Because of circumstances beyond my control, I am scaling back on leather mask sculpting.  I've been warned -- repeatedly, now -- to take it easy, "or else", if I want to be able to tie my own shoe laces when I'm a little old lady.  This time I have to take the warning seriously.

     Because of recurring 'carpal tunnel-ish syndrome', I am forced to scale back on the amount of my leather-work, in both the sculpting and the more intricate painting of my masks.  The last episode took the better part of a year for my hands to mend sufficiently for me to be able to sculpt leather without all the usual sharp twinges, and sometimes much worse.  The inability to work dragged me into a wicked depression that has only recently lifted, and I've slowly eased back into my comforting work habits, although on a much smaller scale.

     I'm very sorry, but because of the time I must now allow myself for completing a mask from scratch to completion, there will be no more 'rush' services for masks that need be created on demand, nor any custom designs with the exception of works for legitimate theater.

     Out of necessity I am discontinuing the designs that demand the most rigorous physical labor.  I plan to concentrate my mask-creation efforts on the one-of-a-kind designs, and experiment with some new designs and spiffy embellishments (and then console myself with my visual arts).

     This has been a damned difficult decision to make, because I just didn't want to acknowledge or succumb to my own human frailties.  But then, who does?