Thinking about Selling Pt. 2

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The show I signed up for got me thinking about this stuff again.  That and the fact that the checkbook was dying.  I thought, I need to sell some pots at this show.  What would sell? See now that's a sure sign of going down the wrong road and I recognized that.   But it did get me to thinking that my lowest priced item right now is a small flat bottomed bowl that retails for $22.  It's made from 1.25 lbs of clay and it's decorated.

I honestly don't think I want to  make anything that is a knick knack that would sell for less or be less work (with the drawing and glazing).  Why should I?  I hate that my mind even went there.  I can take my current line of work to this show and sell some pots.  Hopefully.  It may very well be that I don't.   But chasing the market has never really gotten me anywhere.  It's best to make what I want, what I'm excited about and to make that work the best I can.  Also to find the right places to sell that work.

I admit that this show is a last minute consideration to try to get out there and sell some pots when we are in need of some income.  Maybe I'm going against what I just wrote in the previous paragraph. Ah, it's tough right?  Still I can justify it by saying it's 10 minutes from home and the fee was $60.

Believe me I see that some of my reasoning in this post has gone haywire.

I did have another point to make along these lines but I think I'm gonna stop now and go out to work.  Thanks for reading.

Thinking about Selling

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I signed up yesterday for a small art show that's happening in town in a couple weeks.  It's been awhile since I've participated in it.  I'm hoping to make a few bucks.  I woke up this morning to the sound of our check book thrashing wildly upon the counter.  I think it's because the checks we wrote to the government must have went through the bank, and the poor check book is having terrible withdrawals.

I was thinking just now about how in the past I'd make certain pots that were really likely to sell when I was hard up for money.  One such pot was a spoon jar with blue decoration.  Back in my early and mid salt glaze days I abhorred  blue. (It had to do with my Leach brainwashing).  So I'd make these 3 lb. cylinders with a flare out at the top.  I'd dip them 1/2 from the top in white slip and add a couple blue ovalish dots on opposing sides.  I'd make 8 or 10 and mark them at $18 and sell everyone.

This was as bad as I let myself get.  I certainly could have made a bunch of little blue jugs and sold them for $9.  That would have been easy money indeed.

If I've offended you because of this relationship I had with blue glaze or my snobbish attitude please know that that was quite a while ago.    My motto now is, "To each his own".   You can certainly see that I'm using blue glaze now (even pink).   And not for reasons of selling pots.  I'm doing so because I like it.

Right, so there is more to say about this but I do like to keep my posts short so you'll have to check in later for the next bit.

Opening

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It was great to see all of my pots at the NC Crafts Gallery on Friday night.  I even had some red dots in place already.  Sara Gress ,the gallery owner, did a wonderful job exhibiting the work.  Thanks to those who came out.  I met some really nice folks.  The show runs for the month of April so if you are in the area stop by. (Sorry for the poor quality of this photo).

Sarah and I had a great time in Carrboro and Chapel Hill.  I'll post more about it later with some images.

Good Thursday

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Feeling much better today.  Look at that magnificent yard.  Nothing like riding the mower to wash my worries away (Yes, we finished our Taxes.  Now we have no Money.)


Oh well.  The apple tree is bloooming.  Yay!!  When Life gives you lemons, get ready for Apple Pie.


Handles...


Something funny going on here...


Heading up the road to Chapel Hill tomorrow.  Show opening at the NC Crafts Gallery.

It's just started to rain.  So long Pollen.

Ton of Fun

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This is majority of the  ton of clay that arrived earlier in the week.  I'm set for a while, which is super nice.


I'm under the weather this morning.  I have a mild fever and I'm all congested.   Hopefully I'll feel better soon.  I'm fairly caught up with things in the studio. I am working towards the ClayMatters Pottery Sale which is in May and also a show with my pals Jennifer Mecca, Amy Sanders and Julie Wiggins.  That is in late May.


Well that's all for the moment. Check in later, maybe I'll have something Exciting to share.

Teapot and Taxes.

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I got this teapot from Brandon Phillips last week.  I really love it and  it's become the pot for my morning and afternoon tea brewing.  I think Brandon and I really have a lot in common when it comes to clay and pots. He also sent me a yunomi with the same glaze. It was in the dish drain so I didn't get a photo.


Sarah and I got going on our taxes over the weekend.  We never get an early start even though we have intentions to do so.  There are 3 calculators on the table!


This shot is from this morning,when I wasn't being a very nice person due to my incompetence, frustration, and embarrassment.

I made a mistake on my retail sales tax in the last quarter and I just didn't want to deal with it.  Sarah was asking me questions and getting on fine putting her materials together.  I was a jerk and pretty much ruined the morning.   Too bad that the tea I was drinking didn't have a calming effect.  Anyhow I got my mistake sorted out, along with figuring the penalty.   Hopefully when Sarah gets home all will be forgiven and the evening will be better.  This money stuff just really puts me in a twist sometimes.

Coming Home

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I had several boxes come back from a gallery that was consigning my work .  It didn't seem to be a good fit in that my pots did not sell well there so I was ejected. Not really! I had a  good relationship with the owners and I feel like they represented me well.  It just didn't seem to be the right place for my work.   It's a drag when something doesn't work out but really I can't expect my pots to fly off the shelves just because they are out there. (Or should I??  Come on city people buy those rat pots and those laundry lines!!!)

I had forgotten about some of these pots. It's fun to see them again.  At the time  I was doing simple line drawings and some blocks of color with patterns.  It's neat that in just a few months things changed and I am where I am now.  I like that I'm putting more work/detail into the drawings at the present.   Sometimes just a little more thought and effort can make a huge difference.

A lot of this work is still nice and I'll certainly put these on the shelves in the showroom and list some on Etsy.

I'm hoping for a big day of making tomorrow.  My clay didn't arrive Friday, but I've got about 200 lbs in the shop.

I'm planning on sending out an E-Newsletter this week.  So if you'd like to receive one please be sure to sign up over in the right hand sidebar.  Thanks for visiting!

Wet Slip. Horse Eye Dishes

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Here are a couple of the serving bowls that I slipped yesterday.  I went ahead and did some wet drawing through the slip.  I've always loved the Horse Eye plates from the Seto kilns and this rim deco is my homage to those dishes.  I'll probably draw an owl in one of these and I'm not sure yet about the other.

I got my truck back from the body shop today. It looks good as new.  I didn't really blog about it, but a while back my step mother accidentally backed her car into mine.  I had a pretty big dent in the passenger side there for awhile.  It's nice to have it fixed now.

All for today.  Bisque kiln loaded.  See ya on Friday!

Poll Results. And Wide Feet

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Hey there folks.  Guess what? Most of you reading this are potters! (Just in case you didn't know).  Thanks everyone for taking the poll over the last week.  I had 144 participants.  134 potters.  10  potter lovers/collectors but not makers.  I also had a couple folks notify me that they didn't fit nicely into either category.  So I feel like most of what I am posting here is of some relevance to those who are reading the blog. Which is good.  So thanks for sticking with me and I do appreciate it when you leave comments.

I've not made any yunomi in a while.  Honestly I stopped b/c I wasn't selling that many.  I decided to make 4 yesterday just so I could cut this wide foot on them.  The finished pot there is one of Ron Meyers' from the mid-80's.  It's a small cup, and I use it a lot.  I really love the wide foot on it and wanted to try my hand at a few.



Below is an image of mugs as I was decorating today.  You can see I often pencil in the image.  Really useful in helping me not mess up so many pots.



I met my pals Amy Sanders and Jennifer Mecca for breakfast this morning at Zada Jane's. We had a nice chat.  I had my usual, Bunny Rancheros, eggs over light with chirizo!  I took the camera but forgot the memory card so no pics.  Sorry.

Truck went into the shop today for some body work. So I'm stuck here for the rest of the week.  Good plan to get work done.  Also I have a ton of clay arriving Friday!! Sweet.

Yey Monday!!

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Look at all this work I got made today.  AND thanks to the Internet, I got to attend the NCECA pre-conference at Montgomery Community College.  Nothing like having Ron Meyers, Christa Assad, Andy Brayman and Ellen Shankin working right along side you on the computer all morning!!

A panel discussion with Mary Barringer, Ayumi Horie, Julia Galloway, Lisa Orr, and Allegheny Meadows was held in the afternoon.  Good questions and discussion there, although I had a hard time trying to work and listen.  Hopefully it will be re-broadcast.  My Blog got mentioned which was totally cool!!!

Anyhow Day 2 will be broadcast tomorrow starting at 9am EST.  Here's the link.

Yey Monday!

Earthenware Journey

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It's been just over 2 years since I made the big switch to earthenware.  If you are interested in seeing the progress you can go back in the Archives (right sidebar) to January 2008 and move forward from there.

Just to give you an idea of where I started, here is the  post I made after my first glaze firing. Click HERE.

And here is a platter from that period.



And a recent platter:



There have been some significant steps along the way.  Doug and Hannah have both been very encouraging and have turned me on to loads of great pots.

I have looked at Margaret Brampton's pots for encouragement on using color.

Of course my two weeks at Penland with Ayumi Horie were very influential for me.    I came back from that experience and jumped in feet first into my decoration.  That's been 8 months ago now and while I continue to work with red clay, white slip, clear and colored glazes I feel like my decoration is becoming more and more my own.  I am certainly putting more time than ever into drawing on my pots.  I was fortunate in that I had put many years into working on my forms when I was making salt glaze.  It's nice not to have too many problems to work on at once.

Right after I left Penland I became fascinated with Medieval Majolica from Italy.  Thankfully there are some nice images on the Internet.  See Here for one.

I moved up from that time period to more current Italian majolica,1500, 1600's.   And then on to pots that were made in this country in the 1700 and 1800's.

Thank goodness for the Internet and all it's resources.

When I first thought about making earthenware pots I knew I wanted them to be fun and accessible.  I think I am accomplishing that.  It's neat to see how humorous some of the old English slipware was.

Living out here in the country of NC offers many subjects for my work.  I've spoken before about how we are surrounded by cows and goats, squirrels and rabbits.  Most recently I've started incorporating more flowers and foliage into the decoration.  I imagine that will certainly pick up speed as the honeysuckles begin to flower and the garden takes shape.  I look forward to that.

Well, I just wanted to do a bit of a recap.  It's good for me and I know I could have certainly gone into more depth here on various areas.  For now, I'd best get out to the studio and make some bowls.  I hope you all have a good week.

Here are the new pots...

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2RXuTYlFAQ

I'll try and take a few still photos tomorrow.

The Indian take out was amazing. (see previous post)  I hung out at the bar while I waited on my food. Things seemed to be going better than when we were there over the weekend.  There's hope Shelby! There's hope.