search  current discussion  categories  technology - internet 

website and women's stuff

updated fri 2 dec 05

 

primalmommy on thu 1 dec 05


I appreciate your perspective, Linda. Every time I redo my website it's
with a sense of, "Hey, this is really bad! About time I fixed it!"
(Sadly it's the same for my pots, studio, house, you name it. ) Until
recently, though, I've had no real sense of urgency about it.

I'll be turning all this info over in my head in the year to come --
improving pots, website accessibility, sales. But the truth is, I'm a
"mid-journey" potter, and have not yet "arrived " at a place where I am
ready to sell my work to other potters. I made pad pots because women
wrote and asked me to years ago, and then made a website just to post
the pix of them when they were done. The fact that non-pad pots are on
my site at is all only a few months old, and kind of an experiment. Some
of the women who have bought my niche market pots in the past have
emailed recently asking for other work, so I put some up there.

I have sold website pots to exactly zero men and only two clayarters in
my lifetime, and one of them (years ago)wrote back astounded that I was
able to sell such bad pots for that price. Not a proud moment -- but I
improved my pots in a hurry. You guys are great but I don't consider you
potential customers!

In all the years I have been writing to clayart, I have not put my
website URL in my sig line. It's partly because I am not ready for
potters to see my pots. Not just because I fear critique (I'll get to
that in a minute) but because I'm just not there yet. I have agonized
over the cup for NCECA every year, and have made and rejected half a
dozen cups for Lori and Marta this year because the next one would be
better.

The hell of it is, the next one IS better. I move so far between kiln
loads that I regard most of my pots -- including the ones on my kitchen
table right now awaiting price tags -- with something like disdain. The
ones in the kiln red hot, though, THOSE are pretty nice... always the
next load and the next.

I am now going to have to think more about making lots of marketable
pots, but until a week ago it never was a big priority. Like Marta, my
focus has been endlessly trying new things -- finding some wonderful
pots/sculptural stuff along the way -- and the few sales a year were
just a way to get it all out of my studio and start over. I have been
first and foremost a full time homeschooling mom, and make no pretense
about being in the same category with the pro potters here. (Yet.)

Which is kind of why I am in no rush to find "my style" and stick with
it. I suspect it's something that happens naturally with years and time
and repetition of forms -- (which will be much more a part of my life
starting now.) I suspect I will find a voice like I found a husband --
after 30 years of being determined never to settle down, it just
happened and was meant to be. With pottery it maybe isn't so much a
matter of picking a "look" and calling it yours. Instead it's probably a
trial and error process of trying (and eliminating) all the lesser
possibilities until you end up on the only possible road.

And I could make the worlds greatest website but if I don't have a lot
of really good pots to sell (which I don't -- yet -- ) I'm all hat and
no cattle.

About Tony's crit: I got a few notes off list from people worried about
my feelings. The truth is, I have been whining about the lack of
mentoring and feedback in my life, and briefly considered an MFA for
that reason. I am happy for perspective from any direction -- (well,
except for advice from my mom about my hair, weight or housekeeping
skills) ;0)

If Tony was Tony with everybody else but patted me on the head and said,
"good girl", I'd have to drive to Canada and kick his ass, and I don't
have time to do that right now. I don't want anybody to praise or buy my
pots because they like me, I want them to want the pots. I have a pretty
good warehouse of self esteem and I'm not that fragile. Now, I don't
take Tony's critique to heart any more than Elizabeth's or Joyce's, but
like all input you just kind of take it all in, and the stuff you
already knew was true bubbles to the top.

I don't pay much mind to T's advice about putting my kids in school,
because he doesn't know my kids (or my school system). And I don't
expect him to understand some stuff, if it's "a girl thing". But I know
he knows some about pots. I had to laugh when a wise clayarter said,
"Look at Tony's pots" and there were two of them sitting in front of my
keyboard, one full of tomato soup.

My problem is, I have surrounded myself with really really good pots. CM
posters and favorite postcards all over my studio, Yixing teapots over
the toilet, perfection in my hand with my morning coffee, and Molly
sipping warm chicken broth (she's got strep) from what we oddly call the
"Hanky teabowl" (as in Murrow.) So my own pots look kind of anemic to me
in comparison. But they are better than last year, last month, last week
-- and as good as some I see for sale. And I need them to be out of the
studio -- because it's a brave new world for me, starting now.

Thanks for everybody's advice. I should probably start a blog instead of
taking up so much bandwidth on clayart.
To the bud who asked for my site, it's http://www.primalpotter.com or
primalmommy.com, either one -- but don't go there ;0) I haven't vacuumed
and the place is a mess!

Yours
Kelly in Ohio - w/one kid in bed with the chills and another packing
long johns for winter scout camp.
















_______________________________________________________________
Get the FREE email that has everyone talking at http://www.mail2world.com
Unlimited Email Storage – POP3 – Calendar – SMS – Translator – Much More!


Elizabeth Priddy on thu 1 dec 05


I have one piece of advice that might really help.

Don't try and change up with holidays descending.
But at the turn of the year, when you have time.
Hear me out, as I don't think this would be "natural"
for you...

Take all that stuff down. You have so much "inspiration"
that there is little room left for you to see a clear
vision that is your own. Knowing what exists, what has
come before, who the competition is, all that was a really
important part of getting to where you are now.

But you are there. And the way you work has to change.
You sensed it and started looking around. And get blocked
at every turn by where you have been already.

Your core problem, as I see it, is focusing, developing
your own look. It will come up so much more quickly
without the constant distraction. One thing that you
can say about my work is that it is a unique vision of
what clay can be. I have never seen anything quite like
it and I have looked. I am talking about the painted
work, not the pitfire. The pitfire makes me happy, but
the tile work is a true expression of how I see the world.


And I don't see the world through other potters' eyes.
I believe that any potter at your level, good enough to
make about anything you want, has to pull back and give
a little room to imagine. You need a clean canvas. And
you will probably get writer's block, ever so briefly,
looking at those blank walls. And then you will start
seeing pots everywhere. In the substance of the rest of
your life. My boy's viking helment was a weird surprise
for me one day. Those faces in your work are the cleanest
example of what you see when you are not neck deep in
somebody els's vision. I have looked at many of your pots
for many years and those little faces looking back at me,
so hopeful and pure...that is beautiful. So eager to be.

When you get all that visual clutter out of your way, the
rest of your world will get in front and your pots will
begin to reflect your life and not the workshops you have
attended. The skills you attained there will never leave you,
the imagery of their completed work has to go.

And get a large box for all those pots you have no feeling
for anymore, because the stuff you make once you free your
vision will blow all of it away.

Something to think about, maybe try just clearing one
room and add a handy sketchbook and pen to the room. Give it
a week and see if anything truly your own shows up in
that book. Then clear another room.

It must be exciting being you right now.

EP




--- primalmommy wrote:



My problem is, I have surrounded myself with really really good pots.
> CM
> posters and favorite postcards all over my studio, Yixing teapots
> over
> the toilet, perfection in my hand with my morning coffee, and Molly
> sipping warm chicken broth (she's got strep) from what we oddly call
> the
> "Hanky teabowl" (as in Murrow.) So my own pots look kind of anemic to
> me
> in comparison. But they are better than last year, last month, last
> week
> -- and as good as some I see for sale. And I need them to be out of
> the
> studio -- because it's a brave new world for me, starting now.
>


Elizabeth Priddy

Beaufort, NC - USA
http://www.elizabethpriddy.com



__________________________________________
Yahoo! DSL – Something to write home about.
Just $16.99/mo. or less.
dsl.yahoo.com