I think I'll take a couple of minutes right now to post as I'm not sure when next I'll have time. The past week has passed in a blur. I can't even remember a time when I was not going full out from the second I got out of bed to the minute I fell back into it--and there is no immediate end in sight. I am in full-on author mode for the book right now and try to write for a couple of hours every morning, regardless of what else I have going on for the rest of the day. The only way to pull that off is to get up at 5:30 or 6:00 am--not my favorite time of day.
However, even with getting up that early every morning, I haven't had time to write for the past several days... What's up with that? Between the demo booth we have at the American Craft Council Show here in Atlanta, getting out the current batch of orders I have from the Buyer's Market Show, and Life (e.g., costumes for the giants and props for the dwarves for Jessie's upcoming class play, helping the 8th grade class create glass doors for the bookcase they're making for the school auction, and the silversmithing class I am taking at Spruill Center for the Arts), I have been SWAMPED! Further proof, if I needed it, that the adage "The time a task takes will expand to fill the time allotted for it" is true.
Add to everything else the same old same old of equipment maintenance, quarterly newsletter, class schedule for next quarter and payroll, and well, I'm not only in the swamp, I am also up to my ass in alligators. Friday the glass furnace went down to two working pairs of elements--just enough to keep it warm enough to blow--so yesterday morning in addition to two kiln loads before going up to the ACC Show, I had to get the relays and the repaired thermocouple back in the other furnace so Tadashi could replace the broken elements in it. Next step for me is to swap the two furnaces out Monday. However last night he texted me to let me know that two pairs of elements in the replacement furnace aren't firing even after the relays were tested and put back in and the elements were changed out. So this morning, while I wait for the kilns to cool enough from yesterday's loads to unload them, I need to see if I can figure out what's up with the furnace--loose wiring, incorrect wiring, or something completely new. If I can't get it working I'll have to run it up to Olympic tomorrow (in the copiuos free time I have left unscheduled) to have the guys there look at it so I can get it up before Tuesday.
Slipping back into marketing mode, I got all the new class descriptions written up with prices, now I have to get them scheduled on the calendar and more detailed write-ups on them done and posted to the website. People who visited us at the show are already clamoring for class times, and, as I would like to take their money (and make them happy new glass artists), I need to strike while I have their attention.
As it's the end of the quarter I have a newsletter to write--and email addresses of all the new people from the ACC who signed up to get the newsletter on our mailing list. Dee may be doing a bit more of the driving than I initially planned on the way to New Mexico so I can write. Too bad I don't have an anywhere satellite network adapter for my laptop.
New Mexico? What's this about New Mexico? Tuesday right after my metalsmithing class Dee and I are heading out to Sara and David's studio in Magdalena, just south of Albuquerque, so they can share their luster technique with me for the book and I can relieve them of more equipment--specifically big old kilns that I will use to equip the casting studio (second hotshop) that we built last year and have yet to equip. One of the kilns might also go to Montana this summer as the seed kiln for the studio there. Montana?!? I become quite the regular traveler.
Finally, in the list of oh-my-heavens-I-have-a-lot-to-do, I circle back to the Buyer's Market show. I not only have orders to produce, but I need to make follow-up calls to the people I didn't see, get the Siyeh Studio website back up, and create new 12" tiles for each colorway to photograph for said website. Yet another area wher people want access to my work and I need to give it to them.
Okay, brain (and plate) full. Think I'll end with some pics Dee took of our booth at the ACC. I'll look at them as I sip my coffee, and I'll be happy in how much we've done without worrying about how much I have to do. Happy Spring Ahead Day, everyone!
I think I'll take a couple of minutes right now to post as I'm not sure when next I'll have time. The past week has passed in a blur. I can't even remember a time when I was not going full out from the second I got out of bed to the minute I fell back into it--and there is no immediate end in sight. I am in full-on author mode for the book right now and try to write for a couple of hours every morning, regardless of what else I have going on for the rest of the day. The only way to pull that off is to get up at 5:30 or 6:00 am--not my favorite time of day.
However, even with getting up that early every morning, I haven't had time to write for the past several days... What's up with that? Between the demo booth we have at the American Craft Council Show here in Atlanta, getting out the current batch of orders I have from the Buyer's Market Show, and Life (e.g., costumes for the giants and props for the dwarves for Jessie's upcoming class play, helping the 8th grade class create glass doors for the bookcase they're making for the school auction, and the silversmithing class I am taking at Spruill Center for the Arts), I have been SWAMPED! Further proof, if I needed it, that the adage "The time a task takes will expand to fill the time allotted for it" is true.
Slipping back into marketing mode, I got all the new class descriptions written up with prices, now I have to get them scheduled on the calendar and more detailed write-ups on them done and posted to the website. People who visited us at the show are already clamoring for class times, and, as I would like to take their money (and make them happy new glass artists), I need to strike while I have their attention.
As it's the end of the quarter I have a newsletter to write--and email addresses of all the new people from the ACC who signed up to get the newsletter on our mailing list. Dee may be doing a bit more of the driving than I initially planned on the way to New Mexico so I can write. Too bad I don't have an anywhere satellite network adapter for my laptop.
New Mexico? What's this about New Mexico? Tuesday right after my metalsmithing class Dee and I are heading out to Sara and David's studio in Magdalena, just south of Albuquerque, so they can share their luster technique with me for the book and I can relieve them of more equipment--specifically big old kilns that I will use to equip the casting studio (second hotshop) that we built last year and have yet to equip. One of the kilns might also go to Montana this summer as the seed kiln for the studio there. Montana?!? I become quite the regular traveler.
Finally, in the list of oh-my-heavens-I-have-a-lot-to-do, I circle back to the Buyer's Market show. I not only have orders to produce, but I need to make follow-up calls to the people I didn't see, get the Siyeh Studio website back up, and create new 12" tiles for each colorway to photograph for said website. Yet another area wher people want access to my work and I need to give it to them.
Okay, brain (and plate) full. Think I'll end with some pics Dee took of our booth at the ACC. I'll look at them as I sip my coffee, and I'll be happy in how much we've done without worrying about how much I have to do. Happy Spring Ahead Day, everyone!
2 comments:
Good Lord, I can see it already; Siyeh Studios stretching from coast to coast, at least one in every state; one in each major city...NO, ONE IN EVERY NEIGHBORHOOD!!!
I can't wait for your post from the Siyeh Studio in Teheran...
if you get a chance, just a few miles to the west of Sara's place is the largest multiple antenna radio telescope in the world.
http://www.vla.nrao.edu/
very cool if you're into science things.
if you get as far as phx, let me know and stop in.
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