Ten Two Studios

Summer’s coming, and just like last year, I’m in kit mode. You seem to like kits. I like making them. It’s a good deal for both of us.

Kits are a tricky business. I have to buy lots of things to make them. Unlike collage sheets or digital goodies, which only require a little bit of time for me to assemble, kits require a significant investment on the front end. I’m spending money in the hopes that you’ll like what I’ve come up with. Most of the time, it works out: you like the kit, you buy it, and by the time it’s sold out, I’ve more than recouped my initial investment. Sometimes, it doesn’t work: I put together the kits, you don’t buy them, and I end up eating my investment.

Kits require me to become a mad ninja shopper. Once I come up with a design, I have to purchase enough of all the supplies that project will require, at a price that is reasonable. Coming up with kits that you’re willing to buy at $9.99, and still leaving myself some profit on them—well, let’s just say it’s an art unto itself. Many a good kit idea has gone into the circular file because one of its components could not be acquired for a price we can both live with. I like $9.99. It’s not so much that folks on a limited budget are priced out of playing, but not so little that I can’t be creative in my designs.

Kits take time to assemble. Once I’ve shopped and purchased all the pieces and parts, picture me, sitting on my sofa in the living room, with my coffee table covered with supplies, counting out 18 beads, 12 long dominos, 4 crimps, 4 jump rings, 2 clasps, 2 generous yards of cording, and 2 generous yards of wire, and bagging them with a sheet of instructions and four sheets of images I printed earlier in the day. Multiply that by 12, and there’s my entire afternoon gone.

Now, sometimes, a whole bunch of you really, really like a kit I’ve put together, and it sells out in hours—and those who aren’t quick on the mouse buttons don’t get a chance to purchase it. Often when this happens, I take a little Dickensian beating for it through site comments and emails. Pleeeeeeez, Lisa, can we have some more?

If it’s possible for me to go back around and acquire all the supplies for a second round, and purchase them at the same prices, and pack up another bunch of kits, I try to schedule it in around other things, like time spent assembling The Monthly Muse, or developing digital things so those of you who are overseas get to have some fun.

But that’s not always possible.

There are times when I base kits on something I find on the fly. I buy up all I can afford that day, and when I go back, there are no more. Not just no more at this store, but no more in the entire chain of stores. Because I ask them very nicely to check the SKU number (this is where I’m glad I put in all those hours on the sales floor at MJDesigns, and know the retail ordering process) against what’s in the warehouses, and what’s on order with their vendors.

There are times when a crucial element of kit I’ve been making for ages suddenly becomes unavailable. Or is no longer being manufactured. It simply no longer exists on this planet.

There are times when I use something that suddenly becomes popular—and the price goes up, beyond what is reasonable to use in a kit. So, while I could purchase more, the price for the formerly $9.99 kit would now be, oh, $12.99, or $15.99. From experience, I know that if I do this, the second round of kits will sit there, unsold, no matter how many folks asked for more. I don’t blame you. I don’t like paying more for something that I could have had last week at a lower price either.

So, trust me when I say I’m not holding out on you. If I can make assemble more of a certain kit, and I’m confident it will continue to sell, I’ll do it. But if I can’t acquire the right supplies for the right price, no amount of begging or pleading will produce more of that kit. It’s gone.

But that’s OK, because tomorrow, there will be a new kit for you to fall in love with. I promise…