Great thoughts, folks! They ring especially true since I've been struggling with new designs. Like most "R&D" work, it's one thing to have a compelling design on paper, but refining the design so that everything fits together in a semi-production mode can be another thing entirely.
As an example, I'm working on a new series of pepper mills. The objective was to create a high-end pepper and salt mill in a clean, contemporary design that not only looks great, but is the smoothest running manual salt/pepper mill possible. With that said: the mill bodies were fairly easy to form and finish. They're perfectly balanced, feel great in the hand, hold a good amount of salt or pepper, etc. - but the TOPS (the part the twists around to do the actual grinding ) were something else again. They're finally ready to go into "production", but I destroyed several tops (and said more than a few choice words) before getting them "perfect."
The patrons will never see the work "behind the scenes" but like a fine automobile, the end result "purrs". Will they cost they cost more than something from a big box store? Absolutely! But as Sir Henry Royce (of Rolls Royce fame) once said,"...quality remains long after the price is forgotten."
