THANK YOU for all of the replies. both on-forum and off. I’ve heard
some really great points made on both sides of the issue, and I
appreciate them. David, you make some excellent points as
well—good food for thought. I think I need to clarify a few things.
[This reads a little long.]
…
I’ll begin with—I’m quite confident in my KSAs (knowledge, skills
and abilities) at the moment. I always assume continued growth,
learning, challenge. However, no amount of KSAs, money, or business
analysis will make me have interest in a project that I’m, well—not
interested in.
And if I get a request that falls outside of my KSAs or interest,
I’ll happily and readily pass the job along to someone else. (In
fact, I set up a long-time friend of mine with a new friend/colleague
who is a spectacular jeweler and does jaw-dropping waxes. This
jeweler got a $1500 sale and new client/friend out of the deal
because I don’t yet do wax-carving.)
The replacement/repairs/custom orders I’VE been asked to do all fall
well within the KSAs that I possess. —So it’s not about “fear” or
“skill” for me. It is simply as I stated in my original post:
They zap my life essence and my desire to make anything at all (in a Skesis/Gelfling kind of way) because the requests that I usually get fall so far outside of my preferred/current body of work I'm engaged in. I would probably feel differently if the custom orders were related to what I do. -In fact, I do enjoy the related assignments now that I'm recalling a few.
From the snippet above, I think it’s fairly clear that
repairs/replacements/non-related-custom-orders fall outside of my
INTEREST, not my skill set.
Part of the reason my friend/client came back to me with this new
replacement request is because I’d done a replacement job for her in
the past—a case in which I easily sold her on a silver upgrade
vs. the original nickel—and I ended up totally rocking her world
when I was done with them. She. Loved. Them. I didn’t particularly
care to take on the job at the time, I did it.
When we met for lunch recently and she mentioned that she had a new
“replacement” job she needed done, my happy-to-see-you smile fell to
the pit of my grumbling stomach before I ever saw what the
replacement was going to be. [That was the actual zapping of my Life
Essence occurring.]
I have absolutely nothing against
repair/replacement/non-related-custom-bench work—more power to the
people who like this type of work and want to do it: It simply
just doesn’t interest me. If I were getting paid 5 million dollars to
do it and I had an infinite skill-set, it still wouldn’t interest me.
::cough, cough (preparing to eat those words later):: 
The earrings I’ve been asked to replace this time are a “vintage,”
“steam-punk-ish” pair. I have NEVER had an interest in that genre of
jewelry. It’s not what I do, and it’s not the kind of jewelry I
want to do. The earrings are very simply made, and it would
probably take me all of 1/2 hour or so to make a replacement pair.
Another example of a request I currently have on-deck—I have been
asked to make a bracelet as a gift for someone—of course, by a
certain swiftly-approaching date. :
: The client doesn’t have
any idea about what she wants made and is leaving it entirely up to
me to decide and do. within a certain budget.
My thoughts (bolded the ideas for readability):
a) COMPETING TASKS: I am prepping for some swiftly-approaching
show/fair deadlines which I absolutely cannot miss, and their due
dates are clustered, and they are much more important to me given the
potential for the generation of revenue (I also have start making
inventory for these events, like yesterday);
b) TIME/COMPETING INTERESTS: I teach classes, manage a few
jewelry/art/craft-related blogs, and do other
jewelry/art/craft-related schtuff (all a part of marketing.). Adding
this to the show/fair issue above, I don’t have TIME for
non-related, wide-open custom orders. and I’m really not interested
in the added pressure of having to finish that one order by its due
date;
c) TOO MUCH FREEDOM: Another part of what I dislike about custom
orders is having everything about the design of the item left
entirely up to me (in which case, that whole skill theory is
completely irrelevant). As I said before, I’ve never had an unhappy
custom-order client, but I do like guidelines—and if I can’t get
them from the customer, it puts more pressure on me than I care to
have, then I start to procrastinate because I can’t make a decision
about what I want to do, and so on. At least with RELATED custom
orders, I think it’s easier for me to go into a “wide-open” project,
and when I’m done I can use the finished pieces and happy clients
they bring as marketing/promotional components on the web, in print,
etc., and hopefully capitalize on the clients’ word-of-mouth praise
and referrals. [Repair/replacement/non-related-custom items do not
fall into my marketing/promotion strategy. Not to mention, I dislike
the “back and forth” inherent in these types of projects—it is
equally as Life-Essence-zapping.]
So, again, for me, it is not about KSAs. I can easily do what is
being asked of me, and I LOVE to sell. I simply don’t WANT the jobs
for the reasons I stated above. I don’t mind doing custom orders
that fall within my current work focus. - But vintage, almost
“steam-punk”-themed, earrings? —I’m not feeling it.
Still chewing on some of what you’ve all said. and working on that
RELATED design that just popped into my head for the custom bracelet.
Tamra M. Gentry