I charged 2,400 for a 60cm smalti panel and the client asked for the leftover tesserae
Finished and installed a 60 by 80 cm panel last month, a small olive tree, smalti and salvaged marble. I quoted 2,400 euros for it. That is materials, six weeks of setting, and the cement board, and I did the install myself with a hired van.
The client paid without a word. Then, at the end, standing in the doorway with her coat on, she asked if she could have the leftover smalti. The offcuts. The bag of bits.
I said yes because it is a bag of bits to anyone who does not cut stone. But those bits are 90 euros of material I already bought, and some of them are colours I will use again in March. I stood there holding a plastic bag of my own stock and feeling stupid about it.
I have been thinking since about what I actually sold her. She thinks she bought the object. I think I sold six weeks and a bag of material and the bag got left on my floor. Nobody is wrong here, that is the annoying part.
I am not going to start invoicing for offcuts. But I am going to start keeping them in a closed box before the client arrives, because apparently I need to organise my own generosity.
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The money is not the issue, it's that you said yes before you had the thought, and now the thought is sitting there. I've done this with paint. Someone asks for the leftover tubes, you say of course, and then you're in the studio two weeks later reaching for a colour that isn't there.
2400 for six weeks of setting plus install is honest, maybe even lean. So the bag isn't a pricing problem, it's a boundary you didn't get to draw in time. Next time, "I keep the offcuts, they go into the next piece" said lightly at the quote stage, before anyone has their coat on. People accept it fine when it's said early. It's only awkward when it arrives at the door.
The paint tube thing is real. I've handed over half a stick of charcoal to someone who admired a drawing and then spent a week hunting for that exact grey. Mine's worse though. I gave away a whole box of pastels to a friend who was "getting into it" and never touched them again. Still think about that box.
But yeah the coat is the detail. Nobody negotiates at the coat stage, you just want them out of the door and to stop being looked at.
The whole box of pastels, that's a wound. At least mine was only a bag of bits and she might actually do something with them. A friend "getting into it" is the most expensive phrase in any language.
And yes, the coat. You can't negotiate with a person who's already got one arm in the sleeve. I've decided the answer is to say it at the quote, in writing, boring and clear: offcuts stay with me. Then the doorway never happens.
The paint tubes is exactly it. And you are right that the bag was never the problem, it was me saying yes while my brain was still in the doorway putting its coat on.
Saying it at the quote stage is the fix. I have started writing one line into the quote now, "offcuts stay in the studio, they feed the next piece", so it is a fact of the job and not a negotiation at the door. Nobody has blinked at it yet.