Hopefully this won't be the only post I make all week. I haven't been putting much time in here lately but I'll try to at least get a few things up so I don't just fade away.
The Carolina Pottery Festival went well on Saturday. My sales were down several hundred dollars from last year though. That's been true all year. Honestly I'm pretty bummed about it. Last year I had good shows and felt like maybe the whole 'recession' thing wasn't going to hit me so hard. Well it looks like it finally did. Oh well, nothing to do but keep on putting things out there.
I have two more shows this year. I'll say more about them tomorrow and put up some links. I decided I'd really stock up the Etsy site. So yesterday and today I took loads of photos and I've been adding to the store. More new items coming tomorrow and Wednesday.
I hesitate to mention this next part after complaining about money but here goes. I have been offered a job teaching continuing education pottery classes at a nearby community college. It's two days a week and the pay is okay. Not great, but really, it's money right? After a good bit of thought I've decided I'm not going to take it. My heart just isn't in it and I don't want to be spending my time there. I want to be here making pots. I really do love teaching. When I was at Clayworks I had a very dedicated and motivated group of students. I loved seeing them every week and I loved watching them improve and grow. I went in once a week to teach my class and that was pretty much all I had to do. The great thing about clay studios is that there are studio assistants that do all the grunt work. If I took that job at the community college I'd be putting in way more than my 6 hours per week that I'd be getting paid for. I know that sounds weak and like I'm spoiled, but I am at the place where I want to spend my time doing what I want to do. Also, I think for the most part many of the students at the community college see the pottery class as a social time. Many have been taking the class for more than a decade and still make pots that are in the beginner stages. As I write this my critical voice is really slapping me down or saying that I should get in there and change the place and get it rocking. Agggh. Sarah and I have already had a big ole' talk about all this so I don't really need to even be putting this out there but here I am typing away.
I do think that maybe I'll teach again somewhere if the place and time is right. I do like going out and doing the weekend workshop thing. I'd like to do some one week hands on workshops too.
As far as making money goes, I'm planning on applying to more shows next year and hopefully getting in a few more galleries. I also want to have a couple of salt kiln firing workshops here where people pay to have pots in the salt kiln. I'm pretty sure those would go over great.
A few years ago I'd blame the lack of selling my work on the pots, saying they were no good or that folks didn't get them. Now I know that's not the case. I feel pretty good about what I'm making these days. I really want to continue to grow and I want to get my work out in the world more. I'd love to crack into selling more pots online, it would be amazing.
So that's my big post for the week. If you made it all the way through all that then you are truly a dedicated blog reader.
Speaking of blog readers, I finally made my way through most of the past posts of all the blogs I normally read. They have been piling up for over a week. It's good to see what everyone is doing. I still have 7 back posts of Sofia's Dad's Pots to read but I think I'll save that till in the morning. Jim always has some great stories.
The Carolina Pottery Festival went well on Saturday. My sales were down several hundred dollars from last year though. That's been true all year. Honestly I'm pretty bummed about it. Last year I had good shows and felt like maybe the whole 'recession' thing wasn't going to hit me so hard. Well it looks like it finally did. Oh well, nothing to do but keep on putting things out there.
I have two more shows this year. I'll say more about them tomorrow and put up some links. I decided I'd really stock up the Etsy site. So yesterday and today I took loads of photos and I've been adding to the store. More new items coming tomorrow and Wednesday.
I hesitate to mention this next part after complaining about money but here goes. I have been offered a job teaching continuing education pottery classes at a nearby community college. It's two days a week and the pay is okay. Not great, but really, it's money right? After a good bit of thought I've decided I'm not going to take it. My heart just isn't in it and I don't want to be spending my time there. I want to be here making pots. I really do love teaching. When I was at Clayworks I had a very dedicated and motivated group of students. I loved seeing them every week and I loved watching them improve and grow. I went in once a week to teach my class and that was pretty much all I had to do. The great thing about clay studios is that there are studio assistants that do all the grunt work. If I took that job at the community college I'd be putting in way more than my 6 hours per week that I'd be getting paid for. I know that sounds weak and like I'm spoiled, but I am at the place where I want to spend my time doing what I want to do. Also, I think for the most part many of the students at the community college see the pottery class as a social time. Many have been taking the class for more than a decade and still make pots that are in the beginner stages. As I write this my critical voice is really slapping me down or saying that I should get in there and change the place and get it rocking. Agggh. Sarah and I have already had a big ole' talk about all this so I don't really need to even be putting this out there but here I am typing away.
I do think that maybe I'll teach again somewhere if the place and time is right. I do like going out and doing the weekend workshop thing. I'd like to do some one week hands on workshops too.
As far as making money goes, I'm planning on applying to more shows next year and hopefully getting in a few more galleries. I also want to have a couple of salt kiln firing workshops here where people pay to have pots in the salt kiln. I'm pretty sure those would go over great.
A few years ago I'd blame the lack of selling my work on the pots, saying they were no good or that folks didn't get them. Now I know that's not the case. I feel pretty good about what I'm making these days. I really want to continue to grow and I want to get my work out in the world more. I'd love to crack into selling more pots online, it would be amazing.
So that's my big post for the week. If you made it all the way through all that then you are truly a dedicated blog reader.
Speaking of blog readers, I finally made my way through most of the past posts of all the blogs I normally read. They have been piling up for over a week. It's good to see what everyone is doing. I still have 7 back posts of Sofia's Dad's Pots to read but I think I'll save that till in the morning. Jim always has some great stories.