Soles of Silk F.A.Q. - Customs & Personal Items

In this entry to the Frequently Asked Question (F.A.Q.) blog series, I'm going to answer two questions I've been getting regularly since the site opened in the final week of 2004. Both are something a lot of sites do, but Soles of Silk does not. Below I'm going to explain why.

Frequently Asked Question: Do you take orders for custom clips/sets?

While I always take recommendations for ideas and themes for sets, I do not accept money to shoot either customized sets or clips for anyone. I've heard there is good money involved in custom orders, but with the frequency that I shoot most of my models, I would never feel right taking someone's money and not having the product done in a timely manner.

Many of the models on the site only shoot several times a year and we do a handful of sets each time we meet. Working a regular full time job, I don't have the ability to schedule shoots except for a few days a week. Even then, I also have other things in life going on where I am not doing shoots every time I have an open day.

If I were running a site with a significant other, then perhaps I'd be more keen to the idea. Someone I'd be seeing regularly and shooting with often. Even though these girls are my friends, it is just sometime too hard to get something scheduled.

Frequently Asked Question: Do you sell any of the model's personal or worn items?

I originally had planned on doing this on the site, but once I began running Soles of Silk I decided against it. Just like the customs above, I've been told there is good money to be made in the sale of personal items. I'm just not one to be all about making the money when I know that it might pose a problem with the way I operate.

As you've already read, I don't meet with most of the models on a regular basis. With so many people wanting different items from different models, I don't want to try to track each one of them down when it's already hard enough to do so. And I just know some of the girls wouldn't be dependable enough to keep up with wearing things that would be requested.

The last reason I don't want to venture down this path though is because I often see too many people complaining online about personal items bought from various sites. Either they don't smell like they were advertised, or the person buying them is just picky. So then you have people from both sides venting dirty laundry (pun intended) for all to read. I don't want to partake in that kind of online drama, so I just think it's something that's best left not done for now.