If you are at all familiar with the inner workings of TUMO Studios, odds are, you’re also familiar with a certain towering figure sporting a very metal goatee who has an infectiously positive attitude and always carries a satchel over his shoulder. You’re never quite sure what’s in the satchel, but you are somehow sure that whatever is in it serves a practical, necessary purpose. He is Zeron Dovletian, the TUMO Studios Production Manager and former TUMO building manager, and for him there is no such thing as “we just can’t do it.” More on that later.
Zeron handles procuring the materials for every Studios atelier, a task that requires no small amount of sleuthing and exploration. “There can sometimes be challenges involved with finding the appropriate materials. If they’re good quality, then you usually only find it in small quantities, and if it’s in large quantities then it’s probably not of the best quality. But I’ve noticed that since our first atelier with Laura Sansonetti even, it’s already gotten easier to find great, higher-quality materials.” The quest to find these materials however isn’t as cut and dry as “locate vendor, purchase from vendor.” It takes a little bit of a creative thought process and a lot of perseverance and this is exactly where Zeron excels. It doesn’t matter how unlikely or difficult the request is, if you ask Zeron if something is possible to get or do he’ll respond, “It’ll happen,” with a smile on his face and sure enough, it will. Nothing is insurmountable and nothing is out of reach, they’re just a little bit further beneath the surface than most people (Zeron excluded) are willing to look for. “I’ll be searching for a certain kind of pen or stationary product and I’ll assume it’d be found in a stationary store, but then after some searching I’ll end up finding it in a pharmacy.” There’s no one place to find everything, but for Zeron, that’s part of the fun. “You just need to be extra tenacious and try different places until you find what you’re looking for, but you will find it eventually.”