Buying Power

The great thing about living in a community of potters is that we often all have the same needs. One of them is shipping and packing supplies. We are fortunate to have a packaging and shipping supply company in nearby Greensboro, NC. They will deliver for free with a minimum order. Since we often can't meet that minimum on our own, we get together with other Seagrove potters to place a large order.

This was delivery week at our studio! 

We were inundated with peanuts, bubble wrap, and paper!!!

It all had to be brought inside due to our wacky weather. Thankfully, everyone came quite quickly to pick up their share. Jeff and I still have to store our portion. Some goes into our office, some resides in our trailer until we have more room in the house. How is that we have doubled our living space and still don't have enough room?!!

News from the shipping department

The first wholesale order for 2015 is almost packed. This is a totally different method of packing and shipping for me. Typically piggy banks go to galleries and gift shops that place them on shelves. That being said, all the pigs get bubble wrapped and placed in a box with cardboard between each layer and off they go. These pigs are being shipped to a warehouse and will be sold online or in a catalog. Which means that each one is individually boxed before shipment. Included in the box is an artist card with the company name and a little story about Jeff and me. Each box is also barcoded. 

I set up my shipping station in the kitchen because the supply room is right off of it. I can clear off the island to work on. Yesterday with all the little boxes covering the floor, Sophie cat thought it was quite an obstacle course. She finally made her way around the boxes, and to her food bowl, to remind me it was time eat.

Wrapping Up

Yesterday was the "big" pack and ship day. We unloaded the kiln on Tuesday night and most of it was orders or Christmas gifts. This year I had a lot of personalized piggy bank orders. I had my fingers and toes crossed that they all came out perfect. I breathed a big sigh of relief when they emerged.
Then it was the tedious part of putting orders together. Many of the "name" pigs were orders of two or more. I wanted to be sure I put the right siblings in boxes together! After packing one pig, I couldn't remember if I had put a cork in it's snout. I hadn't sealed the box yet, but didn't want to un-bubble wrap it, so I dropped a cork into the box just in case! If there was one in there already, they will have a spare.

Jeff and I did a few larger piggy banks this season. The white one didn't last too long in the Etsy shop but I do still have this big blue piggy bank (below), along with the regular size aqua/shino one (above).

Noon tomorrow (eastern time) is the deadline to order from my Etsy shop. At this point I will ship everything priority mail. The post office says you will get it in time for Christmas, but like most government agencies... there is no guarantee! 

Santa's Elves

That's what we have been feeling like! Our kitchen has been transformed to a packing and shipping station...

We have sent packages of pottery all over the United States and Canada these last few weeks. We met our Etsy goals for the year and plan on building on this momentum through 2014!

Our gallery is decorated for Christmas but our house is not.

We closed early last Sunday and went to the local guy selling trees, only to find out they are closed on Sunday. The week was hectic and we never got back there. Chances are there are no more trees. We will make do with my little stick of a fake tree.

As you can see it has worked just fine in the past. Even Sophie didn't seem to mind it. Jeff said he actually knows where it is in the storage room! So tonight I will take my Halloween runner off of the hutch in the kitchen, and put the stuffed dog, dressed as a  turkey, away. Then we will dig out the little tree and decorate it in all of about 15 minutes. Like the Who's in Whoville, we know Christmas will come, even without the horns and bamboozles... or a real tree.

count down to Christmas...

The holiday open house weekend is behind us. Sales weren't spectacular but we had some past customers come in for new pots and I am sure we acquired some new fans as well. The weather was so warm that it seemed almost silly to be serving hot chocolate, at least the chocolate chip cookies went over well!
If we were slightly disappointed with gallery sales, our Etsy sales and special orders certainly made up for it. We fired the kiln over the weekend, unloaded this morning, and shipped many of the pots out today...

I had set a goal to double my Etsy revenue this year and I exceeded that goal last month. I finally feel like I have the momentum going now. It seemed like a lot of work at first, but once you get it down it's much easier... way easier than packing up to go to a show. Since Jeff and I have separate shops, we have a lot of fun with healthy competition and cheering each other on. This is what people that don't have cable or satellite TV do for entertainment!

6 more sales and I will finally be at 100, maybe these new ornaments will help to get me there...

where does the time go?!

Jeff and I have filled the last few days getting all those behind the scenes things done that it takes to run a pottery business. Third quarter sales taxes (me), grind shelves (Jeff), pack a big order, tweak websites and take photos.

We are shipping more pots in recent months, between Etsy, wholesale etc and we have spent some time exploring the least expensive options. We use Fedex for large boxes, pay online and schedule a pick up. Etsy orders typically have gone out USPS. In the last month I have started to use USPS online. Perhaps everyone else knew this (I didn't), it is usually cheaper than bringing it in to the post office. I use the "print a shipping label" button on Paypal and then you choose USPS as your carrier. Many times Priority is less than standard mail. You can also schedule your carrier to pick the parcel up at your location. I can tell you that it's not always reliable... last week the post office sent me an e-mail that said my parcel was picked up but there it sat on the front porch of the gallery! Luckily the post office is a short drive and I got in the car and brought it to them. With the talk of closing small post offices we don't know how long we will have a local branch. I think right now it was voted that no closures would take place for at least another six months. If we lose our post office, carrier pick up for packages will make our life easier. For now I don't mind a trip into town... you can chat with the clerks and maybe run into other potters and do some catching up.

Daffodils in January... just doesn't seem right

This mild weather sure has made January fly by... no complaints from here!