How Hard Is It To Produce Shaped Sealed Units?

A job I have just recently finished pricing involved trying to produce some very intricate sealed units to fit into the stone work frames of an old chapel being converted into flats. I contacted both our suppliers for sealed units and at first both neither was keen to produce the designs I had sent to them. There were plenty of very small circular designs, as well as something which resembled a three leaf clover, plus the typical church-like arched units. The first of our suppliers came back to us with a rediculous price. But whether that was becasue they didn't want to do the job or because they didn't have the specialist equipment I don't know. The second supplier however did seem more helpful. They did have to use something call a 'water-jet', never heard of one of those before, unless I heard him wrong! This jet they said was particularly expensive, but despite that, they were £1000 less than the other price I received.

This led me to thinking, how hard/easy is it to make unusal/intricate designs? I am going to a factory tour of our suppliers soon so some of my questions should be answered there. But for any of you who work in the sealed unit manufacturing sector, please feel free to educate me further!