haldecraft — custom work

Y'all had such a great reaction to an in-progress shot the other day - many of you messaged and emailed me to find out if I was going to take custom orders on these Sugar Skull mugs I've been working on. Well, I have heard you above the snoring of my employees, and I have a handful of these mugs I can take on as custom work. But! (You knew there had to be a "but", right?)   These will not be ready before Halloween/Dia de Muertos; between already having some custom work, a scheduled vacation, and with how long...

Oddly (or maybe not; other creative types might be able to relate to this), the projects I do that have the most heart, the custom work that means something, a piece that you try to put the soul of the person ordering into and wind up putting yourself into as well... is the work that scares me the most. I was recently trusted to make a set of mugs for a customer who is also a friend; a set of mugs with a cat that had recently passed. As a pet lover who has lost beloved animals, as a friend,...