No, it's not a major purging, it's just a way of organizing my thoughts, purging a bit and being able to focus when I am done. Wish me luck.
Pressures
It's February 10. There are a lot of things on my mind right now, a list of to-do's and what-if's that are heavier than galena underwear :)
First thing is that Ro and I have a show this weekend near the PA/MD border. It's an SCA event and I still need to do some firing for it. Yesterday I mixed up a couple batches of glazes and in the middle of one, the phone rang. Like a fool, I answered it and when I turned back to the mix, I couldn't remember if I put in an ingredient or not. and like any recipe, if you change it, you get something that is similar, but completely wrong as a result. This particular ingredient is a flux, without it the glaze is pretty dry, with double it, it'll run off the pot. I sat and thought and just couldn't remember. So I added it. My thought process for solving it is that IF I didn't add it, it's there now and could be perfect. If I did add it, it'll flux heavily and run off the pot. I'll do one test piece today in this glaze and see what happens. If it runs off the pot, I'll mix another batch without the flux and add it in. If it's perfect, I'll get to it and glaze everything. Thankfully I started the process early enough to split the load and fire twice.
Next is I have a huge load of mugs to make by the end of February, it was my intention to start them on Friday, but with all the preparation we did for summer youth summer fair expo, I never go to making. Now here it is Tuesday and I have a glaze emergency and I am wondering if I'll get to it today. To top it off, I need to get the downpayment and pay some bills.
Next, our house is still set up for the christmas show we did. Not good. all the pots went away, then we filled the spaces with clutter. To be fair there has ben no wasted time for us, but it's still time for a major cleanup. It's hard to work or relax in random clutter.
I still have tax paperwork to do for both us and The Creative Oasis.
Morgan is testing for his drivers license on Wednesday and while he's pretty good, more practice will help. I'm nervous what a 17 yr olf male driver will do to the cost, then I'm wondering what it will do to the cost if we need it.
Rowan is continuing to make positive changes at TCO, but it's often a huge burden. She comes home with work on her mind and doesn't let it go. Yesterday I think she was so worn out that she couldn't bring work home. It's taking a toll for sure. The upside is the studio is looking better, we have accomplished a lot by waqy of cleaning and organizing and some of the long term problems we've had are being addressed. We've mailed out a fundraising letter to about 1/3 of our past students and members. So far with no results, besides some returned enveloped for bad addresses, but I am reasonably sure we'll get some good responses as the rest of the mailing occurs. It's only been a few days.
and the rest of the pressures are all about money and cash flow. We have no cash flow from Florida for the next two weeks. There's a gap in the schedule, and while I feel it will be Ok when the next show starts, perhaps even better than last years it's difficult to decide who is getting paid and when. what's the most important? An artists life is full of expenses. All the show applications are due at the beginning of the year complete with checks that we won't see a return on for months.
Difficult.
But I feel a little better for laying these few items out...and now it's time to get on with my day.
