FAQ

1 / Do I have to pay for the entire piece upfront?

No! You can choose to instead pay a non-refundable 50% deposit upfront and pay the remainder upon completion of the piece. Please note that orders will not be shipped until full payment is received.

2 / If I don't like my custom piece, what do I do?

If you are unhappy with a completed artwork, we may be able to make additional tweaks to the design within reason. Substantial changes to the agreed-upon artwork may incur an additional cost.

If your jacket does not fit you, we may be able to create another replacement jacket for you in a different size, depending on the design itself. This offer is at the discretion of Second Spark and will vary from order to order, so please make sure you select your jacket and size carefully.

We do not offer full refunds on our work as the majority of a custom commission fee goes into covering our time and materials. Our time is limited at Second Spark and we simply cannot afford to be spending hours (or sometimes days!) working on custom pieces that aren't collected.

If a custom commission is completed on your own personal jacket and you are unhappy with the artwork after design tweaks have been completed, Second Spark reserves the right to withhold the jacket until payment has been made.

3 / Can you do a realism portrait/classical art piece?

Second Spark consists of one artist, and as with most artists I have a pretty distinct style. My work is very illustrative with influence from traditional tattoos and cartoons: think clean black lines, bright colour and highlights. Please bear in mind that any custom order completed will be done in this style. We have reference images for portraits and other common requests on our website and socials; please make sure you've viewed these and like our art style before placing an order.

Please note that Second Spark reserves the right to refuse any custom commission request at any time. We will also refuse any commission orders depicting explicit or illegal content.

4 / Can you do matching pieces?

Yes, within reason! Our pieces are all handpainted with brushes; there is no tracing or stencils involved, aside from the occasional ruler. This means that while we can absolutely create matching pieces for you and a family member/friend, we cannot guarantee the two items will be 100% identical.

5 / How do I care for my piece?

We recommend hand wash only to keep your artwork in the best possible condition. If you absolutely must machine wash your item, use a cold wash and put your machine on the lowest spin setting. You may need to iron your piece once it has dried. Do not tumble dry under any circumstances!

When ironing, place your item inside-out or apply a piece of baking paper over the paint. Run your iron at 50% heat with the water drained; over time, the piece can sustain prolonged water damage from repeated exposure to steam.

If your order has been posted to you (especially to outside of Western Australia), you may find fold marks in your final piece as a result of being bagged in extreme heat for a significant period of time. A quick inside-out iron should remove these creases! 

6 / Can I provide my own jacket?

Absolutely! While we have a huge range of cuts, colours and sizes available, we totally understand that sometimes it's easier to provide your own. You will need to arrange to drop off your jacket to one of our stockists or directly to us at a market or event. If you provide your own jacket, we'll also give you $20 off the cost of your custom item!

Please note that refunds are not possible when using your own jacket, simply because once the paint is on, it's never coming off! If you have any tweaks or changes you need made to your piece once it's complete, just let us know, and we can usually accommodate them within reason.

7 / Do you provide draft sketches/progress photos?

Generally, no. All our pieces are freehanded directly onto a jacket using chalk to make sure the design flows seamlessly on the fabric and shape. We can send you a photo of this if you need, but we don't recommend it - it's normally very loose, messy and difficult to make sense of. We also don't tend to send progress photos unless requested, as the nature of our pieces and the paint used means that it takes LOTS of layers to get the result you know and love. Because of this, there's a lot of 'trusting the process' that we have to do when putting a piece together, so we find progress photos tend to make our clients unnecessarily nervous!

8 / Why is my piece taking so long?

We usually average a 6-12 week turnaround times on our custom orders, but sometimes they can take a bit longer depending on the time of year. As an independent artist who also works full-time on top of running Second Spark, things can get pretty hectic around here! Sometimes delays may be outside of our control due to illness or personal reasons. If you would like an update on how far away your piece is, please feel free to message us at any time and we can give you an estimate. We're also happy to work to a deadline if you need a piece in time for a birthday or event - just let us know when you order.