The creative process is sometimes hard and long.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Overlay work. Fingers crossed that it's truly almost done. This one was a big undertaking literally and figuratively, given the number and size of stones it needed to accommodate and the detail work he demanded of it.

The creative process is sometimes hard and long.

My own has been far too long, but I don't see any possibility of getting back to it anytime soon. Revising a novel doesn't pay the bills, and right now, we're staring down way too much staggeringly high expense for me to be able to do anything but chase sales.

Outside, the air smells of rain (just as it did yesterday evening), but we aren't getting a single drop (at least so far).  There's very little more maddening than that, in this kind of drought. Of course, these days, we have both types oof drought and need both types of rain. On the plus side, my Patreon is back courtesy of Mark in Support who fixed it for me, and to whom I am incalculably grateful. So we won't lose all of it, although I'm now down over $300 a month on subscriptions, which is a huge hit in itself for us.

I also posted Wings's newest trio on Saturday, linked below, but I sincerely wish we could sell some of our existing inventory. Sales have been terribly slow all year, and I still have to figure out a way to cover not just regular monthly expenses but next year's quarterly tax prepayments (due this year, obvs; that's why they're called prepayments), and $25K to fix Wings's multiply-botched dental work. I'm not numb anymore. I'm tired, I'm scared, but I'm not numb. I'm also mad as hell. Meanwhile, our Web site hits are down drastically from what they should be in any given month, never mind the middle of the year. This despite the fact that there's a lot of new work on the site already, including yesterday's new gemstone bead trio, here. Meanwhile, he has more silverwork in rotation, too (two cuffs, more earrings). And . . . $25K. I don't know when we can get to that, even the beginnings of it (and they're worried about his bite collapsing from the damage from prior dentists, so time matters here in ways we didn't realize). But I don't have any way to solve that outside of making sales, so I'm begging folks, please: All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (current priority still the Zero-Odor sprays, because these days we're back to wet dogs again; and the liquid soaps, which we can't get locally); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.