Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Taking stock on inventory.

We are working towards the last two kiln loads for this year.
One which, we will fire in November for the upcoming Celebration show,
And the next one, which will be the last kiln we will fire for the year in December, with Christmas orders.

I did a walk through yesterday and Mark is still throwing, pots are drying, the bisque kilns are being fired and unloaded and I am mentally looking to see what else we need to fill out the first load and what we will need for the second load.

One of the older potters use to tell me you need all your Christmas pots made before Halloween. The first year we were in business I thought this was so silly. I remember just working along and taking my time and then BAM!
The season hit and I felt totally behind.
The last few years with the slow down I have changed the way I think.
I try not to be as anxious as I once was since we don’t see as many folks down the drive as we once did.
There is a recession going on and I think we all feel it.
But as any potter knows you need inventory when they do buy.
So we stay busy working and making pot. Just like we always have

Last night I had trouble sleeping and woke up with my mind full of things I need to do. I find that 2 in the morning is a great time to read. I picked up my book on murder, death and mutilation and read for several hours. It is just the kind of book someone needs to put them back to sleep!
I try to read in the evenings and usually this will make my eyes shut quickly, 20 minutes and I am done. But- at 2 I find I can read for several hours before I give it up and take a nap before it is time to get up.
So with Halloween looming this week I am ticking off what needs to be done.
Back at it!

8 comments:

Patricia Griffin Ceramics said...

Christmas pots before Halloween? Yikes. I'm dead meat. This is my first full holiday season in my studio gallery... I might just lock the doors and not let 'em in! Ha! If things get that bad, it's really actually good news! It would be a sweet problem to have!

Anonymous said...

lots of work to be done before halloween... i'm not going to make it. i have the same problems sleeping sometime and reading affects me the same way. have to keep that mind from racing.

Tracey Broome said...

You should have called me, I was up too! I usually sleep from 10pm-2am and that's about it for me.

Laurie said...

Me too! I awoke at 3, & that was it for the night, though I read something a bit tamer!

klineola said...

I've been having crazy dreams and not sleeping well. Could be that I'm a little behind getting the pots made.

I love those spirals!

cookingwithgas said...

seems we are all not sleeping! Last night it was Mark's turn.
Best get cracking in the studio's!

cindy shake said...

I think there is a lot of truth in what you're saying. Always so good to plan rather than panic! For me it's that end of the calendar flipping the page that can put me in a panic -when there are important things that fall that first week in the upcoming month that I haven't been "seeing!" My big Bad Girls holiday show is falling on the 6th but it's been on my radar for a few months...I'm still panicking though -ha!

T.Gray said...

It's hard to make pots when they aren't selling...it's hard to keep up when they do.