The Studio Monstrocat

Another day, another Dancing Goats mocha, accompanied by "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins (on the Dancing Goats coffee house sound system!). Gotta love the slippery slide into fall/winter and caffeine. Maybe that's the way to go: every spring I detox from coffee and wine, and every fall I cuddle up with wine, snuggle in with coffee, and get all warm and cozy. But enough about me. I know the world is waiting to hear about Ernie.

Ernie got in early last night--though I'm sure not soon enough for him. When we got to the Delta cargo counter his carrier was snugged up against the desk agent's leg--not in the back room with the rest of the cargo. Jessie, with my driver's license (proof we were legitimately there to claim him) clutched tightly in her hand, marched up to the counter, waved the license in the direction of the desk agent (the counter was taller than she was) and announced that she was there to Get Ernie. Did the agent ask for a confirmation number? Was there any question who Ernie was? Of course not! Ernie the Monstrocat in all his rotund glory had captured another heart.

We were allowed around corner of the counter so Jessie could get to the carrier, but when I went to pick it up, the agent hurriedly said, "Let me get help". I was mystified--it was a a large carrier to be sure (Baxter would lounge in it comfortably), but it just had a cat in it. But I politely waited for a big, burly Delta cargo mover to come and pick it up to carry it to the car for me. He grunted when he picked it (gently) up. "What you got in here, a dog?" Uh, no. A cat. "Wow!"

We paraded out the door, me, then the cargo guy guy with Ernie, Jessie dancing anxiously around all of us chanting "Ernie, Ernie, Ernie." Parked next to us at the dock was a nice young man with a white cargo van waiting for a forklift so he could finish his load. He had been leaning against his van waiting when we arrived and hadn't even acknowledged Jessie and me as we went into the building, but as soon as we came out he was immediately and inevitably pulled over by Ernie Magnetism. "What have got, a puppy?" More amazement that no, that great grey shape did not belong to a canine, but a feline. The cargo guy tried to break off the cable ties securing the door shut for us and the van guy ran off to get a knife to cut them with. I just sat back and bemusedly watched. Jessie alternately chanted Ernie, Ernie, Ernie and cooed nonsense at him as she tried to thrust her fingers through the bars in the carrier. Ernie took all of the attention as his due and let us know *exactly* how trying the day had been and much he was Done with the carrier. Cynthia was right, he really is a talker.

When we got home, Baxter and Seraph were waiting eagerly to greet him. Unfortunately they did it in time-honored dog fashion by sniffing first his nose and then proceeding right to the butt. Ernie was NOT amused and hissed loudly at both of them. Neither dog was disturbed by the hiss--Seraph was raised in a house with an alpha cat and is well-trained in cat subservience and Baxter is subservient to Seraph so if she says the cat rules, the cat rules. It will probably take Ernie a couple of days to realize his power over the dogs, but I have no doubt he'll get there.

This morning he cuddled with Jessie and hung out with me a bit before taking himself away upstairs to avoid the noise and chaos of the cleaning people. This afternoon I'll introduce him to the studio and the studio backyard squirrels. More pics and video later, and thank you Cynthia for gracing us with such a marvelous fellow! (Dave just announced that the song we're hearing is "C'mon Every Beatbox" by Big Audio Dynamite, in case I was posting... he knows me so well :-)

Ernie Has Landed!

Pictures and details tomorrow (excuse me, ma'am, is that a dog in there?).

Ernie... Today!

Coffee in the Atlanta skyline mug (apparently I don't have a Portland mug), "Hakuna Matata" by Ernie Sabella and others (from the Disney soundtrack of The Lion King) on iTunes. Both the mug and the song are to celebrate the imminent arrival of Ernie the Monstrocat! Thank you very much to the many people who made Ernie's voyage possible, I'll make sure once he gets here his saga will continue to be recorded and presented for his posterity. Too bad he doesn't eat kudzu. The other recent addition to the household (Jamine bunny) is very happy to help us avoid being overrun by the kudzu in the yard of the abandoned house next door. Even the caterpillar J brought me yesterday for identification has kudzu for a host plant!

The beautiful fall weather continues here in Atlanta and we keep the studio doors flung wide (and the screen door latched--Baxter bit the FedEx deliveryman yesterday) to profit from it. In a perfect world, I would sit in the skychair on the porch with the bunny frolicking at my feet all day. Hmmm. Maybe it can be a perfect day. Add a couple of phones, a laptop, a mountain of papers and voila--outdoor office!

Speaking of phones, if you left voicemail for me on my cell phone anytime between 9/13 and today and wondered why I never called you back, it's because I did not get your message til last night late (sorry Patty, Mary, Dee, Cynthia, Patrrick, Todd, Becky, and everyone else). Apparently the visual voicemail on my iPhone is honked and I didn't even know it till I tried calling it myself and got a 'mailbox full' message. Two calls with AT&T down--and a third to go this morning--'cause it still doesn't work.

Now I better go prepare for Ernie. Where did I put that kitty throne?

In non-Ernie studio news, Glass Craftsman magazine is reviewing my book in their December-January issue. I had a long (disjointed on my part) call from one of their writers yesterday. She interviewed me about my experience, teaching, writing the book, etc. I hope I didn't come across as a total moron. Some days you can talk better than others. Yesterday was not that day for me. Today might not be either.

Happy Birthday Dave!

It's Dave's birthday and I got him a... Cat! (oh we know I made him something too, but it's not finished yet so I can't write about it yet). Ernie the Monstrocat is scheduled to arrive tomorrow night from Portland. Ernie is officially designated as a Studio Cat, but he may end up up spending nights in the Griffith household and days in the studio--the best of both worlds. Ernie is a cat with a powerful presence. Though he doesn't use a computer himself (destroying keyboards and eating mice doesn't count he has a Facebook page and many (23 at last count) friends.

More about Ernie tomorrow!

Tuesday Anything is Possible

The lovely afterglow from a Dancing Goats mocha with whipped cream as I reminisce about my morning beverage, the calling of the baristas and "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" by Elvis Costello over the coffee shop sound system for my morning music. It's a Dancing Goats morning! (NOTE: seven laptops in the coffe shop this morning and ALL are Macs... the tide has turned.) I edit press release, business agreement, and artist bio (for Lee), work on the underlying formulae used in my order form to Bullseye, and complete (to date) the order I am having shipped from Bullseye *Next Week*. Then lunch (maybe at Taqueria del Sol with the Spouse--who is also here with me at Dancing Goats). Then finishing said Spouse's birthday present (in time for tomorrow? maybe not...) and getting in the first load of the pieces that ship Thursday.

As can be seen from the perky list above, I feel MUCH better than I did yesterday! Yesterday I went to Commerce and picked up the metal work from Black Cat, came home and collapsed into a somnolent napping daze for two hours, and then dragged myself to the studio to get orders shipped, go over hotshop biz with Lee, and have a long chat with Morganica about Ernie the Monstrocat and website design.

Talking to Morganica about Ernie was very energizing--though I am become a bit daunted by the weight of the public scrutiny surrounding his move here. There have been some hitches and glitches in funding Ernie's travel from west coast to east so he is unlikely to arrive this week. As it looks now, it'll be about a week before the resource center grand opening before he graces us with his presence.

Now to edits, infinity, and beyond!

25 Days... and Counting

Lapsang Souchong tea in the New York skyline mug, the ticking of the clock (how appropriate!) for morning music. Siyeh Glass Resource Center opens in 25 days. We are still in mid-construction on the hotshop equipment and haven't started the beadmaking classroom or the retail space. Today I finish creating my order form for Bullseye (a spreadsheeting I will go, a spreadsheeting I will go, heigh ho the merry-o, a spreadsheeting I will go!) and finish filling it in to see what my damages are from my initial order. They will not, I am sure, be... small.

Over the weekend I registered a new domain for the resource center website--siyehglass.com. I have decided to follow Bullseye's model and keep separate the websites for Siyeh Studio and Siyeh Glass. I had really wanted to have just one website, but I couldn't figure out how to meld all the news from the studio site (new galleries, new work, etc.) with all in the info from the resource center site (classes, items for sale, now items, book info, etc.) and get them to mind their elbows as they jostled for prominence on the front page. So I looked to others in the glass world who have the same dilemma to see their solutions. As I was afraid, the ones who are artists with a thriving resource center business either have great resource center websites or great art studio websites. I didn't find a good example of both. Keeping everything up-to-date will clearly be an issue.

Then I went back for another look at the Bullseye Glass and Bullseye Gallery sites, and it all just became clear in my mind. Each of my sites needs its own clean, crisp presence, but they also need to feel connected, linked, related--two parts of a whole instead of two different sites. Oh I don't plan to use the same layout template for both, but they should both have similar logos, similar background colors, font and layout. If you look at the Bullseye sites, they both have white backgrounds and grey text/image boxes, and they both convey the same clean, modern, complete yet minimalist impression. Both sites feel up-to-date and complete--understandable as they are maintained by someone whose job it is to maintain them--not, as in my case, to maintain them, run the store, teach classes and make the production work...

Oh this cold is taking a toll on both my writing and concentration abilities! But I will try to persevere through the rest of this post. Apologies in advance if it is more disjointed and makes less sense than usual.

As I surfed the templates at RocketTheme (they make great Joomla templates--I used a RocketTheme template for my Siyeh Studio site when I redid it a couple of years ago), I was initially seduced by Moxy--the template for September 2009. It's colorful, sexy, and sings to me in the same way the Dimensions template did when I got it. But this morning I came to my senses. Yes, it's beautiful and sophisticated, but it's not really the best match for a storefront site--even though it has the new QuickCart integration. A much better option would seem to be Mynxx... and that's enough geeking out on website stuff for the morning. I am in full Shiny Rock Syndrome (if you open that link you'll have to scroll to the bottom to get to the salient bit) and am going to have to rein myself in hard to get through the next 25 days intact and on time.

Now off to Commerce to get metal work!

Happy Michaelmas!

Coffee--real, high-octane Trader Joe's organic French roast with pumpkin spice creamer and half 'n half--in the Los Angeles skyline mug, "Lay Me Down" by Crosby and Nash on iTunes--it has been running through me head for the past hour, might as well be coming into my ears too. The loan application is IN. I faxed all 102 pages of it in yesterday--and wasn't THAT fun! You know how sometimes the pages stick together going through the rollers? Well I caught all but one of the times it happened. Somewhere in part two of four there was a double up. I figure they'll call me and me to refax it when they get around to reading it. In my naivete I called the Chase business loan center to tell them about the problem to see if someone could look at the fax machine and tell me which page was missing. Of COURSE faxing doesn't work like that at a bank! All the faxes in the country come into one 800 line and are scanned as they come in. Then the scanned set is routed to the appropriate department. I put the same cover page on all four of my sections (including the fourth one that I had to send three times before it would all go through) so I hope they'll be able to put it all together. I haven't heard anything from them in any case. Let's hope this wasn't a big Waste Of Time.

Today J's school celebrates Michaelmas as the festival of strong will in timing with the fall equinox (which was Tuesday, in case you missed it ;-). The morning was complicated a bit by my strong-willed child because she had to dress in "warm colored clothing"( to symbolize flame as she is being chased... by the dragon (in the form of the 8th graders)? I need to get the rest of the story today) and she did NOT like any of her clothing choices. "Snow" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers on iTunes now. It's a good morning mix.

I might have burned out the pump yesterday emptying the basement/crawlspace at the studio yesterday. I hope it just shut off because it was overheated. It looks like there's still about 4-5 inches of water down there that I need to get up before I can get the furnace repaired (please, please, please not replaced!). When I looked in yesterday I could see that one of the big ducts had pulled away from the furnace and it probably filled with muddy water. I'll call Ray--our heating and air guy extraordinaire (that's the only kind we have)--to see what he thinks over the phone and then see if I can coax him down to take a look at it. He doesn't really work in this area except as a favor to us so I am going to have to sound really pitiful. Come to think of it, sounding pitiful is not going to be a problem at all right now--this cold is beating the crap out of me. Today I sound like one of Baxter's squeaky toys when I try to talk.

This morning I get a kiln-load in, work on Dave's birthday present--which got pushed to a far back burner by the paperwork and flooding issues--and give a call to a web expert to get an opinion on how to structure my website to be both attractive and appropriate for my gallery customers and to serve the new Resource Center clients with class, materials, and technical info. Think about it--websites are powerful communication tools and they may set, if not the first then potentially one of the most important impressions someone has of you and your work. If you are a production artist, as I am, you want to project a professional image so that gallery owners can pull up your website to show prospective clients our work and information about you. They don't want to have to go in through a a retail/supplies website and raise the question in the client's mind "Is this person an artist or a shopkeeper?".

Many people deal with the split identity issue by having two different websites, but I am resisting that solution. I have been Siyeh Studio for over 20 years, I don't want to have to be somebody else as I add this new Resource-Center/teaching aspect to my work. My studio name is also tied to my book through me, and I want to use the book to provide credibility to the Resource Center and my classes. So on the phone I go. Then I have just under a month to get it laid out and implemented. ROFLOL! Oh I am funny this Friday morning!

Unnnnggghhh

Egyptian licorice tea in the Denver skyline mug, the static of a 'silent hold' on the phone with Chase bank for music. I think my body decided that since I'm determined to slow down, I have time to get a full-blown cold. Silly body. I continue to plug doggedly away at the final (please, please, please let them be final!) details for the ARC loan--78 pages of documentation to fax to them so far and still counting--isn't there some paperwork reduction act in place in our government somewhere?

I started to continue on in the vein of customer service horror stories, no one knowing what is actually needed for filling out these government forms, the general ineptitude of customer service people (coupled with their unflagging cheerful unhelpfulness), but I'm just too worn down by this cold. I think I'll put down the computer for a few hours and go make some GLASS. I'm tired of being Paperwork Incarnate. I need to go have me some fusing FUN.

Till tomorrow...

Plodding On

Water to drink (still fighting off the first cold of the season), "You Can't Always Get what You Want" by the Rollin Stones on the iPod. Yup. It was a random selection but so appropriate! It hasn't rained since the night before last. The water in the basement/crawlspace has dropped about the same place on the hot water heater that was the high mark last spring (last photo from yesterday). The pump continues to chug away, and water flows down the driveway into the storm drain. Flood insurance? Who, me?

This morning I got the last of the equipment for the hotshop ordered--misc blocks, punties, jacks, etc. Now I'm just waiting to hear back from Nortel on their proposal for the beadmaking classroom. Also printing out the last of the reams of paper necessary to apply for the ARC loan (the loan that would not die!). Fingers crossed I can get it off today--the 20 hours I spent putting together a two-year cash flow projection made me alternately very happy and very nervous. And, really, who can say what's going to happen in the next couple of years?

The order drought appears to have ended with the physical drought: I have taken a couple of orders a day so far this week. (Christmas is saved! Shoes for everyone!) Now off to go bail out Ernie's new cat corner (just kidding Cynthia. The studio proper is warm and dry--or at least no more than vaguely moist :-)

Calm Between the Storms

Cherry berry green tea in the Montreal mug, the sound of crickets chirping and little girls riding bikes and scootering for music. School (and everything else in north Georgia) was cancelled today due to poor road conditions, heavy rains and flooding. Right now it's calm and mostly dry (as dry as things can be after two straight weeks of rain on heavy clay soil), but we're due to get a lot more rain this afternoon. Joy. I thought the water in the crawelspace/basement at the studio was down about five inches this morning, but the waterline in the picture shows it a lot lower than yesterday's high water mark. It's still a lot more than it was this past spring when flooding took out the hot water heater (last photo). Glad I've had a lot of other stuff on my plate and I didn't get around to replacing it yet. Now I need to get a picture of it when there's no water so I can remember what it looks like... :-0

I started the morning with an hour's worth of chores, and it felt good. Then I lost the next two hours and it doesn't feel so good. Where did they go? Puttering with this, putzing with that, talking to the people that own the house next to studio (I was hoping we could buy it and expand over one more space--and another 200 amps--but apparently they got 50% more than we were willing to offer for it). And then the time was gone and I'm staring doewn the barrel of another rapidly retreating week. Tuesday always starts with such promise! Monday is over, the rest of the week is enough time to get everything done, and I can breathe. But sometime during the day (earlier than usual this morning), everything goes to hell in a time management handbasket and I just know Wednesday will start by looming.

Well not this week! No matter what, I'm going to remain upbeat, relaxed, and optimistic. I'm going to work steadily and whistle while I do so. I'm going to get done what I get done and eliminate what I don't. I'll be ruthless with those tasks that just keep on hanging on! At least that's the theory... And I'm going to put an a little music to spur me on. I end the post with a little REO Speedwagon, "Ridin' the Storm Out".

Rain, Rain Go Away, Come Again Another YEAR

A HUGE Kavarna mocha (with whipped cream) in the Chicago skyline mug (I stopped on the way home from dropping J off at school), "Lay Me Down" by Crosby & Nash on iTunes. There are so many possible titles for this post, but after long consideration I decided to go with the rain theme. Had I posted on Saturday as I almost did, the title would have been "The Chaos Being Has Left the Building" and though it might be a catchier title, today is mostly about the rain.

Got Dave off to the airport for another week in Austin this morning, and then finished cleaning the kitchen, making J's breakfast, packing her lunch and getting her off to school. I was lucky and missed heavy rain (only seeing a drizzle) during both of the morning's drives. But it's a wet and wild world out there with all northbound lanes blocked on I-85 due to an accident (saw notice for this on the way to the airport) and a tree down at the Seminary across from J's school blocking the street--and the carpool/drop-off lane for the school--completely. Had to toss her out into the road and just keep driving (just kidding--I did stop).

When I got home--and I'm not going out again till I have to pick her up from school--I decided to take advantage of the continuing break in the rain and get the portable pump set up in the crawlspace under the studio. I looked down there last week and it was flooded again (glad I didn't get around to replacing the hot water heater). I should've braved the deluges over the weekend though as when I looked in today there was over *five feet* of standing water--all the way to the top of the dugout part. Sadly this means that the furnace is now partly (mostly?) underwater. I shudder to think what THAT's going to cost. As I set up the pump, it started to rain again. I'll just leave it running today and see how far down it gets. It'll take at least two days to get all that water out. *sigh*.

Enough about the rain, let's talk about chaos beings. I have come to the mid-life realization that I am such a one. Before I was married there was no one to notice, comment upon, stress about the pace that I (un)naturally kept. Once I had a partner, I started the litany of "after I/we finish this project, things will slow down", but they never did. There was always something new we had to do, someplace we had to go or move to, a new job to take, a child to have, SOMETHING. Up till this past weekend I figured it was just bad luck or timing--or my inability to say no when asked to do/give something. Saturday morning as I breakfasted with a spouse made very unhappy by Friday's post, I realized that it's all me: When things start to slow down and I have a less-than-totally-consuming task, I add to its complication and difficulty till I am appropriately consumed.

Current point in case is the opening of Siyeh Studio as a Kiln-Glass Resource Center. When I initially decided to do it, I wasn't going to add much inventory, I wasn't going to have formal retail hours, and I wasn't going to offer any classes right away. By this past weekend I not only found myself with a full class schedule (thank heavens I am not teaching it all), an expanded retail selection (now taking up a full room in the studio), a dedicated beadmaking classroom with all its attendant paraphernalia, and a hotshop whose equipment I had doubled to be able to have two simultaneous gloryholes and benches for teaching. I was embroiled in storyboarding the safety and demo videos for the classes (for heaven's sake!), designing new classes, negotiating distributorships--in short, spending time and money as if they were water. And it's too bad they AREN'T water as with all the rain we have, I could goldplate all my tools and work 938 hours a day and still have some left over.

What was I doing? And, more importantly, why? Why? Because I am a chaos being. I like the spontaneous, the unpredictable, the surprise and change. When I got stressed when I was younger and footloose, I'd take a roadtrip. Maybe I'd go from Phoenix to LA for the weekend--or the day. Drive all night to sleep on the beach during the day and drive home for work the next day. Or I'd move to Colorado on a whim for the winter--or Austin on a similar whim for the summer. If I had a problem, I didn't try to sit down and fix it, I'd leave it behind instead. Right here and now is the longest I have lived anywhere since I was 17 and kicked the dust of the same address for my whole life to date from my heels. It's not that I didn't like where I grew up--I moved back twice in the six years after I first moved and would probably be there again now had I not been snared by my spouse while in Chicago.

The addiction to upheaval reached such a state that I didn't even realize what I was doing. But Saturday, I had an epiphany. I *don't* have to have everything I can think of for a perfect KGRC done by October 23. I don't even have to *try* to have it done. I can stage development. Dave told me the name for this process as we were talking Saturday morning--maybe it even was staged roll-out or development. Wow. I feel liberated. I immediately scaled back on the planning and (except for the one this morning about the sump pump in the studio crawlspace) have stopped having anxiety attacks again. Now let's see if I can keep up at slowing down...

"Hi. My name is Brenda, and I'm a slothful adrenaline junkie..."

Welcome to Friday

I think I forgot to post yesterday, but right now this minute I'm not sure if that's true. Did I write about the Red Queen's race on Tuesday or Wednesday? Well, I may be virtually disorganized, but in the real world I have a cascading file tote and I'm not afraid to use it! There are sections for glass and supply sales, classes, orders, the hotshop and beadmaking classroom, Black Cat ArtWorks and Bentwell Metals collaborative info, technical data, and business info (loan docs, website stuff, email marketing info, etc.). Of course that little tote won't hold *all* the papers I have on any one of those topics--but it isn't meant to. No, the tote is there to hold all the papers that I need *right now* to keep them organized and at my fingertips.

This is an unusual period for me. It is not uncommon that I have 2-3 projects going at a time, but right now I have upwards of ten and I think I have reached the limit (maybe even passed it a little) for what I can do all at once. Last night I was sure I heard the hamster in our room again about 2:00 AM. He got out a couple of weeks ago while J was having a sleepover at a friend's house and we heard him rustling around in a plastic bag in the corner of our room about 4:00 am. We both got up and managed to wrangle him back to his cage. Last night I was just too tired to get up to investigate so instead I dreamed about giant hamsters and glass studio projects the rest of the night. This morning the first thing I did upon rising was to check on Tuffy (said hamster) and he was tucked up safe in his cage. Either he went on walk-about and returned safely (and shut the cage up after himself), or I dreamed it all.

This morning I go up to the Gwinett Center to set up my ikebana arrangement for JapanFest this weekend. Then I drop off a commissioned piece at Taylor Kinzel. Then I meet with Becky the bookkeeper. I begin to hate sentences that begin with 'then I'. Then Becky the assistant arrives and we ship an order or two (depending on if I hear back from the client for one with a ship-to address). THEN I have to find time to keep going through the mountain of material, tool and supply orders I have to find a way to finance simultaneously and immediately, AND to work on my class descriptions and prices, AND to create the resource center website from scratch, AND update my own website with the Greene & Greene exhibit info, AND finish creating order forms and price sheets for all of Bullseye's products, AND AND AND...

Roll up the sleeves, gird the loins, put the big-girl panties on and get to it. (Maybe I'll wheedle Dave into making me some coffee first...)

Listening NOT to the Mustn'ts

It's a rainy morning and I wait for the Sprout to finish her breakfast so I can take her to school. I also wait for the kiln to cool so I can grind the lattice I need to take to Elaine this morning so Black Cat can assemble and ship it. When I get back from that meeting I have just enough time to photograph the new business card holder design I slumped yesterday and get it off for review for the corporate gift project. Then I meet with my accountant Helen so she can help me fill out the ARC loan docs. I tried doing it on my own last week, but I am incapable of coming up with a two-year income projection without just pulling the numbers out of my... ear. After Helen and I are finished Becky arrives and it's time to ship two orders.

Oh yeah, and I need to order the rest of the hotshop tools, review my current Bullseye order for my KGRC opening and get it back in, review my agreement docs with Lori... time to stop. I'm making myself tired.

It's just over a month till we have our 'grand opening' and I begin to realize how much there is still left to do... STOP! No more talk of lists and to do's. Got to get on with the day. Need to close with a little Shel Silverstein today.

"Listen to the MUSTN'TS, child
Listen to the DON'TS
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON'TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me -
Anything can happen, child
ANYTHING can be."

No Personal Day In the Red Queen's Race

Water in a bottle, the sound of the rain and tapping keys on my laptop keyboard for music. I need a personal day, I thought I might get a personal hour, now it looks like I have a personal 15 minutes--which I am using to post. *sigh* I have so many balls in the air right now I hardly know which way to turn. I'm to the point where I don't even try to remember what people are asking for--even if it's something I think I'll do in the next 15 minutes. They ask, I add to the scary To Do list. And everything but *everything* goes on the calendar. I cannot be held responsible for remembering anything right now.

Put together a really great class with Becky and Todd yesterday right down to the hourly time break-down. Got the dishwasher fixed last night. Being in the studio right now is like riding the people mover at an airport, but facing backwards. If you walk fast you can get ahead. If you just walk, you stay in one place. But heaven help you if you want to stand still for a moment. Wait a minute! I know where I am...

______________________

"Just at this moment, somehow or other, they began to run.

Alice never could quite make out, in thinking it over afterwards, how it was that they began: all she remembers is, that they were running hand in hand, and the Queen went so fast that it was all she could do to keep up with her: and still the Queen kept crying `Faster! Faster!' but Alice felt she could not go faster, thought she had not breath left to say so.

The most curious part of the thing was, that the trees and the other things round them never changed their places at all: however fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything. `I wonder if all the things move along with us?' thought poor puzzled Alice. And the Queen seemed to guess her thoughts, for she cried, `Faster! Don't try to talk!'

Not that Alice had any idea of doing that. She felt as if she would never be able to talk again, she was getting so much out of breath: and still the Queen cried `Faster! Faster!' and dragged her along. `Are we nearly there?' Alice managed to pant out at last.

`Nearly there!' the Queen repeated. `Why, we passed it ten minutes ago! Faster! And they ran on for a time in silence, with the wind whistling in Alice's ears, and almost blowing her hair off her head, she fancied.

`Now! Now!' cried the Queen. `Faster! Faster!' And they went so fast that at last they seemed to skim through the air, hardly touching the ground with their feet, till suddenly, just as Alice was getting quite exhausted, they stopped, and she found herself sitting on the ground, breathless and giddy.

The Queen propped her up against a tree, and said kindly, `You may rest a little now.'

Alice looked round her in great surprise. `Why, I do believe we've been under this tree the whole time! Everything's just as it was!'

`Of course it is,' said the Queen, `what would you have it?'

`Well, in our country,' said Alice, still panting a little, `you'd generally get to somewhere else -- if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing.'

`A slow sort of country!' said the Queen. `Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.

If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"

______________________

from "Through the Looking Glass", by Lewis Carroll

Tomorrow I'll run twice as fast as this.

June Cleaver Has Left the Building

I am forgoing coffee this morning, the ticking of the clock is the music that spurs me on into the day. This morning I have another appointment with my surgeon to review the progress of my ankle on it's road to fully healed support. It looks like there is no infection anymore, it's just a big scabby, scarred mess. I'm going to ask him how soon I can get a tattoo over it just to see his reaction.

Yesterday I got a call from this year's 7th grade teacher at Jessie's school about a fieldtrip for her class. Of course I am delighted to have 20 7th graders in to see demos and make projects at the studio! This year we'll have even more to demo to them with the hotshop and the beadmaking classroom.

The rest of this past weekend was spent being June Cleaver for a varying number of seven year-old girls. We had a friend of Jessie's from Friday morning through Sunday evening while her mother was at a conference, and we also had another of her friends from midday Saturday through Sunday evening. I took the three of them to the Yellow Daisy Festival Saturday morning, but I didn't get to see any of my friends exhibiting there. I should never have started at one end thinking i could walk all the way through on my ankle. After weeks of diminished activity, my leg muscles (and ankle) were not up to walking through a 500-booth craft festival and I pooped out (as did the girls) before we made it halfway through. Later that afternoon Jessie had yet another friend over playing who also stayed for dinner. Actually, in this recitation of my Cleaverness, it would be more true to say Dave and I traded June duties as he was the one who cooked dinner on Saturday and had to deal with an ever-changing number of prospective diners ( and I just love the mental image of him in the pearls and the apron...).

The grand opening of the studio as a Bullseye Resource Center hurtles ever nearer and I still have TONS of website work, supplies and equipment wrangling, and major marketing to do. This afternoon I am meeting with Todd and Becky about another class idea Becky had for a joint fused, slumped, torchworked beads, wire-wrapped wall/window hanging or platter project. See how complicated it sounds? That's why we need to meet in person to go over it.

Now off to get ready for the doctor and on with the day.

The Week Endeth

No coffee (yet), no music, but there is Griffith Internet!

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Scratch that--coffee is what Dave calls a poor man's mocha in the Chicago mug (the whipped cream was a new addition to this morning's decadence), "All I Want To Do" by Sugarland on iTunes. I realized as I typed the last four words in the first sentence of this post that though there was Internet on my and Dave's laptops, I still hadn't connected the rest of the hardlines--including the Apple TV which runs our music through the house speakers so I lumbered out of my chair (it's early, I'm sore) to finish hooking it up. Then I decided since I was up I would look at the status of the dishwasher to see if I could get it siphoned, and that led to wheedling Dave into making the coffee that I then adulterated as shown. It's all connected, doncha see.

As I was downloading the photo of this morning's coffee and yesterday's ikebana off of my iPhone I discovered a series pf photos on it that Jessie took at our Delores Taylor workshop dinner at Sugo. At first I was just going to delete them, but she had such fun playing with the light that I had to hold onto them. I particularly like this pensive shot of Licha.

Yesterday was firing, ikebana, schedule readjustment, and a long business meeting with Lori. Today is more firing, meetings with Lee and Becky, another class proposal to Oakhurst Community Gardens, and the beginnings of my casting project! Oh yes, and the last 12 pages of that pesky ARC loan paperwork and two distributor proposals to polish up. A couple of days ago a corporate gift client called to see if I could do a little project for them. Little in terms of size (and cost) of each piece--fused and slumped business card holders, but big in terms of scale--1600 of them in December. You bet! Why not? So I have to finish the slump today and shoot them off pictures of the prototype I am whumping up. Thanks, Lori, for the loan of your slump mold and showing me how you do them.

The casting project is the last item on the list because even though I have all the materials I need and I just ordered the wallpaper steamer from Amazon, this is a for-fun project and everything else on the list is for business. While I was on Amazon I noticed that they have a new option for Prime members--Saturday delivery for $2 more than overnight delivery. I think it was $2 more ($6.99 per item) but I am having such a hard time reading the font on my laptop screen this morning that I might have been mistaken.

It was good to be back in ikebana this week. It was in June that I was last able to go between show and order schedules, travel and broken leg. The picture from my iPhone is unfortunate and shows an incorrect perspective to my arrangement this week--the last arrangement before my exhibit arrangements next week that finish out the second level of my instructor training. I don't ever see myself teaching ikebana (I'm sure I'll eat those words some day), but I love the balance and insight that the activity gives my glass work and I have missed it this summer.

The Yellow Daisy Festival out at Stone Mountain started yesterday and I hope to take Jessie and her friend Maxena (who is staying the weekend with us while her mother is at a conference ) to it tomorrow. I have several friends exhibiting--some of whom I haven't seen in years. It'll be good to attend a retail show for once, as opposed to exhibiting at it!

Pirate Signal

No coffee-no beverage of any kind, just the leftover taste of toothpaste on my tongue, "Pirate Radio" by John Hiatt on iTunes for music--though not through the house speakers as *we have no network*. Last night both the router AND the DSL modem gave up the ghost. This morning I post by pirate airwaves from my neighbor's wireless. Thank heaven there are still people who don't secure their networks! Acquisition of a new modem/wireless router on the list for today. Why does everything break at once? Why can't life be compartmentalized into work and home? Why is responsibility responsibility and must-be-fixed-now must-be-fixed-now regardless of when they occur during the day? First the top on Dave's Mini, then the refrigerator water dispenser, then the dishwasher (and it still won't drain), now the home network. Don't all these things know I have a business to build?!? I need to be filling out loan forms, updating web pages, getting orders out, paying bills, putting the details on paper for my business agreement with Lori for the KGRC... I don't have TIME to keep googling how-to-fix-X so I can futz around repairing mechanical systems!

Rant over. On with the post.

Yesterday I picked up rubber and clay moldmaking supplies and tools from The Engineer guy and Daven's (and signed a couple of books for Daven's while I was there), and put together and scheduled the first Glass Bead Making For Beginner's class at the studio with Becky. Pretty ambitious as we don't even have torch set-ups yet! I am giving up my office at the studio to have a torchworking classroom. The big comfy green chair, the neutronium oak desk, the Mission file cabinet and TV stand, the mini fridge, the espresso machine, and the microwave are all going to have to be relocated--most of them not to another place in the studio as there is no more room. I am going to move to a sleek little white melamine table like I have in the home office that we'll put in the front room (the retail space). Makes sense to put retail and office together--and is also better planning to put the classroom space not in the path from the front door to the rest of the studio.

One last addition to the studio on the books for this fall--we're going to rook over the little (10X10) back deck and set it up as a plaster mixing area. The wax melt-out area will be under the back-door overhang. It'll be good to keep both those activities outside (weather permitting--I can always set-up on the screened in front-porch if it's really raining).

I have been very good lately (always?) at starting things. Now I need to get a bunch of them finished. My to-do list for today is very scary--and some things are going to have to go. I was hoping to go to Lori's this afternoon and let Jessie swim in the pool while Lori and I hammered out the final details of our business plan, but that is going to have to wait till next week. And now I have to wrap up this post--the up-and-downness of my pirate signal is driving me MAD!

PS--The calendar in the post below is interactive: Click on the arrow to go to the months after September and you'll see a whole bunch of classes with more to come soon!

PPS--Thank you to the Spouse for telling me about the above XKCD cartoon whose alt caption reads: We need a special holiday to honor the countless kind souls with unsecured networks named "linksys".

So Much Going On!

If ever there was a morning that deserved to begin with a steaming mug of coffee in a big Starbucks skyline mug, it's this one. Sadly, I am too stubborn and too lazy to brew it. The stubborn caused me to balk at getting back on the coffee-go-round after so successfully ridding myself of my caffeine addiction (no headaches if I don't have any). The lazy meant that I didn't go make some after I passed through stubborn and got to the realization that I could brew decaf. Ah well, on with the day.

Yesterday we poured concrete at the studio again. It wasn't much and we did it all with help from two day laborers. They also moved the mulch path that runs from the house to the studio (it was dead ending in the hotshop as it was put in before the hotshop was conceived), and installed a french drain along the back and down one side of the hotshop. Oh to heck with this--I'm going to make some decaf. BRB.
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Decaf with heavy cream and a squirt of Hershey's chocolate syrup in the Chicago skyline mug, "Bad Things" by Jace Everett on iTunes. Had to use the heavy cream as it was all we had in the fridge besides 2%, and there's no way I'm going THERE. I made a whole pot so drop on by if you're in the neighborhood! The Jace Everett is in honor of my copyright violation warning on YouTube for the Glass Roll-Up video part 2. I noticed when I went there the other day that there was a link to buy the song from Amazon on the video.

I thought how great! I put the links to buy the MP3 on my posts with the songs but didn't have a way to do it through YouTube. I was disappointed, however, that only one of the songs had a link. Today I discovered that apparently YouTube sees the "ad" from Amazon as some sort of penalty. They don't take your video down, they just enable the other content to be made available for purchase. How great is that! Now what I want to know is why they don't enable you to flag it that way on the front end.

But enough coffee and music, back to the studio! (except for one more comment--I got a great version of Classical Gas live by Dave Edmunds from iTunes last night and it just came on iTunes. Wow.) Do you get the feeling it's going to be hard for me to focus today?

Yesterday I met with both Lee and Becky again to hammer out their requirements for teaching glass blowing and beadmaking in the studio. Becky, besides being my assistant extraordinaire, is the co-president of Southern Flames. We decided to outfit the studio with minor bench burners from Nortel. Becky and I spent the majority of our time on a where-the-heck-do-we-put-this-teaching-area discussion (Looks like I'm going to lose or at least have to redesign and share my office). We'll get to a class schedule later after we have equipment and ventilation sorted out.

Lee and I, however, put together the initial glassblowing class schedule through December. It's aggressive, it won't all fill, we don't care. We're going to offer very inexpensive intro workshops (ala John Phillips--thanks for the tip last week John!) and rely on our extensive experience, knowledge, material selection, and commitment to providing the best possible learning experience for our students to bring people back for more in-depth work. I made it public this morning, but you'll need to skip to next month to really see anything. I also put up the classes I'm teaching through Oakhurst Community Gardens through the end of the year (one at the gardens and two at the studio).



The grand opening of Siyeh Studio as an official Bullseye Kilnformed Glass Resource Center is set for the weekend of October 23. There's not much on the calendar before that as we frantically prepare a fully-stocked retail and fully-outfitted teaching facility. Oh yes, and I have production work to do too. Yet somehow I manage to stay calm and not overwork. Okay, enough chit-chat. Off to the studio to get a couple of kiln loads in and follow-up on my ARC loan application. (And to prepare for the imminent arrival of Ernie the Monstrocat).

The Tuesday That Is a Monday

Now that I'm mostly not drinking coffee, I am at a bit of a loss as to how to start my posts. I may have to give up on giving up on coffee. "Puppy Love" by Donny Osmond on iTunes. I need to give credit and plug this song as it just so perfect for the video I shot this weekend. (Story and link to video on Stranded in the South).

Now off to work--all my posting time this morning was spent on cross-species amour. More on glass later.

The Week Ends With a Bang

A 25-second before-bed post: It was a day of planning and finance. I started the day with V the bookkeeper and plotted out Quickbooks online. I ended the day applying for the ARC loan with Chase bank (let's all blow a raspberry at Wells Fargo). In the middle of the day I met with Lee and Becky and we started putting together a schedule for kilnforming, blowing and beadmaking classes in the studio starting in October (and a survey/intro class during winter break). I've already committed to teach five classes between now and the middle of December through Oakhurst Community Gardens. Finally, just as we were on our way out the door tonight I noticed I got my bi-annual royalty check from Lark today. Whoo hoo! The beat goes on.

The Workshop Endeth

Arden's Garden pressed Hotshot juice, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" by James Brown on the Dancing Goats sound system. I recognized that I knew the song, but I had to ask Dave what and who it was and, boy did I get a glare! Seems *everyone* should be able to recognize James Brown's music IMMEDIATELY (and know that his name is spelled without an "e" at the end). Oh well, I failed.

I began the morning by taking the fabulous Delores Taylor to the airport so she could fly home to Seattle after filling our brain cavities with pate de verre. Now I post, and then I'm going to read and nap in my comfy chair at Dancing Goats for the rest of the morning. Everyone needs a day off to not think of glass or business or glass business *at all*, and today is my day! Tomorrow I'll pick up the reins of the finances, fire loads, plan the next projects and studio undertakings (retail, classes, show display tweaks, etc.), and I'll also start working on Dave's birthday present. Heh. He'll never guess, and reading about it on the blog will drive him mad.

But back to the workshop. How was it, you ask? Mahvelous dahling. Absolutely Mahvelous. Yes, we learned lots and lots from someone who is truly a master (mistress? Mistress Delores... I like that!) at her craft. She has not only studied extensively with other masters, she has also applied herself diligently to honing both her art and her craft. The venue was also exceptional. Lori not only has a beautifully put together studio (The Glass Garage at Glass Inspirations), but she is also superb hostess and we drank and ate well (and often!).

Now for the curriculum itself... Day 1 we learned about color wedges and Delores' formula for custom blending our own colors from Bullseye powder and -01 frit. We used clay to model wedge trays that we then cast in plaster and filled with seven sample mixtures s from 5% to 100% color saturation. It was a long, incredible day and I didn't get home till almost 8:00 pm. Someone in the class had the idea of using wedge-shaped make-up sponges as the pattern for the glass wedge mold, and I thought that was genius. I liked the samples we did, but I want them BIGGER. I also want to do some sort of a reservoir system so I can get them as full as possible.

Day 2 had us taking both the mold-making and color-blending principles we had learned the day before and putting them to use in creating a bas relief tile. I used a couple of real leaves, a real allium flower, and a plastic dragonfly in a very simple arrangement--I saved complex for my vessel on day 3. Did you ever make coiled posts from clay as a kid? Well I coiled clay and curled it all around my hump mold in higgledy-piggledy swirls. All day on day 3 was spent designing, casting and cleaning out our vessel molds so we would be ready to pack them (with a paste of glass) on day 4. We did divest (break out of the mold) our tiles too an I am in love with my simple little one--the colors are so crisp, clean and saturated!

Day 4 we packed and fired, day 5 we started late with lunch and chatting, and in the late afternoon we divested our vessels and coldworked both vessels and tiles. I got a lot of the plaster out of the swirls in my vessel, but I have a lot of cleaning left to do. I also got to see first-hand evidence of the importance of packing, packing, tamping, packing the glass paste. It may look like it's a solid, even thickness, but when it fires it can shrink in in the not-so-well-packed areas and end up thinner. Clearly pate de verre is all about practice.

As I wrote in a previous post, this year is all about professional development for me--taking classes from the masters, and I have been really lucky in my choice of teachers. In many respects Delores and Linda Ethier are polar opposites (their approaches to mixing plaster, e.g.), but with both of them I could easily spend months studying with them and barely scratch the surface of their knowledge. So though my brain is full after five days, I can see great wanging holes in my knowledge that will only be filled with practice, practice, practice (and time).

Now back to my book and my nap. Tomorrow is soon enough to plan class schedules, materials lists, studio carpentry for teaching, et al.

Off to Sleep

It's soooo late! Gran Marnier in a glass with a roly bottom (those are so annoying...), "Staple It Together" by Jack Johnson on iTunes. That's what I'm doing tonight--I'm stapling together a post. I am so exhilarated and exhausted by all the information flowing through my brain from the Fabulous Delores Taylor's workshop on pate de verre that I can't coherently post about it tonight. Tomorrow, I promise more. More words, more photos, more fun. I love, love, love this photo--it's so the spirit of the days!

Waiting For the Deliveries

Trader Joe's organic French Roast coffee or Yogi Egyptian Licorice tea? Decisions, decisions. I think I'll stick with the decaf and have the tea. "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor on iTunes. Baxter is all primed for the arrival of the deliveries today--yet more people to bark at and harass. He's not really a people dog which doesn't make him a good studio dog--but he's great security. I'm ready for the deliveries too, in a rainy sort of way. I thought maybe we were getting the fringes of the tropical storm in the Atlantic, but it seems to be just localized really bad weather. It's been raining heavily for over two hours and everything outside is flooded... can't wait to see the studio crawl space.

This morning I called the SBA and spoke to the same woman who initially gave me the information about the ARC program and sent me the preferred lender guide. I told her about Wells Fargo's policies and she said she knew and it's legal. Even though these loans are guaranteed by the SBA and so no risk to the bank they are still trying to get everything out of it they can. Some require ARC applicants to be their own existing customers, and some like Wells Fargo tack on their own requirements on top of the SBA's--and it isn't just for this loan program but for many government-sponsored programs. Bunch of opportunistic crooks

But onto happier thoughts. It's Friday! I have kiln loads to get to, and a photography session, and yet more never-ending paperwork to reconcile, and bills to pay, but then I have a five-day special treat as I will be in Delores Taylor's Pate de Verre workshop up at Lori's. Add to that Dave being home for the nights (maybe as soon as tomorrow!), and my world is looking pretty great. Happy weekend all.

Shylocks

Woodbridge sauvignon blanc in a Riedel stemless wineglass, "City of Immigrants" by Steve Earle on iTunes. It is 7:30, dinner is over and the kitchen is clean. J is playing a little WebKinz world on the office Mac while I post. Today was as full as yesterday (and the two days before) with two major differences: I am not feeding my child at 9:00 (tonight by 9:00 we'll both be asleep), and I am no longer exhilarated by how many balls I can juggle at a time and how much I am getting done. I'm just tired. Tomorrow I get to see the Niche pieces and take them in to have them photographed, I have a big glass delivery and a small packing supplies delivery scheduled, and I have the two big kiln loads to get in that have been scheduled and slipped off the plate every day since Tuesday. But that's tomorrow. I feel like being Annie and singing about it.

Tonight, however, after a few hours of chasing the ARC loan, I just feel dirty. Why is it that some people react to any situation presented by life with a "what can I get out of this" attitude instead of a "what can I do to help"? People of like minds form groups, communities, organizations and businesses, and the worst of them (let's just say Wells Fargo Bank and appropriately preface the rest of my rant) are always on the look out for way's to turn someone else's misfortune into their gain.

The ARC loan program is a Small Business Administration-backed interest-free loan program to help small businesses which have been profitable in the past couple of years but are now struggling with the downturn in the economy. The SBA has a list of preferred lenders (they sent it to me back in March when I first started looking into the program) and Wells Fargo is one of them. I figured I would call them as they recently acquired my bank, Wachovia, so I have an existing professional relationship with them. The nice young man I spoke to this afternoon asked me some qualifying questions to make sure I was a fit for the program, and said he would have the application emailed to me (and it could take a day as it had to be forwarded). Then after I filled out the application it would take 45 days to process. Wow. The wheels turn more slowly than I would have thought, but okay. I was pleasantly surprised to get the app tonight and I started reading it as I ate my dinner. It's a 25 page document. I didn't get further than the first page as I stopped as soon as I hit the following paragraph:

In addition, Wells Fargo ARC loans cannot be used to pay-down non-
Wells Fargo business lines of credit and business credit cards. (formatting all theirs.)

So here's the deal. Wells Fargo gets a loan guaranteed by the federal government. They get to collect interest on the loan for five years. It's a win-win for them, but they had to go and be greedy and not only get to make money off the government, but they had to keep all the money they get in-house to further secure their existing business debt. In essence the government is bailing out yet another large bank--this time under the auspices of helping out small businesses! It should be illegal for lenders to put this kind of restriction on a government-backed loan (and a preferred lender at that!). I wish I knew someone to call about this in the SBA or *anywhere* who would not only care but be able to do something about it. All I can do is vow never to deal with Wells Fargo again.

Even though they are not a preferred lender for the program, I thought I would give Chase bank a try. I have my business and personal-used-for-business credit cards through them (the same ones I want to pay down with the ARC loan) so maybe they'd work with me. My experience (so far) has been vastly different and I am guardedly optimistic about the possibility of working with them. Their application process is done over the phone whenever I am ready, they don't have restrictions on who the debt is to (outside the basic restrictions of the ARC program--existing business debt only), and it was my impression that it would be handled pretty quickly. We'll see when I get all my paperwork together tomorrow and call them back to actually do it.

Now a shower for me and the Sprout, another chapter of The Dark Hills Divide, and then a long, close look at the inside of my eyelids.

Another Late Night...

Jacob's Creek chardonnay in the stemless Reidel white wine glass, "Bad Things" by Jace Everett (the theme from True Blood) on iTunes. No, I haven't started having wine in the morning instead of coffee--the day has flown past. J is due home soon from a playdate and before I begin all the Mommy night time chores (help J clean the bunny and hamster cages, order pizza for dinner, put away the laundry, put away the dishes, shower the J, read her a chapter of "The Dark Hills Divide" and tuck her in with Magic Treehouse on iTunes), I'm taking a breather (and a winer) to post.

It was a Good Day. I look back to my business five years ago and I marvel at all the new directions and projects I've undertaken that I couldn't even conceive of then. Today I talked with Bill at Black Cat ArtWorks and reviewed our open invoices to each other and our orders on Google Docs. Then I met with Lori Schinelli and we hammered some more on our partnership arrangement and pricing for the retail part of our KGRC. The afternoon continued with a hotshop session with Lee and Dominic where we did a couple of roll-ups for my Niche entries, and I finished the day in the studio reviewing orders to ship with Becky, preparing glass to take to Todd of Bentwell Metals tomorrow for our pieces that he needs to wrap, and firing a quick kiln load. Whew!

Tomorrow I meet with V the bookkeeper, drop the glass off with Todd, continue his training on Google Docs (I am *very* jealous that Morganica has Google Voice! I want Google Voice!!), pick up one of my previous roll-up pieces from it's current owner so I can have it photographed along with the new pieces tomorrow at Bart's (Bart's Art Photography), file my taxes, and prepare to apply for one of the new SBA economic stimulus loans. Let's face it: I am pretty stimulated, but I need some economic.

Now I better get a jump on the laundry and order the pizza--on-line. Do we live in a great century or what? Piece shown is a new experiment with the small round stand format in yet another blue series. I like both the proportions and the price point!

The Organization of Collaboration

Coffee was in a Kavarna cup with some kind of Reagan-rock retro playing in the background at Kavarna, but I'm back in the studio now waiting for the kilns to cool. What a morning! (And what was I doing at Kavarna?) I was at Kavarna to get a different IP address from the address I have at home so Google would let me create a gmail account for Todd (and thus to enable me to drag him kicking and screaming into the century of the fruitbat). Google did not cooperate being under the illusion that I was trying to do something nefarious.

It all began at 5:45 this morning when I woke bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and decided that the best thing I could do today to get organized was to organize Todd. I already had a full morning scheduled so I got up at 6:00 so I could get on the computer to create a gmail account for him and get him set-up with Google Docs (the "why" on this organizational step in a subsequent paragraph). Leaving the Sprout snoring gently sprawled on her back with her hands tucked behind her neck, elbows akimbo, I padded down to the kitchen table in my jammies, said good morning to the sleepy-eyed spaniel and the still-dozing deerhound, and commenced to internetting.

I went to the gmail homepage and dutifully filled out all the little boxes necessary to create a gmail account. But when I tried to submit the form, I got: "Google Error: We're sorry... ...but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now. We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software. We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again on Google." I Googled (oh the irony!) this error and tried all the proffered solutions (including going to Kavarna) and nothing worked. Google hates my laptop. I finally had to create the account on my iPhone--after struggling for over an hour with it.

So why is it so necessary that Todd have gmail and Google docs and access to the on-line studio calendar? I have long maintained that collaboration is the way to effectively grow a fine crafts business, and streamlined communication and organization is the key to effective collaboration. Enter Google. Sure email (in this case gmail) is a good thing, but even better are shared calendars and shared google docs. For the past couple of months I have had a spreadsheet shared between me and Black Cat ArtWorks that details our orders (at least my orders for them--we're still working on a form for their orders for me) and soon we'll have one up with our interstudio invoices. Earlier this week I brought Becky on-board and shared the Siyeh Studio calendar, shipping calendar and class calendar with her, and also created a shared stands inventory sheet. Today was Todd's turn.

The task of computerizing Todd is more difficult than you might imagine. There are certain things he is very resistant to-and contact with the Internet is high on that list. But as our business grows, I need to be able to get orders to him without having to resort to carrier pigeon, or calling him and reading off the orders to him, or scribbling them on the back of a piece of scrap paper and handing it to him right before getting on a plane... Thursday I gird my loins and go out to his house to "train" him. For today I just read him the list of orders over the phone that are in Google Docs all bright and shiny and newly minted. *sigh* Baby steps. The account exists. He may be a camel, but he WILL drink.

Senior Moment Monday

No beverage, "Last Kiss" by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers on iTunes. Just got back from an artwork exchange with Black Cat ArtWorks in Commerce. Elaine and Katie met me today and we spent a lovely 45 minutes chatting and sipping coffee outside the Starbuck's. Adult conversation is good. Most of my time in the past week has been spent in the sole company of a seven year-old, and while she is interesting and articulate I need to talk about more than bunnies, playdates, and what she doesn't want to eat.

Worked through the weekend to get the backlog of orders done that came in to Black Cat ArtWorks while we were at the Buyer's Market and I was on vacation. Started Saturday by breaking my 48" X 36" fiberboard kiln shelf into a lot of little pieces when I lifted it to turn it over. Most of it was just over 1/2" thick--and it started out 1" thick. That's what happens when you hand sand the surface smooth for a year. On the way home from Commerce this morning I stopped at Olympic Kilns in Flowery Branch and picked up a replacement shelf. Now I'm going to move the Dyson shelf from Bettina to Bertha (with a LOT of help) and put the new fiberboard shelf in Bettina. She's deeper and more insulated so I want to be able to use her for casting (she was designed as a casting kiln) and I can't with the thick baffled shelf taking up so much room. It'll be perfect in Bertha--and might help my cold corner problem a bit.

This coming weekend starts the 5-day Pate de Verre workshop with Delores Taylor up at Lori's. There are still two spots left so if you have an interest, I have a spare room...

This past weekend I got to experience a new kilnforming joy when I unexpectedly "burned" the irid right off the back of two Bullseye clear-irid-backed pieces. After I broke my kiln shelf I had to scramble to find suitable pieces of shelf material to support the load I had to go in. I found a piece of fiberboard about 24" X 36" X 1" in the closet and used it. Apparently it was a different sort of fiberboard than I usually have (who knows where it came from) and it should have been pre-fired. About 2-3" in from all sides there was a sooty blackness on the shelf and no irid left in the corresponding glass above it. Looks like some kind of outgassing from the shelf that chemically negated the irid on the glass. First time I've ever seen that one. Had to remake the pieces and that really slowed me down.

Now it's time to get to work. There were two things I meant to post about today. One was the shelf, and I have no idea what the other was. Senior moment on Monday. Maybe I'll remember by tomorrow--and maybe I'll forget again.

Friday? It Feels Like Tuesday...

Nothing to drink yet, but going to succumb to the lure of the roasted bean and stop at Kavarna this morning--still jetlagged from Montana (I have a really hard time adjusting to time change going east). The sound of J feeding the pets as part of her morning chores for music. We need to leave for school in two minutes then I'll be back to finish my post.

This morning it's off to the doctor (I get to see the surgeon) for a review of my leg. I hope they tell me I can do without the boot--it's hot and humid, and it chafes the incision above the ankle bone. I'm already going to have a big scar there from the way it opened, I'd like to avoid an infection too.

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Last night I finished entering in the Buyer's Market orders, the order that came in while I was on vacation, and the cancellations from the Buyer's Market. This has been a terrible year for post-show buyer's remorse--my worst ever. Three of the people who ordered from me either significantly decreased or outright canceled their orders within the two weeks after the show. Today I look at something (hopefully) more positive--my invoice accounting. It's been two months since I updated my receivables and I hope to find enough hidden wealth there to pay for my glass orders, hot shop building and property taxes. Hope is a good thing...

Out of the West, Back in the East

A Kavarna mocha in the Los Angeles skyline mug, the normal sounds of the house on cleaning day for music (spaniel whining at having been banished to the deck, the vacuum upstairs, etc.). I am up to my neck in snail mail and phone messages. I kept up with email while I was gone, but the rest overwhelms me. Can't we be done with paper mail already? They want to stop delivering on Saturday, I say let's stop delivering altogether. If it can't be done electronically without killing any trees, it doesn't need to be done at all (I can barely lift the bag of junk catalogs and other waste mail to be recycled).

It's the first day of school for the J and a short one at that, and we are still recovering from flying in from Montana late last night (highlights of our trip can be found on Stranded in the South so it's a short studio day too. Taxes to file (finally!), invoices and firing schedule to update, assistants to check-in with, and a Niche piece or two to ponder!!

we move into a season of change in the studio. The show circuit is finished for the year--no more traveling for me till next January for the Dallas Finds Temp Show. Yay! But we're not slowing down. On October 23 Siyeh Studio will officially become a Bullseye Kiln-formed Glass Resource Center. That means we will stock and sell a full range of materials and supplies for kiln-forming, casting, torchworking and blowing with Bullseye (at fantastic prices, of course), and we will also have a regular class schedule here and at Glass Inspirations (owned by Lori Schinelli our partner in the resource center). Lots to do to get ready for that.

And let's not forget the hot shop! We are scheduled to come on-line with it this month--the gas line for the glory hole was installed while I was gone and I'm heading over there after I pick up J from school to see how the kiln building has progressed. My current idea for my Niche piece requires it be done and the deadline for entry is August 31 so I have my fingers crossed.

So I'm back, I'm well-rested, and I'm full of plans for the fall. More tomorrow when I feel more like looking ahead--today I am still wrapped in the warm blanket of Montana memories and I'm going to keep it close and slow for another day.

The Studio Goes On Without Me

Becky, Kay and Lee slog away in the heat of the Siyeh Studio summer in Atlanta, but I work virtually for the next week or so from Montana. There will be a few postings here (maybe) but most of the action for the next few weeks will be over on Stranded in the South. More Glass Incarnate at the end of August!

Vacation? As Much As Possible...

Nothing to drink, the utter silence (except for Mom's bird Sam calling for her) of Montana for music. Vacation is ostensibly here, but does a small business owner ever truly take vacation? Yesterday I entered the first of the orders from the Buyer's Market and Becky is shipping several of them out today. Also today I need to finish the retail pricing schedule I'm going to use for Bullseye glass, finish putting together my Bullseye order, and update my receivables spreadsheet. Much though it pains me, I am going to have to go to Quickbooks for all my accounting as I am just too big for the system I have. Now Lori (my Kiln Glass Retail Center--KGRC--partner) has been unintentionally aggressively marketing our retail glass sales so we are starting off with a bang--no rest for the self-employed, who has time to be wicked?

The wholesale shows are over for the year, and after this two-week rest, it'll be time to start planning next year's displays, planning new work, updating the website (groan), and all the other infrastructure/maintenance tasks in the studio. Unlike other years, however, a good chunk of time will be dedicated to getting the retail glass component of the studio up and going and to put together open studio and class schedules for both the new hot glass shop in the back and the kilnforming area inside. Oh yes, and let's not forget this year's NICHE awards. The deadline is August 31 and I've already planned my piece--now I just need to execute it.

Okay, a small child is waiting to get online to Webkinz world so I had best make myself some brunch and hand over the laptop.

BMAC in Review: Highlights and Low-Lifes

Nothing to drink (hate facing the restroom at the Philadelphia Convention Center on crutches), the sounds of the beeping forklifts and bustling artists packing their wares for music. So how was it? Interesting. For sheer number crunching, I have 34% the sales ($) I had last summer, but 255% the number of orders. Really. Not a typo: 255%. Of the orders, 79% are from new galleries, and only 18% of all of them are from locations outside the Philadelphia regional area. The final show of the year, and it turned out to be every bit as regional as the Atlanta and Dallas January market shows were.

Other continuing trends: shrinking artist and buyer numbers, and tighter and pickier union rules and people enforcing them at the convention centers. I am glad I missed set-up at this show as I truly might have disemboweled someone. On the first day as Bill, Elaine, Todd, John and Daniel were starting to put up the booth, the union steward came by and said our booth was over 300 square feet so we weren't allowed to put it up ourselves (I'm using the royal "we" as I wasn't[obviously] there)--we had to have two union carpenters set it up for $185 an hour... Bill agreeably informed him that we have two separate booths, two separate contracts, two separate exhibitors, and we just help each other set-up and intermingle our work. The union steward said no, we were one booth, we had to pay for the union labor and we could do nothing ourselves except hang the work--they had to do the walls, the lights and the carpet.

Well we couldn't afford the extra almost $3,000 bill so Bill said he was going t talk to the show management and if they insisted on charging us the fee, we'd have to pack up and go home. The Rosen Group and Hargrove Exhibition Services both upheld our two-contract status so Hargrove ended up paying the union vig. I wonder if it worked like a hospital billing an insurance company and they asked for one amount and took (the much smaller) what they could get. Thankfully, I don't have to worry about it.

However that was the nail in the coffin of doing one big booth together for us. First the electricians in Vegas wanted to put up the track lighting (and said they will be enforcing that "rule" next year), now the carpenters at the BMAC had to go for the squeeze. The convention center workers must really be getting hit with a decrease in shows to look so hungrily to the poor artists...

Other big news from the show: The Rosen Group will be launching a Las Vegas Show to run at the same time as the JCK and ACRE. Marvin Gaye told me that the Rosen show is targeted to be for glass and jewelry, exhibitors by invitation only, and located at the Sands (the same location as the JCK). For me, I'm doing ACRE again. Won't be the same booth layout--not even close (thank God--I don't have enough hours left in my life to spare any more for that hideous set-up), but we'll be there together again (Siyeh Studio, Black Cat ArtWorks and Bentwell Metals). We're finally shipping our whole display home from Philly and designing a whole new layout from scratch-which we'll then ship to Vegas.

And now we're about finished with break-down (I spent all of it in a chair--the first part packing glass and metal into boxes, the second part working on this review). Dee has cold white wine waiting for me back in the room. Tomorrow sees a flight home, a flurry of of appointments (doctor, leg wax, etc.) and then packing for Montana. Wednesday we are vacation bound... and I can't wait.

Goodbye Portland, Hello Philadelphia!

No beverage, almost no sounds for music--though I expect to... yep, there it is, one of the many canned messages about unattended baggage, in the interest of safety, carry-on baggage size, etc., and that's my music for the morning. I repose at the gate in the Portland airport waiting to board the first leg of my flight to Philadelphia. It has been a very interesting time dealing with Delta on seating for all the flights I have right now. Out of Atlanta they had changed my seats (and the type of plane) so that I couldn't have a seat with a place to put my cast in front of me--all of the traditional bulkhead seats were also in emergency rows so I don't qualify to sit there. The best they could do was put me in a seat on the aisle and have me hang my leg out into the aisle (in cart and passengers' way).

Given how badly that flight went, I was more than a bit nervous about today's. And, of course Delta/Northwest screwed up my seats again and put me in a window seat at the back of the plane with my cast on the very inside. Apparently they had an "equipment change" so "their computer" moved everyone to new seats on the new plane... with no regard to handicapped bookings. When I checked in on-line last night and found out my seats had been changed I called... Northwest (even though I booked on Delta it's a Northwest flight). After failing to get through the phone robot once and being disconnected once, I was a bit less than patient when I finally got a representative on the phone. As soon as I said I booked through Delta she said "I'll connect you with a Delta representative" and didn't give me a chance to protest. *Of course* the Delta rep couldn't help me because it's a Northwest-operated flight. My only option was to wait to ask the gate attendant to fix it today. That's the same gate attendant who doesn't even arrive at the gate till an hour before the flight when everyone is already checked in and all the seats have been claimed... *sigh*

Back to happier thoughts and times.

My week at Bullseye was long, exhausting, packed to the gunwales, and *wonderful*. I am officially becoming a KGRC (Kiln Glass Resource Center) at the end of this year. I will carry a full line of Bullseye glass in the studio for retail and wholesale purchase, and will also offer classes along with Lori Schinelli of Glass Inspirations (she hosted Johnathon Schmuck's roll-up workshop earlier this year and has Delores Taylor coming in the end of the this month to do a five-day pâte de verre workshop (a couple of spots are still available--contact me if you are interested!). Lori will have a whole range of classes in her gorgeous studio, and I will have some in mine too.

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The flights are over, they went pretty well--at least I got a bulkhead seat on both of them so I didn't have to put my leg out into the aisle. Bill picked me up at the airport, I got checked into my room with Dee, I had some wine, Dee bought me new steri-strips and put them on for me, and I went out to dinner with Bill, Elaine, their kids Katie and Daniel., Bill's cousin Nancy, and Todd and John. And a great time was had by all--Whoo hoo. Tomorrow is the first day of the show for me, we'll see how it goes (and I will be reporting).

G'night all, from the east coast again!