Dave has (temporarily) lost his prime window seat! Tsushima-san is sitting there while she works on her current batch of the Peony design, and over in her usual spot is new printer-to-be Ishigami-san.

Is there enough work here for yet another printer already? No, of course not. None of Tsushima-san's work is yet in the catalogue (aside from the dribble of kakegami that are going out), but there's no point in waiting until she's 'ready'. As she slowly moves up the competence 'ladder', we might as well get going with the next person on the bottom rung.

But with this change there is a whole new 'dynamic' now present in the workshop. Ishigami-san is of course starting off with the same kind of practice blocks that Tsushima-san worked on a couple of months ago, and - with both of them in the room at the same time - I have to be very careful what kind of comments I make. They are going to have different skills in different places, and I have to avoid direct comparisons. I have no idea if they will naturally be 'at ease' with each other, or whether a competitive situation will develop. We'll see ...

And it's so strange to see Tsushima-san sitting in my own place!

(What was that I was saying about 'competition' ...?)