I hope everyone is doing great as we all embark upon 2021. With 2020 behind us, I’m glad to report some news and to recap what has been done during this eventful year. I will keep this blog pretty short but will feature some nice photos as that is probably the best way to summarize the year of “customs”. This past year has brought us all many challenges and the launch of The Varlet’s custom brushes could not have been at a more eventful mark in the timeline we are living in. I’ve tried to take these challenges in stride despite the unprecedented events at hand, and can look back at the brushes made this year with pride and a sense of accomplishment even if the year was not a success in its entirety. Though our challenges are not over, I hope 2021 will be another year to remember but in a different way than 2020. As is proper, I am looking back on this year and recalling lessons learned to prepare for the coming future as best as I can.
Short Term Plan - end of 2020
The short term plan that I outlined at the end of last summer was my attempt at introducing some structure with regards to time frames for completion of custom brushes. I had anticipated to finish that plan by November 30, 2020, but was unable to until the first couple of days of 2021. I had a few health challenges during the last few months of the year, which ironically in 2020 had nothing to do with Covid-19 (to the best of my knowledge), which were insurmountable and caused me some delays. I have made efforts to mitigate some of these issues and I’m glad to say I am doing much better. With my work being so hands-on it is crucial that I’m in the best shape possible to avoid any physical setbacks and that is a goal I have set for 2021. Below are some of the latest brushes completed, which will be hitting the post office very shortly.
Personalized Engraving
Going forward I’ll be adding a personalized engraving option for custom brushes. I’ve made an effort to make this option available as I’ve received many requests, and I do regret not being able to do this sooner. I’ve settled on a list of choices that should make for a process which I can manage successfully and which can achieve some great results.
To cover the additional setup time and maintenance, personalized engraving will be $45, which is necessary to make this option possible. Available as engraving choices will be the following:
Dates (e.g. 12.07.2020 or 12-07-2020)
Month and Year (e.g. DEC 2020 or 12-2020)
Year (e.g. 1985)
Year in Roman Numerals (e.g. MCMLXIX for 1969, or LXXXV for two-digit year of ‘85)
Initials (for names of persons only, self or related)
Number of years (e.g. 45 yrs)
Armed Forces Rank
All brushes will still carry The Varlet’s moniker as well as denote the country of origin, USA. Your personalized engraving choice will be done on the opposite side, below the brush model name or by itself. You can choose from a maximum of two engraving choices, one below the other. If two choices are made, the brush model name will be omitted automatically. If you would like only one engraving choice, you may choose to keep the brush model name or omit it.
I will be adding this engraving option to the custom order process at the soonest possible chance.
Custom orders - start of 2021
I will begin to take custom orders (payments) for the first production run of 2021 in the next few days. Also, I will get in touch with any order requests received during the last few months of 2020 to give a general time frame for construction. At this time, I do not have a schedule set out as my focus is to ship brushes that have just been completed. Within the next couple of weeks, I will try to set some schedules for the next few production runs to give 2021 some structure as far as production goes. There are quite a bit of order requests sitting in the queue that I have not contacted directly, so if you have been waiting to see when your brush could be made I will get in touch very soon.
That is all I have for now, but I will feature some more brushes from this past year below and will follow up with more news very soon. I continue to wish everyone good health and also prosperity for 2021. Thanks, folks!
-Aldo
