LA SORELLA GLASS STUDIOS

Ultimately, we wound up with a a piece we really like. It is a beautiful, completely customized piece - and we admire it on a daily basis. I have to say, however, it took a lot of work and patience to get there. Joe was not easy to work with. Upon initial research, he was less expensive than the other designers, quoting us $80-$95 per sq foot "depending on the complexity" compared to $110-150 per sq ft we found elsewhere. Not only did we supply him with resource images, but we perused his many design books so he could get a good feel for the designs we liked. We leaned towards those more complex and immersive. The statements he made early on and regularly to us included: "You are the customer and we can do anything we want to get a piece we'll be happy with" and "he is the best deal in town". When he presented his first drawing, we both felt that it need more foliage - that it was a little more simplified than we expected - given the designs we selected from his books and the resource material provided. That was when he started raising the price and telling us "it would cost us". He started talking about the number of glass pieces and labor and hours. None of which came up as factors during his quotes. By the time it was all was done, we were paying OVER $200/sq ft - more than quoted by ANYONE, more than double the original budget,, and certainly not the best deal in town. But at that point we had invested so much time with him on the design we felt we had to stay with him to get our piece in time. The other challenge we had with him was schedule. If you work with him, I recommend nailing that down as part of the agreement up front. Each time we spoke to Joe about the next step in the process it seemed like he would say "a week or two", and then when we checked at the end of that time...it was another "week or two". Our first meeting with him was around Feb 15. We got our piece on May 29, the night before the event we were having. Along with having houseguests and preparing for our event, we were installing the piece in our home - not at all convenient. There are not a lot of artists around with his years of experience. And we have tremendous respect for the artisry. We have a number of pieces in our home which are very old and require repair. We would consider using Joe again, because of his particular skill set. But at least we would be forewarned going into it about how to work with him.