Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Shipping Record Exploded

21 kaleidoscope wind chimes, 1 huge double freestanding wind chime, and 6 beach stone chimes. The largest one day shipment in the history of Coast Chimes.

It's been a fabulous, busy month. In fact, yesterday I shipped more works than ever before in one day. These were not all ordered on the same day, and most I have been working on for the past month or longer. It just happened that they were all ready to ship at the same time. Still, it is sweet to see the popularity of my work appearing to grow nicely. People still appreciate handcrafted, high quality, works with soul, as opposed to cheap generic stuff.

It's been so busy, I am a little concerned about making ample stock for the fast approaching Christmas rush. So I have temporally closed the large wind chime section of the wholesale page of my website. Suncatcher and suncatcher chime packages are still available.

Now, time to go and make some wonderful new things!

Monday, August 23, 2010

That's a Pile of Chimes!

wind chime sections ready to pack
16 of the 21 chime bottom sections set to ship.

I've all but finished the large order (21 sets of kaleidoscope wind chimes). And that feels great! It will feel even better when they are all completely done, and shipped (and the check arrives!).

I am so pleased that the customer opted for my brushed and polished chimes, instead of my antiqued finish chimes. I am not sure I could have coped with applying that labor intensive finish to this many chimes in one sitting.

I am also pleased my oldest son was home just at this moment to do all the double brushing of these chimes. It was good for him to make some money, and excellent for me not to have to do that. Back in the days when I used to only make this style (double brushed), he was the one who did all the brushing, so there was no training involved. He is a fabulous worker, really putting his back to the chore, and doing a great job.

The top sections are also all done, but I need more eye hooklets and the store is sold out (I wonder who bought all those!). Once I get more of those, and my copper shop gets around to cutting sales for me to finish, the job will be done.

Right now, I am looking so forward to starting work on my own projects, building stock for the Christmas rush. Yesterday I spent four hours cleaning my workshop: it was a mess! All is ready now. All is good.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Back from New Mexico

New Mexico met and exceeded my expectations: Fabulous!

Back from a three week drive down to New Mexico and straight to more work than I have ever faced before. Busy!

The trip to New Mexico was fabulous. We camped the whole way (except for one night). As usual, I was so impressed by the USA campsites: far better than almost any I have been to in Canada. In the USA, they get it-- many people like to camp in tents. In Canada, almost all the sites are set up for vehicles. You get a hard patch of gravel that is usually almost impossible to pound tent stakes into. You see many more people camping in tents in the USA than in Canada, and I suspect that providing these tent friendly sites is one reason.

Anyway, New Mexico was even more amazing than I had hoped, and I had high hopes! Oregon was as always top notch, too.

When I came back, I had some orders lined up from things that sold while I was away, and then more and more came in. There is a corporate order for 21 wind chimes that I am currently working like crazy to get done, and also a wholesale order that I need to get done ASAP.

So work, and more work, and it 's all good, because the weather is great, the days are long, and it's all going to get done.

Friday, August 06, 2010

Back from New Mexico

Back from a wonderful, amazing trip down to New Mexico. Loved every minute of it— especially what I saw of New Mexico, and Oregon is always a treat, too.

Below, the wall of an Earth House seen in New Mexico-- another use for old bottles (and cans).