Quickbooks was created by the Devil

So I bought Quickbooks to help my husband with his business. Right now I do all of our finances because I am better at that stuff than him, mostly because it does not interest him. Anyways. I went to the library and borrowed a manual and started reading last night. I understand maybe 5% of what it is asking. For anyone who thinks accounting would be an easy job you are sooo crazy. There are all these excessively hard terms for no particular reason. Like inventory part, non inventory part, and inventory assembly. The first being if you buy and then resell items(grocery stores), the second if you buy and use items but don't really track how much you have because you buy it for specific jobs(remodeling), and the third if you buy parts to assemble into a whole(gift baskets). But pottery doesn't seem to fit into any of those because you don't buy and resell pottery unless you are like a paint a pottery joint, we do buys stuff for jobs, but mostly we use what we already have on hand, and we do buys parts and assemble them, sort of, but not really. So I had to just choose something. Then I realized I would have to take like a full fledged inventory. Yeah, which means I have to come up with a whole naming skeme and try to keep it simple so I do not have like a billion different items for sale. That was as far as I got in the book. I was daunted. I admit it. Maybe I'll try inventory tomarrow.... Its just that our inventory changes so often. hmmm....Any suggestions?

More on Coasters

Coasters take a long time to make. Let me outline the steps. Get press out. Find appropriate amount of spacers and set up press. Cut clay. Flatten clay with your hands. Put clay on press. Press clay. Smooth out clay on one side in three directions. Use drywall board and news paper to cover clay. Holding board on other side of clay flip boards and clay over. In this way the clay is never bent and you can now see the other side. Smooth the other side of clay in three directions. Cover clay with plastic. Using box lid cutter make as many coasters as possible between 2 and 5. Score around coasters. Remove extra clay around coasters. Smooth out the top of coasters with your finger from the plastic. Press whatever into coasters. Put whole board somewhere to dry. Take removed clay and kneed it to remove air bubbles. Start over and repeat until you have 160 coasters. Then fire them all. Then hand paint them in what ever way you want. We are painting in green, then wiping the excess off so that the cracks are green but the overall piece is brown. Yeah! Now run out and make your own.

Too much time off.

Hello!!! I have been gone for too long. Things have been busy. I am currently working on a set of 100 coasters for a wedding in Ausgust. They are 4 inch square pressed with leaves then glazed in green. Let me just tell you it is not easy to find a coaster cutter. It has to be about 4inches and one quarter because clay shrinks when it is fired. Since we wanted 4 inch square coasters we had to find a square that was slightly bigger, no small feat. My husband and I went on a shopping expedition and what we found was a lid off of a square box that was the right size. No cookie cutters at all as far as the eye can see. We have been using the lid and of coarse it is not going to make it through all 100. So then we looked on the internet at a lot of pottery shops and they did not have any coaster cutters either! I was shocked. I did not know it would be this hard. If any one knows where they could find a tile or coaster cutter that would produce a 4 inch square tile when done firing I would really like to know where!

In the Garage

The garage was hot and smelly, but I prevailed in making two very cute puzzles. One is a gift so I will not talk about it, the other is up on my etsy site: www.sagerocky.etsy.com. I thought it turned out great. It was cut from a piece of hard wood using a scroll saw and is in the shape of an owl. I found it hard to cut the wood; the blade would get stuck and heat up and singe the wood so I had to force it through. Also since the blade kept getting stuck the wood rattled something fierce. I would love some advice on this problem. I will tell you what worked out great, clear tape! I read in this wood working magazine that putting clear tape on the back cuts down on the amount of mess you get on the backside of the wood from the saw. It wasn't perfect, but it made a huge difference. Happy hand made day!

Vacation is over

Vacation is over, school is over, and I am home for the summer. No excuses! At least that is what I keep telling myself. No excuses - go to the shop and BE CREATIVE! Yeah right. I have taken to going through the encyclopedia and making anything that sparks an interest. So I have made a paddlefish, a pelican, a pecock, a pirhana, and I was thinking of a porcupine. :-) So this is what creativity looks like.
I am only to pi in the dictionary; what could be hiding just on the next page? Puffer fish, porpoise, puma....oh my. Respond back and tell me what comes to you as an interesting animal after Pi in the encyclopedia.

Promotions

So on top of everything else creatively that I am doing, now I have to try and promote myself too! I spend several hours today with 6-10 internet windows open trying to figure out how you promote your shop. It is not easy. I started out with a post in the buisness forum of Etsy, which was very helpful. From there I looked at other people's blogs; specifically I looked at their links to investigate their promotional methods. I found some webrings to join, I learned about Etsy mini and I looked at their advertising. You should notice a few new things around the frindges of this site :-) Do not worry I also did some artwork yesterday. I made two new turtle minitures and a bunny rabbitt. I figured out a new way to attach the limbs on my minitures that is so much easier and faster to clean up then my old method. I fired a bunch of stuff, which can be seen on my etsy sight, but overall I was not very pleased. Things turned out a lot darker than I had expected and some underglazes disappeared all together. I chalked it all up to a learning experience and I will know not to use those glazes later.

Today in the shop

Okay so summer is almost beginning for me. School will be over in three days and I can get to work on some serious shop time. Today I warmed up in my pottery area in the basement. But, I was side tracked by my husband who wanted me to write names on the bottom of 16 mugs (because his handwriting is illegible) and then wax resist them. I did it and did not complain, but I did give him a look he understood. :-) After that I was free to play around. I made several little things, a fish, a turtle, a bunny, and sea turtle. Then I cleaned up some leaves for a bisque fire. I was so tired afterwards. It doesn't sound like much, but it takes a long time to make things. Some people forget that. They think it looks simple so it must have been quick. Oh, they are sooo wrong. It takes a lot of work to make things look so simple and easy.

Sagerocky