Endings

Endings.  Can be traumatic.  Can be therapeutic.  Can be joyous.

Today saw some endings.  One huge, one little.

Little one was finishing the above towels.  I called this design waterlilies, partly because it sort of, kind of, reminded me of Monet's paintings of waterlilies.  Same sort of colours, same sort of shapes.  Inspiration can come from anywhere, be adjusted to fit your needs.  So they don't really look anything like waterlilies, to be honest, but that's what the design reminded me of and I needed a name to save the file to Fiberworks, so waterlilies it became. 

I have rather a lot of files in Fiberworks and sometimes naming them becomes a challenge.

Last night I finished hemming them, and life being Life, I never did make it to the loom today.  But I had a chunk of time before and after an appointment so I pressed the previous towels, the beige/peach/brown ones prior to heading to town for the second time today.  When I got back I could have gone to the loom but decided I needed a snack (an orange, because I suddenly find myself wanting oranges) and by the time I finished eating it and fiddling with puzzle pieces, it was too late in the day to weave.  However, there was another chunk of time so these got pressed as well. 

So satisfying to finish, finish them.  Both designs.

While I pressed I thought about retirement from doing shows, reduction of income, still having way too much inventory, with more coming down the pipeline.  Now that I'm beginning to feel better, I'm getting to the loom more regularly, and things are starting to get made again.

What to do with it? 

Because the other, *big* thing I did today was go to the insurance agent and discontinue the coverage on the annex.  As part of that I had done a quick inventory - to make sure I still had enough coverage of the stuff that now resides back here, instead of over there.

It was quite satisfying to go through the studio and do a quick count of things, then add it up.  To a rather sobering total, again being perfectly honest.  More - much more - than would ever be covered under a standard home owners policy. 

However, when I sat down to talk to the agent, she pointed out that between the two locations, I actually had had more coverage than my current total and expressed surprise - did I not still have All The Things?  No, I hastened to assure her, we'd gotten rid of a LOT of things - production equipment, selling down inventory, using up yarn stash.

We discussed what I should continue to have, like some liability on top of our standard home owners policy, raise the contents to cover the actual inventory I'd done, which wasn't actually much given we'd gotten rid of so much stuff here, and then I asked about the van insurance, for which I have business coverage.  Since I'm still driving to Olds to teach with a van load of teaching stuff, she recommended I continue carrying that.

But this policy was renewed in November, we moved out of the annex before the end of February, and I should be getting a refund on the policy.  Which will give me some money back.

OTOH, the van insurance needs renewing in May, I think, plus other obligations I intend to keep covering.  And I still don't know exactly how our finances are going to be with the closure of my business.

Only one more thing to make the closure of my business final - my year end and filing taxes based on my final year of being in business.

So while I pressed I thought about what to do with the inventory I still have, and will be making. 

Most of my sales will be on consignment through local resellers.  But I also sell some things into the US.  With 10 times the population of Canada, frequently any sales I ran wound up being 10 times greater than anything I sold in Canada.

After opening my ko-fi account, I routinely get a message from them suggesting I upgrade to their Gold account.  It requires a small monthly fee, but they don't take any percentage from anything anyone donates.  If I have a Gold account, I can change the amount someone gives.  It looks like I could actually offer a monthly sale.  Such as Towel of the Month.  Goodness knows I have towels.  With lots more to come.

After pressing another 3 dozen towels today, adding those piles to what is already sitting on the shelves, I'm thinking I need to upgrade to a Gold ko-fi and see if people are interested in a Towel of the Month 'club'.

Stay tuned.