clay

Folksy Trees

September 07, 2023

I made a bunch of trees using cutters from De La Designs. I used all the sizes. Debi did a demo on Clayshare a couple months ago on how to use them that was really helpful.

My big add is the stars on top. I used a nichrome u to hold it in after trying out just having it balance via clay. Folksy Trees


Remember I have two shows this weekend! Saturday September 9th I'll be at Boxwood Farms from 11-5pm. Sunday September 10th I'll be at the monthly Belle Aire Market from 9-2. Also next Sunday September 17th I'll be at the Bel Air Festival for the Arts from 9-5. Hope to see you there.



clay

Squiggle Snowman Luminary and Upcoming Shows

September 05, 2023

Two shows this weekend! My sister is coming out to help me as I'll be recovering from surgery. I plan on putting her to work! Saturday September 9th I'll be at Boxwood Farms from 11-5pm. Sunday September 10th I'll be at the monthly Belle Aire Market from 9-2. Also next Sunday September 17th I'll be at the Bel Air Festival for the Arts from 9-5. Would love to see you at one or all of these.

I'm starting to move to winter projects. I won't have these at the fairs this weekend, but will have them soon.

These were made with clay puzzling spheres from Learn Fired Arts. The key for this is to make sure that the bottom sphere is setup enough that the weight of the 2 spheres above it won't crush it (I lost a snowman this way). I was going to make a hat, but I thought it would be too much weight. I decided that instead I'm going to crochet a hat and/or scarf. I'm really excited about this. I think I'm going to make some smaller ones as well. Squiggle Snowman Luminary




clay

Snowman Figurine

September 04, 2023

I made these snowmen last year and they were really popular. Hoping they still resonate. I love how each one has it's own personality. Snowman Figurine




clay

Ghosts? or Sorting Hats?

August 31, 2023

I feel like every time I make a squiggle ghost it turns out looking like a sorting hat. They're really cute anyway and will make nice luminaries. I might do one or two in brown to make them sorting hats instead of ghosts. We'll see. Ghosts? or Sorting Hats?




business

Inventory Lists: Part 4 - Tallying after a Fair

August 29, 2023

This is last post in my 4 part series about how I do my inventory lists. This last post is about tallying what I sold after a fair or show.

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

This post uses 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.

As I'm at a show I keep the printed inventory list and a pen by my chair. As I make a sale I make a tick mark next to an item. I'll also make notes to myself. It might be that I want to change the price of something at the next show. Or it might be that I have an idea for a new item or that I need to make more of a particular item. Inventory Lists: Part 4 - Tallying after a Fair


I go back to the tab for that fair in my workbook and I add how many I sold of each item in the sold column. This gives me a total sold for each individual item type as well as total sold for the show at the bottom.

The total sold should equal (or be really close) to the total of cash, credit card, and Venmo. I'm usually spot on, but when I have a really busy show I'm not concerned if I'm a few dollars off because I forgot to mark something when I was checking out a line of customers.

This is also when I look back over the last few fairs to see if there are items that aren't selling that I think should be or if something is selling really well. I start thinking about what price adjustments I might want to make up or down for particular items.

If I want to make an adjustment I would do so on the Master Price list. Since I want to keep a record of the actual dollars sold for each show, I don't want price changes to reflect in past shows. What I do once I've filled out the tally is copy all the rows in the table, right click, choose paste special - values. What this does is overwrite the formulas with the text that's in each cell. This means that if I change a price - it won't change the past. This step is optional, but it helps me when I look at the history.

Inventory Lists: Part 4 - Tallying after a Fair


That's it for this series on how I use Excel for my inventory lists. I do hope that it was useful.

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