Changing times......

[turpin]

If you haven't already looked into this, check out This site. Started by a piper's dad, quality only, from Pakistan. Many folks on this board have the hats and like them. I don't know about their pipers' gear, no being one myself.

[Pleater]

I appreciate your problems - I have been making clothing and costumes for 40 years and these days there is no way I could live on the income it would generate because everything is so expensive and the perceived value of an item, no matter how well made, is not going to cover the time and effort of making it.

There are added problems such as the seller of top quality materials who will not send it by the cheapest method as people defraud him saying that it had never arrived - so 40 percent of the cost to buy the fabric for a kilt is the tracked and signed for postage.

I can only just afford to make my own clothing to the standard that I like, I can't travel to teach due to the cost of petrol - it is over one pound sterling for one litre here in the UK, and now that there are no local shops for supplies of sewing notions or knitting yarns - everything mounts up.

One reason for my making my first kilt was that there was no need to obtain a zip - such a small thing.

Skills which use animal products have been affected by health and hygiene regulations and various health scares over the years - leather and hides should come from healthy animals and clean environments but someone has to check that goatskin is not impregnated with - for instance - anthrax spores, and that feathers have been sterilised and do not harbour mites.

Exotic woods are now endangered, and what there is available has been protected, its felling done under license, the export of it tracked and recorded - otherwise someone would cheerfully strip the valuable trees out of the forests, fell and burn the unwanted timber to make temporary roads and permanent erosion channels and ensure the extinction of several dozen more species every year.

I hope that you can adapt to this brave new world and renew and enjoy your piping activities. At least you can make your purchases whilst there is still a source of cheap items available.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

The American economy just isn't what it used to be. I know how much piping stuff can cost, and I hope you find some deals out there.

Have you heard of J. Higgins? They have really great prices for pipers.

It's not so much a matter of the internal economy of the United States, as it it the excessive taxation throughout most of the EU.

For example, a Mercedes Benz (or a Ford) cost pretty much the same in Bangor, Maine, as it does in Burbank, California. Not so in Europe. The MBZ cost almost 60% more in Dublin than London, where it is about 30% more than in Berlin.

In general terms a consumer dollar in the US goes farther than the consumer "dollar" goes in Europe, including the UK. Specialty goods (like the sorts of things "we" buy) cost more because of over-all costs of doing business in any niche market tend to be significantly higher.