Of Shoes and Ships and Sample Blocks, Of PZ Kut and Things...

(apologies to Lewis Carroll)

It has been a very long time since I have posted on this blog. I think it's time to try and be better about it! Well, actually, long past time! We'll see how I do! *grin*

Yesterday was the 6th anniversary of the day I reopened Stampeaz!! Amazing! And even more amazing, since I had warned everyone I would be having a celebration and there would be really cool stuff available for those who looked, I was very surprised that I didn't have more people looking for the treats that were hidden in plain sight as well as taking advantage of the promised anniversary coupons. I had six pristine, pre-prepped, grade A blocks of PZ Kut up for sale yesterday -- one for each year of the Stampeaz adventure and not one was found or purchased! I guess I will have to save them for other celebrations and see if anyone notices. Hmmmm.... Other celebrations.... Stay tuned.

In some ways it seems like a lot longer than six years since I purchased Stampeaz to keep my favorite carving material, PZ Kut, on the market, but in other ways, the time has flown by. For example, it seems like forever since the regulation change that knocked PZ Kut off the market! LOL! But the wonderful people who have been supportive and become friends along the way have made the business a joy to run.

As everyone knows, I have been in the process of reformulating our beloved PZ Kut and that has been an adventure of its own! The good news is that several more samples should land in my mailbox from the blending house any time now. I will do test carvings on them over the weekend and see which one I make a trial run of this time. In the meantime, here's a photo of the samples I have already gone through over the last couple years -- at least the ones I could round up quickly for a photo. If I had tried to find them all, it would have been another month before this post went up. I'm not kidding! People said they wanted to see, so here they are!!


I count 22 different sample materials in this photo. Along the way, I have gained a whole new respect for people who do product development for a living - it's a long, hard and occasionally frustrating (not to mention expensive) proposition. And I forgot to put Firm Kut into the mix - although I did remember to grab a little piece of MZ and NZ Kut to add to the pile! LOL!