Monday, March 5, 2012

102 Mugs in 84 Hours





I reached my goal last night around 8 pm: 100 mugs in 100 hours. I ended up with 102 mugs - I was on a roll, why stop? - and actually completed the challenge with 16 hours to spare. A couple of thoughts about this project:

  • It was a lot of work, but it wasn't a crazy lot of work. It required prioritizing studio work over errands and such, which is always hard for me, and also can't happen every day: I do have to go to the bank and return library books and get cat food sometimes. But it reminded me that I could be getting a lot more pots made than I actually do. Remind me of that the next time I am whining about not having enough inventory.
  • This approach was so effective that I may try it in other forms. I couldn't do 100 butter dishes, for example, or even 50, in 100 hours (which suggests right off the bat that maybe I am under-charging for the butter dishes?) but I could probably do 20. Setting a more specific goal (as opposed to "make some casseroles today") seemed to help keep me on track.
  • Obviously, this will only work for those days dedicated to wet work; but glazing, glaze-mixing and kiln-clean-up days already have a built-in specific goal, in that it all has to be done by loading day.
  • I made mugs in multiples of 12: 12 of this shape, 12 of that, and in some cases I felt I wasn't done with a shape after 12 so made another dozen or half-dozen. I made some mugs that I probably wouldn't have thought of, except I had exhausted (temporarily) my interest in my go-to shapes.
  • And, just YAY! I did it, and without making any sloppy or thoughtless mugs. In fact I wedged up two, because they were ugly, in that trying-too-hard way. I was afraid that by focusing on quantity I might be tempted to rush past the details that distinguish studio pottery from production pottery, but that didn't happen. Even when I chose to forgo decoration or throwing marks, it was with an eye to what I might like to do with glaze.
Thanks to all of you who followed along on Facebook and Twitter. It was a great motivator to know that people were watching. You are the best, mwaaahh!

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice mugs. I need to make some soon.

Unknown said...

Congratulations! This has been so inspiring to me. Thanks for sharing this project, and these gorgeous cups!

Sue Pariseau Pottery said...

Way to go! They look great.

Patricia Griffin Ceramics said...

Impressed and inspired! WAY TO GO!

Unknown said...

So inspiring! I will have to try this sometime. Congratulations on finishing/accomplishing your goal!

Marian Williams said...

YOU are a legend! Very inspiring! It's our little diversions (like groceries! -who needs them!) that keep us from the studio! But...time allocation-that's the secret, eh?!

Michele DeLucs said...

Beautiful! 100 times.

Beatrice Nathan Pottery said...

Inspiring Lori! I'm doing my own challenge this week thanks to you!

Unknown said...

So inspiring! I will have to try this sometime. Best wishes on finishing/accomplishing your goal!
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