Randall's Urban Architectural Sculptures

I’ve seen a similar round lady medallion in an antique store in NY for sale since last summer at least, this photo of a different one shows these had a multi-piece border originally. The one for sale is missing the border pieces.

Trying to see if I can get the one for sale at $1500, for $1350 since I know the shipping isn’t going to be cheap and since it’s 24″ by 9″ it probably wont fit in any box the UPS store would have but maybe they can pack it up on a skid and ship it freight.

Yup, you read right- UPS store, again I use them after the fiasco!!! but THIS store on Long Island is a real gem and this store follows instructions and packs extremely well. The two pcs of terra cotta they packed and shipped for me thus far were double boxed as requested and they did a fantastic packing on them, so I have every confidence they will
do this a third time just as great.

Susan in Missouri writes back that she received the large 3 section owl panel in great shape, purchased for a gift- her husband loves it and plans to frame it some way.

Way to go, I’m always pleased to hear from happy clients, and to receive photos of their installs.
Large panels such as this owl which has 3 sections are best hung onto a sheet of 1/2″ plywood which is screwed onto the wall securely and painted the color of the wall.
Once that is up, hanging a multi-piece sculpture is real easy with a little measuring care and planning.

As I am pagan, being very similar to the native American’s earth/sky/nature beliefs, I don’t celebrate certain holidays, but winter solstice day is coming up soon and we can celebrate the waning of winter as the days slowly get longer as we head back towards spring!

It’s the time of the winter solstice, or Yule, for those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere. We’re celebrating Yule, and marking the return of the sun after the longest night of the year. It’s a time of rebirth and renewal, and the long journey back out of the darkness.

For those of you down below the equator, you’re observing the summer solstice, or Litha, right now -gardens are in full bloom, the earth is vibrant and alive, and the days are long and sunny.

Both Yule and Litha are celebrations of the sun — different aspects of it, but solar holidays nonetheless.

Whichever holiday you celebrate this month I wish you all well and prosperity in the coming New Year.

After losing at the same auction I bid on that copper lion recently, a reader recently offered me $1,000 more than I paid for this last March, but I said no thanks. There’s more of these out there, originally 180 were on the hotel, I believe half were salvaged but it’s hard to say. Ive seen 2 or 3 come up for sale in the last couple or three years or so, so they are not rare.

The inquiry did remind me however that I was thinking last summer of modelling a reduced scale version of this, so as soon as the holiday orders are completed and shipped out I will decide on a size for this and maybe start the model soon.
The economy is of course in a big slump nation-wide and I haven’t added any new models recently except the one for a Chicago client, but I will think of adding this.

In any case, the support and everything from clients this year has been the best year ever, helped especially by a few long-time clients like Rick who adores my Art Deco… re-ordering, responses to magazine ads, referrals from contractors, and lastly, that word-of-mouth sales with visitors, friends and family to client’s homes asking where their friend/family members purchased their sculptures from has typically resulted in additional sales there.

Always great to hear the positive feedback and comments from clients!
As I say on my various pages, I’ll repeat here;

“Thank you for supporting the arts”

I’m happy to say that the ordeal with the idiots at a Philly UPS store over their shoddy packing job on 2 of these antique keystones was finally resolved last month, but it took SIX MONTHS of runarounds with these morons to finally get them to pay for the damage claim.

Readers may remember my April post here about the 2 keystones I bought at a live auction, total was $1005.00 I contacted a local UPS store to the auction house to pick them up,double box and ship to me with $400 extra insurance each. They FAILED to double box, and what’s more they also failed to even add insurance. In addition the 21″ long keystones were jammed into boxes that were only 20″ long- c’mon talk talk about incompentant!

UPS gave the runaround telling to contact the shipper, the shipper said they were waiting for UPS though I KNEW UPS would never pay on this claim- the boxes never even met their minimum required standards.
I would up doing a charge-back on the shipping $285 and then after 4 months they sent me a check overnight air for $330 or so which they stated was what UPS required them to pay and they considered the claim closed..

UH UH! not so fast! thats a good start but where is the other $400 due?
No response, so aside from contacting UPS corporate, UPSstore franchise corporate yet again, I started business 30 day invoicing the store for that $400 plus interest. Their response was to send a certified letter saying they considered the claim complete but for my “trouble” offered me 10% discount on future shipping thru them, LOL!! oh my God, could they really be that daft?
They just smashed 2 antiques due to their mistakes, denied culpability for at this time 5 months and they think I would ship with them again???

Well, another month went by now over 6 months after the claim was filed, and I was fed up with the whole thing, so I put the whole fiasco with photos on the web and then emailed the store, the head offices, the franchise corporate offices, the investor relations, the media contacts for UPS and the store, and cc’d every one of their franchise competitors within a 20 mile radius and said this is what happened, these are the photos and their response, and this is how this store does business and handles problems they caused.
I said my claim for the remainder of $400 due is still outstanding on 60 days past due.
Within 2 days the store contacted me and said they would sent the check overnight air if I agreed to take the page down.
I said, fine, soon as the check is in my hand and clears the page will be removed. The check came, cleared and I honored my promiss, case closed.

What really galled me was their whole attitude was one of they paid half of the claim so that is enough, basically expecting me to foot the bill for their employee’s total screwup.
Hey, I understand things get broken, things fall off the loading dock, forklifts run into shipments, shit happens, but geez, when I said in writing I wanted these double boxed, add $400 insurance each, and they didnt do either thing, it’s not my fault and I should not have to pay a cent for that. When they billed me $285 for pack and ship, I thought they had done the job right.
Their attitude all along too was one of being very happy to let UPS pay the claim instead of taking responsibility themselves, but in the end I am glad they wound up paying out of pocket which I hope teaches them a lesson that next time the follow client instructions and do the job right.
It wasn’t the lousy $400 so much as ensuring they took responsibility personally for this and not passing the buck to an innocent carrier- UPS.

UPS sucks that’s why I don’t outbound ship with them, but this was clearly not UPS’s fault.