I have found, this past week, that work is much like picking up a large greasy bowling ball. It is hard to get a hold of, even harder to hold on to. Jim has been in the studio and we have concentrated our efforts on getting the front room into a store front. I took some pictures. We were using it as storage, shipping, and just about anything else we could dump in there. These pictures are worse than it was as we had to move a bunch of crap, or should I say quality items around so we could paint. The problem was there were far too many quality items, a number of them found their way to the dumpster out back.
Here are the pictures of before.
The whole sale show is closer to being done than we had thought. There are a lot of pots in the studio now that we have the front room cleaned out and new shelves put up. I have 3 orders to get out, should have been done, but I have been busy trying to lift that slippery big ball. It has been a conflict of energies and the new shop won over production orders. Tomorrow I will get closer to the groove than I have been all year. I even have hopes of falling into it.
It is now tomorrow and I got close to the groove today. I had some calls to make. Had a visit from Company’s Coming, we put stuff in their cookbooks. After that I did the trimming that needed to be done for the production stuff, then I played with some vases.
I could or should have thrown the ever dreaded mugs, but tomorrow is another day.
Here are the pictures of the studio, same views. These are during. We are working on lights and as of yet we only have our pots and the wholesale line is not complete.
Until next time.
It has been almost a month since I last wrote. Time does go by quickly when you are having fun and even if you are not. We have been having fun and not working very hard since my last entry. We shut down for the holidays, in every sense of the word. A couple of months ago I was to the point where I wanted to quit and get a “real job”. I just wanted out. I would have really regretted it over the years. Everyday would be filled with I should have, could have, or “I cudda bin a contenda”.
I had been trying to do the work of two people and I was not doing very good job of it. My daughter called it “working like a fly on the window”. I found out no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t do the work of two people. I just needed some time off. We have been to the studio a bit this year, but tomorrow I have to get back to into the grove. I have been very close to the groove recently, just not in it. The orders are coming in, the wholesale show is in a month and I don’t have much for inventory. I want to add large decorative pieces to the line…………… I gotta make some pots.
I am excited about the store. When we first talked about it we were looking to build a gallery, but now I think that we will go more in the direction of interior decorating. The items in the store don’t have to hand crafted or Canadian, just has to be “cool”. If I like and I think it will sell, it’s in. With the large pieces of pottery and a funky one of kind stock, we are hoping that it will soon be the place that people will go to when they want that special something they can’t find anywhere else. We don’t have anything in it yet. We are at the painting and replacing the lights stage.
The Alberta Gift Show is next month and we will go as buyers and not sellers. It will be the first time in years we will not be in the wholesale show. This year we are inviting our wholesale customers to come see us at the studio. I think it will work out fine, not to mention the $2000 we save by not being there. So far we have not had anyone tell us they won’t come by. Most people we talk to are looking forward to seeing the studio.
This year will be an interesting year. I know there is an old curse that says “May you live in interesting times”, if it is a curse, I welcome that one. Jim and I have been “cursed” since we have met. The work looks good, the store is an exciting direction change and Jim’s venture with the DVD’s and the conection to the oil industry is a total wild card. Who knows where that one will go? We will have fun finding out. It is exciting.
I will try to take some pictures of before, during and after of the progress of our little store. We don’t have a name yet. We will most likely just call it Out of the Fire Studio Pottery and ???? .If anyone reading this has an idea let me know.
Until next time.
Cindy