Hello everyone. I have been trying to get this blog post up for some time now with no avail. I am very sorry to those who are waiting and will do my best to give an update, but the photos I wanted to showcase will have to be featured in a follow-up post. My pup has been ill for a couple of days, and it seemed like it was just a stomach issue that springs up now and then so I was not too worried. In the early evening as I was working on some knots she started to take a turn for the worse, and so I have been at her side for hours now. Only dog lovers will understand, but she is like a member of our family. Between calling vet hospitals and googling everything imaginable I have had quite a day. She started to look better and is sound asleep now so I have a chance to post this brief update. I’ll be keeping an eye on her in the morning and start her on a protocol then, so hopefully she recovers soon.
I will probably have photos up as soon as I can get some rest and prepare the brushes for their shoot. I will have additional news as far as expectations for the summer. Unfortunately, I have been having issues with casting material. The material itself is fine, great even. The castings are some of the best quality I have been able to achieve. Due to the summer heat that just rolled in, I don’t have as much ventilation in the shop as the doors remain closed to keep it as cool as possible. I did set up a ventilation system which I hoped would remove as many fumes as possible during the mixing of the resin. In previous years, this was not so much of an issue because I was using a different type of Alumilite, which has less fumes and is not as noxious. Sometime after I started doing custom brushes, however, I started using another formula of Alumilite which gives better results with multi-colored and darker castings, and has less of a chance of blemishes in the finished part. This formulation is a bit more noxious and though the results are really nice I have been feeling the effects personally with the lingering fumes in the shop. It has slowed me down a bit. It shouldn’t take me too long to sort this out, but probably for at least the early part of summer I will minimize the number of castings I make with this formulation of Alumilite.
As a result, I will probably be making some releases fairly soon featuring the brushes in classic Sagarmatha (Ivory) for which I still use my original choice of Alumilite. This will mean that custom orders will take up less of my workload, unfortunately. I hope everyone understands and I will try to get the ventilation in my shop to a level at which I can work safely and comfortably with the newer material. Nevertheless, the castings I have been making have turned out great as I mentioned previously so please rest assured if your brush is in progress.
I really regret to have a post filled with such news but will follow up with a hopefully more uplifting post shortly. I’m available via email as always but will reach out to everyone as well as we get the bulk of these customs and pre-orders into final form. Thanks to everybody for understanding and please know I am giving each brush the care it deserves.
Much appreciated,
Aldo
