As the New Year starts, I am already chasing my tail with how busy things have become. This has put me in the position of stating full on that I am no longer doing commission work or custom orders.
I am losing a lot of production time to design that will not become part of my regular inventory. It is time that I cannot recover. In retrospect, it may be one of the reasons why I was so overwhelmed last year. Don’t get me wrong–for those that follow the blog, you all know I love a good challenge and 99% of people are pleased with the final design…BUT….
I’ve only ever calculated the time in making the finished product and not the 3 times that I ripped it out to start over or sketched or resized something. Now this doesn’t mean you can’t have an existing design in a different colour or wool. I feel awful even writing this, but one of the reasons I started on this path was to bring my visions to light. In some ways I have lost sight of that.
It’s 2am and I’m working on an order. No,this was my design that some one asked me to replicate twofold. This one I am having enormous fun with. I hope I am not harming the business in any way by imposing this limitation. This year will be a selfish MelonHead me, all me design year.
Oh, and hang on to your hats. I am immediately applying this now freed up time to taking a dye workshop at the end of the month…
Agreed, it sounds like the right decision. Good for you for listening to your inner voice. That sounds all new age-y like but you get what I mean.
Excellent decision – both for your sanity and for the business. Now stick to it!!
Excellent idea! It’s all about your creations, anyway! 🙂
what workshop are you taking? joanne ryeburn??
congratulations on following your heart and knowing what is going to work best for you. you’re my inspiration 🙂
I know exactly what you mean. Creating to order sucks much of the joy out of it for me – the reduced spontaneity, the inability to take off on a serendipitious tangent, the nagging anxiety that it might not be exactly what the customer envisioned. Consequently, I mostly avoid it.
GOOD FOR YOU! It isn’t selfish at all. This way you can keep your health and sanity while still beautifying the world. Can’t wait to see what new things you come up with in 2009!