You're Doing What?

An interesting aspect of being in business as long as we have is - your suppliers start retiring! Of course, some of them sell their businesses, or pass them down to family members, just like in the good old days. But some businesses are more dependent on their owners, and we just got a "that's it folks!" notice from one of them. It was from Robert Held Art Glass in Canada, and the letter said that at the age of 70, Mr. Held had decided to spend some time doing other things besides making beautiful glass. Happily, he was accepting orders through January so we will have his paperweights for Valentine's Day again. But, we've been selling his work for years, and his retirement will leave a hole in the Joie de Vivre glass department. We will be attending the Gift Show and Craft Shows in the next few months and will look for new glass - but we won't find anyone making anything exactly like he did - that's both the beauty of drawback of handcrafted work - it's one person. And that's similar to little stores like Joie de Vivre as well. Someone might buy this store if I ever decide to retire (which IS possible someday!) - but what they will do with it would inevitably be different from what I did, for better or worse. That's what makes your typical owner run store interesting - everyone has such different taste, and such a different eye. Anyway, we wish Robert Held well on his new adventures and have decided to forgive him for leaving us without a good source for heart paperweights! !