General & Sample Commissioning Agreement

COMMISSION AGREEMENT
Hire an American Artist
WHAT FIRE GODDESS WILL DO:

1. Fire Goddess Designs will do all the rough artwork, design work and model creation and as a donation to the Center Susan Barnes and Fire Goddess will cover the cost of the design, artist’s rendition, and model work.
2. After the approval of the art work rendition a small quantity of semi production pieces will be created there is a very small charge of $80.00 as part of the total investment of the first and any subsequent semi production molds.
3. After you have received the semi-production pieces for review and granted approval for production there will be the additional small charge of $80.00 for the final production mold that is also part of the total investment.
4. Susan Barnes and Fire Goddess will also cover all the costs of shipping and handling of the semi production pieces and the final shipment of the production pieces as a further donation
5. Fire Goddess will create however many pieces you want at our special price but we will need a minimum order of 300 pieces to constitute the initial order.
6. Fire Goddess agrees to charge only $6.00 per piece with a minimum of 300 pieces initial order only. We agree to produce however many more pieces you desire above the minimum order size at the same special reduced price for this initial order only.
TERMS:

1.   Semi production pieces will be made in jewelry quality U.S. lead-free pewter
2.   Final production pieces will be made of U.S. lead-free pewter with an electro-rack-plating of sterling silver consisting of a beautiful two-tone subtle oxidizing
3. Total investment payable to Fire Goddess Designs in U.S. Dollars is ___________ (There will be additional charges for any further semi-productions molds necessary beyond the 1st semi-production mold)
4. Total time from artists rendition to delivery of final production pieces requires a minimum of 10 weeks but can require more time depending upon what time of the year the project is accepted by Fire Goddess Designs
5. The final design is the property of the ____________________________ or whomever you dictate is to be the owner. You control the sales, distribution, how it is worn or displayed, who can sell it or gift it. Each piece will bear the embedded quality stamp of the Fire Goddess on the back side. The Fire Goddess stamp serves to verify that the piece was Made in America to the highest artistic standards and that all metals used are jewelry quality metals. The Fire Goddess stamp also serves to document that Fire Goddess, Susan Barnes and Our Generations, Inc. maintains authority and control over the reproduction of the piece until such time as the commission agreement has been satisfied.  Once the Commission Agreement is satisified the production authority and control will be turned over to the owner of the piece.
6. Payment of the initial and potentially total amount of _____________ is due in advance prior to the initiation of any design work. Payment can be made by U.S. credit card, money order or wire transfer.
7.   Payment to Susan Barnes and Fire Goddess for this project are considered to be Commissioned advance payments and are non-refundable once the agreement is binding via payment.
8.   The terms and conditions as outlined in this message will constitute the total and complete agreement between the parties.

We ask that if the organization is a 501c or a 503b non-profit organization that they agree to list Fire Goddess a donor and provide a letter for the purpose of documenting the contribution in turn we will list the organization on the Fire Goddess website and connect to your site and specifically your donations page.

Well that it is a quick nutshell.
There is no one else in the U.S. that we know of that will do any of that we will offer as part of this agreement. They will either require many more pieces of production (usually in the thousands of pieces) or they will require much more for artist work or they do the piece by machine and require a fairly high tool and die fee. All will require much more time and do not offer any semi-production approval of the work prior to final production. This is the very reason why Susan and Fire Goddess have become known for doing high quality artistic commission work for non-profits, fund raising organizations and for professionals seeking quality over price.
Your other option is to farm the work out to China.
The only advantage is that each piece will be less per piece as a result of the unskilled labor force abroad and the absence of any production quality and control
The disadvantages are numerous. I will only list a few of the most critical:

1. Overseas production requires 10s of thousands of pieces before they will even accept the project. Even the most basic of designs at 10,000 pieces can run well over $10,000.00U.S.
2. Production can take up to six months and there is little or no communication
3.  Pieces from China and much of the overseas markets are metals or inferior grade and medallion and pendant metals from China are often polluted with lead, nickel, mercury and other dangerous heavy metals
4.  Work that is farmed out to Overseas markets takes away from American labor and jobs and often results in the loss of American property through intellectual theft and knock-off of your logo that they sell to another buyer.