Well, I've officially had a pottery studio for three months now! I am enjoying it quite a bit. I have found that it takes me about a month to cycle through a kiln-load of work: roughly a week apiece for throwing, altering, firing and glazing. What I need to do now is increase the number of pieces I make each month; the last two firings could have fit another dozen pieces in, and that's just a waste of electricity! Time is always the constraint - there's always other stuff that needs done just as urgently.
What I did not anticipate is how quickly the business side would take over. I am grateful that people are interested in my work and dearly hope that continues, but I also have to remind myself that there are occasionally things I want to make for myself and my family as well. Just for starters, Eemie the box turtle needs a swimming pond, Elliot needs a non-tippy milk cup, and Joe has been hinting heavily for years that he would like gargoyles on the porch posts. And I would like to make something interesting to replace the quart pickle jar I drink icewater out of all day.
If you could make anything you wanted for your home, what would you make? My friend Becky requested some planters that could fit on her narrow kitchen windowsill, and now I have to make myself some too, because frankly it was an awesome idea. A painter at the Art & Wine Walk asked if I ever made incense holders, to which I had to answer,"no, not until now!" I failed to get her name, but I tried to make one this month in her honor, although it doesn't look very much like the french bulldog I was aiming for. If you have an awesome idea of your own, send me an email; I'll give you first dibs on any resulting attempts.
I do not yet have the level of control over my throwing that I aspire to, so when I aim to make something specific it often comes out looking different that I expected. As Wes from the UND clay department says, "the first ten thousand pots are the worst." So while I hope y'all keep coming to me with new ideas, I hope you can remain tolerant of the unpredictable results until I hit that ten-thousand-and-first pot. That's why I call it "dibs" and not "commissions" - so no one feels obliged to buy what didn't come out looking the way they thought it should.
Well, enough computering! I have five hundred pounds of clay waiting for me in the studio. ime to get back to the wheel.
What I did not anticipate is how quickly the business side would take over. I am grateful that people are interested in my work and dearly hope that continues, but I also have to remind myself that there are occasionally things I want to make for myself and my family as well. Just for starters, Eemie the box turtle needs a swimming pond, Elliot needs a non-tippy milk cup, and Joe has been hinting heavily for years that he would like gargoyles on the porch posts. And I would like to make something interesting to replace the quart pickle jar I drink icewater out of all day.
If you could make anything you wanted for your home, what would you make? My friend Becky requested some planters that could fit on her narrow kitchen windowsill, and now I have to make myself some too, because frankly it was an awesome idea. A painter at the Art & Wine Walk asked if I ever made incense holders, to which I had to answer,"no, not until now!" I failed to get her name, but I tried to make one this month in her honor, although it doesn't look very much like the french bulldog I was aiming for. If you have an awesome idea of your own, send me an email; I'll give you first dibs on any resulting attempts.
I do not yet have the level of control over my throwing that I aspire to, so when I aim to make something specific it often comes out looking different that I expected. As Wes from the UND clay department says, "the first ten thousand pots are the worst." So while I hope y'all keep coming to me with new ideas, I hope you can remain tolerant of the unpredictable results until I hit that ten-thousand-and-first pot. That's why I call it "dibs" and not "commissions" - so no one feels obliged to buy what didn't come out looking the way they thought it should.
Well, enough computering! I have five hundred pounds of clay waiting for me in the studio. ime to get back to the wheel.
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