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i did a commission for a friend's mom last year. charged her 40% less than my usual rate because, you know, family connection. felt good at the time. she loved the piece, told everyone. now i'm getting calls from three of those referrals, and i'm realizing i've set a precedent i can't break without seeming like a total jerk. how do you disentangle yourself from that kind of thing? i'm almost tempted to just eat the loss and charge them full price, but the thought makes my eye twitch.

I got my start the long way. Knew a fabricator who knew a framer who knew a gallery owner who needed someone to fix a broken piece of sculpture on a Saturday. Did the job, didn't charge, came back Monday with a portfolio of my own work. They hung three pieces. Took two years to sell one. No residency, no MFA, no cold call. Just asked a guy who owed me a favor for an introduction. How did you get your first gallery? Cold email, walked in, referral, someone saw your work somewhere? Curious if anyone actually landed one through the front door, because I never did.

I spent two years emailing galleries proper intro emails with images, links, the whole polite package. Got maybe three replies, none went anywhere. Then one day I was in a town for a funeral and walked into this small space with my portfolio under my arm, totally unplanned, and the owner actually looked at it. Didn't take anything but she remembered my name when I came back. I don't even know what to make of that. Was the email a total waste of time or was it laying groundwork? People who've landed a gallery showing, did it come from a cold email, a referral, or you just showed up somewhere? Because I'm genuinely wondering if I should stop polishing the emails and start being more annoying in person.

Mine was a fluke. Cold. I was doing fabrication for another sculptor and the gallery owner asked who did the welds on a piece he liked. That was it. No portfolio, no slideshow, no pitch. Thirty years later I still think about how different it would've gone if I'd walked in off the street with my own work. How'd you get your first one? Walked in, referral, someone saw your stuff somewhere? Curious if anyone actually got a yes from a cold approach.

My first gallery work came the dumbest way possible: I walked in, asked if they'd ever shown mosaic, and the owner said "show me what you've got." I had three pieces in the boot of my car, so I brought them in. She took two on the spot. Completely by accident, no portfolio, no pitch, nothing. Took me years to realize that was luck, not method. Every gallery since has been emails, applications, the slow way. How did yours happen? The honest version, not the polished one. Walk-in, cold email, referral, or pure chance like mine?

A friend of a friend wanted a mosaic tabletop, her grandmother's coffee table, kept the legs, I just did the surface. I quoted €650 because the materials were real and I felt bad asking more from someone I sort of knew. It took me eleven days of actual setting. Two euros an hour, give or take, and that's before I mention the time I spent cutting glass and sweeping it off the floor. The annoying part isn't even the money. It's that she's a lovely woman who paid on time and told everyone about me. So now I've got three more awkward referrals coming my way, all of them from people who think €650 is the going rate for a week and a half of handwork. I keep telling myself the exposure is worth something. It isn't, really. But I don't know how to start the conversation with "that was a friend price" without making it weird for everyone. How do you all actually raise your number after you've set it once with someone's circle? I've been dodging it for a year.