01/20/2023
Update on Stoddart’s Ltd Company…
Unfortunately, we won’t be at the Amherst Railway Society’s Springfield Show this year. Thanks to all of the people who sent us emails asking about that - we really appreciate it!
Just before Thanksgiving last year, we finally finished our move to Indiana and are now full-time “Hoosiers.” Now we have to reconstruct our art workshop at our new location. We’re just at the early stages, so it’s going to take a while.
When we started the business in 2009 and bought our first laser and CNC router, we were on the “bleeding edge” of those technologies. Since then, machinery and software have really progressed. So when we moved, we sold all of our production equipment. Re-equipping our workshop with the latest technology should be really interesting process.
It’s possible that we could start making artwork again before the end of 2023. If we can pull that off, we’ll be back at the Springfield show (and others) in 2024. But…those of you who’ve asked our production schedule in the past already know that we (meaning Jim) are particularly bad at forecasting. Life always seems to take an unexpected turn or two. Take the “end of 2023” prediction under advisement!
When we start making our artwork again, we haven’t decided exactly what we will be making. We’ve had a lot of requests to remake things we’ve already done. We also have a number of new designs that we want to do (including some that we’ve gotten multiple requests for). And especially as we’ve gotten older, we’ve realized that there’s a limited amount of projects that we can take on and produce.
So… some of the previous artwork we made may never be reproduced again. And for most of our artwork, we only made a handful of them. We’re not sure if our artwork will ever become valuable collector’s items, but who knows? The point is that if you find a piece that you want at a train show or for sale on-line, you might want to buy it.
While we might not be producing artwork yet, we are still around. So feel free to send us an email if you want to check on us or to send suggestions ([email protected]). Again, it will take a while, but we’ll post some progress photos of our shop as soon as we have some!
In the meantime, take care! Thanks!
Jim & Alison
