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What is the reason for tiny Limited Editions?

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josordoni:
I have a very limited edition paperweight Southern Exposure by Helen MacDonald for Caithness (details in the Market Place section if you are interested).  Just 25 were made.

My question is why, after all that work, would an edition be limited to so few pieces?  Is it because of the work involved in making the piece makes it too difficult to make more, or is it a purely commercial decision?

thanks for your views.

RAY:
hi Lynne

all paperweights are done on a time scale to work out the final price, so i think longer it take's to make a piece more limted it get's just like you say, or someone has commissioned a weight and only wanted so many

ALLAN:
Hi Lynne,
             I thought I would post a little information on why we do small limited editions sometimes.It is not for commercial reasons as such,although we do hope the smaller edition size makes it sell better.The main reason, as Ray hinted at, is that there is a finite amount of time that is available in a year to do all the lampwork.If a weight takes 4-5 hours to do the lampwork and then we put even just a 100 edition size on it,then it would eat up almost a quarter of the years lampwork time.As there is only myself and Linda Campbell who constitute the lampwork dept at Caithness we would not get many designs out each year.In the recent past we have been sent down the road of higher edition sizes with the subsequent reduction in time spent on the designs.This affects things like small details etc,however as from this year we have persuaded those in power to let us return to the smaller more intricate editions.This does mean they cost a bit more, although as one of our dealers told us at a recent tradeshow,the same type of weight from Baccarat or St Louis costs double.Hopefully quality will triumph over quantity :lol: .
             In the past we have done many very small editions as far down as only 15 numbers and not forgetting the "one-offs" which I think is any collectors goal;to have something no-one else has,whether it is stamps, China plates or baseball cards.
              By the way,as far as the penquins are concerned,I was glad they were such a small edition because they drove me mad making them.Getting the little (Insert your own expletive as we are not allowed to swear on the message board :lol: ) to stand up long enough for the glass to get put over them was a nightmare.and to cap it all it was a double lampwork pick-up as well.Suffice to say it was a long time in the making of each weight,but worth it in the end I suppose in hindsight (now the nightmares have faded :wink: ).
            Anyway I hope this helps and I hope you do well on your E.bay sale.
      Allan

josordoni:
Hi Allan, I was hoping you might see this post, as I wondered if you had made the little blighters...
 :lol:

thanks so much for your explanation, I thought that it was more likely to be practical rather than commercial considerations that made the edition low.  

I think all the limited edition weights are lovely, I have managed to keep hold of a couple of Colin's (mantra... you shall not fall in love with the stock... repeat until it sinks in...) but the lampworked ones are my favourites, I don't often manage to get them at a profitable price, and this one, even though it is gorgeous and I WANT IT ! has to be sold to pay the mortgage...  :cry:

Speaking of lampworked weights, I have a load of the chinese ones, you know the ones with flying geese and butterflies etc.  Roughly how new are these - are they still being made?  They seem nice quality.

ALLAN:
Hi Lynne,
             Sorry I can't give any useful info on the Chinese weights as my knowledge on them is barely over non-existant :? .I am certain you will get far more good advice on them from Ray,Kev,Leni or just about anybody apart from me  :lol: .

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