09/10/08

08-24-08: Bronze the Day, I got the first draft of my business plan written. It was crazy changing my text from first person to third person, "NoraJean has been hosting a clay art Yahoo Group for 9 years." It feels insane to refer to myself in the third person.

Today is the birthday of my first husband, who is 6 years older than I am, so he's 65, yeah that's right. I was 14 and he was 20 and if that happened today he'd be in jail. That gives me a little room to smile. It is also the anniversary of Pompeii being buried in ash in the year 79AD. That's the only way I can remember Pompeii is to remember my first husband's birthday. That also gives me a little room to smile, equating his birth with a natural disaster.

Anyway back to the business plan. The first draft is due tomorrow and I've been wrestling with my crappy printer for weeks. I still can't print color but I got black to print in time to get this first draft done. Kinkos charged $0.49 per sheet to print something out. I thought that by the time I got workshop lesson plans and drafts for the business plan printed out at Kinkos I could buy a new printer with a basket full of ink. So I got a inkjet head cleaning solution, which came in a few days after buying it online. The discount compatible ink took two weeks to come in and it came with a receipt that looked like it was caught in a copier paper jam. Bushyaib said, "It does not give me confidence." when I showed it to him. Unless I find another online vendor of compatible ink for this Epson Stylus color 760 I'm stuck with this vendor. But jeese louise, what a lesson in what not to do for customer service when running an online e-commerce.

I'm also in shock with looking at the prices some polymer clay artists sell their stuff for: $1,600 for a necklace, $1,000 for a brooch, $800 for a non functional tea pot! This proves to me that there are middle and low income people who will be happy to buy decent polymer clay items for a price that doesn't give them a heart attack. Some of the class/retreat prices are just out of range of most of the people I know: $2,700 to go to a foreign country to clay for a week. Nice if you have that sort of money, but I don't.

I know that some folks will say that I'm crazy for wanting to offer clay classes for a price that most regular folks can afford. But gosh, if only 15% of the polymer clay using public can afford these expensive classes and items, that means that 85% of the rest of them are looking for a better deal.

Techniques that have been stream lined to make production quicker is one way I can keep my prices reasonable. I practiced mass production techniques by participating in swaps that had over 50 participants. That's a way of jumping in the deep end of the pool to learn how to swim.  The way I make beads is geared for mass production. But once I start selling beads and necklaces I'll have to use Varethane varnish, no more discount floor polish, doesn't stand up to the sweat on the back of my neck. Bushyaib said he can rig a venting fan in the kitchen and blow the fumes out the window. I thought that the neighbors upstairs might get testy about that, but he says the fan will blow it out the window 30 feet. I'm thinking I might run into zoning problems if my production line gets too stinky.

A workshop with a stove, microwave oven, and a hot plate, that's the ticket. I need a workshop where I can move all this polymer clay stuff out of my apartment. It's like living in a rubic's cube here. To get to one thing you have to move a half dozen other things and then do it again to put it away. There's just not enough room here to go whole hog on production.

I suppose if my sales are at such a level that I need to go whole hog on production I'll have the money to get a co-working space that's popular in San Francisco. There's a couple of art warehouses that are co-working properties. I just like working in my home. I also have to think about the day when my grandchildren will be able to visit again and working from home will be necessary.

Bushyaib said that he wants me to come with him when he gets a larger place to house his children's visits. I believe in intergenerational households and feel it is healthier for everyone involved. Babies are cared for by grandparents, grandparents are looked after in their old age. The folks in the middle can go out and work and come home to food bought and prepared, dinner on the stove, house cleaned and laundry done. What's not to love about a set up like that?

Woe be to fathers who abandon their wives and children. What will your old age look like? Hilda, who is 95 years old, echoes that thought. She says she knows a lot of elderly men who abandoned their families to run off with some young chick, during their mid life crisis. Now their families are sick of them. There's little motivation to take in an old man, who is sick and needs care, when he didn't care enough about the family to stick around.

Folks don't think of the long run consequences of their actions. My younger sons saw me work hard and sacrifice much to care for them. I didn't do my art until they were grown men. Now they know what I set on the back burner for them. Now they want to make sure that I'm ok in my old age. While I'm doing all I can to make money on my art so I can help them and my grandchildren.

As it should be.