clennell on fri 21 jun 02
Sour Cherry Pottery
> Now THAT'S telling it like it IS!
>
> Hank in Eugene
hank: I'm going to also tell it like it is. Went to a customers cottage
last night for dinner. 14 bedrooms, olympic sized heated pool, hot tub,
gardener,maid etc, etc 4000 bottles of wine in the cellar. Also has a 4
million dollar cottage at Sea island in Georgia. didn't talk about his other
house in NY.
Sheila and I are the underbelly. Many of the wines he serves cost $400 a
bottle so a casserole for $375 is like throwing change in the guitar case of
a street busker. It was nice to touch richness but I just came away feeling
a little depressed. I make a whole lot less than the gardener but then I
don't have to put up with the horseshit either.
He poured a Woodward Canyon 97 Merlot from Oregon that was one of the
BIGGEST reds to ever pass these lips. Great wine!
cheers,
Tony
Hank Murrow on fri 21 jun 02
Lois wrote in part;
>This is a very provocative topic for me for several reasons. I did my
>I did my first crafts show this past weekend. It was a big one - the
>Lincoln Center Crafts Show - here in NYC. 6 or 7 booths down from me
>was this lovely japanese man who was selling his beautiful pots for
>very very little. I mean like $12 for a shino plate. $10 tea bowls.
>$8 little cups. You get the picture. He and his wife told me it was
>his first show and they didn't know how to price. Well, I did hear
>people in my booth comparing prices, even though the work was vastly
>different. And it was MY first show too! Bottom line was that he
>really raked it in on quantity. Did better than any other potter
>there, and better than most potters I know in recent years who have
>done the show. I did poorly on the first day. Lowered my prices the
>second and did much better.
>
>My studio mate and I have been having the pricing debate for a while,
>as she thinks I underprice my work. My personal feeling is that I
>compete with K-Mart and Pottery Barn as well as other potters. I
>have also gone around to many of the design stores in NY who carry
>pottery (yes, handmade) to see what they charge. I try and set my
>prices at what I think people will pay. IMHO, The market sets the
>price; I just go along with it. A look around this particular crafts
>show tells me my prices are right in the middle. Not high, not low.
>I'm keeping them where *I* feel comfortable. I'd rather sell 5 vases
>at $65 that 2 at $80. Maybe I'll raise them at some point, but right
>now this works for me.
>
>But here's what angers me - I am one of those "subsidized" potters. I
>REALLY resent that phrase. I am not "subsidized". I am starting a
>new business, like any other. Yes, I am fortunate we can live on my
>husbands income alone. This means he is a supportive spouse, not a
>"subsidiser". My being a potter allows me to pick my son up at
>school, be around for the kids, be around for my husband (who commutes
>3 1/2 hours a day) and generally run the house. All this while trying
>to makes pots and be profitable at it. I find it hard to believe that
>anyone who goes through all the work of selling their wares
>(especially the work of doing it at a crafts fair) does it for the fun
>of it, which is basically what's being implied. I'm not setting my
>prices higher to help other potters, as I have been told I should do.
>I just want to sell pots, and lots of 'em.
>
>Does one potter really owe the others a living? Everyone's work is
>different, some requiring more work than others. Everyone's lifestyle
>is different. Everyone's economic situation is different. I love
>making pots almost as much as I love my children, and I can't imagine
>doing anything else. I also think my chances of getting rich doing it
>(or even "comfortable") are about as good as if I played the lottery.
>Which reminds me, the mega-millions is up to $50M this week.
>
And Hank replies with a quote;
"On the final Sunday of the Pilgrimage, we attended the 9am
eucharist in Durham Cathedral. The preacher was the dean of Durham.
During his sermon he referred to......................" the
prevailing view that only the economic basis of society is real, and
that everything else, the things of mind and of the spirit, personal
values and sacramental experiences depend on that. In fact, it is the
other way round". The Dean quoted from a paper on the nature and
purpose of Higher Education by professor Jeff Astley of Durham
University and a Residentiary Canon of Durham Cathedral:
"........Profit-making industry and free markets are only possible
because they are sustained and subsidized by a societal
infra-structure produced by unpaid, uncompetitive and unproductive
devotions: especially the freely given love and service of parents,
spouses (partners) and friends. Thus, business is parasitic upon a
real community that it does not and cannot create. A full education
should be as much concerned with sustaining this undergirding reality
as it is with being realistic about the market forces that are built
upon its foundations".
Now THAT'S telling it like it IS!
Hank in Eugene
Martin Rice on sat 22 jun 02
Tony wrote:
"It was nice to touch richness but I just came away feeling a little
depressed."
Just curious, Tony: why did you come away feeling a little depressed?
Regards,
Martin
Lagunas de Barú, Costa Rica
www.rice-family.org
Lee Love on sat 22 jun 02
----- Original Message -----
From: "Hank Murrow"
> "........Profit-making industry and free markets are only possible
> because they are sustained and subsidized by a societal
> infra-structure produced by unpaid, uncompetitive and unproductive
> devotions: especially the freely given love and service of parents,
> spouses (partners) and friends.
Wendel Berry , from _ A Continuous Harmony, 1970._:
" Characteristic of the linear vision is the idea that anything is justifiable
only insofar as it is immediately and obviously good for something else. The
linear vision tends to look upon everything as a cause, and to require that it
proceed directly and immediately and obviously to its effect. What is it good
for? we ask. And only if it proves immediately to be good for something are we
ready to raise the question of value: How much is it worth? But we mean how
much money, for if it can only be good for something else then obviously it can
only be worth something else. "
Full quote here: http://www1.ocn.ne.jp/~ikiru/berry.html
--
Lee in Mashiko
"The lyfe so short, the craft so long to learne." - Geoffrey Chaucer (c.
1340-1400).-
._____________________________________________
| Lee Love ^/(o\| Practice before theory. |
| Ikiru@hachiko.com |\o)/v - Sotetsu Yanagi - |
`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'
"All weaves one fabric; all things give
Power unto all things to work and live." - Goethe -
Hank Murrow on sat 22 jun 02
Tony said;
>Hank: I'm going to also tell it like it is. Went to a customers cottage
>last night for dinner. 14 bedrooms, olympic sized heated pool, hot tub,
>gardener,maid etc, etc 4000 bottles of wine in the cellar. Also has a 4
>million dollar cottage at Sea island in Georgia. didn't talk about his other
>house in NY.
>Sheila and I are the underbelly. Many of the wines he serves cost $400 a
>bottle so a casserole for $375 is like throwing change in the guitar case of
>a street busker. It was nice to touch richness but I just came away feeling
>a little depressed. I make a whole lot less than the gardener but then I
>don't have to put up with the horseshit either.
>He poured a Woodward Canyon 97 Merlot from Oregon that was one of the
>BIGGEST reds to ever pass these lips. Great wine!
>cheers,
>Tony
Dear Tony;
You ever find yourselves down in Oregon, drop by for a sip of
Oregon Juice from my cellar. I go after the vintage as soon as the
winemaker will release them, then I hold for 5-40 years (I AM
optimistic). See my Welcome and Studio Tour pages for a peek at our
'ambience-on-the-cheap' where we drink 'em. http://www.murrow.biz/hank
I am as disturbed as you are by the HUGE and GROWING
discrepancies between the clerk and the CEO in North America. Good to
remember that this growth is now driven by everyday investors who
regard the $$$ as the only value to revere. That includes you and me
and anyone else who might own stock. In North America, it is not
uncommon for CEOs to reap 500 times the salary of a worker in their
North American plants, let alone what the difference may be for their
off-shore workers. In Asian countries, this differential might be 60
times.
> I encounter my customers largely in my own showroom, where I
>get to hear how much they enjoy using my ware, and I am too busy
>making & selling those wares to notice what kind of car they drive
>up in (OK, sometimes I peek).
Best, Hank
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