His first commissions consisted of a single silkscreen portrait for $25,000, with additional canvases in other colors for $5,000 each. Aside from the prints and paintings, Warhol produced shoes, films, sculptures and commissioned work in various genres to brand and sell items with his name. Warhol's years at the Factory were known as the Silver Era. Name covered the whole factory in silver, even the elevator. Silver, fractured mirrors, and tin foil were the basic decorating materials loved by early amphetamine users of the sixties. In 1963, artist Ray Johnson took Warhol to a 'haircutting party' at Billy Name's apartment, decorated with tin foil and silver paint, and Warhol asked him to do the same scheme for his recently leased loft. A few months later, Warhol was informed that the building would have to be vacated soon, and in November he found another loft on the fifth floor at 231 East 47th Street in Midtown Manhattan, which would become the first Factory. No one was eager to go there, so the rent was $150 a month. A friend of his found an old unoccupied firehouse on East 87th Street where Warhol began working in January 1963.
Due to the mess his work was causing at home, Warhol wanted to find a studio where he could paint.
