It seems to be a trend! Since laying down in the bed produces coughing, I'm going to sit up and drink ginger brandy for a while till I lose the ability to cough! You see..health is low, but my spirits are high!Today was another long hard day. Much packing of pottery occurred. It's almost all done now. The living room and porch are practically devoid of pottery, except for this final table of bowls and vases. Downstairs in the basement there are still a few totes of pots remaining to be packed. So far we have 14 packed..and we just bought 10 more. At this point it's mostly mugs, tankards and a few cereal bowls. I hope there is room in the vehicles for all these. I am pretty sure I can get them to Jessa and Elliot, but I am not sure if there will be room for all of them in the bus. Jessa said she would make it work..so I am counting on it.
In past years I've always had trouble making enough stock to sell the maximum amount possible. Since we now have Elliot on the road for us, it's possible for me to stay home and create MUCH more work. I am taking full advantage of it. We've discovered in the past that being understocked is a deterrent to sales, not necessarily that we were out of a particular item that someone wanted, but that if the booth doesn't look perfectly full the whole way through a show, sales slow down. This shouldn't happen this year. There are an abundance of lovely pieces and based on past sales records we should have enough stock in this initial shipment to last 3-4 months, and during that 3-4 month period I will be creating the work for the rest of the year. We need to get ahead and be prepared. Last year the economy slowed, but my sales increased. I believe that we can do the same thing this year.
In addition to the normal renaissance faire outlets, we're selling online through Etsy.com as well as picking up a few smaller, local gigs and pondering ways to make permanent retail space here at the house. The show must go on, the bills must continue to be paid.
