Dealing with the dreaded "P" word: Prioritizing.

Oh my, oh my, I'm not exactly keeping up on my new year's resolution to keep up with my blog, now, am I? *tisk, tisk* But here I am, so here we go!

Well, the Beckman's Wholesale show in January kept me relatively busy filling orders for the first few months of 2010. Of course, I also tried to fit in some relax-y time (which usually involves a home-cooked meal, wine, and a movie), so things did not go at the stressful pace of the summertime when I'm cranking out stock for the art fairs. However, I tried to keep reminding myself not to get too comfortable, as I had a ton of catching up to do with stock after the end of 2009, plus I have been really jonesing to design new stuff.

So now it's April...I've gotten my stock up to an acceptable, but not exactly ideal level to do a show, but at the beginning of the art fair season I try to have as much extra stock on top of that as I can. Right now, that's not looking too good, but I still have some quality time. I just have to focus. I know when the shows really kick in, my production will naturally go into over-drive, but right now, I'm having a hard time getting to that place in my head.

As far as having design time, this is crucial and also sometimes very difficult to fit in. Playing around with new ideas takes an artist many, many hours with no guaranteed outcome. So lately I've been struggling with...do I sit down and crank out stock for items I know will sell, set aside the night to try and design new pieces (which may or may not produce a hot item), or work on this wholesale order that needs to go out? Prioritizing is often an artist's biggest struggle because mostly we are a one-person show and the tasks are swirling around in our heads like a tornado. Don't forget we are also managing the bookkeeping, the marketing, social networking, show applications (which is very time consuming and deserves its own post), managing stock of materials, ordering, packing and shipping out orders....and the list goes on and on. Prioritize, Melissa, prioritize. I'm still not sure which direction my jewelry-making will go when I get to work right after I finish this post. But I can tell you, I will be enjoying myself. Not much makes me happier than sitting down with my pliers :)