I'm a planner. I'm not one for spontaneity, surprises, or pushing deadlines. I think things out carefully before I make any moves. It's probably not surprising, then, that I have a planning process for my pottery as well.
There are shelves holding pottery to be delivered to the retail locations, shelves for my webstore, and shelves for upcoming events.
An upcoming event is the mug show that I participated in last year, I was thrilled to be invited back! I need at least 25 mugs to be included, which isn't a big deal, but I decided to offer a mix of sgraffito and marbled mugs this year, and those babies are time consuming. I started building an inventory for the mug show in April. Now here in June I have half of what I need and nine more weeks to finish. Sounds like I'm on track, doesn't it? I thought so.
I'm also working on pieces for my first in person show at the end of June which has been the focus for me, but I'm ready now.
There's a pop up shop in September that I've been invited back to this year, that will be my focus after all the sgraffito.
So, here I was thinking I had things under control when some folks in the pottery groups were showing off making work for CHRISTMAS! In June. Not one super ambitious person, but probably five potters have admitted to making Christmas decorations already. What the hell?
Now, some potters participate in holiday themed shows so they need a lot of inventory, let's say that's what's going on, ok? :)
Either way, I hopped online to chat with my potter friends about it and one friend admitted that she too was working on Christmas. Come on... Really? She's building an inventory of gifts and stays away from decorations, which, for the moment, is my plan as well.
Sigh. Well, I guess there's no bragging about how ahead of schedule I am then. Let's just say I'm right on time, and that will have to be good enough for me.