Busy season!

By tcurtin, on October 8th, 2011%

Stoppers are on the march, y’all.  Shelburne Vineyard has them for sale, home on Shelburne Rd will be selling them when they reopen (sounds like a cool place: wine tastings, local foods, local crafts, furniture – I’m curious to see how it works out.)  Block gallery in Winooski will be carrying them during their big yearly show in November.  There are a few other local spots I’m looking to get into as well.
Shelburne Vineyard display

All of which means: get making!  There are nine in the bisque kiln now, and I’m hoping to keep up at least half a dozen a week for the next month.
Waiting for firing

Its tough being in this stage – I believe in the product, retailers believe in the product, but I’m needing to make ahead something whose rate of sale is totally unknown.  One a day?  One a week?  A month?  Here’s hoping I don’t end up with too many in stock or too few to keep stores full!  Anyone have any tips on predicting this kind of thing?

Leave a comment   All blog posts, In Progress, Sales, Wine Stoppers   ,  

Roadshow: pro

By tcurtin, on October 4th, 2011%

It occurred to me this week that I need a better way to keep a selection of stoppers with me. While travelling I spoke with someone who would have sold them in his shop, but since I didn’t have any I may have missed the opportunity.

This fits the bill really nicely. Its a “pistol case” that I picked up for under $30 from a local sports store. Two layers of convoluted foam and one of “pick and pluck”. The pick and pluck means you can pull out chunks of the foam based on a grid to make room for things.

So now I can carry a ton of single and double displays, two of the longer point-of-sale displays, a box of Moo cards, and a dozen or so stoppers. It shows very well (much better than unwrapping a dozen stoppers from bubble-wrap), and better yet it makes great protection. Even after a drop of a few feet down onto the floor, the stoppers didn’t move at all. I think now I’ll just plan to keep this filled with a full dozen and keep it with me any time I travel from now on.

The last thing it needs is a price sheet (or just price tags?) of some kind that’s generic enough for a shop owner to be able to choose the stoppers they want and me to keep track of that. (I think if I want to step up production, I’m going to need to stopping naming each stopper. Or I’ll go nuts.) (More so than normal. 😉

Leave a comment   All blog posts, Curly Creatures, Wine Stoppers