Focus

The camellia's are finally blooming. Such a treat to have flowers in January, particularly this winter. 

The political climate has really affected Jeff and me, along with many other potters in our community.  I find it ironic that the new president campaigned with "Make America Great Again," but in 10 days he has already managed to create turmoil within our country, and around the world. Each day I wake and wonder what will happen next. Each day I have to tell myself to keep moving forward, stand up for what you believe in, and keep making pots.

Focus

Today we had our first shipment of bubble wrap and boxes for 2014. Now to find a way to squeeze them all into our storage room! We use a lot of free priority boxes from the post office but we have some items that just don't fit into them, although we have been known to be very creative in combining two small boxes to make larger ones. These bundles of bubble wrap are gigantic and we have been going through them rather quickly which leads to the subject of this post.

FOCUS

As 2013 was coming to an end, Jeff and I looked back on our business practices for the year.

We are very happy that we followed through with our plan to focus on selling our pottery through Etsy. We set goals and surpassed them. Yay! 2014 will be even better.

Then there are shows... we don't do that many and this year we are dropping Festival in the Park in Charlotte, and looking for something to replace it. There are a couple we are considering. Not sure I want to do anymore shows than we have in the past, but if something looks promising we may consider it.

The biggest decision we have made, going into the new year, is to discontinue our membership in the local co-op gallery. Our sales were down, despite our best efforts to figure out what would sell there.  When we did the math we realized that with the annual and monthly fees we were taking home 50% of our sales AND working three days a month. It just makes sense for us to send more work to the consignment galleries that take 40% of sales. The time commitment to the co-op was to cutting into my studio work. With three extra days a month I can make quite a few more piggy banks to sell on Etsy!
We will miss being part of the co-op. Belonging really gave us a sense of community and we will miss that, but it was time to move on. Our term will end on February 28th.


2013 had a very happy ending for us, and I am looking forward to 2014.