What happened to Dearstone mandolins

Does anyone know what happened? I went to look at the Dearstone page and found this http://dearstone.com/

Apparently, the shop is closed, or they would not be making referrals for repair work.

I have seen a lot of makers come and go. Sometimes it is because of poor sales or insufficient profits, sometimes it is because of personal difficulties, sometimes they just get tired of making and repairing the instruments. I will not hazard a guess about Dearstone.

Sometimes people just retire.

If instrument making was an easy line of work with a guarantee of high profits, more people would be doing it.

Wait for the price rise on the 'used' Dearstones -they're terrific mandolins !!. IMHO - they'll go the same way as the Hutto mandolins,
Ivan

I didn't realize Ray was no longer making mandolins. At least I got one before he quit. Hutto's were made about as long as Johnny was alive, wish I had bought several when I could have got them for $700 or $800.

Bump.

Since I saw a fellow playing a Dearstone over the weekend, I googled his site. He's still building instruments, as he's come for sale with 2021 build dates, although I didn't see any with 2022 dates.