All's fair.....

In an effort to keep myself on track I've installed a 'helpful' countdown timer on my laptop, showing how many days till the Thame Fair next month.

This is a double-edged sword, in that I can simultaneously think

"Oh good.... I've got a whole 35 days, that's LOADS of time!"

AND

"OH NO..... only 35 days.... that's no time at all!"

Today I'm feeling fairly sanguine about the whole thing, which is why I'm spending precious minutes typing a blog post instead of being in the workroom feverishly doing stuff.

Back in the day, when I used to routinely exhibit at at least one fair a month, I always had to have lots of stock.  It can take up to a month to complete a kilnload of porcelain dolls (that's just the dolls, not the dressing/wigging) so I always had to have a rolling programme of making things.

Nowadays though, I'm making more and more toys and dolls to order, which means I don't have to maintain reasonable stock levels of anything except supplies and materials.  This is all fine and dandy until a fair hoves into view and a quick stock check of finished miniatures reveals nought but half empty boxes.

Cue blind panic.

However, it's also the kick up the bum I need in order to work on new things.  When orders are rolling in it's tempting to concentrate purely on filling them, rather than delving into my bulging ideas notebook and developing any of the tempting new miniature toys I've been thinking about for ages. 

I'm aiming to have 3 new miniature lines ready to launch at Thame.   It's going to be tough whittling down the dozens and dozens of ideas but I'm fairly sure which ones I'm going to go for.

So...... 35 days eh?

Better go and get on with it then.......