Up Next: Art Horizons Show

If you are in Calgary on Saturday, October 14th, you should consider coming to this show.

Fear and Loathing...

Sometimes setting goals can be scary. Yesterday I was confronted with the looming deadlines for application into a few art & craft shows this year. I had made the decision to apply before the holidays last year and have been busily throwing pots towards that end ever since. Well, I emptied a couple kiln loads of finished pieces on Tuesday and was thrown into a tailspin of self doubt and loathing. One of the kilns did not fire to temperature. the top shelf was OK, but got progressively under fired the lower I went. Although this was due to no fault of my own, just old elements, I was still thrown by it.

I tend to walk a knifes edge when it comes to confidence in my work. I know I can throw pretty nice pots, but apparently I let little issues expand in my mind's eye until they are totally blown out of proportion and obscure the really good things. I spent all day Wednesday and Thursday second guessing myself. Thoughts like, what if I can't do this" and "I'm sure there will be waaaay better potters putting their work out there, why should I try"....etc.

I did scratch one sale off my list, the deadline and the sale are just waaay too close and I know I would never have enough stuff by May to make it worth the mental anguish. I will be able to attempt to enter the one in the fall, just so long as my inner Charlie Brown does not get in the way.

So how do you sign your pots?

One of my students bought a plate from me last week. He said he really liked it, but why do I not sign my pots? I said that I do sign my pots, but I choose to use a chop mark as opposed to scrawling my really long signature all over the bottom of a piece. I usually put the mark on the bottom or near the bottom, sometimes I put it beside the bottom of handle attachment points, and sometimes I put it in a more visible spot, as with the two pictures below. I thought he was done with the topic, but this week he came back and said that the reason he, and possibly other students, buy my work is because I made it and in 10 years, he may not remember who the heck make that plate if all he had to go on was some little chop mark. I used to sign my work with a dull pencil, but I wanted something easier and smaller I explained and so I made myself this little stamp. It is unique to me, no other potter that I know of signs with a similar mark. I have never really had an issue with this method, most of the people that buy my work are unknown to me and they are not buying it because I made it (I'm not that famous yet) but because they like the piece. And I guess that is what it should be all about. It should be about the pot, not the potter so much.

So how do you sign your pots? with a flourish? a chop? or nothing at all?

I know that the saying says that there is no rest for the wicked, but I think it's backwards. It should say that the wicked get to nap. Lucy (aka Lucifer) seems to be able to get some zzzz's. I on the other hand, don't seem to be able to get any rest. I am dealing with condo stuff, condo board stuff, work stuff, pottery stuff, no end to the stuff I am trying to juggle. I was calcining alberta slip yesterday so that I could mix up a large batch of our new glaze "purple rain". It is really just Plainsman clay's GA6-C rutile blue, but purple rain sounds better. I mixed in the calcined AB slip a bit hot, as I needed to get it done before I left for the day, but that shouldn't cause an issue (i hope ;) ) Oh ya, I am going to be in a sale on June 22nd from noon to 5pm at the Bamboo Lounge, next to the Drum an Monkey Pub. It is a family friendly event and all are encouraged to come and check it out. There will be a wide variety of art and craft there to satisfy your every need. So ya, busy busy right now, the condo is still in reno mode. I am not sure when I will be moving back, but the appliances are arriving on Wednesday...The furniture too, but I might change that to next week if I can. It was supposed to be done this week, so hopefully next week... fingers crossed.

A really heavy wall piece

This is some of what I was up to on the weekend. I also scratched up some short goblets and some mugs.

A few mugs from Medalta

I have not had a lot of time to take any pictures of the latest pots to come out of the salt and soda kilns in Medicine Hat. Half of them have been loaded right into Centennial Gallery and the rest are going to a sale this weekend. I have saved a few for myself, but I also have a few mugs put aside for a potential customer looking for a mug. These are the mugs I am holding until I hear which one she wants. They are all thrown from Babu Porcelain and are very translucent.

Now I need to get ready for the fall sales in November. It is still hard to believe how fast this summer has gone. I guess major disasters will eat up the time. It just feels like yesterday that I was watching my condo go under water in the news.

Can't we all just slow down a bit?

I’m sure this has already been written about a zillion times, but here is my take on it as it pertains to a craft that is by its very nature, slow.

Ever since the introduction of the personal computer and by extension, the internet, our lives have become a bit more hectic (as if you needed me to tell you that.). Every time you turn around now, the new technology that just came out is obsolete. It also seems that along with the increased pace of turning out the newest, fastet, smarter gadget, so too has our desire to be instantly gratified. Everyone wants what they want now, not tomorrow, and definitely not next week or next month. OK, so what’s my point?

Well, here it is. I got a referral last week for an order of approximately 24 personalized mugs. Sounds great and I have no issues doing small orders as that is usually all I have time for. They wanted oversized coffee mugs with a specific text stamped either on the side or the bottom. Again, not a problem. I did mention that I usually require about 1 month to complete these types of orders. They came back to me and said that they needed them by June 28th. I agreed, as it was not that far off from the month that I would usually require and as luck would have it, I had already thrown 10 mugs the previous weekend but had yet to trim or attach handles, so they would work. My issue is not by any means with this particular order, but it did cause me to reflect on the reality of making pottery by hand (vs machine) and what the general buying public seems to expect when it comes to the hand made vs the machine made product.

I have run into this scenario a few times:

Customer: “I was wondering if you could make me a gift for a wedding present.”

Me: “Sure, no problem, when is the wedding, or when do you need to have it by?”

Customer: “Next week, Friday at the latest.”

Me: While trying not to choke “Um, no, I can’t do it by then, but would you like to look at some of the stuff I have that is already finished?”

Customer: “I was hoping to have it personalized with their names and the date of the wedding, so no. How come you can’t make it by Friday?”

You can see where I am going with this. There is a perception out there that what you want/need now, should just be available to you whenever you want it. For these people, I am very glad that Wally World and other similar purveyors of crap exist.

The slow process of making pottery is not meant for this type of consumer. I have tried to explain to more than a few people, when they ask how long it takes to make something, that it is more than just the making. I could say “Oh, about a minute”, but that would only apply to the initial throwing of the basic form. I could also say “ about a month” as that is sometimes how long it takes for things to dry, trim, attach handles, dry some more, bisque fire, glaze, fire again”, or (in my case) I could say (and I know they never really get this) “12 years”, to which I usually get blank stares.

I even had someone question why it took me so long, because they were able to pick up the mugs they made with their kids at the u paint it place the day after they did them.

I don’t think she saw my eyes roll to the back of my head…

So, not to be a Luddite or anything, but there seems to be an odd overlap of wants and expectations born from the mechanized mass produced world, with the hand made world. To me, it seems that the consumer must be unconsciously thinking “I want to buy a unique, hand made object that means more to me than what I can buy at the big box store, but I don’t want to spend too much, and I don’t want to have to think ahead and just be able to pick it up off the shelf as soon as I need it”. They want the best of both worlds, and I am sorry to say, at least in this, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. I also don’t believe that this could be a conscious thought pattern, it’s just too ridiculous, but if it is, then there is really something wrong with our world. It kind of reminds me of an open air street fair that I had a booth in a few years ago. People were more than willing to shell out $15-$20 for non permanent tattoos, but not for a hand made mug that would last way longer than the tattoo they paid too much money for. My booth was right beside the tattoo tent, so I was a wee bit bitter by the end of the day. I guess a mug was just too cumbersome to carry around while drinking beer and getting a fake crappy tattoo.

Perhaps I get too wrapped up in the beauty of a well made object and tend to expect the same of everyone else. I mean, what is better than a handle on a mug that was lovingly attached in such a way that it looks and feels as if it was designed for your hand to hold, and not 3 billion other hands as well? (this is what I was doing on Saturday – lovingly attaching curvaceous and uplifting handles, back filling the attachment points to give visual balance to the overall piece, wiping away the drool …).

So back to my point, if there even really was one. I think we need to slow down, expect that something of quality will take time, not be in such a rush and accepting mediocrity as the price for immediacy.

catching up on all things pottery and other stuff

It sure has been a while since I last posted anything on this blog. But I have been very busy. I believe the last time I posted, I had just finished up the last of the 150 bottle vases for my sister’s wedding.  Well, that has passed us by, and we are all relatively unscathed by the event. Nobody got too lubricated, well, maybe a few, but nothing out of control. My sister didn’t want people to come to the microphone and make speeches unless they were a bit wobbly anyway. Something about “every good wedding needs a scandal”.

I have a couple of Christmas sales coming up this holiday season, the first of which is this coming Saturday. I believe I have mentioned this before, but it is the busiest, and most financially rewarding sale I have ever been a part of. This would be the Fairview Studios Pottery Sale. It always amazes me how many loyal customers we have. The sale has been going on for probably 25 or more years, and there are probably people coming that have been doing so since the very beginning.

My next sale is the very next weekend (Nov 26^th and 27^th), and is the Calgary Clay Arts Association’s 2^nd annual Christmas Pottery sale. Although last year was not as well attended as I would have hoped, I am giving it a 2^nd chance. I only participated in the Sunday last year, so I thought I would go all in and give both days a shot. I will be at Mount Royal Station on Saturday and Sunday from 10-4pm. So if you are reading this, and live in Calgary, you should come on down and check us out. Sunday is the Grey Cup, so all the non football fans will need an escape, and there is no better way than going to a pottery sale where you can meet the artist that made the work, and hopefully picking something very special up.

Anyway, enough about that…

I have been working, working, working, hence the lack of blogging and will be working even more for the next 4 months. I am picking up a Thursday night class at the studio, as the instructor that does it now is flying south for the winter for 4 months (Phoenix I think).

Funny thing happened to me on the weekend. I was franticly trying to get a bisque fired on Friday. It was Remembrance day here in Canada, so I had the day off from working for the man, and was working for me instead. The kilns at the studio are going full bore right now getting all the student work done for the upcoming sale, so I thought I would take advantage of the kiln at Ceramics Canada. I left home early (9am), went to Tim’s for an extra large double double and got to the studio by about 9:30 or so. I packed up my green work, carefully wrapping it in paper, loaded the car and drove off to Ceramics Canada. At the first intersection I think to myself, hey, where’s my coffee?  As I thought that, I also wondered why there was liquid rolling off my roof onto my windshield (wasn’t raining or snowing out). Ok, so I put my coffee on the roof of the car before I got in, it sprayed all over the rear side windows and all down the sides of my car…needless to say, I lost my coffee to gravity and centripetal forces beyond my control. I did get the bisque loaded and out by Saturday Morning, glazed all day Saturday (10-6), and then went back and loaded up a glaze on Sunday at around noon. The results were pretty nice. I am playing with some high temp wire, using it as accents pushed into the sides of the leather hard ware and loops for lid handles etc and it came out all nice and oxidized, not too shiny, just right. It works really well with the glazes I am using. One fluted jar is a nice sea foamy green (faux ^6 celadon), and another jar has our studios ^6 take on a tea dust glaze, but as it isn’t really a tea dust, we call it coffee dust (ha ha). This really dark brown glossy glaze is on the bottom ¾’s of the jar, and then the top 1/3^rd was dipped into 2 commercial glazes, that when overlapped, produce a very nice gun metal metallic, lustrous surface, and then when they run over the “coffee dust”, they produce creams, mauves, blues etc. very interesting.

So, busy me for a bit, but I will try to  blog a bit more as time permits, and if I have anything of interest to share.

Oh Ya, one last note, there was a death in our family. Ginger, our family dog of 13+ years left us just before my Sister’s wedding by a week or so. Very sad, and she will be missed.

 

I'm still alive...

I priced and packed all my pots on Saturday afternoon/evening for the Calgary Clay Arts Association sale. I awoke bright and early on Sunday and made my way over to the sale. We got ourselves set up (there were 3 of us that did not participate on the Saturday). I think that for a fledgling association that is just beginning to get itself out there, we didn’t do too badly. We had a pretty steady flow of customers after lunch. The sale ran from 10-4 and I am not used to full day sales. The studio sale that is put on twice a year is only from 9-12 and we do probably 80% of our sales by 10:30.

Anyway, I wanted to cut my feet off by the end of the day, but I still had to make my way over to the studio and lock it up for the day. When I got home, I collapsed into my large leather chair in front of the tube, but by 9:30 I couldn’t even keep my eyes open so I stumbled my way to bed and that is all I remember until I woke up at 6:30 this morning. Now that this sale is over, I am all prepped for next the Big sale on Saturday. This Sale has been going on for at least 25 years and the following is large.

I only have 2 more teaching nights and then I am done with that and will be back on my regular Tuesday night schedule and maybe I can have a life again. It has been crazy the last couple of weeks and I am still not quite sure how I have been able to do it and work a regular day job to boot.

I managed to refire all of my lustred work for the “Turning the Table” show that opens this Saturday as well. I picked the lustre up on Friday, got everything redone and loaded that night, and when I got back to the studio on Saturday afternoon, I was very happy. Everything came out just fine. I fired it to cone 016 this time and everything worked perfect. I had fired everything to 018 before, and I just don’t think that the underlying glaze softened enough to allow for a good bond between the lustre and the glaze. Anyway, I got it all priced, inventoried and packed. I had to deliver it to one of my CCAA cohorts so that they could deliver it to the gallery this week. I am quite pleased with the overall outcome and am looking forward to the opening on Saturday afternoon.

Sometimes I just want to look at pretty pictures

I have been slowly developing a reading list of blogs. I enjoy starting my day by logging onto Google Reader and perusing the daily posts. Some bloggers put something out into the bloggosphere at least once a day, if not more, and others are more measured if not sporadic in their blogging, only disseminating their thoughts once a week or longer in between posts. Lately, there seems to be a recurring theme, sparked by a post discussing the severe lack of deep thinking and pith in the pottery blog world. This author felt (forgive me if I miss interpret this) that there were way too many people out there just posting about what they ate for breakfast, saw in a magazine, how many birds were on their window sill while throwing etc...and not enough critical writing going on.

What do I think about this? Well, sometimes I just want to look at pretty pictures, imagine what it would be like to live in another city, town or country and be exposed to totally different pottery cultures, or just get a little glimpse into the lives of other potters. I am sure that my blog weighs in a little on the light side of things, but I do try to keep my posts somewhat related to my life in the studio. I always feel a bit hesitant when putting my thoughts out there. I don't know if anyone actually reads this or cares about what I have to say, but I as I am exposed to the pottery community face to face on a weekly basis (teaching students and working at the only local pottery supply store in town) I don't want to tick anyone off and jeopardize my and my employers reputation. So, if you want deep thoughts, I might not be the blog for u, but if u want impromptu posts that may include the odd pretty picture, then u have come to the right spot.

Dreaming

Here we go, I’m putting it out there. Ever since I was unceremoniously laid off this past spring, I have been pondering the possibility of trying to make my entire living from pottery. I have been thinking that I might just try out selling my wares online. Etsy.com is one online option I am considering.
Right now, I think my biggest barrier to starting this is knowledge, specifically, business knowledge. Sure, I can make the product, and I can ship the product, but other than that, I don’t know the finer details that I probably should know before embarking on a venture that will make me financially vulnerable (in my eyes anyway). Oh ya, I am a humongous procrastinator, that would be the other barrier :)
I’m pretty sure that unless you have a good reason, and a vision of what you want to achieve, then it will not be as successful. If the only reason is to make money, then it probably won’t be enjoyable either.
My Reason:
I want to have a more personal relationship with my customers, and broaden my customer base. I sell out of a couple of Galleries in the city, and although this is a relatively pain free method of getting your work out there (no overhead etc), there is a lack of connection to the public. I am never sure if what I am making is what will sell, I just take it to the Gallery, cross my fingers, and never get any real feedback from the customer.
I enjoy participating in the semi annual sales that Fairview Studios puts on. You get to meet the customer first hand and find out directly from them what they enjoy about the pottery they are purchasing. The one thing I HATE about these types of events is the strain on the body. It is a lot of work getting ready for a show, and by the end of the day, I am hunched over like an old crone from all the heavy lifting, my feet hurt, I’m starving, and since I had to get up at the crack of before dawn on a Saturday, I’m tired.
My Vision:
To work full time, running the production out of the studio that I currently work out of. I get 24 hour access as I teach there, so that would not be an issue. Turn my condo into my business and marketing nerve centre. I would like to turn my 2nd bedroom into an office and warehouse. I would conduct all transactions from my home, as well as the shipping of all the orders.
My Hopes:
That I can make this a sustainable venture. That doing this gives me the ability to learn more. My thoughts are that by not tying myself down to a traditional 8-5 job, I will be able to attend more workshops and participate in seminars and symposiums in order to expand my skill sets, and let the creative juices flow more.
I know that working for yourself is hard, but if you truly enjoy what you are doing, is it really work?

So, If anyone out there wants to chime in with their two cents about how to make a pottery business work (or not), or want to impart any salient words of wisdom, please feel free to comment.

Update

A little while ago I had mentioned that I was going to be teaching 12 newbies this past Friday night in a one off pottery class for Dave at Fairview. Well, I got an e-mail on Thursday from Dave telling me I was off the hook for teaching that night, as the class had been scheduled for 9:30 AM on Friday, and he just either forgot, or didn’t pay attention to the time when setting up the class. That’s Dave for you, just a little scattered. So no, I did not teach the newbies, I had the night off to do as I pleased. However, I am teaching tonight, and will be again tomorrow night. So, a busy week ahead, I am going to work on my place setting for the “Turning the Tables” show coming up in September. I know what I am going to do, my vision is clear, but my execution might take some tweaking. I am trying to make a place setting consisting of a charger, dinner plate, salad plate, soup/dessert bowl, coffee cup and saucer, and a drinking cup. I am attempting to design this setting after my blue and white “Mountain Bowls”(see “New Pots” April 14), and everything will have a wavy rim, and be blue and white. I have wanted to incorporate lustres with this design for a while, and this is the perfect opportunity. I just want to highlight the rims of the wavy bowls and plates with palladium lustre, so I am bringing some in at Ceramics Canada, and will need to experiment, as I have never used it before. Anyway, the chargers will be my demo tonight, and the dinner plates tomorrow. I am not a production potter by any means, so this will be a bit of a challenge for me. Not the place setting by itself, but the fact that we have to have multiple sets available for the show to sell during the show and to fill orders that might be placed. I just hope I am not stuck with 16 place settings at the end. I would also not be garuanteed to get in the show either, but I would want to have the extras ready just in case. It might seem a bit early to be getting ready for a show that doesn't start until November, but the deadline is September and I am a HUGE procrastinator.

New CCAA show coming up

Check out the Calgary Clay Ars Association website
( www.calgaryclayarts.org ). They are putting on a show at Arts on Atlantic Gallery in Inglewood that will run from November 13-Dec 24(submission deadline is September 13th). It is called Turning the Table, and will primarily feature place settings and other small pieces designed for use at the dinner table (vases, condiment dishes etc...).
All participants must be CCAA members, but it only costs $20 per year for membership. The cost for entry into the show is $20 which allows you to submit one piece or place setting.

Possible Opportunity for the CCAA

The City of Calgary, in conjunction with the EPCORE Centre for the Performing Arts, and the Olympic Plaza Cultural District are starting up a new initiative called Sunday Art Market in the Plaza. They are inviting local artists to submit applications to be a part of this event. Every Sunday from Jun 22^nd to August 31^st, there will be an outdoor (indoor if weather doesn’t cooperate) art market. This first year, it is being offered free of charge to artists on a first come first serve basis. I am in the process of finding out if they will accept a “group” application, whereby the CCAA would be the booth, but each Sunday would promote a different set of artists. There is the potential to have 22 artists participate under the CCAA umbrella. The Art Market wants the vendors to be there for as many of the 11 Sundays as possible, so this would let many of us participate, but not feel over burdened with having to set up and tear down displays for 11 weeks.

We don’t have much time to organize this, as the cut off for application is June 10, and then after that, only 2 weeks until the opening day.

Altered Pots (and other stuff_

It Snowed like crazy today, 8-10 inches in just a few hours fell this morning, and it was the heavy, wet and stickey kind. Then it got sunny, melted a lot of the snow, and then it snowed again. Right now it is clear, and mild, tomorrow it should be 10 degrees (celcius), and by Sunday it should be 21 degrees. This town sure has some crazy weather.

I will be taking some pictures tomorrow. My boxes were all in the kiln for a bisque firing over this last weekend, so I was unable to take any.
Taught a class this Monday, and my demo was tall cylinders. I have not thrown anything without altering it in some way in a while, so it was good to do it again, but I can see why I need the variety inherant in messing around with the freshly thrown pot, even if it is just squaring it off.
The Calgary Clay Arts Association is getting off to a pretty good start. We are planning a sale in September, and the e-mails are just flying.
The Airdrie Food Bank is having an empty bowls event in June, and in order to help supply some bowls, Galleria is hosting a "Clay-lympics" event. Various potters, the public, and hopefully some celebs will be on site to create some one of a kind bowls.