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Trying to Put Things Back in Sequence.
I had managed to get a sequence of instruments out of order, though (I thought) I began them in order.
I print sheets of my labels, all in sequential order, and try to make certain that I never mislabel anything.
But, I install the label on the day I close the corpus of any instrument. As a result, sometimes the label may not agree with the date when I completed the instrument.
In this particular instance, I made a mistake: When I printed a sheet of labels for five-string fiddles, I somehow skipped #16!
Then, I had begun three instruments simultaneously, and, as I closed them, I installed the labels for five-strings #17, 18, and 19, respectively. (All in good faith, you understand!)
“A Funny Thing Happened On the Way” to Completion:
Then a client called with a commission for a specific 5-string fiddle: So I dropped everything else (as usual) and began his instrument. When it came time to close the corpus, I checked the last three to see what number was next. (It must be #20!) But I had not yet printed a sheet with a #20. I was about to do so when I realized that I had no instrument labeled #5016. (Sigh…)
All I could do was to set up a page of labels that included #16 and then jumped to #20! (What a mess!)
And, as things worked out, over the next year and a half, I had multiple eye surgeries, my beloved wife broke her wrist and required surgery to repair it, I went through my first bout of Covid, annnnd:
Another client called with a commission! Fortunately, during that time, I had managed to complete #17 and #18. They are on my Five String Fiddles website…and #5018 has already sold.
Instrument #17
Instrument #18
So, here is the full story of getting things back in proper order: Five String #19 will be posted as #19 on the Five String Fiddles Website and as Instrument #49 on this website. The newest commission will be #5020, as a five-string viola, and will go to a customer in Zurich, Switzerland. It will appear here as Instrument #50, and on the five-string site as #20.
Thanks for looking!