a star of your own brightness

It turns out that my printer was also not a tireless machine. A few days of overzealous printing experiments sent it (and me) into a panic. When I was finishing up one of my last orders of 2011, it spat out muddy brown instead of red, rendering A Star of Your Own Brightness one big uninspiring mess. The original print was all in reds and oranges and golds; something about the monochromatic nature of the color scheme must have confused it. After much fussing and adjusting and recalibrating and cleaning and throwing my hands in the air while the clock ticked, in a last ditch effort I changed the color background to see if it would handle the color scheme differently. Don't ask me why or how (I don't know), but the printer handled it like a champ. I was thrilled by the result, so much that I asked my customer if she'd be willing to consider the color change. She agreed wholeheartedly and the order was rescued. And I'm so much happier with the new version.

As for the printer? I shut it off for a few days, it magically mended its errant ways, and it is again printing in full, accurate color. As for me? Good new year lessons that 1) from strife comes opportunity, and 2) electronics will fix themselves if powered down long enough. As for the new print? I thought it was perfect timing for the turn of the annum. Happy 2012! Go create your own star.

(5x7 doodle print here.)