The fall semester is almost over, the kilns have been going almost non-stop at school to round up the end of class. My last official class is next Tuesday, which is really just a day to critique and review each other's work, and otherwise goof off. It also hails the end of my production year, as the studio will be closed while classes are on recess. Which means some time to sit back, relax... and look back over the past few months to see where I dropped the ball.
Over the break, I'm hoping to snag some much-needed backroom work in organization and planning. I made my first couple of sales over the past month, and will be sending out my first shipment tomorrow morning, which I'm very excited (and nervous) about. I also have a bunch more work from the past semester to put up for sale after the class critique. But still, there's lots of room for improvement...
In the next few posts, I will be focusing in more sharply on individual sections, but a brief summary:
In Review...
I made a couple of sales this quarter, which is great! But, it could be better... my delivery time has been lacking, in part because of a lack of preparation. My shipping costs also need some refinement, as well as the overall look of the shop by finishing my banner and taking better/more uniform photos of my items. I got a new camera for this purpose, but I haven't decided on the backgrounds.
I'm seeing that I definitely need to streamline my processes more. A lot of extra work could have been avoided with better notes, especially on glazing. Nothing sucks worse than a really great piece coming out with a bad glaze. I also need to do more pre-planning, as I find myself wasting a lot of time just trying to figure out 'what' to do.
I also took a shot at putting a small selection up for sale in a store setting, and while they did generate some interest, there weren't any sales. I think I will have to refine my selection and display a bit, if it's going to be worth it. However, it's free, which is a plus.
In looking forward...
I plan to dedicate a full 2 - 3 weeks to just glaze-testing once classes start again. A full selection of colors and then collection of tried-and-true mixing combinations, so I'm not wasting full pieces just trying to test out one glaze. Once I have an effect and it's proved repeatable, I can expand in forms and create a more uniform look to my work.
Over the break, I'm going to be working on my photography and finishing up that store banner and matching business cards. I could probably take another look at my descriptions, and posted store policies, to see if I can improve the wording and appearance. I will also be looking into investing in some of the online-advertising on Etsy, to generate some more traffic through my shop. That's it for now, I'm sure I'll have more later.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Overflowing
One of the biggest reasons I really wish I could quit my job, is just so that I would have more time. I only have class 2 days a week, and since I work almost every day, there really isn't much room to squeeze any more days into the studio. So I usually try to squeeze as much work out of the hours I have available.
Which leads me to a problem: there isn't enough space.
The school allows me 2 shelves on the big rolling shelving units in the studio (just like every other student), and if I throw very large/tall pieces, I usually need to take out the top shelf to be able to fit it into the space. In a three hour period, I can easily produce enough, if I'm throwing large, to take up all the space available to me. Which means the next time I'm in, I need to trim and finish off everything I did the day before, or else I won't have room for anything new.
However, I haven't quite figured out the alchemy for wrapping my pots JUST well enough so they don't completely dry out in the days that I'm gone, but not SO well that they don't dry at all. So, I usually can't trim at the beginning of each class, and have to let things sit out while I work on something else. It doesn't really take all that long for a piece to dry, but it's a very specific point in dryness where it can be trimmed... Too much, and it's too hard, too little, and it's too soft and sticky, and warps easily.
It would be most effective, if I could be in every day of the week, or nearly so, so that I could check on things regularly and work when they are ready. Which leads me back to the original problem: Time.
*Sigh* It's a circular problem. e=mc^2 where the root of time and space equals the distance between myself and insanity... ..Or, something.
Which leads me to a problem: there isn't enough space.
The school allows me 2 shelves on the big rolling shelving units in the studio (just like every other student), and if I throw very large/tall pieces, I usually need to take out the top shelf to be able to fit it into the space. In a three hour period, I can easily produce enough, if I'm throwing large, to take up all the space available to me. Which means the next time I'm in, I need to trim and finish off everything I did the day before, or else I won't have room for anything new.
However, I haven't quite figured out the alchemy for wrapping my pots JUST well enough so they don't completely dry out in the days that I'm gone, but not SO well that they don't dry at all. So, I usually can't trim at the beginning of each class, and have to let things sit out while I work on something else. It doesn't really take all that long for a piece to dry, but it's a very specific point in dryness where it can be trimmed... Too much, and it's too hard, too little, and it's too soft and sticky, and warps easily.
It would be most effective, if I could be in every day of the week, or nearly so, so that I could check on things regularly and work when they are ready. Which leads me back to the original problem: Time.
*Sigh* It's a circular problem. e=mc^2 where the root of time and space equals the distance between myself and insanity... ..Or, something.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
What's in a Name?
Shakespeare wrote, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." He also wrote a lot of other stuff, but most people only really bother to remember that one, along with "to be or not to be."
Ever since I conceived of this idea to sell pottery several years ago, I've been struggling with a name. It's harder than one might think, actually, to pluck a name out of the air by which forever after you'll be known for. A brand image. Easily recognizable. What if I don't like it? What if no one remembers it? What if I want to change it later on down the road? Pretty daunting, when you think of it that way.
"of Earth, Trees and Heather" was not my first choice really. I'd had something else in mind for a while, but waiting so long to actually set up shop, I ended up deciding that I didn't like it very much after all. Of course, well-meaning parents tossed in some doosies too. (Thanks Mom and Dad.)
So, why "of Earth, Trees and Heather"? When I was younger, I did not fancy my name very much. In fact, I really sort of hated it (sorry guys!) I didn't get over this distaste until a family trip across the pond to Scotland. Wherein, I first discovered my namesake, and a tolerance for pretty flowers. There are many different kinds of Heathers, the most common one is Calluna vulgaris, is a shrub with white or purple flowers and grows wild in Europe. It is this flower that is featured (will be featured) in my logo.
The first half then, is pretty obvious, since my work is made out of clay-- mud, basically. The whole process of walking a piece from start to finish has a very earthy, and centering, feel to it. You get elbow-deep in mud, work it with your hands, and then the magic of fire crystallizes it into permanent, beautiful existence. Pottery also serves a purpose within everyday life, in cooking, which gives it a very cyclical place in human history, in between decorative art and functional existence, amidst the food and the growing things. It is from this place, from life, to art, and back again, that my love of pottery and my name came from.
Hopefully in their travels from my hands to someone's kitchen table, my pieces will find as loving homes, as I had for them while creating them.
Ever since I conceived of this idea to sell pottery several years ago, I've been struggling with a name. It's harder than one might think, actually, to pluck a name out of the air by which forever after you'll be known for. A brand image. Easily recognizable. What if I don't like it? What if no one remembers it? What if I want to change it later on down the road? Pretty daunting, when you think of it that way.
"of Earth, Trees and Heather" was not my first choice really. I'd had something else in mind for a while, but waiting so long to actually set up shop, I ended up deciding that I didn't like it very much after all. Of course, well-meaning parents tossed in some doosies too. (Thanks Mom and Dad.)
So, why "of Earth, Trees and Heather"? When I was younger, I did not fancy my name very much. In fact, I really sort of hated it (sorry guys!) I didn't get over this distaste until a family trip across the pond to Scotland. Wherein, I first discovered my namesake, and a tolerance for pretty flowers. There are many different kinds of Heathers, the most common one is Calluna vulgaris, is a shrub with white or purple flowers and grows wild in Europe. It is this flower that is featured (will be featured) in my logo.
The first half then, is pretty obvious, since my work is made out of clay-- mud, basically. The whole process of walking a piece from start to finish has a very earthy, and centering, feel to it. You get elbow-deep in mud, work it with your hands, and then the magic of fire crystallizes it into permanent, beautiful existence. Pottery also serves a purpose within everyday life, in cooking, which gives it a very cyclical place in human history, in between decorative art and functional existence, amidst the food and the growing things. It is from this place, from life, to art, and back again, that my love of pottery and my name came from.
Hopefully in their travels from my hands to someone's kitchen table, my pieces will find as loving homes, as I had for them while creating them.
"That's not a real job"
I've run into this statement a lot during my (relatively short) life. The most recent was from my (recently) ex-boyfriend. But, lets be honest, a lot of it was in my head too (which probably explains why I was willing to date someone that thought the same way. But that's another topic.)
A lot of American Culture is all about Consumerism. Capitalism. The progress ladder, the office environment, business dress, getting ahead, selling out, staying in line, working the 9 - 5 from 18 to 55 and then retiring. Except, the world of guaranteed pensions is going out the window, maybe even employer-contributed 401k's too, and people are working long past their intended retirement ages.
And to be honest, I don't want that world. Not surprisingly, having a creative mind has some drawbacks when trying to fit into the uniform of the 9-5'er mold. And I know myself well enough to know that I would never really be happy there anyway. So it's a surprise when a lot of the voices repeating the "you can't make that a real job" phrase, have been my own.
But it's just as realistic to say that "American Culture" does not foster the sort of outlook required for stepping to your own drum and blazing your own path, despite all of the claims to the contrary and the pervasiveness of the American Dream and it's romantic notions of entrepreneurial-ism. Schools don't teach kids to think outside the box, and with the pressure of standardized testing breathing down their backs, teachers often times fall short of even teaching such mandatory skills as critical thinking.
So where does that leave me? Fearful of progressing faster than a snail in winter, sometimes, always with an eye over my shoulder of other possible career paths, "just in case" this one doesn't work out.
I would love nothing more than to quit my day job and devote all of my waking hours to working in the studio, or to abandon all attempts at fiscal responsibility and spend my entire savings on outfitting my own studio. Instead, I'm devoting most of my waking hours to mostly "pulling through" at my current job, so I actually have food in my belly and gas in my car, and squeezing in as many hours in the school ceramics studio as I can. Luckily for me, Montgomery College allows me to use the fascilities as much as I want, even outside of scheduled class time.
And really, my current job is not so bad. It's still in the Art industry, in a way. I am surrounded by art everyday, in the paintings and prints that are for sale, and I get to regularly work in design with every customer that comes in asking to get something framed. But it's still not my optimum working environment.. I don't know that I can really be my "best" here, because my best doesn't fit in this environment. My best isn't in 'retail,' and it certainly isn't in 'sales,' in the same way that it wasn't in the white-collar office environment.
So, the progress may be slow, but I know I have to pursue it. And with any luck, the road less traveled, will have lots of Trees to inspire me.
In dedication to my 2nd grade art teacher, 5th and 9th grade english teachers, scores of frustrated math teachers, and the team of super-dedicated Fine Arts teachers at Blake High School:
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
A lot of American Culture is all about Consumerism. Capitalism. The progress ladder, the office environment, business dress, getting ahead, selling out, staying in line, working the 9 - 5 from 18 to 55 and then retiring. Except, the world of guaranteed pensions is going out the window, maybe even employer-contributed 401k's too, and people are working long past their intended retirement ages.
And to be honest, I don't want that world. Not surprisingly, having a creative mind has some drawbacks when trying to fit into the uniform of the 9-5'er mold. And I know myself well enough to know that I would never really be happy there anyway. So it's a surprise when a lot of the voices repeating the "you can't make that a real job" phrase, have been my own.
But it's just as realistic to say that "American Culture" does not foster the sort of outlook required for stepping to your own drum and blazing your own path, despite all of the claims to the contrary and the pervasiveness of the American Dream and it's romantic notions of entrepreneurial-ism. Schools don't teach kids to think outside the box, and with the pressure of standardized testing breathing down their backs, teachers often times fall short of even teaching such mandatory skills as critical thinking.
So where does that leave me? Fearful of progressing faster than a snail in winter, sometimes, always with an eye over my shoulder of other possible career paths, "just in case" this one doesn't work out.
I would love nothing more than to quit my day job and devote all of my waking hours to working in the studio, or to abandon all attempts at fiscal responsibility and spend my entire savings on outfitting my own studio. Instead, I'm devoting most of my waking hours to mostly "pulling through" at my current job, so I actually have food in my belly and gas in my car, and squeezing in as many hours in the school ceramics studio as I can. Luckily for me, Montgomery College allows me to use the fascilities as much as I want, even outside of scheduled class time.
And really, my current job is not so bad. It's still in the Art industry, in a way. I am surrounded by art everyday, in the paintings and prints that are for sale, and I get to regularly work in design with every customer that comes in asking to get something framed. But it's still not my optimum working environment.. I don't know that I can really be my "best" here, because my best doesn't fit in this environment. My best isn't in 'retail,' and it certainly isn't in 'sales,' in the same way that it wasn't in the white-collar office environment.
So, the progress may be slow, but I know I have to pursue it. And with any luck, the road less traveled, will have lots of Trees to inspire me.
In dedication to my 2nd grade art teacher, 5th and 9th grade english teachers, scores of frustrated math teachers, and the team of super-dedicated Fine Arts teachers at Blake High School:
The Road Not Taken
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~ Robert Frost, (1874–1963).
First Post
For some reason, the very first post here is proving to be harder to type than it should.
Anyway, this is my new blog for my ceramics store over at Etsy (which you can see by following the link, or the handy-dandy toolbar over on the right.) I'm still working on getting pictures of everything, and all my items up for sale, so maybe this is a little premature, but I wanted to document my progress somewhere.
My ultimate goal is to turn my obsess--er, I mean, craft, into a viable fulltime operation. So far, I have 11 pieces up for sale (only 6 with pictures, because my laptop doesn't want to cooperate with me), a paypal account, and a brand new checking account to keep track of all my expenses and sales.
Here I will be chronicling my mishap-- I mean, adventures, into managing my own business, as well as my experiments in clay forms, firing and glazes. All of my glaze recipies are stored on http://www.glazemixer.com/, a site that will also ship raw materials, or take your recipies and send you the glazes pre-mixed to your specifications.
Still pending:
- A new banner,
- A shop logo,
- Business cards,
- A personal glaze pallete (beyond the school glazes),
- Shipping boxes, and official shipping costs,
- Small Business accounting software of some kind.
- Heather
P.s., Successfully resisted the urge to make this entire post nothing but "First Post! First Post! Lolz!"
Anyway, this is my new blog for my ceramics store over at Etsy (which you can see by following the link, or the handy-dandy toolbar over on the right.) I'm still working on getting pictures of everything, and all my items up for sale, so maybe this is a little premature, but I wanted to document my progress somewhere.
My ultimate goal is to turn my obsess--er, I mean, craft, into a viable fulltime operation. So far, I have 11 pieces up for sale (only 6 with pictures, because my laptop doesn't want to cooperate with me), a paypal account, and a brand new checking account to keep track of all my expenses and sales.
Here I will be chronicling my mishap-- I mean, adventures, into managing my own business, as well as my experiments in clay forms, firing and glazes. All of my glaze recipies are stored on http://www.glazemixer.com/, a site that will also ship raw materials, or take your recipies and send you the glazes pre-mixed to your specifications.
Still pending:
- A new banner,
- A shop logo,
- Business cards,
- A personal glaze pallete (beyond the school glazes),
- Shipping boxes, and official shipping costs,
- Small Business accounting software of some kind.
- Heather
P.s., Successfully resisted the urge to make this entire post nothing but "First Post! First Post! Lolz!"
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