what a difference a year makes

I guess I've been lampworking for about 6 years now. Who can remember?? And what started as a hobby quickly turned into another part of my business. I started selling beads on ebay, probably MUCH sooner than I should have, but OMG people bought them!!! Occasionally I'll come across an old file in my computer, but LUCKILY most of those pics were in my old now completely dead pc so I (hopefully) will never be embarrassed by them again.

Not so!!!

About a year ago I started selling my stitched hearts on the super adorable indie website SHANALOGIC. LOVE Shanalogic. She probably sold about 20 of them for me before I cleaned out my supplier of the gunmetal lock & key toggle. And, oh joy...NO ONE ELSE MAKES THAT TOGGLE IN GUNMETAL. No joke. By the time they got more in I was in the height of my show season and got too busy to do any wholesale. So when things slowed down after Christmas Shana emailed me to see if she could have the hearts again, and since I had just gotten 100 toggles I was happy to be back on her sight. I whip up 10 hearts ("whip up"?? hahaha those hearts are the most difficult thing I make!!) and send them on there way.

Shana emails me to let me know they got there, but then mentions they're much darker than they were last year. Whuh huh??? I know I used the same glass, and they're the same hearts I've been making for the past year so I have no idea what she's talking about. The lighting changes the tone of that red, so I suggest she look at them in the daylight. We go back & forth until she sends me a picture of the hearts she had last year. Oh noooooooooo! Can you even believe how much different they are now??? And sure enough, that red is MUCH brighter. Jeez louise.

Although now I'm excited to see what they look like NEXT year :)