Thursday, November 12, 2009

The Mother of Reinvention

Why must I constantly reinvent the process??
Sometimes I feel like the lead player in the movie Memento, having to reinvent myself as I move through a project - even though I've solved the problem many times before.
All of our custom jobs have one basic thing in common - someone needs a tile reproduced. STRIKE THAT! See - already there's an exception to our rules......sometimes we'll take on a project that is "tile-like", such as bricks, or pieces that are really "terra cotta" or architectural in format.
My husband Don brings in the most challenging projects - he tells clients, sure we can make that...and then we have to figure out how. In the 30 years that L'esperance Tile has existed, I can only think of 2 projects that went bust...anyone know how to spell H-I-S-T-O-R-I-C-B-R-I-C-K? And....an impossible glaze match that probably used a combination of mercury and uranium as the color source.
Anyway, this week I found myself puzzling over a carving that I did last year. I couldn't remember which tools I used to create the details I needed and decided that I should write secret notes to myself.....and that's when the movie Memento came into my head.
In case you've never seen it, the lead character is a guy who has no memory, but knows it, so he writes notes to himself everywhere, but then forgets that he was the one who wrote them.....yeah, been there.
Seems as though there's been one challenge after the other this week, and I 'm just trying to play catchup, rather than get ahead.
To quote a great writer....."and so it goes."