXACTLY what that person is supposed to look like, as opposed to a duck a deer where a little fudging here or there might not be noticed) are already sufficiently busy that they don't need to go chasing customers. And most of us HATE doing portraits for that reason.

This was half of a matched set of Dakota Rifles that I did back in 1989 for two brothers.

http://www.pilkguns.com/images/photos/hammonfloorplate.jpg

Ray Cover · Jun 13, 2007

Greg,

Scott is right. Those of us who do portraits and enjoy them (I find portraits easier than scroll and a lot more fun) are so booked up right now that many of us are not accepting work.

At the Blade show they had many of us engravers set up in our own section at the back of the show hall. Saturday morning we realized that we were all set up there together and none of us were taking on new work. We are all busy.

BTW, your protocol was perfect

Ray

Billzach · Jun 13, 2007

As a coin carver i do portrait engraving sometimes , but as mentioned above it,s not like engraving a duck, horse, deer, etc..It takes me two or three times longer to do a portrait engraving than it does a general engraving, also i do my engraving in 3d which some engravers might not want to do..There are some on this forum who are super portrait engravers, but as Ray has stated, he and most of the others are booked up..I think it would be easier to get someone to do a portrait engraving by a photo to transfer film to metal as opposed to a 3d engraving...

Steve Adams · Jun 13, 2007

Greg,
I am with Ray on this. Sometimes you just reach a point where there is too little time and too much work. There are certainly qualified people here, but the demand is great for that skill. I'd jump on this if I wasn't already behind schedule. Good of you to put it out there though. Steve Adams

Ken Hurst · Jun 13, 2007

Ditto ditto ditto. Everubody else said it all. ken

cowboy_silversmith · Jun 13, 2007

Good enough, I fully understand. I will point this gentleman in the general direction and perhaps he might get lucky and get on someone's waiting list. Thank you all for clarifying the matter for me. Much appreciated!

Best regards,
Greg Pauline

portrait engraving to be commissioned

cowboy_silversmith

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cowboy_silversmith

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pilkguns

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Ray Cover

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Billzach

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Steve Adams

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Ken Hurst

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cowboy_silversmith

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