Permit us to make your life easier

Posted on June 6, 2011 by owner

With apologies to Sally Struthers, Do you like one stop clearing houses for massive amounts of information?  Sure, we all do.

Would you like to help create one that’ll make YOUR life easier?

I know, you’re probably saying, “Pish Posh, not going to happen.”

Well not with that attitude it won’t, but read on!

Let me to introduce you to the Artisan Craft Page, a page being set up to allow oodles of people to advertise while simultaneously raising some money for the AGLF.

Feel free to consider this wonder page your cork board to the handmade world.   “How so?” you wisely ask?

Consider this, this page doesn’t have to be just glass workers.   In fact, we’d love nothing more if it wasn’t just glass folks.  We’d love to see basket weavers, metal smiths, jewelers, candle makers, scrap bookers, sign makers, wood workers, printers, and a host of other artisans on this page.   There’s a massive benefit of such a mix, particularly when you need a service of one of these craftspeople.    Need stands? Find a wood or metal worker.  Banners and business cards?  Printer.  How about a scarf to keep warm at that October art festival?  Look for a crocheter or knitter.

Google’s good for searches.  But you get everybody in the entire world.   On our page, each ad has keywords associated with it, and we encourage folks to use them.  This means that if you were to search for:

welder site:artisancraftpage..com

You would find only the welders on that page.  Since every ad needs to be approved (at the moment…) we’re making sure that MegaConglomerate Welder Inc* isn’t getting an ad on the page.  But Bill Jones Welding most certainly would be welcome.    I’m sure the folks that work for MegaCon are nice and all, but we’re looking for the smaller workers of the world.   Folks who take the time to put an individual attention to detail into their work.

And right now, you can get into the site at a fantastic price.   We’re running and introductory sale on ads.    Through 6/7 you can get your ad (good through 2014!) for 75% off, or just $25.00.

Next week you can get it for 50% off, or $50.
The following week?  25% off, not bad, not bad.
After that we’re back up to $100.00, which is still a deal for an ad that’ll be up and searchable until April 2014.

So spread the word, sing songs in the mountains, invite your artisan friends and sign up for an ad.  It’s quick, fairly painless, and helps support a group of artists that were just looking out for their own rights.

*If this is a real company, and it’s yours, feel free to get in touch and I can change it.  I was attempting to make up a company name.

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The night from expletive hell

Posted on June 1, 2011 by owner

Just a quick rant….

This morning I found that my coffee maker’s been applying for hospice care behind my back.   It still worked, but it’s making out it’s will.

It was a hot, humid, and busy day, but that wasn’t the worst of it.

I wound up working late tonight, there’s a whole long work related rant here, but I’ll leave it out for the sake of decency.   Suffice it to say, in the midst of dealing with that, I also had to contend with a series of tornado spawning storms, screaming children and this irritating heat.

To add a rotten cherry to the top of this excrement sundae, after we got the kids in bed we discovered that we have a hole in our roof that was leaking into the hallway and the light fixture over the stairs.

We’ve disconnected the light, the switch itself is off, but the circuit supplies power to half the house it seems.   Tomorrow I call the insurance company to see if it’s covered and considered storm damage.    SO not happy.

 

I guess when it rains, it really does pour.  @#$%^

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Aww jeez, he’s back

Posted on May 31, 2011 by owner

I’m out and about, on my way to my favorite roasted nut vendor with my co-worker, we’ll call him Bob since it’s his name, and I saw him.

The man in the black coat.

Now for most folks, the man in black has bad connotations, but not this time.  This is the guy that got me 4 years worth of online advertising for $100.00.

He sidled up next to me, “Hey, does your friend need to advertise his web business?”

“Well sure,” I replied.  ”We all do.   But they just cut back his hours, I don’t know if he can swing the cost.”

“Well, Tom’s friend,” he said with a smile, “today’s your lucky day.”

“The fine folks who are maintain the Artisan Craft Page site are running a sale during the month of June.    Like a lively barn dance, it’s a stepped affair.

Act during the first week, and you can get that same 4 years of advertising for $25.
Put it off, and during the second week you can still get it, but for $50.
Slack a bit more, and during the third week you’ll be paying $75.

After that..and you’ve missed the opportunity for the great price and it’s back to the still phenomenal deal at $100.”

Bob was grinning like an idiot at this point and reaching for his checkbook.

I on the other hand was reaching for the man in black’s neck, “You charged me $100 last week!”

In between undulating motions of his head he squeaked out, “I’ll adjust it for you!” so I stopped.

Don’t throttle the man in black, act now and get the bargain basement introductory price now.  But act fast.   Get your ad in place, complete with it’s SEO goodness until April 2014 for just $25.

Starting June 1, head over to artisancraftpage.com to sign up at the special pricing.   It’s quick and easy and the money raised benefits the AGLF.

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I really hope this isn’t a trend

Posted on May 22, 2011 by owner

I had my first show of the year today, stArt on the Street: Spring Edition.  We’ll call it Start for short because it was a long day and that’s really all I want to type, but you get the idea.

This is by far one of THE most well run shows I do all year.   The crew that puts it together does a great job from organization to advertising to the actual day of operations, right down to helping coordinate the load out in an orderly manner.   With nearly 200 vendors and street closures involved, this is no small task.

My wife helped me out immensely today, getting up early with me and driving all of us over to drop me and my stuff off, then hanging out for a bit to set up.

Once I got everything set up, I realized I have less on hand than I thought, but it was still a healthy mix of old inventory and new stuff, including a lovely ladybug plate I made a while back, and my new back scratchers.    Tent went up, glass was put out and then…..well, not much of anything.

To start with, it was downright chilly today.  Sixties all day and overcast, so not quite gloomy, but not sunshine either.    I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, but luckily had the good sense to bring a jacket.   I really should have brought a hat too, particularly since ultimately I ended up with a sunburn.

Despite the weather, however, the event was well attended.    I’m horrible at estimating people counts, but I’d say well over a thousand people filtered through, very likely more.

But, of all those people, I had one sale.   One.   For a whopping $4 and the state gets 6.25% of that.   The upside is that the booth fee was only $40, but still, not good.

I don’t know about the entire show’s results, and according to my neighbor at the end of the day she had a good day, but it appeared that there were far more people not carrying purchases than those that were, it didn’t look like a banner day for most.    The attendees for these show tend to be fairly ecologically minded, so it’s possible a lot of purchases were pocketed, pursed, etc, but really, it didn’t seem to be going well.   In fact, from what I was told, one of the vendors a couple stalls down was actually in tears over the poor sales.

The one seller I know had a good day was the kettle corn guy.    I can’t say I blame anyone there, it smelled heavenly.

The highlight of my day, cold, tired, a little sore, was that I happen to carry chemical warmer packs in my travel boxes and was able to stash one in each pocket to help take off the chill.

Most of the customers were perfectly lovely.   Polite, having a look, oohing and ahhing, picking things up, occasionally asking questions.    And in case you’re wondering, my prices really aren’t too horrible.   My pendants I had listed for $30, and those were strung on a nice, though low cost, chain and clasp.  My hair sticks I put out for $20 a piece, and they had a pretty decent amount of fondling, so the price may not have been a key deterrent.    Even my marbles…I had then ranging from $5-$80, so something for everybody.

But there was one customer attendee that really got on my nerves.   She pointed out that if I sold my pendants for $10 each I’d likely sell much more of them and seemed quite delighted to give this free economics lesson.  By way of example she pointed to the cheap piece of jewelry she had on her wrist (colored aluminum perhaps) and pointed out that she can buy those for $2 and sell it for $10 making a tidy profit.   Even after explaining that one of my pendants took about an hour to make, she still seemed to think that I should sell my pendants for only 10 dollars each.   I was as polite as I could be, though given I was about 3.5 hours into the 5 hour show and a little defeated already, I was less than pleased to have this discussion with her.   So while I nodded politely, what I should have said was that if I wanted to sell soulless mass imported crap I’d open a big box craft store, but I held my tongue.   I’m tempted to print up cards with a QR code leading to my post on costs to hand out to folks suggesting discount store pricing.

Given the way the day went, I’m not sure I even want to do any more shows this year.    I’ve pre-paid for the fall edition of the Start event, however, and there’s at least one other that is also a music festival, so at least I get entertainment for the day.  But given my bang up sales, you have to wonder if it’s really worth it to load the car, inconvenience my wife by sticking her with the kids solo for the day AND returning to give me a lunch/bio break, spending the day away from my family for a loss on the day, and then doing the break down.   They say you can’t make any money if you don’t take the risk, but really, with the down economy and competition from imports, I’m starting to feel that an up tick isn’t anywhere on the horizon yet.

So that was my day.   Precious little upside at all today, though I did run into the owner of a store I have glass in on consignment.   I need to make up some stuff to bring out to her to swap out sooner than later.    This really is an upside since she was concerned about her own shop’s sales in general last time I was out.   The fact she’s still in business is a glimmer of hope.

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First show of the year! – stArt on the Street

Posted on May 21, 2011 by owner

If you happen to be in the central MA area, or just like going on really long drives to get to local art festivals, pop by and see me and over 170 other incredible artists set up in Worcester.

There’s art, food, music, and usually at least something interesting going on that kids will love.

For more information, have a look at the official stArt on the Street website, and I hope to see you there.

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An argument for empowering your employees

Posted on May 16, 2011 by owner

My car was due for an oil change, so I took it over to Jiffy Lube.  This is one of those businesses that’s a hit or miss experience depending on how busy they are, who runs it, etc.  For example I took my car to the on in Burlington, MA once and it took over THREE HOURS.

The one here in town isn’t necessarily consistent either, but it’s not typically out and out bad.    So when I pulled in and found only one person ahead of me, I figured I was looking at maybe 30 minutes.    I swear I was out in 12 once, so I was optimistic.

Well, the folks working on the other customer’s car managed to damage his transmission oil filter, and mucked it up bad enough they had to send a runner to the dealer for a part.

“Wow, sucks to be him, good thing the other two bays are open, they should pull me right in.” I thought to myself.

Yeah, no.   Probably 30 minutes later, after the door was up and down a couple of times, they finally pulled my car in and took care of it.    In the mean time, my car was outside in the drizzling rain with the window open.

While they did at least apologize for the wait, they didn’t offer to take any off the total, but even that’s not my complaint (I had a coupon anyway).    I really want to know why they didn’t just pull my car into the other bay at the first sign of trouble.

Was it the low staffing level?  (I think there were 4 people on, including the guy they sent to the parts department)  Was it a lack of common sense and a complete lack of customer service acumen?  Or is there some strange policy in the franchise manual against bumping a customer ahead?  Is there something in the corporate edict against taking the initiative?    I find it hard to believe that out of the folks in there, it didn’t occur to someone to make use of the other bays.

There’s really no way to know for sure without writing or calling, but frankly I’m surprised no one thought to consider the other customers.    If nothing else it would have been an efficient use of the time and made for a winning customer experience.    Instead they now get an angry blog post flung into the ether for the next customer to find.

If it was a strict policy against bumping the customer order, I’d sorely encourage them to empower the franchisees to go off the map a bit in the face of strange circumstances.

There’s no excuse for poor customer service folks.  Look out for your customer and they’ll look out for you.

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Psst, hey kid, wanna advertise your business?

Posted on May 14, 2011 by owner

I’m walking along and this guy sidles up to me and says, ‘hey kid, need to advertise your web business?”

Now I’m no country bumpkin, I know to be wary, but I was intrigued.  He was suspiciously devoid of the black turtleneck and blue jeans generally worn by the web barons.

“I’m listening,” I responded quietly, looking around furtively for the search advertising executives sure to bust out of black vans at any moment.

He pulled back his coat and revealed a tablet computer, on it was The Artisan Craft Page.   A curious page with tiny little images.

I scoffed, “I ain’t so stamp collector, bub.”

“Kid, think outside the box, watch.”  And with that, he swiped over one of the images and magically it expanded to a larger size, revealing an ad for Renee Wiggins Design.

“Ok, you figured out javascript, big whoop.   What am I missing?”

He grinned wide, “Opportunity.   Pure opportunity.   These ads, they’ll be here on this page for 4 years and it only cost the business owners $100.  Their names are out there, the search engines can find these ads, and this community cork board full of ads reaches around the world.   What?  Are you putting up flyers at the grocery store?  Phht.  Think globally, my friend, think international.   And, if you think 20×20 is too small, you can just buy a bigger box.”

I was sold, and I asked how to sign up.   He quickly showed me that I can set it up and manage my account all by myself from the page.

Have a look for yourself over at artisancraftpage.com.   The page is based on the Million Pixel Project, but we’re giving you twice the space for the same cost.

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RIP Munkin Arts LLC, long live Munkin Arts

Posted on May 11, 2011 by owner

In case you haven’t heard, we’ve (and by we I mean…well, me) got some changes going on around here.   Munkin Arts LLC is no more as of 5/10/11, but is reborn as the sole proprietorship, Munkin Arts.    Same great glass, just three less letters.  And $500.00 less in filing fees.

In the coming week or so I’ll still be cleaning LLC’s out of the nooks and crannies, so bear with me.

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The joys of the glass biz

Posted on May 5, 2011 by owner

Fire! Danger! Beautiful pieces of artwork!

Sure, that’s the outside bit that we convey to people, that we work with the primitive forces of nature to bring you a pretty or useful something or another, but have you ever looked behind the curtain?  Occasionally I share some of the behind the scenes bits of the craft with you, hoping it doesn’t ruin the magic, but I find it’s good to help the customer’s understanding of what goes on, as well as provide some information for folks just starting out.

So today we’re going to talk a little about supply prices, in particular, gas.

Not the stuff we put in our car, though wooooo-boy, it’s expensive, but rather the stuff that runs the torch.   In my case, my torch runs on propane and oxygen.   The propane is pricey, but I find it lasts me a lot longer than the oxygen.   It runs at a far lower pressure so the tank goes much further.

But oxygen…who would have thought air would be so expensive?   That’s part of the problem though, it’s not “air” as we think about it.   That contains oxygen, but also nitrogen, various particulates, etc., etc.   This is just the oxygen, and it’s about 98% pure.   In my case I bring it into my shop in 5 foot fall canisters called K tanks.

Over the years I’ve stuck with the same supplier and my price has crept up quite a bit.   I started around $22.00 per fill (plus tax and fees) and most recently was paying $45.00 a tank, plus tax and fees, bringing it to around $51.00.   Mind you, I’m a cash and carry customer, not on a contract, but I’ve also been with the same supplier for about 4 years now, don’t mess up their equipment, and usually haul the tanks myself.    So I was a bit dismayed to hear what other folks in the industry were paying for for their oxygen, and I found another supplier.   The other supplier offered me $15 per tank.

$15.

This was without negotiation, no contract, I didn’t have to harangue them or talk them down, that’s what they offered me.   Hells yeah!

Normally, since I’m a part time glass blower, I go through about 2 tanks a month during the non-holiday season, but because of a variety of other things going on in my life, I haven’t been in the shop as much as I’d like to be, so for over a month I had 4 tanks (my old ones I was still burning through and the two from the new supplier) in my shop.   Finally, this week, I finished off my old suppliers tanks and took them over to terminate my lease on them.

I’m going to pause for a moment and say that, while I won’t name the company here, the crew at my old supplier is awesome, a nice bunch of people in general; helpful and knowledgeable to boot.    So my closing of this contract wasn’t a personal decision, it was simply financial.  In all honesty, my new supplier’s FAR less convenient, particularly since they don’t have Saturday hours.

I’m happy to say that my old supplier offered me a better price.  Not as low as the new supplier’s price (the old guys are regional, I don’t fault them on not being able to match), but far better than my old $45 price.    I still said no.

I have the bottles from the new supplier already, and there was one thing that irked me.    Though my old supplier apologized (which I do deeply appreciate in this day and age), the problem is that someone really should have caught this earlier.  Like I said, I try to be a good customer, but my price crept up so high that my friends were insulted for me.    I have to wonder if everyone is paying that higher price from this vendor or if it was some intentional…I hesitate to say sleight since that’s not really the right word, but if it was an intentional attempt to just gouge a little guy.  I wonder that because as a cash and carry customer, it’s not like there was an automatic delivery and billing in effect, each time a human being had to see that price on the screen and charge me that amount knowing full well what other customers pay.    Again, to his credit, the employee I talked to when I turned in the bottles apologized and said that this should have been caught before it got to this point.    He even offered to cover my tank lease for the next 2 years.

Who knows?  If the new supplier doesn’t work out because of the timing issue, I basically have to run tanks on a lunch break, I may go back, and I most certainly left that door open when I dropped off the empties for the last time, but for now, I have a new oxygen supplier.   Business decisions aren’t always fun.

**************

Hey, just a quick comment.  Someone asked me the other day, “Hey Tom!  Why do you moderate the comments on here?”    Well, the answer is simple, spammers.   I think I’ve only ever swatted down one comment that wasn’t an out and out spammer, and that one was essentially just directing someone to another site as well.   But, it’s never for a disagreeing opinion (unless you were to be out and out rude or obscene), but just to keep the spammers at bay.    So sign up, feel free to leave a comment and rest assured that you won’t be dashed merely on opinion.

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Honest to the point of stupidity

Posted on April 18, 2011 by owner

I had to run out to Target for a few things tonight, and among those were some light bulbs.

I found a pack of 8, and set them on top of some stuff in my cart, where they promptly fell off and one of them broke.

Did I put them back on the shelf?  Nope, I bought them.

Friggin’ morals.

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