I’m taking a break from custom builds for a while.
I’ve never charged a premium for the custom part of a cue build because doing so would at least triple the cost of a cue. I could absorb that into my business when orders were rare. Now they come faster than I can complete them, and all the extra time involved in the custom part of a cue build is displacing other parts of the business. Being an idiot, I try to take up the slack and that means I never have time off and run my health into the sawdust. Hence the need for an adjustment.
Reclaiming that time back into the business is important for several reasons:
I have a backlog of ideas I’ve been eager to build for months and months. Killer cues that take time to develop, as they involve multiple cooks of wood, more inlays, and more advanced ringwork. I can see crazy beautiful cues that I don’t yet have the ability to build.
(Kid spins six shooter on finger and shovels it into his holster. Spits.)
“I’s headin’ west, Pa. They’s nothin yall can say to stop me.”
I also haven’t had time for radical cuebuilding experiments like I used to. I never finished my devil’s club cue. I want to find other burl than birch and black cherry. I need to go hunting toadstools. I want to make more cues using them. And I need time for sitting on the four wheeler looking at the hill and talking to the Almighty.
I also need time to devote to the tithe side of Character Cues. I intend to raffle/auction a cue a month to benefit a couple local organizations that need help. One for the hungry. One for battered women making a break for it. And I want to be able to help folks as the Spirit brings them to me.
That’s where the reclaimed time will be going.
Working with you all has been a delight and has improved my game. Maybe someday I’ll be able to carve out time to do it again.
I’ll be declining custom orders until further notice.
One comment
God will help you through these times of de-stressing…being in nature will surely help with the healing…