Have a break.........

I'm taking a short break from working really quite hard today. Not only have I completed some long overdue website maintenance and updates, but I'm now completely up to date on orders and have completed yet another batch of casting, including the prototypes for my IGMA glass eyed tiny, little wee dolls, fully jointed and everything.

I'm fairly confident they won't work, but since the entire casting/soft firing/soft cleaning/bisque firing, paint firing (x2) cycle takes a minimum of 4 weeks, I won't know for sure till April. Even my limited mathematical prowess can work out that I will only have another 4 goes at getting it right, to allow sufficient time for costuming, wigging, accessorising etc then get them in the post by October.

Perhaps I really have thought this through..........

No matter. I'll give it my best shot.

In other news, I have spent a large chunk of the past 48 hours trying to track down a source of 18mm silk ribbon. PP was drafted in to help and has it on very good authority from a most personable young Japanese lady named Makoto, who works for a silk ribbon manufacturer based in Kyoto, that this width is no longer in production.

My US supplier blames this on the weak dollar.

WEAK DOLLAR!!!

Blimey O'Reilly... compared to the £ sterling, the $US is positively thriving, and Samson-like in its ascendancy. That's the second time this week that an American has complained about the 'weak dollar'. The other person was a potential customer who was bemoaning the fact that things from the UK were so expensive at the moment due to the weak dollar.

Now, I'm no international financier, but I am painfully aware that the pound is trading well down against the dollar compared to this time last year. Supplies which I have to buy from the US are costing me nigh on twice as much as they did last summer. So it therefore follows that US citizens buying goods from the UK are getting a fantastic deal, due to the weakness of the pound, which is as weak as a very weak kitten.

With a cold, and three legs.

And no tail.

And only two whiskers.

Very, very weak, and possibly not long for this world.

I very much doubt that there is any monetary currency in the world, currently weaker than the £. With the possible exception of the Zimbabwe dollar.

Right, that's me done ranting. And as I have now finished my tea break, complete with Kit Kat and accompanied by small dog surveillance, I'm off back to work.