Our family is spending the summer in the Okanagan Valley in beautiful British Columbia, Canada, which means I am out of studio. As I packed up my last few orders, cleaned my wheel, and mopped the studio floors, I felt conflicted - excited to be spending the summer on the lake but already missing what centers me.
Even though I'm out of studio, I'm never without a project to work on. I packed enough books to read to stay a year (I get this from my mama), a box of clay for some hand building, my sketch pad and a long list of ’to do’s’ In this post, I thought I would share what I'm up to this summer outside of the studio - to give you insight to the workings of being an artist.
ALWAYS A STUDENT
I love learning so I decided to register for a few online courses to build a better foundation of Marketing and Teaching - to improve my customer and workshop experience. I'm currently taking a Digital Marketing Certificate where I am learning how to optimize my website. This is also my first experience with taking an online course and am loving the virtual learning community. My next course is about Video Marketing - stay tuned for some video content.
LAUNCHING WHOLESALE
Since launching my ceramic pipes, I've had several inquiries about wholesale opportunities from boutiques across Canada and United States (very exciting). This means you as customers will have more access to my products around the world. In order to offer a professional wholesale customer experience, I decided to build out a wholesale shop on my website. I definitely underestimated the scope of this project. When I found myself coding, I realized I should have studied harder during that Computer Engineering 101 class I took in Engineer at University. After many late nights, the wholesale shop is now live and I'll be announcing several wholesale vendors in September. Project complete!
ADMINISTRATION
Reporting, balance sheets, inventory management, blog posts, emails, research - all of the tasks required to manage a business. I now realize why some artists complain about these tasks because they are very time consuming and take me away from being in my studio producing. However, the back end of operating a business is important for its growth and success. As I have started to see my business grow over the past year, I am taking time to ensure I have organized documentation. Have any tips?
DREAMING OF NEW DESIGNS
My creative side never stops dreaming of the next mug I can make. My hands start to crave the sensation of digging into a fresh bag of clay. I'll be setting some time aside this summer to sit on the patio and sketch out new design ideas for pieces to launch in the fall. Question for you: What pieces or designs would you like to see?
I'm sure I can come up with a few more projects to try to extend my summer in the Valley but my studio will start to call me home.
What summer projects do you have planned? I would love to hear - leave a comment or send me a message.
Love + Summer Projects
Jenna
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