A Cosmic Tug-a-war

For the last four years I have toyed with the idea of letting my side business of designing one-of-a-kind art jewelry become my soul source of income.  That’s the dream since I left home for college.  I would survive on my creativity.  I played around with it after college, but then I was a printmaker/painter.  Footloose and fancy free driving from one gallery to the next from Chicago to New Orleans, living in my van, I had only my belly to fill, and no one relied on me for anything.  I did have a dog, but he was pretty good at fending for himself in a pinch.  I say I had a dog, but he was more or less just hitchhiking.

But, things got complicated.  As the Talking Head’s song goes, “I may find myself…” I may find myself the single full-time father of two little girls.  I may find myself, standing in a classroom, teaching high schoolers.  I may find myself living in a cabin in the woods.  I may find myself paying bills and driving a nice car.

I used to think that teaching was sort of a sell out for my artistic career, but I had to have health insurance for my daughters, feed them, and get them involved in as much as the community had to offer.  About four years ago, the artistic career seemed lightyears in the past, and I was pondering just when exactly had I crawled out of the primordial ooze to join all of the others walking on dry ground.  But, then I met Lora, my bead goddess, girlfriend, and the owner of a divine little bead shop.  While hanging out in her shop during open hours and the onslaught of our courtship, we started talking, planning, and I found myself making a place for me within her bead shop.  I don’t think either of us asked or planned it exactly.  She introduced me to silver clay (silly putty with a metalic glow) and lampwork (pyromaniacs wet dream).  But, I drew back on my days of working with my father in his jewelry store from age 8 to 18 and started making stuff with silver coins and cabs she carried in the shop.  Then I began going to rock shows and meeting lapidaries.  Next thing I knew I had a fully operational studio.

So, with the help of Lora a wonderful marketing person, my work began to sell.  First, in her shop.  Then, the local galleries.  Then, with the help of great friends my work began to spread out into art galleries in other states, calls started coming in, and things began to escalate.  I am still scrating my head sometimes.  I don’t have to do repairs. I don’t have to do custom orders, and I get to only make what interests me.

I still have the day job, but I’ve had to jack prices up to attempt to keep an inventory on hand.  This is especially hard, because I only get after school hours, weekends, and holidays to work.  Time is my greatest commodity.  Time makes $20 of materials become $400.  I also teach classes in metalsmithing in the shop in one-on-one arrangements because I was just getting persistent pleas.  I’ve jacked the prices on classes to an unreasonable rate for a one day class in basics, I give each one a flier for Penland, and I beg them to look everywhere before shelling out $700 for a day with me.  Low and behold I still have to do it occasionally.

All in all, I bring in about $500-$2000 a month on top of my teacher pay.  I do my patriotic duty and pay my taxes and register with the city and state to make the studio legit.  But, I keep wondering how much I could really make if I could work every day.  Could I make more than I do now if I quit the day job?

But, at the teaching gig, I attend meetings with the board of education, I realize that I may not be able to keep the day job anyway.  Our state and the surrounding states have fallen into proration, which means stripping the budget.  Usually this is just a lull for a couple of years to make back up the taxes that we were supposed to gather, but now we can’t because no one is spending money.  But, this time it looks very grim.  There is serious discussion about stripping education down to the 4 core curriculums.  The two areas in a school (in our state) where the teachers are not paid by the state (but by the community) is fine arts and physical education.  This is Alabama, and if one goes, it won’t be the football coach.  And, I happen not to be on the football end of education.  I am one of six art teachers within the school It’s a massive school).  And, we are all sweating.

So, begins the tug-o-war.  Should I stay or should I go?  However, I may not have a choice come next year.  But, on the other end of the rope, I have a very good friend who has been working as an artistic jeweler.  He has gone through some tough times.  He has no insurance, and he has had several serious medical emergencies which has wiped him out financially twice in the few years I have been friends with him.  He is in his older years to put it politically correct, and he has taken up a hammer and works construction to make things meet up correctly.  Square one at his age, hmmmm.

I had a potter friend of mine back in college.  He had a great ceramics studio/gallery in a small college town, main street.  His work was spread out in galleries, and he had steady patrons.  He was fit as a fiddle.  We used to drop by his shop every day after class and play hacky-sack behind his shop or all go skinny dipping as emblematic of our carefree-ness.  Then one day he spilt his hand open on a pottery shard.  A man without insurance has to make due, so he used a little super glue, patched up the cut, and got back on the wheel and kicked out a few pots.  A man has got to eat.  2 months later he was dead.  He developed an infection that spread to his heart.

Hmmm, should I stay or should I go?  If I have to go, where do I go?  Will I make it if I follow the dream?  What will the economy do?  Questions, questions.

Anyways, I’ve decided to just let the dice roll for now.  I will know by the end of summer if I have another year to spread my magic slowly and follow this path to the dream with the security of a day job.  Everything in the studio is paid for.  I am 13 years away from retirement (and a good one at that), so I’d be nuts to leave before seeing where the dice will land.  I love teaching art and design.  Plus, teaching in a subject that is different from  my passionate side business, feeds both of them, teaching and jewelry.

But, I will also play it smart.  As industries are closing its doors in surrounding areas, the state figures out how to keep the schools open, as credit debt outweighs the country’s production, and the dollar continues to drop in a global market; I have to prepare for my family to survive.  I am going to set back what I can in gold coins (currency crash) and make plans for an escape route to Canada, where I can harvest ice cubes and eat seal meat :o)

I’ve just had too much to think tonight, lol, excuse me.

Tagged as: business, Musings