Long-Term Haitus

I have neglected to post here for well over a year about my plans or where-abouts, which is in it of itself, mildly depressing. My circumstances have changed a good deal, making keeping up with new pottery production impossible, so I've been on an indefinite hiatus and out of a studio for a while now, trying to focus on the more academic aspects of my studies. I am hoping to get back into clay in a few months after I finish up classes for this semester, so here's to hoping!

In the meantime, I am still able to work on my photography instead, and so there are, for what it's worth, some updates over at flickr!

More and More About Prints!!

Alright... For now, I've concluded that I don't quite have the means to produce prints on my own. But, for those who would like, I am making them available through Deviantart. If you go to http://rhiahna.deviantart.com/prints/?utm_source=deviantart&utm_medium=userpage&utm_campaign=printstab, you can find the photos I've made available to buy. I do get a small portion of the cost of the prints, but please don't feel obligated or anything, I'm mostly curious to see if it generates any interest.

Prior Planning Predicts Pitiful Results

Some things really just don't turn out like you plan.

I settled in last night after I got home from work, with the idea that I would try to update some of the photos of my pieces listed on Etsy, after reading a couple of articles the previous night on how to photograph crafts for sale. With this in mind, did I tear apart my mother's dining room, removing everything from the table and pushing it up against the wall, removing the mirror that stood in my way so I would have a nice, flat and smooth, unassuming neutral background.

Upon inspection of the sheet I had laid across the table, I decided that the wrinkles might be too distracting, so chose to iron it. Everything looked pretty nice once I was done, the lighting wasn't great but it seemed like it would do.... Only I found it took me about an hour and a half to settle on the right camera settings.

And that's when the fun started.
I managed to spill a glass of red wine across my nice clean white sheet-turned-tablecloth, followed by knocking off-balance the large collection of wine bottles on the bottle stand, which bounced off the glass table top and shattered it. My mom graciously helped me clean up the mess of glass (after observing the at-wits-end look on my face, I'd wager.) I gave up on the ironing the second time around, abandoned the first piece I was trying to photograph (it wasn't cooperating anyway--something about not being in the mood, and I could find it in it's trailer, I'm not sure.) Instead I made a nice little collection of four tea bowls of relatively similar size and coloring... when, I got about 2 shots in, and my battery promptly died.

I have, in fact, concluded at this point, that all the days in which I set out with a predetermined plan to take photographs, are instantly doomed to failure. Unlike my spontaneous grabbing of the camera for some perfect shots, the days or hours I set aside specifically for this purpose, seem to consistently yield few, if any, usable photographs. I have to say it's very annoying.

You see, this morning when I managed to get up a little earlier than necessary for work, and went back to the previous night's project, I managed to find some wonderful inspiration over a cup of coffee and some biscuits. I guess it's just funny like that. Ha ha ha.

(I actually prefer mine with cream and sugar. But shhh.)

Printing Green

Well... I'm sort of bummed. I was really hoping I could print my own business cards and things for ETH, and was looking for some more Eco-friendly ways of doing so. I was even thinking how great it would be if all of my packing slips and shipping papers could be on recycled paper, and if they made inks & paper suitable for Prints (as mentioned in my previous post), and was getting really excited about this whole idea... But after searching around all over the net for the past hour and a half, I have discovered.....

They don't make soy-based ink cartridges for home-use yet. Bah. I could probably find a printer to do my business cards on recycled paper with soy-ink, but it would cost me a lot more.

I hope the industry catches up soon, because I want to be able to use it! Petroleum-based ink sucks, not to mention the fact that soy-based has much brighter colors!

In other news... I now have a Flickr! http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthtreesandheather/

I took a whole bunch of pictures yesterday in a huge flurry of inspiration, and decided I should probably set up a separate account specifically for things connected to ETH. I'm thinking of taking a small sampling and testing how they look as Prints (even in despite my disappointment about printing in general). They'll probably need a little retouching, I'd like at least a couple in black & white, and we'll see how it goes!

Prints

Now, this is just a random, stray thought I've been toying with... but I'm considering offering up some of my amateur photography as prints for sale on Etsy. I have been obsessed for the past few weeks with photographing the barren, winter trees that I see on my drives to and from work everyday, and I think that the subjects would definitely fit in with my "Earth, Trees, and Heather" image. I guess I'll have to play around with printing methods first to see whether it's a viable option.

Thoughts?

Pitfalls and Shortcomings, Part 3: Brand-Image

On Brand-Image:
I've known for a long time the value of a Brand-Image and fitting a 'niche', as they say... but in looking through my work, it mostly looks disorganized. One of the biggest things I want to work on this year, is creating a cohesive presentation, both in the studio and online, so that all of my work... more or less looks like it all goes together.

I currently have a signature stamp using the emblem of a wolf on the bottom of some of my stuff, my initials on others, and a star on still others. I really like my wolf... but it doesn't go with the store name/image. (On a side note, apparently nobody recognizes it as a wolf anyway. Bahumbug.) If I ditch the wolf, I could switch to a tree, and/or the actual store name... Or, a branch of Heather. That could work. Using my own name sort of causes problems, what with the last name thing (which is why I don't much like using my initials, plus they're sort of ambiguous. "Who is this HB person?")

I also really want to move away from using class-glazes, and producing my own instead, so that I have a uniform palette to choose from, which will help with things looking like my work, specifically, rather than just anybody's. I know that it does to some extent, but there's room for a lot of improvement. When I look through my store at what's for sale, it's kind of all over the place, and I don't really like that. I want it to all tie in together and be mine. Part of that includes hunting down what glazes my high school pottery teacher had, because I really liked some of them. I did work on some loosely-associated 'themes' during the second half of the semester, with the two bowls and plate that have leaves pressed into them... And I would like to continue with that direction, as well as others.

And... I'm not sure I like the way some (a lot) of my pieces are photographed. Sadly, my camera is out of commission at the moment, but when it's fixed, there are some I need to re-take because they came out a little blurry, and also I find the use of mom's couch (yes, that's what it is, cheap scenery) a bit distracting.. The ones with the all-black backgrounds look much crisper. I think I need to find some sort of backdrop to put behind them, just a black or a gray sheet, and then do that for EVERYTHING, so it looks more professional. I've browsed around other shops on etsy, and noticed a lot of them have used a gradient black-to-white background, which I think is a photography backdrop. It seems to work pretty well, so that's also something to think about.

Pitfalls and Shortcomings, Part 2: Finances

On Finances:
It seems I either misplaced, or forgot to order, a debit card for the separate checking account... Whoops! Made paying for shipping rather inconvenient! I have to remedy that. I also need to look at a unified way of examining cash flow, and including extraneous costs, since the transaction fees from both Etsy & Paypal, though small, are not something I had previously figured into my prices. Etsy does have a downloadable something-or-other, I think, or I could buy some software... But I also need to sit down and make a list of all my real expenses, line by line, both in production, and in distribution... and of course, I need to start allocating for some advertising.

Speaking of which, I really need a more accurate assessment of appropriate cost to manufacture a piece, including actual time spent on production and materials. My clay comes in 25 lb. bags (I think), and it only really costs me about $12-$13 per bag, so 2 - 3 lbs of clay doesn't cost all that much... but time and studio space cost money.

I can be in class for about 4 hours, and produce maybe 6 - 8 pieces. (More like 12 if they are smaller.) It takes another 2 - 3 hours to trim them all, and after bisque another 1 1/2 to glaze everything. Which comes out to 8 1/2 cumulative hours for about 8 pieces, or 1.0625 hours per piece. Since not everything that comes out of the last step, the glaze firing, is actually sellable, my success rate is more like 60-70%. Which means I just spent $8 on clay, and $127.50 on time consumed (if I assume I cost about $15/hour when I could be doing other things with my time), to produce ~5 sellable pieces. Which gives me around $27.10 per item, of pure cost to produce. And that's not including the cost of access to the studio itself, and the fact that I only used class-glazes, which are free.

...A bit of an eye-opener, when I have things for sale at $8-12.

Hope Floats

I want to take a break from the sequence of reviewing and reflection, to talk about something I just found yesterday.

For a while now, I've been wanting to set up my own studio that I could control myself, that I would have access to whenever I wanted, as opposed to relying on school or a public studio that is only open during certain hours. But I was pretty much resigned to the fact that it would probably be a while before I had the funds to do that, since it requires a lot of large machinery. I had done some looking online at different wheels and done some pricing on kilns a while back, but it looked pretty expensive.

However, in browsing around Craigslist (which is an awesome resource, by the way), I found not one, but TWO listings for used pottery wheels! One even listed the possibility of some kilns for sale as well. I am a little short on cash at the moment, but I think at around $350 - 500 for a wheel, that's not something I can really afford to pass up, even if I have to store it in the garage for a little while.

I'm hopeful!

Pitfalls and Shortcomings, Part 1: Shipping

So... the year is over, a new one has begun... and being that I officially own my own store (albeit, online), I have reviews to do.
Last year, I had some of my first sales, and experienced my first couple attempts at trying to ship merchandise out-of-state. It was... an interesting experience.

On Shipping:
My goal was to be able to ship within two business days of payment, however I have found that difficult to maintain. Although in theory, if I got up early enough I could ship any day, including days I work, in practice it's proven very hard for me to actually do this. I may have to reconsider limiting my shipping to Tuesdays and Thursdays, the days I usually have off of my normal job. Or, I could extend it to 3 - 5 business days, on the theory that I will at some point have time off in there somewhere. I really prefer a 2 - 3 day schedule though, because any longer than that feels sort of... excessive. And as a customer myself, I'm usually impatient for stuff!

Another thing I found out, was that packing materials are sort of at a premium without actually, you know, purchasing them. In the very beginning, my shipping estimates were not even close to accurate, and I had to swallow the difference of about 5 dollars on the first few that went out... and then after raising them, I found they were a little excessive when sending multiple items in one box, so I've adjusted them again. I think it's pretty close now, but the cost for the packing materials themselves may change that.
Also, note to self: Never pay for UPS to pack stuff, it's way too expensive, and it's my OWN artwork, so it's not like I don't have incentive to pack it securely.
In the near future, I need to get a postage scale so that I can have everything all printed and packed for drop-offs, instead of taking 30 minutes every trip to the UPS store. (Yuck.)

I should really formulate one, uniform and consistent packing formula, so that I'm not scrambling around anymore. I like the idea of using recycled packaging as much as possible, I could easily get a shredder to shred up old newspapers for filler instead of using Styrofoam peanuts, but the raku items may require some bubble-wrapping. I still need to solve my boxes problem though. I also like the idea of offering gift wrapping, but that is going to require some additional thought for pricing.

Year's End and Review

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.

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.

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.

"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:

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.

~ 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!"