Joyce Lee on wed 3 feb 99
Had an experience that supports Dannon's statement about a casserole
with chicken recipe outselling an equivalent casserole without recipe.
I was tickled to bits to sell practically everything at my one-and-only
show.....except what I considered to be my nicest, most personal
pieces...little bitty pots (not really miniatures) which I'd enjoyed
throwing and decorating with all the attention to detail that I'd given
to any full-sized pot. They were shino, tenmoku, celadon, red, midnight
blue, and mamo-on-brownclay, with a lavender or purple one here and
there, as well as oatmeal with Cerdec orange or yellow. They definitely
attracted the public who ooohed and aaahed, handled them, compared their
shapes & glazes to the larger pots, turned them upside down, commented
on the tiny stamp with my initials, asked if they were "harder to make
than the others" and did I "use a special teeny-tiny wheel," called
friends over to see them, and generally carried on as if they were
precious, indeed.....but, you guessed it, very few sold.. In fact, I've
been attaching them to the ribbon on gift packages to get rid of them...
The long-term fair/show/sale participant in the booth next to me
negotiated to trade some of her knit&crochet work (very nice work)for a
few little pots. She was kind enough to advise me that next time I
needed to put toothpicks in my little pots, or tiny dried flower
arrangements, or group them with candles inside, etc in order to give
the public some ideas on their "use." Never dawned on me that such a
need existed! The words directly quoted from this gentle creature:
"People don't know s***. Most don't have an iota of creativity. You have
to SHOW them, then TELL them, then WRITE it down for them, then MAYBE
they'll get it." Well!!!.......but she was right....just like
teaching...or parenting. I should have known.
Joyce
In the Mojave carving the bejeesus out of that 15 lb bowl...I swear,
sometimes I have no sense whatsoever!
Andrew Buck on tue 9 feb 99
Joyce and all,
My experience with this was with selling some small mugs that my wife
made. The mugs were small but not miniature. They were maybe 2 1/4 inch
diameter and 3 inch tall. They were nicely glazed and had usable handles.
She made two sets of eight with one set being a blue and the other being a
brown glaze. I tried selling them as sets, pricing them individually,
lowering the price to almost the give away level and still nobody did more
than ooh and aah over the size and glaze. Then I had the idea of putting
a sign up next to the mugs that read "espresso mugs". They sold.
Andy Buck
Raincreek Pottery
Port Orchard, Washington (where it is currently snowing)
On Wed, 3 Feb 1999, Joyce Lee wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Had an experience that supports Dannon's statement about a casserole
> with chicken recipe outselling an equivalent casserole without recipe.
> I was tickled to bits to sell practically everything at my one-and-only
> show.....except what I considered to be my nicest, most personal
> pieces...little bitty pots (not really miniatures) which I'd enjoyed
> throwing and decorating with all the attention to detail that I'd given
> to any full-sized pot. They were shino, tenmoku, celadon, red, midnight
> blue, and mamo-on-brownclay, with a lavender or purple one here and
> there, as well as oatmeal with Cerdec orange or yellow. They definitely
> attracted the public who ooohed and aaahed, handled them, compared their
> shapes & glazes to the larger pots, turned them upside down, commented
> on the tiny stamp with my initials, asked if they were "harder to make
> than the others" and did I "use a special teeny-tiny wheel," called
> friends over to see them, and generally carried on as if they were
> precious, indeed.....but, you guessed it, very few sold.. In fact, I've
> been attaching them to the ribbon on gift packages to get rid of them...
> The long-term fair/show/sale participant in the booth next to me
> negotiated to trade some of her knit&crochet work (very nice work)for a
> few little pots. She was kind enough to advise me that next time I
> needed to put toothpicks in my little pots, or tiny dried flower
> arrangements, or group them with candles inside, etc in order to give
> the public some ideas on their "use." Never dawned on me that such a
> need existed! The words directly quoted from this gentle creature:
> "People don't know s***. Most don't have an iota of creativity. You have
> to SHOW them, then TELL them, then WRITE it down for them, then MAYBE
> they'll get it." Well!!!.......but she was right....just like
> teaching...or parenting. I should have known.
>
> Joyce
> In the Mojave carving the bejeesus out of that 15 lb bowl...I swear,
> sometimes I have no sense whatsoever!
>
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