When the River Runs Dry

It seems to me like every time I fall in love with a product, its discontinued.  I can't tell you how many tools, paints, plastic sheets, trims, etc. have vanished from the shelves, replaced, if at all, by seriously inferior products.  Apparently, I was the only customer enlightened enough to understand their worth!  More times than I care to admit, I've been left high and dry, halfway through a project, unable to finish the way I wanted because the river ran dry.

Even when a product isn't discontinued, sometimes, it can become really hard to find.  Suppliers stop carrying products, and that means favorite stores stop carrying them, too.  Spending hours on the internet, searching for a missing product, is nobody's idea of a great time.

And, once in awhile, I come home from the store with the same product only to discover...it's not the same, after all.  Continuity can be a problem for some manufacturers.  Having created multiples of the same item, myself, I know how difficult it can be to ensure that each one is exactly the same as the next.  The world of dollhouse miniatures is a small one; often, hiding behind the labels, even the big, brand name labels, are individual artisans, with other jobs and commitments.  This field is, for most of us, a labor of love; it's not uncommon for us to stay up late into the night, working on projects, long after we've come home from work, cleaned the house, fed our families, and put them to bed.  Moreover, artisans run into the same problem customers do: unavailable, or suddenly incredibly expensive, rare, or hard to find materials.  

Resultantly, the same wallpaper pattern from the same company can come in slightly different colors, the same paint can come in slightly different consistencies, the same wood can have a slightly--or totally-different grain.  If you're detail oriented, then inconsistencies like these can be a real nightmare, partially or even totally derailing your project.  What can you do?

Always buy what you need for a project, plus at least 10 percent more.  For example, if you need three sheets of wallpaper to finish a room, buy four.  Also, consider working in small, discrete steps; think of the house phase by phase, rather than organically.  Instead of buying a few windows, some flooring, some wallpaper, and some pretty trim, buy all the windows you need, finish them and install them, before moving on to the next step.  Instead of finishing a room from floor to ceiling, wallpaper--or paint--all the rooms first, before installing trim.  Plan out what trim you want to use in each room, and then buy enough trim for each room, finishing the room before you move on.  When I first started finishing dollhouses, I tended to snatch up whatever trim looked good, long before I was even ready to install trim, and lose it, forget about it, or discover, much to my sorrow, that it actually looked hideous inside the house.  I wasted a lot of money--and time--that way before I wised up.  Now, I buy everything in much smaller installments, but I almost always buy enough of everything.