Too Early Tuesday

Coffee in the Denver skyline mug, "Cloudy This Morning" on iTunes (again). It *is* cloudy this morning, and misty, and foggy, and rainy, and a perfect day for melancholy Winston. The firing schedule is done. I could complete all my orders for Atlanta and Dallas by the middle of next week but won't as some of them aren't due 'til May. Yesterday I ordered my first special run of Bullseye glass--the 0313 dense white that they no longer make. It isn't for me, it's for a friend, but it feels quite cool nonetheless to special order a half case of glass that requires it's own production run.

The EDI (electronic data interchange--a communications interface required by my new department store client) mountain is both surmountable and put-offable. I have 90 days to comply so we can all get through this first order cycle and see where the relationship is going before I make a further investment into it--and if I end up having to make the investment, I found a solution at a reasonable cost. Getting UPC barcodes for my pieces, however, is another matter. Barcodes turn out to be very pricey.

There is one central US organization that handles assignment of barcodes. If I went through them directly it would cost me $1,575 to set up and an annual subscription fee of $500 to maintain... Right. The idea of putting a universal product code on something handmade is already ludicrous, and paying that much to do it? I think not... My casino client also inquired if I UPC coded my products and they were fine with the answer "No". Let's hope the department store will be as reasonable. The least expensive official codes seem to be about $25-$35 each and I would need 10 to start. I really don't want to have to go that route.

Today I ship the first Siyeh Studio/Bentwell Metals order. I thought to get it out yesterday, but, alas, I was on the phone ALL DAY LONG! Not today. (Honest to Pete, all I want to do right now is sleep. I may have to give in for an hour and come back to the computer [hopefully] refreshed. A coffee with an extra shot of espresso in it isn't even helping.) At least it's a credit card on ship order so I'll get paid today too (I already paid Todd his share when I picked up the work).

I chug along to prepare for the BMAC in Philly, and I hope it's a better show than the two so far have been (it almost can't help but be). Just over a full week of production work out of two major shows is ludicrous--not to mention bankrupting.