As I said in the 2024 in Review post: Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of this hat.

It's hard not to make posts on a January 6, staring down the upcoming inauguration, without going "I have no idea what the future is going to hold." I went all-in on artisan teddy bears in 2005-2006, right before the bottom fell out of the economy and everyone stopped buying luxuries. So I'm excited about making art-doll dragons again, but I'm clear-eyed about the fact that I might just be putting them on a shelf in my house when they're done. (But the counterpoint of "you don't have to monetize all your hobbies" is "if you don't sell your stuff it builds up in your house.")

About the only for-sure thing right now: I have continued what used to be the Early-Access Tier on Patreon (only), making monthly charm-type designs for all of, I think, three members there now. Because except in months when they took a back seat to the big design, the charm design was something I could put together without much stress. This month's is the Kawaii Cat, a slightly fancier design than usual in the sense that it requires directions beyond the standard Charm/Plaque/Bunting ones. More often, I'll be able to put them out with just the basic one-page overview. It's now called the Charm Tier so if you miss it from Ko-Fi, you can join there. Or you can just buy the designs on Ko-Fi: I'm not going to worry too much about tier membership count, either.

I'm coming to the realization that I have set some weird restrictions on myself with the art-doll dragons, one of the chief being "Sculpting parts for them is cheating." Why mourn over discontinued glass beads when I can make claws out of polymer clay? Or, for that matter, ceramic clay? The kilns are wired, and parts to vent them have been arriving. I will probably do some all-ceramic dragons at some point here, because why not?

I think part of the self-restriction has been because it's very easy to get into jack-of-all-trades creation. I look for pre-made things to use for dragon eyes because otherwise it might lead me down the path of resin making, for instance, which is a very deep rabbit hole. Sculpting dragon heads leads down the path of mold casting. And so on. And I'm very easy to lead astray - to the point where I had set aside the thing I got the first embroidery for.

So my plan is: to wing it. Kinda. And to think about the restrictions I set on myself, and whether they're keeping me out of the weeds or just holding me back.