Ellen Currans on sat 3 dec 05
I have to wonder how many potters, working full-time and making a living from
their pottery, actually have websites that bring in much income. I can see
the value of it if you do comission work, both to inform the public that you
are available and to give them examples of what you might do for them. And, if
you are hoping to do workshops or be invited to exhibitions, it might have
value as well.
For someone like me, and for Kelly's purposes, I just think there are better
ways to earn a living. I do not have a website, even tho I have a son who is
helping to invent the most current room sized HP computerized printer that
will revolunize printing, and has offered many times to set me up with a
website. My answer always is, I don't want to be tied down to the website, either by
the quickly outdated pictures, and the necessity to redo the site, or by the
orders that might come in and have to be filled. I want to make pots with my
time, and I want to change them as the mood strikes. I don't want to be
committed to making the same pieces over and over again. I don't want to have to
stop my clay work to rustle up boxes and wrap and pack and shuffle to the post
office. And I don't want all that correspondence about checks, and late
checks, and broken pots.
For quite a few years we offered shipping from our showroom, or took orders
at fairs/shows and shipped, and even tho my husband usually got roped into the
shipping, it always seemed like wasted time. I resented having to sit down
and make 60 special orders before I could get onto the work I wanted to make for
the next show. ( And you know that there are always some people who want that
pot, but want it in a different glaze or slightly bigger.!) No matter how
much we charged for packing and shipping it didn't add up to a realistic wage
for the time spent. It was a courtesy to our customers and one we gladly did
for quite a long time while we were building a customer base. But no more. If
you like it when you see it, buy it- it may never come around again.
Of course, you can hire someone else to do the shipping for you, but this
starts you down the slippery road of paying people to do all sorts of jobs in
your studio, and very seldom do you end up with more money doing that - just more
people to surpervise and pay, and less time to do your own work.
Mel's advice is good. Sell locally. In Oregon there are all kinds of
charity fund raisers, art sales for schools, small town fairs, that you can start
with. And you can always form a group of likeminded artists to create sales
opportunities. Build your customer base near where you live. Don't expect a lot
in the beginning from any new fair. At first it may not be the best event you
could hope for, but over time, if you do everything you can do to make good
work, sell it reasonably, behave nicely while doing so, you will gradually win
over a group of people who come to you to buy your work, and you don't have to
drive all over the country to sell. They show their friends and family and
before you know it you are selling to the second and third generations. If you
sell retail you can keep your prices reasonable so people can buy. If you sell
wholesale or through galleries you have to double what you need and that puts
work out of reach for many people. (Not to mention the hassle of inventories
and late checks and lost pots in galleries!) Unless you have a lot of wealthy
people in your area who are just dying for your most expensive work, I
wouldn't recommend going for the high end market just yet.
Since your most urgent need is to replace the income you are losing by a pay
cut, I think you should be as realistic as possible about what you can do and
the costs of the various choices. Work from home, of course. I don't know
many potters doing well who have to rent a store front studio as well as living
quarters. Make what you know the people in your community will buy. Not being
a ceramic artist, but a potter, I've never understood why it was a bad thing
to make work people want to buy. I know the kind of bowls and pots I want to
use in my kitchen and on my table, and I make them for others, and I make them
in the glazes and styles that fit our Pacific Northwest homes.
Concentrate on making what you can make well. In the early days all my work
was small because I simply could not throw good large pots. So I made lots of
small inexpensive things like match holders, soap dishes, small pitchers,
soup bowls, etc.
I was thrown into becoming a full time potter when we decided to build our
own home and my husband QUIT his job as an engineer with Tektronix to do it. I
had been a part time potter then for about 10 years, my 3 children were all in
high school, and I had the full cooperation of my husband to make it work. It
did work. After a few years I quit worrying about making enough to live on
and now I wonder why everyone doesn't live as we do. (30 years later) You
already have the life skills needed to live frugally and simply, and clay skills
which will be honed and improved as you get into the rythmn of serious work
each day.
If you truly want to be a potter, the necessity of your getting serious about
your work is a blessing and an opportunity. Nothing concentrates your mind
and hands like necessity.
So, I vote, keep your website as it is for now.
Ask yourself, if you really want all the bother of a second website.
Are you willing to make the same pieces over and over to fill website orders.
(If the website is a success you will be bogged down in keeping up with it -
if it is not it will just be an expensive byline.)
Do you want to pack pots, or make them?
How long can you wait for people to find you amongst all the websites in the
world.
Start thinking about the kinds of pots the women in your part of the country
would want to use. Show them how their cranberry sauce or mashed potatoes or
roadside flowers will look so much better in your pots than anything they can
buy elsewhere and just get on with it.
If anybody can do it, you can Kelly.
Yours,
Ellen Currans
Cedar Pond Pottery
Dundee, Oregon
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