I'M IN! WAA-HOO!!! After being able to just "read" what everyone else has written, Karen and I perservered and now I can post. Although right now I'm snowed and iced in, and working on another quick-turn-around slipcover so won't have time to lurk on the computer.

Shirley, I'm still trying to come up with a way to describe what I do. Every slipcover is unique in itself, and my business has gravitated toward the "unusual" and "artsy" direction seemingly through no effort of my own. Because of the galleries and shops that I've been able to put "spec" pieces in, clients have seen what I can produce so come into the builder/client relationship with a pre-existing trust of the outcome based on what they've already seen. Over the last couple of years the requested criteria of the custom client has been very minor... maybe things like requesting a specific size of welting, or wanting plumper fills than the original. Very rarely do I get any input on slipcover design as the client already knows I'm going to treat it like a blank canvas and go from there. I have had one disaster slipcover job that was a remake of something... and my gut told me "NO" from the start but my pocketbook convinced me otherwise. It was a reminder to always listen to the gut instinct... because it ended up costing me much more than money.