Where have I been??
Added 2022-12-13 01:26:06 +0000 UTCFinally, I have a minute to breath and reflect on the last 6 weeks. So much has happened and I've rocked off quite a bit of my responsibilities as of late. Lets start from the top.
6 weeks ago we were expecting a shipment of bottles for the very large Creature Caster order of Cuttlefish Colors. This was going to be the 2nd largest fulfillment we have ever done so all of us went in to prep mode to, hopefully, make things smooth and easy.
Prep mode you ask? huh? Well, besides a total redesign of the bottles, we also redesigned all of our labels. Both bottles and paint sets. As well as curated the paint sets along with Creature Caster to, hopefully, make some form of sense. I'll admit, the previous set boxes were literal chaos...no rhyme or rhythm to why or what was in them. Entirely random. This redesign of labels took about 2 weeks, with back and forth conversations with Creature Casters graphics designer as well as several meetings between Creature Caster and ourselves. Long hours...very long hours. While Creature Caster was working on the labels we set off to make sure we would have ample product. We don't usually keep large amounts of pre-mixed paint on hand. We've never had a reason to honestly up until now. Most batches were mixed as needed, and typically in smaller quantities. Space is a premium here in the studio / basement. 3 gallons...3 full gallons of every single Cuttlefish Color were made. Course, that isn't he totality of it. We also created and included 10! brand new colors to the paint line. Yes, certain colors were discontinued (looking at you Milk Bottle Cream, Clownfish Orange, Moonglow, Soft Serve Brown). We found that the colors we discontinued were very similar to existing colors and felt it was time we focused on more of what we don't have - darker colors. So, 9 of the 10 new colors are nice, dark, rich tones that work wonderfully as shading glazes. In case you were wondering, you can find all 10 new colors in the Light and Shadows box from Creature Caster.
Beyond making the large amounts of paint we were busy cleaning, re-organizing the studio for better work flow, printing the new labels, making the new set boxes...the list goes on, trust me...
The time came, 2 weeks since the order was placed - and when we were originally told that the bottles would be arriving. Still no tracking information, no replies to inquiries from the manufacturer... radio silence. Creature Caster purchased the new bottles, so I didn't have a direct communication to the manufacturer. Instead I relied on the middle man, Creature Caster. This is where things... get interesting.
Turns out, China is still performing rolling lock downs due to Covid-19, or is it Covid-22 now? I can't keep track. This shut the factory down for 10 days. Factory gets back up and operational. Bottles are made, order is created. Then...Their logistics department, apparently located in a different area of the city, is shut down for their lock down. 8 days go by... again, we are sitting on our thumbs... waiting. At this point everyone here is getting nervous. Will be even have enough time to fulfill the order before Black Friday? Finally, logistics is back up and running. Bottles are shipped! YAY! they're on the way finally. Or so we thought. Shipping via Air Express typically takes 3 days, plus an additional 2 for customs clearance. Well...Somewhere, someone didn't get things moving in a forward motion. A tracking number was created, shipping notice sent but no movement on the tracking number for 8 more days...
Well, by some miracle the package is tagged at US customs - It's finally going to arrive! This was on Nov 22nd. Scheduled delivery was on the 23rd between 10am and 8 pm. (nice window they gave me right?) So, we call in the troops. Get everyone sorted as to who will be doing what and in what order we are going to process things. Nov 23rd rolls around...no bottles. no movement on tracking. FedEx is of absolutely no help, they don't have any answers. So, Sadly we were unable to get the order fulfilled before Black Friday. No worries, I'm sure they will arrive on Nov 25th right? It's Black Friday, we can still make this happen. How wrong was I...
Fast forward to Nov 29th. That's right, 6 days after the scheduled delivery day. No mention on tracking they are out for delivery nothing. I'm standing in my front lawn chatting with a neighbor and here rolls up FedEx. I was shook. We've been on stand by now for weeks, not just myself but the entire staff. Here are the bottles... and I've had to send everyone home. Can't keep paying employee's to sit and wait right?
So, Bottles arrived on the 29th around 2pm. I drag all 18 massive cases inside and down to the studio. Grab the phone and start making calls, trying to get anyone and everyone that can to come in. It's going to be busy. Nope. Most of our employee's are part time, help when they can. unfortunately being the holiday season they are all working extra hours at their normal jobs to earn some extra holiday cash. So, here we go. Head down and myself, Kelli (Kevin's wife) as well as a small army of children set out to do all we can. Creature caster would like to start shipping products to their customers no later than the 7th. Easy right? I mean, 30k bottles of paint, 6 days...that doesn't scare me... (honestly I was terrified. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise) 6, back to back 22 hr days. I don't think I slept more than 5 hours from the moment the bottles arrived to us finishing taping the last box for the shipment. That happened on Monday the 5th, SUPER late at night (2am I think?) Tuesday morning I'm letting Creature Caster know the order is ready - and we go about scheduling the shipping company to pick it up. 3 full pallets. 2 to the US and 1 to Canada. Well, as fate would have it. She's not done throwing curve balls at me. Canada was picked up on Thursday the 8th - so that's awesome. But the US? Shipping was going to be a nightmare. So, I do what I always do. I think like a customer. I mean, if I ordered a product on the 25th of Nov I'd like to have it within 2 weeks. So, Wednesday the 7th, 3am...I'm loading my car up with some seriously massive boxes of Cuttlefish Colors. Hitting the road to hand deliver the US order to Creature Caster's warehouse. 8 hours of windshield time, the package is finally in Creature Casters hands.
I honestly don't know how we were able to do it that fast. Serious credit goes my kids, as well as Kevin and Kelli and their kids.
Now, that's what's been living in this neck of the woods for the last while. So yes, I ignored not only my patreon responsibilities but also my other two businesses that I own and run. Things have finally gotten back to normal. I'm able to stream again (feels so good to finally be able to paint again) Not only that, but VIDEOS! yes, I've been sitting on a load of recorded videos and no idea or know how to get them edited and published. Well... Tapped into my skillshare account and found that they have an entire course outlined on how to edit and make videos. Who knew right? I've spent the entire weekend sitting in front of my computer and phone watching hour after hour of videos on how to do this and that. Proud to say, I've got this now.
Here's a really neat intro video I did over the weekend, and...the first of 4 new videos I'll be posting up this month.
Intro
Anarchist of Onslaught Video
I'm planning to make the majority of the video's more of an ASMR type video. No rambling of me screwing up the vibes.
Instead - I'm going to be streaming to Patreon every other Sunday morning, starting with this Sunday. The plan is to go live around 9am CST and stream for 2-3 hours. This will be more of a personal experience and less Cuttlefish Colors. Everyone and anyone is welcome to join. I'll have the discord voice chat room open for patreon's only. Feel free to jump in and chat away. Speaking of, if you haven't joined the discord yet...you should do that ;)
Missed chatting with everyone the last while. PM's incoming for painting 1 on 1's. Everyone's got quite a reserve of hours they can tap into. Schedules are tight but I'll make it all work.
See everyone soon.
- Ceph.
