Saying Goodbye

I was thinking today, as often happens, about one of the more melancholy aspects of running a commission studio: saying goodbye.  My fiancee often teases me when I'm done with a commission project: she'll ask 'did you say goodbye?' Because it is true, for me at least, I get attached when I spend many hours on a project, putting creative energy into it, making something unique, something that I don't already have in my own collection, and when it is finally finished looking at it thinking 'I like this.  It'd be nice to game with this."

But it is not be.  It must be packed in a case, or individual bubble wrap and sent out to someone eagerly waiting for it. Sometimes as close as my own state but often much farther.  The current ones are being sent across the country and others have gone as far as Denmark, Israel, Australia, Brazil... (come on Africa, you are the last continent holding out on me).  And the minis go out, and I wonder what is in store for them.
What locations & events they may be used in, events I may never have opportunity to play in, face opponents I will never meet.   Knowing that people they head out to will enjoy and appreciate them is the best bit about it.

It's a good and interesting wondering.  I studied some archaeology, and it was always interesting to find some items in the ground, and realize they were stone tools that must have come from across the mountains they were found in because of the type of stone, and I wonder what a globe would look like, with dots wherever minis might be that I have painted.

So goodbye most recent finished minis.