We are open. When I say we, I mean me and my friend Robyn who is also a  fiber expert and part-time employee, and then there are 10 or more artists, sheep farmers, spinners and other fiber people who have consigned work and materials.  I don't feel eloquent right now on the subject, since I have hardly any time to contemplate what I've gotten myself into. My state of mind is like the photo on the left - it's a facsimile of my actual front door, colors added in Photoshop. I finally got around yesterday to painting the door and the awning, but haven't gone so far as to photograph it. I am so far behind that I am using shortcuts to stand in for the processes of running a business. I am used to being an overachiever, but running a shop is pushing my limits of effectiveness. We've been open 2 weeks and I just this weekend got my database together to record sales. I've been using one of those little triplicate sales books, so I couldn't tell you what we made last month, or tell my consigners what they made. But today, with the database done, I can make certain statements. It's not literature, just the facts. 

1. The store made $325 in sales the first two weeks it was open. That includes the store's commission on consignment sales plus my consignment share on any of my felted work that sold.

2. I am putting everything I would normally receive as a consigner back into the business since my ex is paying 100% of my expenses for the first year. My normal yearly sales as an artist could make as much as half the gallery's expenses. That's assuming I have the time to make anything to sell. 

3. Most of our first sales were from fiber people, buying fiber tools and supplies. Most of the sales were made on Saturdays, or sunny days close to the weekend. 

4. In addition, a book artist is renting studio space to make felt book covers, at $100 a month, for 6 months.  That gives us a first-month income of $425. 

5.  $425 is 40% of our basic monthly overhead, not including advertising, or miscellaneous discretionary expenses. That's not terrible for 2 weeks during winter in a tourist town. On the other hand, I only have about two more months of capital so we will be on thin ice til the summer... if we last that long. 

6. Thank god for fiber people who hoard! All of our weaving yarns are consigned by weavers who have held on to their materials for years, decades even. This is wonderful, since they can make a profit on their stash and also because nearly every mill that made weaving yarns a decade ago is out of business. Wal Mart can be directly blamed for several of those closures.

7.  I am drawing a blank here. Did I have 7 things to say? Have I mentioned that I am brain dead most evenings? I have been going to bed at 8pm on a regular basis. 

8. Having a shop is not like having a booth at a craft show. I will have to elaborate on this thought at another time. Clearly, I am short-cutting  this post because I can't think. Oh, yeah, it's past 9pm, so that explains it.  

9. I think constantly -  from morning til bedtime and then lying awake for several hours -  of what I have to do in the shop, what I still have to buy, orders I have to make, people I have to call, marketing I have to do, display fixtures I have to find, etc, etc. There is only one other thing I think about. Wisconsin. I am glued to Facebook, Truthout, the news shows, and all the progressive websites to find out how things are going up there. I sent $50 worth of Ian's Pizza to the demonstrators and worry over them. My problems are miniscule compared to theirs. I feel guilty. And lucky. And god-awful tired. Gotta go now.