But Who's Counting?

I am in the midst of painting the most current batch of Kaylee-Esque parasols (the yellow is drying now) and it has occurred to me that I may be hitting a milestone. I never numbered the finished ones as I went along, but boy, do I wish I had done that now! I think after I finish this batch - 6 in total, for I have found that doing 6 at a time is a good amount for me- I will have hand painted over 100 Kaylee Parasols! By my math with the quantity and number of time I've ordered it's got to be around there. I do have a tabulation of all that sold through the website, but then there are the ones sold at shows, or donated to charity auctions and such. So I really don't know for sure, but I've got to be close, if not over the triple digits.

When I first started making them I was so uptight about it. We had a computer printed spiral as a template. Too mathematical. I ended up pausing the dvd and tracing the pattern off the still image on the screen! Then I had to transfer it to the parasol and paint over the lines so they wouldn't show. One parasol took me hours to do and I was never happy with the results. Some of those first ones were a lot different looking!

It was during this frustration that I finally hit the simple answer that was in front of me all the time. I was griping that I was putting all this work into replicating something that some prop person probably just whipped out fast without thinking much about it. Yep, that simple- Kaylee *would* have done her parasol freehand and with a light attitude. So I put myself in a Keylee frame of mind and have been much happier with the parasol results ever since.

I also remember the first time I ordered the supplies- I thought getting enough for 12 parasols was going to be too much. I'd never sell 12 of them after all! Hee!

So, here's to the next 100!

Until next time:
"Everything's shiny Captain!"