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Commissions

A lamp built to your dimensions, your figure, your finish

Commissioned work starts around $450 and takes four to eight weeks from first email to shipping label. That is more than the $255 to $299 our shelf lamps cost, and longer than the week they take, because a commission is drawn, quoted, and fitted for one room only. If that math works for you, keep reading. If it doesn't, the stock lamps are good lamps and we'd rather sell you one of those.

Commission terms at a glance

Starting price

$450

Most commissions land between $450 and $1,200. Our shelf lamps run $255 to $299, so yes, this is more. You're paying for drafting time, one-off fittings, and a fit-up we can't reuse on anything else.

Lead time

4–8 weeks

Two people, one bench, and everything ahead of you in the queue. Four weeks is a good month. Eight weeks is November. We give you a real date before you pay anything.

Deposit

50% up front

Paid after you approve the drawing, not before. The balance comes due when the lamp is finished and photographed, before it leaves the shop.

Scope

What we take on, and what we don’t

Both lists are short on purpose. Knowing where a shop stops is more useful than a page of things it claims to do.

Work we take on

Five things

  • Floor-height versions of a stock design

    The Wayfarer at 54 inches instead of 17, on a heavier flange with a weighted base plate so it doesn't walk when someone brushes past it.

  • A figure in a specific pose

    Standing, seated, leaning on the upright, one arm raised to carry the shade. Send a stick-figure sketch on a napkin. That's genuinely enough to start.

  • Matched pairs and sets

    Built in one run from the same stock so the patina agrees. Two lamps built six months apart never quite match, and we'd rather not sell you that.

  • Plug-in wall sconces

    Mounted on a flange, cord visible and routed the way you want it. Plug-in only — see the column to the right for why.

  • A piece built around an object you send us

    A grandfather's pipe wrench, a valve handle off a decommissioned boiler, a gear from a shop that closed. We build the lamp around it and we send back anything we don't use.

Work we decline

Every time

  • Hardwired ceiling fixtures

    Anything that terminates in a junction box is an electrician's job and a permit's job. We don't have the license and we won't fake it.

  • Anything needing a UL listing on the assembly

    We wire with UL-listed components, but the finished assembly is not itself listed. If your architect, insurer, or building inspector requires a listed fixture, we are the wrong shop and we'll say so on the first call.

  • Outdoor or wet-location work

    Our finishes are waxed, not sealed, and the sockets aren't damp-rated. A patio lamp from us would rust into a hazard inside two winters.

  • Exact copies of another maker's design

    Send a photo for proportion, height, or finish and we'll work from it happily. Send a photo and ask us to reproduce it part for part and the answer is no.

The process

Five stages, and what each one costs you in time

Nothing here happens by surprise. You approve a drawing before you pay, and you see the piece before it gets its finish.

  1. Conversation

    2 to 4 days

    You send the form below or you call. We ask about the room, the ceiling height, the surface it sits on, the bulb you like, and whether it should switch at the socket or on the cord. Sometimes the honest answer is that one of our stock lamps already does what you want, and we'll tell you that instead of quoting you.

  2. Sketch and quote

    about a week

    A pencil elevation with real dimensions, a materials list down to the fitting, a firm price, and a ship-by window. Two rounds of revisions are built into the price. Past that we bill drawing time at $45 an hour, which we tell you before the clock starts.

  3. 50% deposit

    same day you approve

    Half the quoted price, due when you sign off on the drawing. Until we cut material you can walk away and we refund the deposit in full, no argument. The day we cut, that deposit becomes non-refundable — that pipe is now your lamp and it fits nobody else's order. This matches what's written in our Terms of Service.

  4. Build, with photos

    3 to 6 weeks

    Cut, thread, dry fit, weld where the design calls for it, then finish and wire. You get photos at fit-up, before any finish goes on, which is the last moment changes are cheap. You get a second set once it's wired and lit.

  5. Balance and ship

    2 to 5 days

    The balance is due before the lamp leaves the bench. Then it's foam-blocked, double-boxed, and out by UPS Ground from Mariposa with the bulb packed separately. The original drawing goes in the box.

One thing worth repeating, because it is the only term that can cost you money: the deposit is fully refundable right up until we cut material, and non-refundable the moment we do. We tell you the day that happens, and the same wording appears in our Terms of Service.

Past commissions

Three jobs, written out plainly

We don’t photograph most commissions — they leave the shop and go into somebody’s house, which is the point. Here is what they were instead.

An independent bookshop, Fresno

2023 · $620 for the pair

The ask

Two counter lamps for the register, low enough to see a customer over, bright enough to read a faded receipt, and identical to each other because they sit four feet apart.

What we built

A matched pair at 15 inches, built from one length of half-inch black pipe cut in sequence so the mill marks run the same direction on both. Blackened steel, waxed. Shorter cords than we normally use, because the outlets were under the counter and a loop of slack in a public space is a lawsuit.

A homeowner near Wawona

2024 · $1,150

The ask

A floor-height Wayfarer for a cabin great room with a 16-foot ceiling. The tabletop version looked like a toy in the space.

What we built

Scaled to 58 inches on one-inch pipe with a three-quarter-inch upper section, standing on a quarter-inch steel base plate we cut and ground in-house so it clears the rug pile without rocking. Aged brass shade, blackened base. Took seven weeks; six of those were waiting on the plate stock.

A retired millwright, Modesto

2022 · $780

The ask

Build a lamp around his father's brass gate-valve handle. It had been on a shelf for thirty years and he wanted it lit rather than dusted.

What we built

The handle became the base, drilled once through the hub for the cord and otherwise untouched. No polishing — he was specific that the wear stays. Blackened upright above it so the brass reads as the subject and not as a matching part. We photographed it three times during the build because if you damage the only one of something, there is no recovery.

Start here

Tell us what you have in mind

Nothing in this form commits you to anything. We read every one and answer inside a few days, including the ones where the answer is no.

Or just write to us
hello@craftsmancreations.com
Or call the bench
(209) 742-0145

This is where the sketch and the quote go.

Some jobs are ten minutes on the phone and two weeks by email.

Commissions start at $450. Saying the number early is not rude.

Most commissions take four to eight weeks start to finish.

What room it goes in, roughly how tall, what it sits on, whether it needs to hold a specific pose or hold onto a specific object. Rough numbers beat no numbers.

A friend, a search, the shop window on Highway 140. We ask because we don’t advertise and it’s the only way we find out.

Sending this costs you nothing and commits you to nothing. We answer every inquiry, including the ones we turn down.

Questions

About commissions specifically

General questions about shipping, bulbs, and care live on the main FAQ. These five come up only when custom work is on the table.

Can I send you a photo of a lamp I found online?
Yes, and it helps. We read photos for proportion, height, finish, and mood, and we'll tell you which parts of it we can do and which we can't. What we won't do is copy another maker's piece part for part. If your reference is somebody's original design, expect us to build something that shares its posture, not its details.
What if the finished lamp isn't what I pictured?
Commissioned work sits outside our 30-day return window, because it was built to a spec you approved and we can't resell it. What it carries instead is a build guarantee: if the finished piece doesn't match the drawing and materials list you signed off on, we rebuild it at our cost. The fit-up photos exist so that we catch the mismatch before the finish goes on, not after the lamp is in your living room.
Do you ship commissions outside the continental US?
Canada on request, and we'll quote the freight honestly rather than eating it. Anything past North America needs a conversation first — these are wired for 120V North American service with a US plug, and a converter on a lamp is a compromise we'd rather you understand before you pay for one.
Can I visit the shop while you're building it?
Yes, if you're driving through Mariposa anyway. Email first so somebody's there and the grinder is off. We're at 4821 Highway 140, about forty minutes from the Yosemite gate, and we're not a showroom — it's a working shop with a bench, a bandsaw, and not much floor.
How many commissions do you take at once?
Three or four in the queue, and we stop taking them when the wait passes eight weeks. If we're full we'll tell you the month we can start rather than stringing you along. Turning work down is how the lead times stay real.

Still deciding? Read how the stock lamps are made — a commission is the same bench, the same fittings, and the same finishes, only drawn for one room.

How we buildContact the shop