I get overwhelmed relatively easily. Take for instance, last Tuesday...coffee spills, non-punctuality, and obstinate students were only the minor details. I found out that Uncommon Goods wanted my birds and clouds plate and bowl set (yay!), but they wanted 375 sets by the summer. Half of that they wanted by April 1. That may not seem like a lot, but let me just tell you, it's something. The reason they needed so many is that they wanted to put my pieces in their catalog as well as online. This means that it would get a lot more exposure and theoretically, more people would buy it. The kicker was when I started to imagine shipping 180 dinnerware sets. I told the UG rep that I really needed to think about it, and probably drink a few bottles of wine before I could give her an answer.
Here were some of my thoughts after getting off the phone with her: This is a great opportunity. Do I really want to be a machine and produce all of those pieces? This could make me a nice sum of money. Will I have the time to balance all the deadlines I already have plus this? I could never get another chance to do this again. How the hell will I fire all those pieces?
Let's skip ahead a bit to my interview at Kobo that night. I was not on my game as far as organized thought goes. I think I made a good impression, but I was stressed out/overwhelmed and I'm pretty sure that showed. I know that letting gallery owners know that you're crazy busy probably isn't the best idea, but these things I can't always disguise, so honestly I'm willing to let fate be the judge of this one. I'm thinking it will take at least 3 weeks for them to determine if they want me or not.
Back to the UG...I told the rep that I couldn't do it. I sat down with Josh and he helped me realize that the number was something that I couldn't produce and it wasn't worth the stress or time. The rep emailed me back and said,
"I was thinking about this a lot and really believe in you and your product. I don’t want to pressure you and I really appreciate your honesty about your capacity."
She then proceeds to explain that the purchasing team decided that my selling price was too low. If we increased the price, this would decrease the number of product they would need. Instead of 375, they would want 288, and need 125 by April 7. In addition, I would get about $10 extra for every set. I reviewed the numbers again and decided to accept the offer! I wasn't even trying to negotiate, I was just being honest.
I was really encouraged by UG's diligence and it reignited something within me. Instead of being stressed, I'm pretty excited to do this again. Currently, I'm making more molds so I can increase my production.
Among other things, I also have a summer group show lined up. I need to start producing some pieces for that, but while I'm making molds, I decided to tackle the wine glass. I broke the foot in half, but figured I'll fix the mold and trash the prototype. At least I did drink out of the glass first.
Harley (my Siamese child) and I took a "walk" this morning. I say "walk" because Harley likes to sit and observe more than walk and explore. This gives me the opportunity to check some emails on my phone and drink some coffee out of my wonderful Lisa Bradley cup. I typically walk him in the afternoons after work, and we learned this morning that there are a lot more noises from squirrels and birds to make him agitated. His leash is a new experience and I continuously have to console him, so after about an hour, we came back inside. I sat down to reorganize my blog, and got wrapped up in it. I have a lot to accomplish this weekend, so I will have to cut this blog a little short.
I got my first PO from Uncommon Goods. They want 25 sets by the end of February for their online presence. I told them I would try, so I need to go and make another mold, but before I do, look at what came in the mail yesterday...two gallons of glaze for the B/C sets. By ordering a gallon on the darker glaze, I saved about $7 a pint! :)
