I have been feeling a bit messed up for the past few days but I think I have all my brain chemicals back in balance today! Yay for that.
I didn't make any pots today at all. I've been trying to learn something new and I'll let ya know how it's going in a day or so. (Still things to do). Has nothing to do with clay by the way.
So, tomorrow I plan to make some pots. I am very excited about the Thrown Together Fall Sale which is Oct. 2nd in Charlotte.
So just to keep it interesting (maybe) I'll recall something that happened this weekend.
A lady came in the shop looking for a gift for a couple. Now this person comes in once or twice a year and she has several of my pots. Well, she went on about how she wanted to get the couple something useful. She told me how she had some of my baking dishes and how much she loved them. All the pots she has are my salt glazed pots. She asked if I had any bakers with owls drawn in them. No I didn't. No bakers at all really. Okay so she went on about the useful thing for a while and I just felt like she was saying that my new (not so new anymore) work wasn't useful. This got my defenses up because I do want my pots to be used but I do know that now that I've started decorating more (overkill sometimes) that my pots seem like objects to put on a shelf. Which is fine. I do have my worries and hangups about all this coming from my past background and voices in my head. (stupid voices). I do want to be a functional potter but I've got to face it I've moved into a different arena. I'm not making plain salt glazed stoneware anymore. I'm actually really happy that I'm not doing that because for once I'm happy with where I am and what I'm making.
Anyhow back to the lady. She had to have something with an owl on it. I had a great serving bowl with an owl, $94. She said, can they put it in the dishwasher? I said sure if they want to put a $94 dollar bowl in the dishwasher. (stupid defensive voice). I showed her a couple more things and thankfully Sarah came in and saw I was a bit worked up and took over with her. While I went into to the studio I saw an oval vase that Sarah had put flowers in that morning. Low and behold it had an owl on it! I took it to show them and the lady loved it and bought it right away.
I don't think she caught on to my defensive part coming up or my frustration with not being able to find her what she wanted. Really this isn't about the lady at all it's about me reacting to how I feel like she perceived my work, as decorative, expensive objects.
I have worried that I've lost some of my local customers by changing my work and up-ing my prices because of all the labour involved. I have lost some. But really I have to say that this has been my best year ever that I've been making pots. No, I've not made more money than ever but I am happy with my work and I've gotten some good recognition and positive feedback from folks in the field. I feel great about that. This other stuff is prone to come up and that's okay. I can't do the same thing forever. I've got to grow and I feel like I am so that's good right? I'm happy the customer left happy too, it's important to me to have a connection with people buying my pots. I do need to learn to talk more about what I'm doing now and hopefully bring some folks along with me.
Hey, I don't think I've written anything that long in a while. If I keep that up, Jim will have some competition!! Ha.