Last Tuesday was a day of great highs and lows for me. High because I sold two of my platters through etsy-- one going to California and the other to Massachusetts. Low because I realized I had no appropriate boxes.
When I first started etsy, I learned about shipping the hard way. Blithely, I thought that every time I got an order, I could just saunter down to our local co-op and find a great box. I also thought foam peanuts were the way to go. Then the very first dish I sold through etsy broke in transit. And I realized that I had to get more professional.
Enter J.P. of West Coast Paper. J.P. kind of reminds me of Santa Claus who is obsessed about shipping. He set me up with appropriate boxes, bubble wrap, and (here's the secret) lots of butcher paper to pack around the bubblewrapped piece to make sure it is suspended in the middle of the roomy box and doesn't move during the shipping.
(I swear I am going to make a Youtube video one of these days about shipping by packing one of my "second" platters really well, boxing it up, and hucking it off the roof of my studio to see if it breaks.)
Anyway, despite being set up to ship I realized on Tuesday that I had run out of platter-sized boxes. So I loaded up the platters, packing tape, sharpie pens and butcher paper and went box hunting. As I drove Theo to his music class, I scored a box off my friend who owns a salon here in Ashland.
Still I needed another one.
My plan was to drop Theo off at his class, then drive down to the shopping center and rummage through the bins behind Radio Shack. But as I was leaving the music teacher's house, there was her recycle bin full of interesting large boxes. I started rummaging, practically immersing my whole torso in her bin. I came up for air. Two other moms were in their cars staring at me. And the music teacher's son was frowning at me from the porch.
Blushing, I drove on to the shopping center. I ended up packing up the boxes, using the trunk of my car as a table. Behind Radio Shack, the alley was bitterly cold. A storm was moving in. But Pumphouse Studio's Shipping/Customer Service Department was working hard, making sure those platters would have a comfortable journey.
