Thursday, January 14, 2016

Truly a New Beginning..

Day; 244. Sunny, brisk.

Temperature on outside kiln; 35 degrees
kiln firings; none
Music in the studio; Democracy Now with Amy Goodman 

Today I finally turned a corner; I delivered the dozen promised pieces to the Detours Gallery ( as in the old Fred Harvey SW Detours of the early 20th century) in the La Fonda Hotel which marks the end of my committments/special orders  from 2015. I finally feel like the very difficult end of that year is over and 2016 has really begun. The two orders that were hanging over my head as I struggled with body/life last month  in December, are history. What a relief it was to pack up the truck this morning and drive the work in to Santa Fe. There were several days in the last 6 weeks when I didn't really know how I was going to pull this off in time, but I did, moreover with a week to spare. Yeah Me!! Another Cowabunga! hoot as I drove into town this morning, similar to the tile delivery of a week ago...

I can't say I love every piece, in fact, I snuck in a few older larger pieces that had been sitting around, but I think as a body of work, well, it worked! And the newer pieces I did like, so there you have it. And I enjoyed slowing down and making fewer but larger pieces with higher price tags. Hmm, a lesson in there somewhere! And no mugs or cups were requested, THANK GOD! It was interesting pricing the larger pieces for wholesale/commissioned sales, they asked me to just specifiy what I needed to make the pieces and they would price them as they wanted to.. hmmm, interesting. So, I went for it, I asked for what I thought I needed to get for large serving pieces and platters. There was one awkward moment where the buyer said; "this is for each piece!?" And  I said yes, each piece, $85-$95 dollars. And of course they will double that, which makes them  expensive, but I refuse to sell my work for peanuts anymore, it is good work and I deserve it. That being said, gosh I hope it sells! I am not sure how the hotel guests are going to get my big heavy pieces home with them, but I guess that is an issue for the gallery manager and UPS.

The opening for the new gallery is in two weeks and I am very curious to see it all set up. I peeked into the space today with the buyer but it was a hard-hat area and I couldn't see much. But what I did see was a nice big open space with windows all along the sidewalk/street entrance. As wholesale accounts go, this is the creme de la creme, so I am really optimistic.

So I look forward to 2016; I don't really know what is around the corner exactly, but I can feel good things coming down the pike....

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