ARTISTINSC@AOL.COM on thu 21 dec 00
I set up my first studio in 1970 and remember the stock market dive following
that then the gas shortage when I couldn't get a tank of propane to fire my
gas kiln, then the great price increases that came from passed along fuel
prices. It is amazing how much of our product in ceramics has fuel prices
factored into it. The clay and chemicals are dug and processed with
fuel/energy and the bags have fuel used to make them, the shipping of the
supplies to the supplier than to us and any claymixing all take fuel/energy
and most of our wheels take energy to run and the kilns bisque and glaze
firings. We found the inflationary nature of the increased cost of energy had
to be passed along onto the customer and price resistance had to be overcome
and that is when the brighter colors of lower fired products came along. It
took giving the customer a new look to restructure the pricing, and
decorating was readily accepted as justifying added costs in the perception
of value added. If we undergo another cycle here from dramatically rising
fuel costs, which will extend to include our shop heat and even the building
materials costs increasing, we will begin anew an inflationary cycle once
again. We will have to again reinvent ourselves to regain markets. Good luck.
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