clennell on sat 22 jul 06
Yesterday at Ikea where Sheila picks up our wooden chopsticks that we
include with our rice bowls (still a sucker for novelty) she noticed some
really nice woodfired planters with nice flashing about 15" high for half
price $4.95 Amazing! How can they do it? The shipping alone you would think
would cost more than that.
At one point in my career I read that people were cacooning(staying at home
to avoid violence, and high costs of shows and dinners). I thought yes the
deck/BBQ, the lovely garden. Flower pots are the way to go. Now I just send
people down the road to the garden center or if they ask today I'll answer
Ikea.
Best,
Tony
P.S Taylor - so glad you're enjoying Robert Genn's twice weekly newsletter.
The Bozzetto is a keeper. I maintain a file of the good ones.
Tony and Sheila Clennell
Sour Cherry Pottery
4545 King Street
Beamsville, Ontario
CANADA L0R 1B1
http://www.sourcherrypottery.com
Jeanette Harris on sat 22 jul 06
>Yesterday at Ikea
Which reminds me........
A couple of months back, I bought a hard plastic tractor-seat stool
from Ikea for a pittance--$20.00 I think. It has adjustable height
and makes a great little stool for the wheel--easy to pick up a pot,
pivot and stand without tripping over a stationary stool. Also easy
to slide slightly back and forth in front of the wheel when needed
and adjust for what you're doing; change posture. Takes just a bit of
getting used to, but now it's unconscious.
--
Jeanette Harris
Clay Engineer
Poulsbo WA
Lee Love on sat 22 jul 06
At our 100 yen store, you can buy hand decorated enameled rice bowls
from Thailand. 100yen (less than a dollar) each. You can get 100
yen ohashi (chop sticks) for the same price. Wait until China gets
into the frey. They got skill potters up the wazoo and the desire to
sell to you and me. Can't compete, pricewise, as long as fuel is
"cheap" to get the stuff to us.
--
Lee in Mashiko, Japan
http://mashiko.org
My google Notebooks:
http://tinyurl.com/e5p3n
"The accessibility of the handmade object in today's world seems vital
and radical, and hopefully tempers our hunger for 'progress' and
rationality" - , Michael Kline
Jeanette Harris on sat 22 jul 06
>At our 100 yen store, you can buy hand decorated enameled rice bowls
>from Thailand. 100yen (less than a dollar) each. You can get 100
>yen ohashi (chop sticks) for the same price.
We LOVED the 100 yen store when we lived in Japan. That was 'way back
when and the yen was worth very little.
The place was full of all kinds of gadgets and bright plastic
stuff--fun to try and figure out what to use it for. I still have my
dikon 0-shi (I think I remember that right) the finest, most
beautiful little grater for slicing up dikon.
We bought the most wonderful bright rotating baby-dazzler with
rotating plastic flower cascades to hang above a crib. It had a
wind-up music box that played a tinkely Japanese song. (Gaudy as all
get-out) My son went happily to sleep every night listening to and
watching it.
--
Jeanette Harris
Clay Engineer
Poulsbo WA
Hank Murrow on sat 22 jul 06
On Jul 22, 2006, at 9:45 AM, Jeanette Harris wrote:
> We LOVED the 100 yen store when we lived in Japan. That was 'way back
> when and the yen was worth very little.
And just a month ago I bought several rolls of beautifully colored
crepe paper there that I used to wrap my pots inside of their boxes to
use as omiage during our visits to potters. Life saving.......
Cheers, Hank
www.murrow.biz/hank
Elizabeth Priddy on sat 22 jul 06
They are already in it to win it.
Just go to Pier One anywhere. If you can't find
something that make you drool just a little in their
pottery department, you are the problem and the sour
grapes are what is that bitter taste you can't get rid
of.
I was just walking through and shaking my head,
looking at glazes and pots that some very highly
skilled craftsmen and women in China make, wondering
how they pack it, how they ship it, how they make it
and sell it to Pier One for them to retail a 30 inch
platter for $100.
I am not even going to try to complete with that. I
would go broke trying, got to stick to the line you
can't import.
Ironic, that my teacher, the one that taught me to
make things you can't get from overseas, was from
China.
Elizabeth Priddy
Beaufort, NC - USA
http://www.elizabethpriddy.com
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David Hendley on sat 22 jul 06
I've never understood how Wal Mart can sell a 20-piece
dinnerware set for less than $20.
Even if I could magically make the pots for a dinnerware
set form themselves, the materials would cost $20, the
energy to fire them would cost $20, the packing materials
would be close to $20, and the shipping cost to China
would probably be $100. I couldn't even ship them to
Nebraska for $20.
I'm making no value judgments about buying locally or
complaining about cheap imports. The $20 dishes are
functional but ugly and classless. I just don't see how
the numbers can add up, even if the workers who make
them are paid nothing at all.
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas
david(at)farmpots(dot)com
"EXTRUDE IT! Getting the Most From
Your Clay Extruder" available at
http://www.farmpots.com
----- Original Message -----
> Yesterday at Ikea where Sheila picks up our wooden chopsticks that we
> include with our rice bowls (still a sucker for novelty) she noticed some
> really nice woodfired planters with nice flashing about 15" high for half
> price $4.95 Amazing! How can they do it? The shipping alone you would
> think
> would cost more than that.
pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on sat 22 jul 06
Hi David, all...
I think there is little familiarity, with how a 40
foot Ocean going containerized Cargo Container,
full of anything one wants, whether ull o Lead
ishing weights or 'eathers', costs like $3,000.00
from red china to Los Angeles...maybe less even,
maybe much less even.
The cost per-unit of the items in the Container
are often 'pennies' as for the actual freight, and
nothing to hardly anything or the customs dutys.
So that set or dishes maybe costs .33 Cents or
something to get 'here', or to LA anyway...tops...
Phil
Las Vegas
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Hendley"
Subject: Re: $4.95
> I've never understood how Wal Mart can sell a
20-piece
> dinnerware set for less than $20.
> Even if I could magically make the pots for a
dinnerware
> set form themselves, the materials would cost
$20, the
> energy to fire them would cost $20, the packing
materials
> would be close to $20, and the shipping cost to
China
> would probably be $100. I couldn't even ship
them to
> Nebraska for $20.
>
> I'm making no value judgments about buying
locally or
> complaining about cheap imports. The $20 dishes
are
> functional but ugly and classless. I just don't
see how
> the numbers can add up, even if the workers who
make
> them are paid nothing at all.
>
> David Hendley
> Maydelle, Texas
> david(at)farmpots(dot)com
Ivor and Olive Lewis on sun 23 jul 06
The numbers add up because the Govt of the Chinese Peoples Republic =
dictate what the exchange rates will be, not your American Treasury. If =
you investigate you will find that American Banks are in Debt to the =
tune of several billions of dollars to the Chinese. They are controlling =
the wealth of America.
Not a happy scenario. A highly tilted playing field.
Wishing you well.
Ivor Lewis.
Redhill,
South Australia.
Nancy Braches on sun 23 jul 06
I look at things differently I guess and I am only sharing my opinion here, not to upset anyone.
Ban a store? Well let's ban a lot of things...certain gas stations where our oil is foreign import vs those that buy only US oil. etc etc. It would never end.
Those who truly want hand thrown pottery will buy it. Whether they make minimum wage or over 6 figures. Yes, true those making more can afford more but to truly appreciate the purest form you don't have to be able to afford it.
The feel of holding that smooth surface (or textured), the feel of it in your hand, the beauty in the one of a kind piece. The beauty of the amazing glazes we can do. That's not felt with the pocketbook that is felt with the heart and those are the people I want buying my pieces.
It is an unfair comparison to compare pier one, walmart, kmart, etc etc to what we do. The appreciation is inside the person and to those who want it, those cheaper items don't even compare.
So make your pieces and know those who buy them want them, we can't stop foreign imports and to complain about it on this board isn't helping us. We are artists not manufacturers.
Happy potting
Nancy
Hilltop Pottery
Lili Krakowski wrote: There is an economic theory, that it does not matter WHO has the money, it
matters how much money is in circulation. I do not know who invented this,
but it sure does apply to this discussion...even if some are "disgusted".
Someone earns $240 a week...basically minimum wage. And, ignoring taxes,
$100 goes for rent, and $10 for utilities and $30 for gas (petrol to Brits).
So $100 remains. $30 of that goes to pay off dentist, or optician, or like
that. A whopping $70 remains for food, clothing, toiletries, laundry etc.
Now,according to some,this poor person is supposed to count pennies in order
better to support American Crafts. She sits there and ponders: "I need a
present for Thelma's wedding, and Pier One, or Wal-Mart, or Ikea has these
lovely items for $4.95
so I can buy a 'honeymoon set' for $11 (taxes, always taxes) Or I can
spend $50 buying same item from A Famous ClayArt Potter Who Won a Ribbon In
the Biggest Bestest Art Show? Why do I need to eat this week, anyway?"
Right! NOT buying at Wal-Mart is a luxury, my dears, few people can
afford! And Wal-Mart does a lot more to support the local economies than
ClayArt claims to believe. Because the farmers, mechanics, the people who
pump gas, and pave the streets, wait table at the diners, cut hair,
baby-sit, and mop the floors at schools and hospitals DEPEND on Wal-Mart,
Dollar Stores, etc. And when I go to the local stores for pliers, or shoes,
or whatever--most are made in China, and what is not made in China comes
from India, or Macao (which MrK keeps telling me where it is, and I keep
forgetting) In other words, what the local stores sell ALSO is made in
China.
Sure. If the kids wanted to go out on the lake one could buy an
Adirondack Canoe. But reality is,that a plastic
one made Heaven knows where is what one can afford. Would you really have
normal, average people sacrifice their children's summers (so short, so
fleeting--both childhood AND summers) while they are saving for a genuine,
handcrafted Adirondack canoe?
If you want to support the local economy, barter! Yup. A face cord of
dried stove wood for You Name the Pot. That supports the local economy fair
and square. But this criticism of Wal-Mart, and the suggestion that I am
disgusting (which I do not quarrel with, by any means, but not for
WalMartian reasons) because I shop at Wal-Mart all the time...really. Am I
not entitled to spend my money as I choose? Is that not a basic liberty?
And who is anyone to suggest that saving money by buying a tzatske
at Wal-Mart means one does not spend the saving on a museum membership or
give it to charity?
Furthermore: there are people like me on Clayart who remember not being able
to afford more than two pairs of socks and two pairs of underpants at a
time, because of cost. And wearing damp socks and underpants in winter
because the unheated room did not allow them to dry fast enough.....And
people like that DELIGHT in the cheap and affordable--be it thrift shops, be
it Wal-Mart--that make it possible for the poor to have certain decencies.
I could not find a place in this rant for "elitist", "snobbish",
"contemptuous". But this rant cannot leave without them. Please sprinkle
them liberally.....
Lili Krakowski
Be of good courage
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