A Family Affair

Moving the ceramics shop, unpacking and setting up has become a Family Affair.  Amy and I are working almost every day (didn't work last weekend).  Greg has come over several days after work and James & Will have dropped in too.  I can finally see that it is coming together.  All the shelves are set up.  Her pouring tables and drying table got set up last night for the molds and making more greenware.  There is now classroom space but it isn't set up yet.  There is no air conditioner but the large warehouse fans worked quite well yesterday. 

When we packed stuff, I found stuff I didn't know she had ~ as I am unpacking the same is happening.  Its quite a messy, dusty, paper shredded adventure.  We had a box we were tossing broken greenware (never been fired, very delicate) into ~ that was many broken piece boxes ago.  Its amazing that the top 2 items in a box will be fine, the bottom 2 items in the box will be fine and the middle item will be smashed.  There is no rhyme or reason to how these things break.  I've quit being concerned about the breakage, because she isn't and expected some.  I didn't expect this much.  There is some satisfaction in tossing broken pieces into the box and hearing them crumble!

We are back to naming the Santa's that we unpack ~ yesterdays treasures were

Unicorn Santa
Euell Gibbons Santa (earthy)
Lumberjack Santa
Salvation Army Santa (he was ringing a bell)
Woodland Creatures Santa
No toys for you Santa (holding a large empty bag)
Creepy Santa (holding a child whose head had broken off)
our favorite Casino Santa
Rolly Polly Santa
Meterologist Santa (cape with stars)

Here are a few pics from a week ago ~ I will try to get some more today

this stack of molds is about 10 ft. high and goes back about 20 feet

these are now all unpacked ~ except for the paints

these are unpacked too!  Amy made that trail so we could clean out against the wall to hang the pegboard

these are unpacked too ~ and a good reason so much was broken ~ they were stacked every which way by the movers

a little order in the chaos ~ the bisque all ready for painting

that's all gone now too!

Funny story ~ there is a customer who has known she was moving the shop for 2 months.  She came in several times before the packing started to look around and buy stuff.  She came in when the greenware was being packed but all the paints were still out and did not buy the color she needed.  Did....Not....Buy....The.....Color!  She came twice last week and pitched a fit because the owner couldn't find her specific paint color and she just HAD to have to to finish an order.  I  had to walk away ~ it was worse than a 2 year old.  Its obvious that finding something specific is near impossible ~ and no, it wasn't found.  She came back in on Monday (oh joy) and apologized ~ that was nice.  But hey, we still haven't found her paint color.

Miss J (the shop owner) is running a lottery ~ guess the # of molds and win a $100 gift certificate for shop merchandise.  We've all guessed, it will be interesting to see how many there actually are.  That pile is still untouched.  She and Greg have discussed categorizing them all, doing a spreadsheet on the computer listing each mold, the manufacturer of it, mold number, type (cat, dog, vase, plate, etc) as each item is put in its home on a shelf.  That will take a long time ~ and when that's done ~ shes got 2 storage units to clean out....more molds. 

Our friends right now are Cold Drinks, Ibuprofen, and a good attitude.