The Cluster is Real

I imagine many of you thought that my fear of the cluster effect was terribly unfounded. There are probably tons of artisans that work almost entirely in custom work, creating at the whims of their customers from a catalog of prototypes. They do this quite easily I imagine and as I've been told, many people have no problem waiting for an item made just for them. All that being said, I still fear the cluster. Right after I accepted listing custom items as a viable option, I listed a few sold pieces as custom orders. As I predicted, the next three orders were custom pieces and I officially have a backlog of tatted goodness to create.

I really can't complain about the orders. I get excited with each and every one of them, but it does change my plans for a while. I had hoped that I could get on a couple of new pieces soon and I really wanted to see if I can work up some sort of needle tatting tutorial soon. I guess I must accept that if I want to do these things, that I need to set aside time for them and not allow even custom orders to get in the way. I have padded my custom orders with a two week waiting period, but I can't help making the pieces just as fast as I can. I have stopped work a couple of times to remake simple pieces, but that's a fairly rare occurrence.

What's sick, is I will probably keep listing the custom pieces regardless of my fear and the stress that completing them gives me. Underneath it all I really adore the idea of as many people as possible owning the tatted jewelry and masks I have made. I still imagine what it will be like to see a stranger wearing my work. I wonder if I would have the courage to walk up to them and tell them that I made their necklace or bracelet. Of course it's really a moot point as I've sold very little to anyone who lives near me, but it's fun to dream.

Well, I should back to tatting, though I doubt I'll get much done today since hubby is off today. More likely, I'll be watching a lot of video game playing and cleaning up messes. You know, a normal vacation type day.