Due to our totaled gallery-vehicle fiasco, we have received an overwhelming number of messages asking how to help. (If you are unfamiliar with the story, you can find it HERE.)
You can help by keeping us busy. We are offering a 25% discount on a small number of items as an incentive to order. Commissioned artwork is one of the items.
Rachel gets lots of questions about how the work for which she is best known, watercolor overlaid with embroidery, is priced when someone wants to commission work. The shortest answer is, she starts with the budget and works her way backward. Because the cost of her work is based on the density of the stitching, price does not indicate size.
For example, you can commission an 11"x14" butterfly for as little as $200 or as much as $1200, it is all determined by the amount of embroidery. The lower the price, the more of the paint you will see and the less stitching will appear. The most common price breaks are:
$250, for which you can commission:
- Heavily embroidered 5"x7" (like the bee pictured here)
- Medium density embroidered 8"x10"
- Lightly embroidered 9"x12" (like the skeletal pieces)
$500, for which you can commission:
- heavily embroidered 8"x10"
- heavy to medium density embroidered 9"x12"
- med to light embroidered 11"x14" (like the blue butterfly - MOST POPULAR)
$750, for which you can commission:
- heavily embroidered 9"x12"
- heavy to medium density embroidered 11"x14"
- medium to lightly embroidered 16"x20" (like the turtle's back image)
DISCOUNT: With the 25% discount, $250 becomes $187.50, $500 becomes $375, and $750 becomes $562.50. Store pickup and local delivery are available in lieu of shipping.
FRAMING: These prices include very simple black, white or natural wood frames, no matting. Any framing beyond that will be up to you. There is no discount for unframed work.
TAX & SHIPPING are automatically calculated at checkout. Once you have placed your order, Rachel will contact you to discuss your preferences for subject matter (no faces), size and framing. At that time we will alter your invoice to reflect your exact choices so that you have a receipt for your ACTUAL commission, but the price will remain the same. We can adjust shipping cost, if needed, when it is time to ship. Once the invoice is paid, Rachel will provide a digital sketch to ensure you are both on the same page for composition.
DELIVERY DATES for commissions are based on the order received unless otherwise arranged with the artist. Rachel already has 6 to 8 commissions in queue, so some new commissions could be delivered as late as Christmas 2024.
R.L. GIBSON (Rachel) works as a mixed media artist with work in galleries from New York to Los Angeles and collections around the world. A happily-married, mother of one, Gibson lives & works in Marion, Virginia in the southeast United States. Her practice currently explores work that overlays watercolor with embroidery. The hand-stitched component of this work lends movement to otherwise still media while paying homage to the band of quilting women she calls family.