Freehand cutdesign on mat

[Bogframe]

I just had a customer get very angry with me. He came in with a needlepoint of a geisha and wanted a mat to go exactly around the perimeter of the woman. I figured that, tracing around the picture on tracing paper, flipping it over onto the back of a mat board, tracing it again to transfer the design and then cutting it with a Dahle cube would take roughly 2-1/2 - 3 hours @ $100 per hour.

The customer looked at me like I had a horn growing out of my forehead and hollered at me that it shouldn't cost more than $80 total, including the mat.

Two questions:
1: Was I wrong with my quote? If so, what should I have quoted him?
2: Is there some kind of doohickey/program that can be used with a Fletcher/Valliani CMC 150 to do this kind of mat?

 

[SusanG]

Seth,

Usually these specialty things take even longer than we anticipate. Then it might take a few mats to get it absolutely perfect. Being in the same part of the world as you, I don't think that you are off base. Let him be somebody else's headache.

Susan

 

[PaulSF]

If the customer doesn't value your services and skills now, he or she certainly won't value and appreciate your services and skills once the project is done, no matter what the price.

 

[Rick Granick]

Seth, what is the size of the piece? I use the technique you described reasonably often, and they usually don't take me more than a half hour to 45 min. for an average size piece. I would explain upfront that because of the hand techniques there may be some natural variation in the opening perimeter, and not to expect robotic perfection. As Susan said, sometimes it takes more than one mat to get it right so you might want to factor that in.

Rick

 

[Bogframe]

The art was approximately 14 X 18, and the border would have been 3" TBS. The $300 was strictly an extra labor charge (read PIA).

 

[wpfay]

Interesting how they came up with a dollar figure for the value of the service and product. Wonder where they came up with it?

 

[j Paul]

I2: Is there some kind of doohickey/program that can be used with a Fletcher/Valliani CMC 150 to do this kind of mat?

Don't have first hand experience, but I remember a discussion of this product: http://www.thecmcdoctor.com/thecmcdoctor_software.htm
possibly doing what you ask.

 

[CAframer]

Originally Posted by Bogframe: Is there some kind of doohickey/program that can be used with a Fletcher/Valliani CMC 150 to do this kind of mat?

Dunno about the Fletcher but I do that kind of thing on the Wiz using PathTrace ... like this one (sorry about the crappy photo!):

 

[5th corner]

Have used this method to hand cut mats numbers of times but your right most people dont want to pay for the time involved and yes the cut is not perfect unless you practice every day like some masters at this art. So if they agree to the price they are probably going to pick on the variation of the cut.

I beleive most CMCs can do this type of work as comented and shown.

 

[Prospero]

I once had a horse photo to frame. It was just the head and shoulders, a sort of 3/4 portrait, nicely done but the background was distracting. An oval mat really suited it, but the horses nose would not fit in.
So I cut the oval, ignoring the nose and then hand cut an extension to the oval to run exactly around the nose. Tricky to do but the effect was quite startling. It looked as though the horse was poking his head out of the mat window.