First, sfgirlbybay did a nice little post on me.
And my friend, designer Carol Young, put some of my pots in a photo shoot:
...which is just kinda cool!
...which is just kinda cool!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
another rule of wholesale
Right now things are so hopping at the studio, one of my two kilns are always firing. I'm so glad my power bill is on auto-pay so I don't have to see how much energy I'm using. Can I just say that any ceramicist who says they are "green" is full of shit? Okay, got that off my chest. Back to the subject at hand. Things are hopping not only because I have a lot of wholesale orders, but I 
overbooked my orders and so we are behind. Not too bad, but still lagging.
For years with wholesale, I would pretty much wing it: I would take whatever orders came and try to space them out so I didn't get too bunched up. But when I hit Philadelphia the last time I decided to get a system. I sat down and tried to figure out how much pottery I could pump out in a week. I figured I could do $2000 a week, and I booked the time accordingly. I printed out a little calendar, and every time I took an order I would put the total on that week. When the total reached $2000-- more or less-- I would move on to the next week. Great system, if you know your limits, which I clearly do not. As it turns out, I overestimated just a teeny, tiny bit. I'm seeing the result right now. Late orders.
I try as hard as I can to intimidate my wholesale buyers so they won't bother me with pesky questions like, "where is my order?" and I have caller ID to screen out those calls. But still, it's kind of a drag to be late. Mostly because I have a strong desire to
be organized and efficient, and when orders are running late I feel twinges of failure and guilt.
If you want to tackle the beast that is wholesale, you must be organized and realistic about how much you can create in a given amount of time. Us artistic types always think we can do more than is humanly possible; that's just a given. Know that this is true for you also, and when you consider what you can make in a week, cut it in half. Just do it! Because when you think about all the extra stuff that comes up, not to mention the days when you simply can't make anything, cutting your expectations in half is a kindness to yourself, and to those pesky wholesale buyers.
overbooked my orders and so we are behind. Not too bad, but still lagging.For years with wholesale, I would pretty much wing it: I would take whatever orders came and try to space them out so I didn't get too bunched up. But when I hit Philadelphia the last time I decided to get a system. I sat down and tried to figure out how much pottery I could pump out in a week. I figured I could do $2000 a week, and I booked the time accordingly. I printed out a little calendar, and every time I took an order I would put the total on that week. When the total reached $2000-- more or less-- I would move on to the next week. Great system, if you know your limits, which I clearly do not. As it turns out, I overestimated just a teeny, tiny bit. I'm seeing the result right now. Late orders.
I try as hard as I can to intimidate my wholesale buyers so they won't bother me with pesky questions like, "where is my order?" and I have caller ID to screen out those calls. But still, it's kind of a drag to be late. Mostly because I have a strong desire to
be organized and efficient, and when orders are running late I feel twinges of failure and guilt.If you want to tackle the beast that is wholesale, you must be organized and realistic about how much you can create in a given amount of time. Us artistic types always think we can do more than is humanly possible; that's just a given. Know that this is true for you also, and when you consider what you can make in a week, cut it in half. Just do it! Because when you think about all the extra stuff that comes up, not to mention the days when you simply can't make anything, cutting your expectations in half is a kindness to yourself, and to those pesky wholesale buyers.
Friday, May 02, 2008
seconds sale this weekend
Because I am a crazed perfectionist, I generate a lot of seconds. Some are great, some need to get a new home before I smash them. Come by this weekend a adopt a few!
Click here for details!
Thursday, May 01, 2008
escape
Last weekend I had a gigantic order for the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite, and it was faster to drive to Yosemite and drop it off than to spend the day packing and shipping it, so that's what I did. I took my husband with me since it happened to be our wedding anniversary too. We rented one of those canvas tents that are usually packed with people during the summer, but on a Sunday-Monday in early spring it was pretty quiet. the dogwood trees were blooming like crazy so I was in heaven.The scale of things in Yosemite is huge-- the rock faces, the waterfalls, the valley floor itself. One of the reasons why I am so inspired by nature is because nature is one of the few places w
here I can really forget about myself. You are no more insignificant than when you are out in nature because you are no more than a part of nature. Your human significance means absolutely nothing, you can be wiped out as quickly as anything else out there. Being out there, I can be reminded of my insignificance and I can easily forget about myself, my problems, my stress, my concerns. When I can let go of myself I am happy. I wanted to be in concert with Yosemite by letting go of my fear and worry and letting my imagination be as big as Half Dome. When I got back to the studio on Tuesday I threw aa big bowl and giant vase that I sculpted to look like a rock face. We'll see where it takes me.
Friday, April 25, 2008
dream
As a general rule, telling someone about the dream one had last night is interesting only to the dreamer, especially a dream that takes more than 10 seconds to tell and doesn't involve the listener. That being said, I had his dream last night that was so funny. I dreamed I was at a 4- day ceramic workshop. Since it was so short, people were cranking out work and firing it right away, and I was surrounded by awesome work. And what was I doing? Making cake stands for wholesale orders. I made dozens. And then they got lost in all the work other people were doing. I was wandering around, trying to find my cake stands, and no one knew where they were or could help me. I woke up, my face all twisted up like I was about to cry, and saw that it was 6:50 AM. I told my husband earlier this week that I was going to start working from 7-9 am on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays before I went to the gym and use that time ONLY to make my own work, no wholesale or orders. So I popped out of bed, made my coffee, and ran to the studio.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
grace in giving up
I was feeling a bit emotionally hungover today after my blowout yesterday, and I had to really consider what happened and how to avoid that kind of meltdown in the future. Because really, it doesn't feel good to let of steam like that: I look like an overgrown and crazed 3-year old, stuff gets destroyed, and whatever sets off the rage in the first place isn't fixed. And it's kind of funny because like a real hangover, I feel guilt for my failings-- wasting my time, taxing my husband, breaking pots. Also, my face was all puffy today from all the crying, and I'm very vain so that made me feel bad too.
I recognize that most of my life I've let anger be my default setting when I come up against challenges. I used to think that my anger made me powerful, but I was wrong. My anger just makes me feel helpless, and for a kicker it also shows the world all of my weaknesses.
At times I can be an enlightened creature, and and I've learned to see that anger coming and set my focus on what can be done to improve the situation, not on what is pissing me off. Staying calm, and concentrating on breathing in oxygen in a measured way. The more I practice this exercise, the easier it is to let things go, secure in the knowledge that whatever uncomfortable feeling I'm having is likely just temporary.
There is so much more grace in just giving up sometimes. And it is so much harder when you have a big, gigantic, hard head like mine.
To finish off this episode, a word from Free Will Astrology:
Is there really such a thing as free will, or are our destinies shaped by forces beyond our control? Here's one way to think about that question: Maybe some people actually have more free will than others. Not because they have more money. (Many rich folks are under the spell of their instincts, after all.) Not because they have a high-status position. (A boss may have power over others but little power over himself.) Rather, those with a lot of free will have earned that privilege by taking strong measures to dissolve the conditioning they absorbed while growing up. They've acted on the advice of psychologist Carl Jung: "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate." As you enter the phase of your astrological cycle when more free will is yours for the taking, Leo, meditate on these thoughts.
I recognize that most of my life I've let anger be my default setting when I come up against challenges. I used to think that my anger made me powerful, but I was wrong. My anger just makes me feel helpless, and for a kicker it also shows the world all of my weaknesses.
At times I can be an enlightened creature, and and I've learned to see that anger coming and set my focus on what can be done to improve the situation, not on what is pissing me off. Staying calm, and concentrating on breathing in oxygen in a measured way. The more I practice this exercise, the easier it is to let things go, secure in the knowledge that whatever uncomfortable feeling I'm having is likely just temporary.
There is so much more grace in just giving up sometimes. And it is so much harder when you have a big, gigantic, hard head like mine.
To finish off this episode, a word from Free Will Astrology:
Is there really such a thing as free will, or are our destinies shaped by forces beyond our control? Here's one way to think about that question: Maybe some people actually have more free will than others. Not because they have more money. (Many rich folks are under the spell of their instincts, after all.) Not because they have a high-status position. (A boss may have power over others but little power over himself.) Rather, those with a lot of free will have earned that privilege by taking strong measures to dissolve the conditioning they absorbed while growing up. They've acted on the advice of psychologist Carl Jung: "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate." As you enter the phase of your astrological cycle when more free will is yours for the taking, Leo, meditate on these thoughts.
Monday, April 21, 2008
the hard way
When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is try and figure out what day it is. This process can take some time and usually starts with trying to figure out what day it was yesterday. Then I go from there. This morning when I woke up and figured out it was Monday I thought, "I hate Mondays!" Then I immediately thought, "Well that's not a good way to think about the day that you haven't even started." I was feeling exceedingly negative for some reason. I just spent the weekend in Santa Monica with my sister and I should have been all relaxed and stuff, but no. I went to the studio and felt immediately overwhelmed with the big fucking mess that greeted me: orders piled everywhere, the floors covered in dust, garbled messages on the answering machine, stuff that came out of the kiln while I was gone not looking so hot. Chaos was reining. I should have turned right around and scheduled a massage for myself, but I like to do things the hard way. Always have. I packed an order and I could feel the angst building as I realized there were still items missing from it. Then I had a meltdown. Actually, what preceded the meltdown was a board bonking me in the head when I pulled out my vacuum cleaner. You should have seen it. First, I grabbed the board and threw it out the back door. Then I went after it and jumped up and down on it. That temporarily assuaged me. I went back inside and noticed half the plates I threw last week were warped. I piled them up into a huge pile and then smashed them to the ground. I really wish I hadn't done that because it made a huge mess and a rather unsatisfying smashing sound. Then I sat on my wheel and cried for about 5 minutes. Then I organized a few things and left for the day. I don't know why or how this black cloud descended on my head today, but here's to a better tomorrow!
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