When I started my journey in 1972, I was 23 years old.

One of my biggest challenges was pricing my work. I remember how nervous I would get when giving someone an estimate for a lamp, which is how I started my career.

I was always looking for work, even painting a few houses along the way to make ends meet. At that point, I was happy to just survive, with the possibility of being able to keep building my livelihood.

Most people had no problem with what I quoted them. However, some were quite agasp.

I took this quite personally at first. I would go through all the processes it would take to produce what they had in mind, explaining that I wasn’t building a lamp but creating one to their specifications, that this was the only one, and I would never make another like it.

I even heard one man tell his wife that if they bought the lamp, there would be no new washing machine this year, as a smile grew across his wife’s face.

Later in life, I realized that some were playing with me, and some just didn’t want to spend the money on what I offered.

Today, I’m comfortable with the negotiating process. I’m in a position to be more flexible in designing and choosing materials. I’m also more sensitive to helping people get what they want, which is essential when working with my patrons.