Mimi Stadler on thu 18 feb 99
Hello fellow Clayarters-
It seems some us us make a respectable living from pottery, others don't care
about sales, and work with clay for the pleasure of it, and others are trying
to find that balance between the love/labor and the income.
At this point, I'd like to make even minimum wage. My family's income does
not depend on my earnings, fortunately. We do fine on my husband's alone, and
I run the ol' homestead, do the prime time kid maintenance, and spend a day
each week with elderly parents. My work hours are between the morning school
run and the afternoon pickups from school, minus groceries and necessary
errands, a couple of brief community responsibilities I will keep on doing,
and some very interesting hours each week at Clayart. In addition, I don't
work Saturdays, as I'm a Sabbath observant Jew, and Fridays are mainly spent
in preparing for Sabbath. So in my 15-20 hours remaining weekly I'm making my
high fire, electric fired functional ware with an eye on items I enjoy making,
would buy myself if I were not a potter, and hope the buying public would go
for. I've bought some of the books on marketing one's work, read them, made
notes. I've begun approaching shops as a result. One buys outright, and
sells my work well, but doesn't buy much. Ideally, I'd sell to several that
way. I don't make enough pots to sell in large quantity. And because I
don't do any sort of business on Saturdays, I don't do shows unless it's a
Sunday-only deal. Life nowadays includes 2 Sunday kid clay classes in my
studio, and a few weeks running a clay workshop in summer camp. So these are
my choices and commitments, yet I'd like to sell my pottery, too.
So here are a couple of my questions, and if some of you could respond,
either on or off Clayart, I would put your ideas into the pot (so to speak) of
my decision-making, daily operating processes: When time is limited, output
is limited, and a small but regular customer base is desired, where am I best
served in focusing my marketing energies? And- another biggie- can I set a
realistic price structure yet, based upon all the figures I've spent time at:
overhead, materials, hours spent, etc;
or do I have to introduce my work at less than that, as I see other part-
timers do?
Many thanks in advance for any thoughts some of you might offer on the
subject.
Mimi Stadler
Mug Tree Pottery
reldats5@aol.com
Don Jones on fri 19 feb 99
So here are a couple of my questions, and if some of you could respond,
>either on or off Clayart, I would put your ideas into the pot (so to speak) of
>my decision-making, daily operating processes: When time is limited, output
>is limited, and a small but regular customer base is desired, where am I best
>served in focusing my marketing energies? And- another biggie- can I set a
>realistic price structure yet, based upon all the figures I've spent time at:
>overhead, materials, hours spent, etc;
>or do I have to introduce my work at less than that, as I see other part-
>timers do?
> Many thanks in advance for any thoughts some of you might offer on the
>subject.
> Mimi Stadler
> Mug Tree Pottery
> reldats5@aol.com
You don't give us a lot of options, Mimi. The only one I can think of is a
once a year studio sale. You can gradually develop of mailing list and a
consistent time of year to hold it.
Don Jones
claysky@highfiber.com
:-) implied in all messages and replies
http://highfiber.com/~claysky
Vicki Katz on fri 19 feb 99
Mimi,
I read your entry & can relate to your situation on several levels. I will
respond by saying that you are defining success. You are able to live a life
that meets the needs of you & your family by being available for your
children, respect the traditions of family and faith & support your art by
being an artist 15-20 hours a week.
How great that galleries are buying your work! Depending on where you live
and the work you produce, it is sometimes difficult to find your market. Like
you, making money teaching, is an option many of us explore. It works with
our busy schedules but teaching takes time away from actual productivity. It
seems from reading your Email that you are doing a great job of balancing your
hectic demands on your time.
Others who work 40 - 60 hours/ week on being a professional artist can respond
to the livings they make on their pottery. It would be presumptious for me to
remark on their challenges.
Pat yourself on the back - you are doing a good job.
Former Mom,
Vicki Katz
Paul Lewing on fri 19 feb 99
Hi, Mimi,
It sounds to me like you're on the right track. You want to keep it local and k
it personal. Find a few stores that like your work, whose owners you like and tr
and wholesale to them, before you go farther afield. If you find you can easily
up with the outlets you have through a Christmas or tourist season (if tourists
your market), look for another store to add.
And you should definitely NOT discount your work because you work part time. Th
ultimate buyers won't know how much you work, and discounting your work is not f
to the full-time potters around you. And it's not fair to the shop owner. If y
set a wholesale price for an object at, say $5, when everybody else is getting $
the store owner has two choices. One, she can double the price to $10, when she
could be getting $20, thereby cutting her markup in half. Or she can buy it fro
for $5 and go ahead and charge the $20 she would charge for anybody else's work.
is unfair to her, the other is unfair to you.
You can go ahead and do all that cost analysis stuff for pricing your work, but
bottom line is that your work should be priced similarly to work of similar size
function and quality. The cost analysis tells you whether you can profitably ma
item, not how much it should be priced at. It should be priced as high as you c
get it and still sell all you want to make.
I don't know if you make what is known as Judaica (sp) or not, but given what yo
said about your life, it's a market you should look into.
Good luck, and keep on making what you want to make.
Paul Lewing, Seattle
zahidi on sun 21 feb 99
You're on the road!
Don't forget to send one of your spiffy new brochures ( you made yourself on
your new computer, scanner, and printer, of course) out to all the interior
design
shops! Some of them take things into homes and sell them to the homeowners.
Make sure your consignment agreement states that the retailer is responsible
for breakage. That way if s/he drops it, you still get your 60%. Been
there.
zahidi@gs.verio.net beautiful cool dry sunny day in Louisiana
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