Renewturning.com was originally created as an online shopping site. After three years, only one sale transpired there. That customer was a personal friend whose wife saw the piece on my personal Facebook page. He is a computer programmer and is very comfortable buying items online.
Why are people not purchasing my pieces online? I cannot answer that question definitively. After sending many there to check out pieces, each persisted in contacting me directly to get their questions answered. They ordered commissioned pieces. My website helped validate the legitimacy of my business, but it did not give them the confidence they needed to make purchases.
My hope is that this portfolio will accomplish that same validation role and also expedite the process of enabling commissioning new pieces. Here are the pieces of information I need to create a new work of woodturned art:
- Wood species (if you have a favorite species, for example Black Walnut, Cherry or Maple) that information will be helpful to settling on a direction for design.
- Wood color (darker or lighter will likely push you toward a particular species).
- Size–the availability of certain species in larger sizes is often limited.
- Desired finish–I strongly encourage people to go with finishes with lower sheen since those allow the grain to show more readily.
- Time frame needed–the process of drying recently cut wood sections can significantly slow the process. If you have a time constraint, that will be critical for me to know at the beginning of our dialoguge.
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