Well, blame it on the weather! Sounds good anyway! :)
YAaaaaaaaaaaay, managed to sneak one last load in before Christmas, unfortunately we still had 3 shelves of tall stuff to go on 2 shelves, so a couple pieces got left out. I'm pretty sure nobody wanted the stuff that got left out for a gift, and all the stuff I KNOW was a gift or seasonal went in, so....
Well, blame it on the weather! Sounds good anyway! :)
0 Comments
This one actually went out Wednesday, and was delivered today (one day later!) and the customer is thrilled! This one was challenging because the size meant I had to change a few things, but I'm happy with it now that those details are worked out. There's another like it in the kiln now, a few differences but still red clay that will get the oxide stain, with swirls and spirals, same size. I think it'll sell quite well, because I've had several looks from people searching for 'extra large orchid pot' or variations on that. I'll do a few more, its a nice size for cymbidiums and the like. This one is done and ALMOST out the door, it's packed and ready to go out tomorrow. I'm happy with how the details on the dogs came out, and the buyer is happy too. :) Curious to see what the final recipient thinks, this one is also going to end up in-state so it should get there pretty quick. So, anyway, I finished loading a bisque firing that will have the second orchid pot, a couple of small orchid pots, and some tiles in it from me, plus stuff from the rest of the mudsling. We had a huge number of tall items in the last firing, 3 1/2 shelves worth to go on 2 shelves, so this load is mostly just the left overs from last load! I am not a huge fan of firing the kiln half full, but everyone is working big lately! :) Ah well, that's the way it works, I'll fire the glaze load Saturday so everyone can have their Christmas goodies!
Ok, this is something I posted over on the Etsy forums about pricing... It pretty well describes HOW to set prices for a business. I'll have to edit a bit to clarify some things, but I think the info is good. This is for figuring the price for an item produced by a sole proprietorship with NO EMPLOYEES. Employees mean you have to add more expenses, but get more production time. THIS time its edited to at least mention taxes! (yeck, but needed) To figure a price: So its not DONE yet! Glaze load goes in tomorrow though, and I'll have one of the two orchid pots I built for that custom order in, and the dog pot custom order, a shlew of buttons, and another bonsai triangle. That'll be it for me, the rest of the mudslingers have a bunch of stuff and then we'll do another bisque fire right away.
Everybody cross their fingers the weather co-operates! We've had 4 (or is it 5?) big winter storms roll through in a row, with maybe (MAYBE, being optimistic!) half a day of reasonable weather in between. Headlights at noon type weather... grey, wet, and a strong tendency to go sideways. Generally weather I don't fire in because of the risk of power outages. Anyway, it looks like a break coming in, so I can get the bisque fire done on pieces that have been giving me headaches. YAAAAAAAAY! I'm so ready for them to be OUT of my STUDIO!
On other matters, hopefully I can get the darn paperwork signed and get working on the business plan and make this officially my job! I should be able to get that signature Monday, then hopefully get the rest of it under way as soon after that as possible! Guess I should start working around to something more NORMAL of a schedual so I'm not blogging at 3am anymore :) Think I'll crash and see if I can pry myself out of bed early tomorrow... I still have to finish packing an order (not a big one but I'm not going to complain!) and get it mailed before pottery tomorrow afternoon, so was to see how many of these I could make out of a 25 lb brick of clay. Well, I got two done, from a fresh brick. So, 25lbs of clay was a 10 inch tall brick, I used 1.5 inches... Did I EVER claim to be a math major? NO! Anyway, .75 inches per pot means I can probably get a dozen or so out of one brick! Which is great, it means my supply cost is very reasonable, and actually less than I thought. For the clay... NEXT step in the process is figuring out how many I can glaze with a pint of glaze. A few weeks before I can get to that one though! Although it looks like I should be able to get a firing this Wednesday, but not before as we've got another round of weather rolling in tomorrow night. Or maybe its just more of the same bunch. ANYHOW, it should be clearing Tuesday night. We'll see, right? (knock on wood.. ouch that hurts) Of course the REST of that calculation was that it takes an hour to build each one. Which is about where I have figured, so no surprise there. |
Maryjane Carlson
Clay has always fascinated me, its many colors and textures, the shapes you can create using it, even the feel of it squishing in my hand. Even after years of playing in the mud I find myself exploring new ideas and I hope my work shows this. Archives
August 2017
Categories
All
|