I real time posted about this on Instagram, but somehow neglected to post about it here. Going on a hot air balloon ride was a bucket list item for me, but it's one that kept getting postponed for various reasons (most of them weather). When I saw that the Chesapeake Bay Balloon Festival was going to be near me, I jumped at the chance. There were issues with the venue, but it still went on! There were a number of balloons going up from various companies. I went up with Charles Blair of Blair Ballooning. Going up at the festival was great because I got to see all the other balloons in the air, but going up with Charles was amazing.

First going up in a balloon is like no other experience I've had in the air. I felt when the balloon got buoyant and was about an inch of the ground, but after that it was like floating. Every so often we'd turn and you could feel that a little, but still it was just like floating. We went all the way down at one point to brush the soybean crops and then brushed a tall oak tree on our way back up. My favorite picture is the one I got of the reflection of the balloon in the pond below.

Part of the experience of hot air ballooning is helping to blow up and take down the balloon. I let Craig do the helping so I could take pictures, but it was really cool to see the whole process. Another balloon even landed in the same yard as us so we got to see it twice!

We landed in some guys yard and then the guy who was following us with the van knocked on the door to make sure it was ok to pack up. He was totally cool with it and took pictures of the balloons in his yard.

If you're not afraid of heights, I highly recommend it.

This is part 2 in my series about how I do my inventory lists. Last week I started the series talking about To Do lists. In this post I am going to continue and start talking about my master price list and how it drives all the other sheets in the Excel file. This series is 4 parts:
Part 1 - To Do List
Part 2 - Master Price List
Part 3 - Packing for a Fair and Prep
Part 4 - Tallying after a Fair

We are going to continue along in the sample file that you can use for your own studio. Reminder, I recommend downloading and using Excel vs Google Sheets as some of the formulas may not work, or work differently, in Sheets. I use Square for my credit card transactions and my sale web site. In Square I have Categories and Items setup and they are repeated in Excel. I use excel in addition to Square because I can visualize the detailed data better in Excel. It's also easier for me to see the history of shows in Excel than in Square.
This blog post focuses on the Master Price List worksheet (or tab) at the bottom of the workbook.


This worksheet is really simple, but it drives the rest of the tabs. The first column is Category. This is just a grouping of items. Your categories can be anything that makes sense for you. They can also change over time as your work changes. I find that things which may start in my Misc category often end up as their own category. I try to not have more than 10 or so categories because for me it gets difficult to manage when it's more than that.

The next column is Item. You'll see that for some of my items I repeat the category. You don't have to do this, but in the next post in this series when we talk about prep for the fair when I sort on Items it will make more sense why I do this. When I first started out, I had a whole lot of individual items. As I've done more and more shows, I've found that I can condense a lot of items which makes it easier to find when I'm at a show.

The last column is price, which should be fairly self-explanatory. It is important to keep the price here and the price in your credit card tool in sync.

When I was first pricing my items, I really had no idea what I was doing. I read a lot of posts on Facebook, but I really didn't know how to price stuff. So I started by putting all my items in Excel and then putting a price that I thought made sense. I know that there are calculators out there for materials + labor, but this isn't my primary job. I'm not trying to get rich making pottery; my goal is to be able to enable my hobby to pay for itself and continue to use it as my way to de-stress. Once I had the prices in for everything I sorted on price and wanted to see if things made sense. I found that I had weird discrepancies. Why would someone pay $30 for a mug and $45 for a bowl? I adjusted the prices so that items that were like sized and like amounts of work were like priced.

Now it's time for me to geek out on Excel for a bit. Excel tables are one of the most powerful tools you can use. This sheet is a table that is named Inventory. You can see the name by clicking anywhere in the table then selecting Table at the top and then the name will be on the left. Tables are powerful because now anywhere in this workbook I can use the name Inventory in a formula, and it knows that I mean this table. You can name your tables anything you want as long as it starts with a letter, has no spaces, and isn't an Excel reserved word (e.g., you wouldn't want to name it something like Sum since sum is a formula to sum numbers).




This is an example of a formula on another worksheet where I am referencing the Inventory table. We'll talk more about this formula in the next post in this series Part 3 - Packing for a Fair and Prep.

As a kid I was always told that I was terrible at art. I was really creative, but give me a blank piece of paper to draw on and it wasn't going to be pretty. For a lot of years I internalized that I wasn't good at art. I couldn't draw or paint or scuplt. Then I got really into pottery and found that I was reasonably good at it. I've always been creative and can find creative ways to do things, I just didn't know how to apply them to art. Finding the right teachers who could explain things in a way that made sense to me was the key. My pottery really went to new heights when I found Clayshare during the pandemic.

I've watched Jessica on Clayshare and some of the guests she's had on like Paula McCoy of Colors for Earth paint on pottery and I really wanted to do that.

I decided to start with watercolor because I really like how it looks on pottery. I also had it in my head that it was easier than acrylic. I'm not sure I believe that any more, but I'm glad it's where I started. I found a book on Amazon that seemed like it would be a good starting place - Ink and Wash Florals: Stunning Botanical Projects in Watercolor and Ink by Camilla Damsbo Brix. I can't say enough good things about this book. I'm only 1/3 of the way through and I feel like I've already learned in leaps and bounds. I started by drawing the flowers first in pencil and then in ink several times in my sketch pad. Once I felt like I had a handle on the drawing part I drew each flower several times on the watercolor paper.

Then I took the big leap and started painting. Several of the designs require you to put one color on and then let it dry so having a few pages I could go between helped me. Not every flower I've done looks awesome, but there is at least one of each that I love.

I'm working on the next set of flowers in the book and I've already pre-ordered her next book because I find the way she explains things to be so simple to follow.

There is some adorableness in this kiln. I'm so excited with how my little piggy planter came out. Putting on all those medallions took forever, but it really makes the piece special. I need to find the right plant to put in it. Any suggestions?

The giant mushroom came out amazing. It was actually in 2 pieces after bisque, but I glaze glued it together. It feels pretty sturdy. I need to find the right place in my garden for it. I also think it needs a few friends.

A lot of fall in this kiln, but I'm starting to look forward to winter with the white tree mugs. I love how Amaco Snow looks over Laguna 60. I feel like it almost gives it the feel of snow falling.

Standard clay unknown Nose, Ears, and Feet: Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x2 Body: Midnight Ceramics Malibu Barbara x3	How cute is that tail!
Standard clay unknown Top: Mayco Red Gloss x3 White Gloss x2 Bottom: Mayco Black UG wiped back 2167 Clear	Laguna 60 Outside: Mayco Black ug wiped back, various Mayco Stroke and Coats and then 2167 clear Inside: Amaco Snapdragon x3 Bird: Mayco Bluebeard x2 with some Dandelion on the beak
Standard clay unknown Leaves: Mayco Green Thumb, Irish Luck, Sour Apple, Just Froggy and 2167 Clear Stem: Mayco Teal Next Time x2 Body: Kentucky Mudworks Ocean Mist x3	Body: Opulence Eggshell x2 Feet and Ears: Mayco Tuxedo x2 Chest: Mayco Java Bean x2 Face: So I accientally used Cutie Pie Coral and then tried to wipe it back then I used Pink a Boo x2, Tuxedo and Bluebeard
Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear Inside: Laguna Power Turquoise x3 Mayco Night Moth x2 Outside: Various Mayco Stroke and Coats x2	Laguna 60 Coyote Oatmeal x3
Laguna 60 Inside and Rim: Mayco Norse Blue x3 Light Flux Sweeps Outside: Mayco Black ug wiped back Mayco Hot Tamale x2	This was a refire to try to even out the glaze, didn't really work Clayscapes Oribe
Laguna 60 Amaco Blue Rutile x3	Laguna 60 Amaco Snow x3
Laguna 60 Amaco Deep Sienna Speckle x3	Laguna 60 Clayscapes Nutmeg x2
Laguna 60 Amaco Tangelo x3	Laguna 60 Amaco Deep Sienna Speckle x3
Mayco Underglaze Black, Bright Yellow, Harvet Gold, Leaf Green 2167 Clear	50/50 Mix of Gertlsey Borate and Iron Oxide wash on wet clay Clayscapes Oribe This is a little wonky but I love it anyway
Mayco Green Thumb, Irish Luck, Sour Apple, Just Froggy and 2167 Clear Stay tuned on this, more to come	Laguna 60 Mayco Black UG wiped back Mayco Cotton Tail x2 Hot Tamale x2 2167 Clear

I feel like all you can see is the giant mushroom. It just draws the eye. Several of the things in this kiln are items that I made at Michael Harbridge's workshop back in May. I absolutely love what I'm seeing in my little pig planter and the birdhouse looks really cute too.

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow August 13th is the second Sunday of the month and that means it's time for the Belle Aire Market from 9-2. I am going to try out a way of doing a Seconds Sale this weekend. I have some pieces that just aren't what I envisioned for various reasons. They will be out on a table and I'm asking people to pay what they think they're worth. Minimum price is $1 only because I don't want to do anything with change.

A couple of weeks ago I responded to a post on Facebook where someone was asking how you don't let ADD take over in the studio and get intentional about making. I briefly described my process, but now I'm going to share with you how I use Excel to manage the process.

I love Excel. I don't really know when I learned it, it was just something that always made sense to me. I've ended up teaching basic Excel skills first at college and then at work. There are people who I haven't worked with in years who will text me when they have an Excel problem. I don't feel like I do anything all that fancy, but it is a really helpful tool.

I use Excel a lot when I prep for shows and when I am deciding what I need to make. This is only my second year of selling, but because I kept track of what I sold last year I had a good idea of what I needed to make the most of this year. I'm going to share with you how I use Excel to keep my prices, inventory, and pack for fairs. I absolutely know I could get more anal about this than I am. I could keep a lot of this in Square, but this way makes sense for me so it may make sense for others.

I've broken this down into 4 parts:
Part 1 - To Do List
Part 2 - Master Price List
Part 3 - Packing for a Fair and Prep
Part 4 - Tallying after a Fair

I've also created a sample file that you can use for your own studio. I do recommend downloading and using Excel vs Google Sheets as some of the formulas may not work, or work differently, in Sheets. The images and descriptions for this blog post are in the ToDo worksheet (or tab) at the bottom of the workbook.

Last year was my first year doing shows so I started by collecting data. I kept a tally of what I sold at each show. I also paid attention to what was selling vs what wasn't. I adjusted prices show to show until I found what felt like the sweet spot for a particular item. At the end of the year I summed each item across all the shows I did and that's how I created my initial To Do list for this year.

Last year I tried to keep track of inventory as I made things, bisqued them, and then glazed them but it was just too complicated. This year I've simplified it to just look at how many do I intend to make (the count column) and how many have I made to date. This gives me my "to do" as Excel automatically does the math (yes it's simple subtraction but sometimes I really fail at that). As I have sold things at various shows I will make notes on my clip board about what I need to add to my To Do.

I made probably 6 crab mugs last year and sold them all. I made 12 to start with this year and I have found that they are one of my most popular items. I make those in batches of 6-12 now and just add to the count when I need more.




The priority column is there just to help me focus. I can filter on To Do and unselect the 0 then filter on Priorty = 1. This gives me my first to do list that I can write on my small whiteboard in my studio. When I make an item, I wipe it off the board and then update the Excel on my phone or later at my desk. Once all the priority 1 items are done, I can move onto priority 2, and so on.

As I've been getting more intentional about what I make and my time to make it I have found that by making the various styles that I do in groups that glazing goes faster. I will make a bunch of crab things together so that when it comes time to glaze, I do all the crabs at once. It can feel a little tedious at times, but I'm also finding that I'm getting better at making pots and at glazing them by doing things in bulk like that.




I use multiple clays in my studio because I like all the different looks. What I don't like is getting brown clay on my white clay. So I try in a given week to only be using a single clay body so that I can do a deep clean before I move onto the next clay. This helps limit cross contamination.

If I go into the studio and abandon my list and randomly make 5 soap dispensers with a new cutter I got from De La Designs then I will add that to my To Do list. It's like writing something on my list and immediately checking it off. If I make just one thing and I don't know if I'm going to like it or sell it, then it doesn't immediately go on the list.

In the next post in this series I'll talk about the Master Price List and what it drives in the rest of the spreadsheet.