Not just shelves

Yes, we finally have shelves!



This might not seem particularly exciting to the outside world, but it means that we can finally get some of that stock out of boxes and up on display. Then come the difficult decisions...for example, Disney princesses with the girly stuff, or the Disney stuff? It's a hard life.




We also have our sign up. This makes things start to feel very real indeed. We need to find a matching shade of outdoor paint to cover up the knackered existing turquoise paintwork soon.



You might have noticed I missed doing my usual update last weekend. That's because it was super-hectic, in a good way. We invited some friends round to do a test run - trying out the paints, brushes, bisque etc. I'm so glad we did it, not only because it was great fun, but it really helped us see what we needed to provide, particularly in terms of wet-wipes, aprons and such.

It was fantastic to see how much the kids (and possibly the grown-ups too!) enjoyed choosing and painting the pieces, and we're really grateful to them all for coming along.




What's left to do then? What's not left to do! Create a website, put more shelves up, put together a window display, deal with a mountain of paperwork, fix the tablecloths to the tables, relocate the coffee machine...well, if I go on any more, I'll start to feel dizzy.


Not to mention painting up about 40 more samples.

We are still waiting to hear whether we've been granted planning permission for our change of use on the property (apparently there are 'quite a few applications ahead of us in the queue'), which considering how much we have yet to do, isn't the biggest disaster in the world!  And the good news is that I finished up in my 9-5 job on Friday, and am looking forward to dedicating myself to the shop full-time.


Yay!

Exciting progress

Lots of exciting things have happened in the last week.

Firstly, we took delivery of our first big order from one of the suppliers we're using for bisque and other equipment. Not only does this mean that we now have a stonking great kiln in the back of the shop:

(Check out that control panel! The manual is about the size of the Yellow Pages...)
 But we've also been able to start painting up samples for the shop! Here's a sample of our handiwork - we've started with the kids stuff which is basically like fun colouring-in, and are just moving on to decorating bowls, plates and mugs having got used to the techniques, which brushes to use, etc. You'll notice the colours look very pale and dull - this is part of the fun of ceramics painting, as when glazed and fired they'll be transformed to bright, glossy colours.

(Yes, poor Snow White does look a little goggle-eyed... I still need a little practice doing eyes!)

The shop itself is a hive of chaos activity at the moment.


The sign arrived this week, and just needs to be installed on the shop-front - quite a tricky job which may well test K's fear of heights!

Enormous, isn't it?

The walls are now painted, with a lovely purple colour in the front window area and back section:


And, possibly (sadly) the most exciting thing to me, we got our tablecloths - polkadot vinyl, to bring a another splash of colour to the place.

Now I just have to work out a way of taping them to the tables...

Aaand finally, the holding page is up on our website! We still need to do the proper site, but it's great to have something, anything there. You can find it at www.seashoreceramics.co.uk, but it's pretty hard to find through a google search at the moment as I haven't done any of the techie stuff which needs doing behind the scenes yet.

I think that's quite enough for one week... We should hear by the 26th if our planning permission has gone though, so keep your fingers crossed for that, and with any luck we should be able to open in April. Time to start recruiting some customers!

The Delivery is Nigh

Hurrah! We finally placed our first big stock order of bisque and equipment, among which is the kiln - very exciting. It took a lot of work, and much weighing-up of the merits of mega-monster T-Rex figurines vs. Princess Cupcake trinket boxes and the like.

As you can see from this picture, yes, colour-coded spreadsheets did get involved.

Once the stock arrives tomorrow, we'll be able to get started painting up samples for the shop - I can't quite describe how much I'm looking forward to this part of the job!

A slightly less enjoyable, but equally important part of the process has been absorbing as much knowledge about running a small business as possible. We've also been getting some great advice from friends and family, and my Devon Libraries card has been working flat out giving me access to some very nerdy business books, whilst K is doing the sensible thing and tracking down a good accountant.


Makes for exciting bus reading though...(well, when compared to my Pass Your Driving Theory Test book anyway.)

Hopefully over the next week we'll have some sample pieces painted up ready to show you. If anyone has any ideas for designs, I'd love to hear them!

A small hurdle

Things have been fairly quiet on the shop front this weekend. Why? Well, aside from borderline RSI due to excessive flat-pack construction (I just can't help myself), we hit a minor obstacle on our route to opening Seashore Ceramics.

It doesn't bear going into at length, but we discovered we'd have to apply for change of use planning permission on the property we're renting, from standard retail use to 'mixed use'. This meant some very stressful filling-out of some very cryptic forms late one night this week, and a whole day of chasing round different council departments, bits of information and photocopiers for K, so that we could get the application in as soon as humanly possible. By the sounds of it, the whole affair was a bit like that John Cleese film 'Clockwork', but set in the print shops of Newton Abbot.

We're really hoping that our request is going to be approved - in theory it shouldn't be a problem, but they can't guarantee anything, and the wait is up to 8 weeks before we know. Personally, I think they'd be mad to turn it down - a fun, creative, tourist-friendly business is surely just what the area needs, rather than just having a temporary 'fell off the back of a lorry' shop fill the space, or worse, leaving it empty - but then, I'm going to be biased, aren't I!

So, we'd been hoping to open for Mother's Day (first weekend in April), and still plan to if permission comes through earlier. If it takes the full 8 weeks, but as long as we actually get permission, we should still be able to open in time for the Easter holidays. And in the meantime, having taken our metaphorical feet of the gas slightly has given us time to do more work on getting our website and stock ordering set up.

I think things are going to be just fine, it's just a matter of trying to ignore the slight cloud of uncertainty which hangs over us for the near future!

Flatpack fest

It feels like a lot has changed in the shop in just a week.

The walls are almost painted, and the new flooring is down - the whole place looks so much brighter and cleaner! (OK, so it wouldn't have been hard, but still...)

K and his brother have been working hard: laying lino, painting walls and building a wall at the back of the room for the kiln to hide behind.


Or me!

We also took delivery of our tables and chairs, which arrived in such a number of boxes that the delivery man actually called me up to check I hadn't mistakenly added an extra nought onto my order.

NB: the following pictures may only be exciting to other similarly disturbed types like me who love putting flat-pack up...

Oooh, boxes!

Mmm, pieces o' pine!

Instructions read in full, pieces categorised, and armed with my tiny allen key, the fun commenced. Before long we had our first table and chairs.


The great thing about having done this is that we've been able confirm how many tables will fit in the shop. Having previously worried that we might not even fit eight tables in, it looks as if they'll fit comfortably - with possibly room for even more.



The To-Do list is still as long as both my arms (and one of my legs) put together, but with the help of a lick of paint and a little furniture, it must be said that it really feels like the shop is starting to come together!

Half a small forest

We just placed a whopping order for our shop furniture. After much to-ing and fro-ing, humming and hawing and running down every furniture supplier the internet had to offer, we went with a very plain set of tables and chairs from Homebase...

(photo brazenly swiped from their website)

...ten of them. Yes, ten. These pine babies will arrive unassembled, so I'm anticipating an orgy of flat-pack this weekend - which is good, because I have an unhealthy love of putting this stuff together. (If the business ever falls through, I am available for hire for all your flat-pack needs!)

They fall into the 'sturdy and inoffensive' category, which is what we wanted given that the main focus of the shop is to be the products themselves. Initially we'll probably only have space for eight, but wanted to get two extra in case we expand in future, and it'll be good to have the back-up of extra chairs in case things get busy.

The process of ordering them online was strangely stressful - whilst I know why the anti-fraud measures many banks have introduced in the last few years need to be there, they now mean I dread placing any orders over the internet, particularly large and costly ones using soon-to-expire discount codes. There's something mindblowingly frustrating about being at the mercy of a tiny little text box on a small glowing screen.

Meanwhile, K is making progress getting our signage sorted out, and we're moving closer to being able to place our first big stock order. There are so many things we need, and a couple of very competitive suppliers, which makes the whole process pretty complicated. Lucky then that my talents don't stop at furniture assembly, but extend to writing complex price comparison spreadsheets....

Progress

Disclaimer: this post contains excessive DIY content and wallpaper facts.

Much progress was made this weekend chez Seashore Ceramics.

Firstly, the old gloomy carpet has gone. Amazingly, we posted it on Freecycle and within minutes had a number of takers - it was great to see it taken away by someone who could make use of it (and for us not to have to do twelvety trips to the tip!) The improvement was instant - from this:


To this:


Next step was covering up the 70s faux wood panelling, which we're doing by putting some lining paper and then painting over that. Fact: 1000-weight lining paper does the job much, much better than 800-weight.

Here I am, pasting away merrily (in, yes, the same demented clothes as last weekend)


You might notice my slightly unusual pasting table - it's a very retro counter which was left in this shop, which we're planning to use as our till counter.


Between the carpet removal and the new, clean walls, it feels like a different shop already.


Next up: laying the new flooring, putting a wall in, and placing our first stock order!