The Notebook

Great movie, right? But that's not the one I'm talking about.

I keep a notebook with me at every art fair, to jot down ideas to improve the display, or note what's selling, or sketch pieces I want to make when I get back in the studio, or just keep my mind occupied during the slow times. I believe boredom has its own sinkhole energy that people can smell or feel, and that they will stay out of any booth exuding it. Yes, I know this is absurd! Sitting during a dead spell at an art fair does strange things to your mind. Also, it's true, absurd or not.

But I digress.

The point was, I was reading over these notes, and I see a pattern over the last year: at every event, I noted that people were buying small items - under $20 or $30. In some cases, like the Common Ground Fair, which is an enormous event involving a LOT of walking around, this seemed to explain itself. But the Portland Fine Craft Show? The Holiday Pottery Shop? That is new or far more pronounced this year than other years.

Although I am not an economist ( I don't even play one on TV!) I can think of some reasons for this, such as the shadow of an impending economic slump. For the purposes of this blog, the reasons for that don't matter (because I'm not an economist! I might have some ideas but seriously, wtf do I know?) What matters is my response. If I know smaller things have been selling, I should expand my offerings of smaller things.

So, my job for today: think of some items (that I will like making! that still matters) that I can make & sell for under $20. Buttons, Christmas ornaments, press-molded soap dishes...stuff like that. What are your small-ticket items?

Be It Resolved 2019

New Year's Resolutions are awesome! Don't let anybody tell you different. They get a bad rap, because people make unrealistic resolutions, or focus on the end result rather than the behavioral changes or the necessary steps. I always make resolutions - some more successful than others, but choosing them is fun, and trying to keep them is also fun! It's kind of like gamifying my life. So, without further ado, my resolutions for 2019:

Personal:

• The first one's easy: pedal 100 miles per week on the FitDesk. It's easy because I am already doing that, without even thinking about it. It's good to have an easy one to set me up for success. 
• The second is harder, but more fun: I didn't see nearly enough of friends last year. Social things tend to fall to the wayside without a concrete plan to make them happen. So, here's the plan: one social event per month. Movies with Cheryl & Sarah, drinks with Deb, something artsy or athletic with Helen, literally anything at all with MF...these are all things I want to do, and I mean to do, but without a plan they just don't happen. Now they will.
• I used to have a tradition of learning one new specific skill every year. Nothing profound - one year I learned to make cheesecake, another year I learned to ski (not very well!!) The year I tried to learn to juggle blew a big hole in my streak, but I've decided to revive it: this year I am going to learn to felt soap. I'm told it's super easy, and there's nothing wrong with choosing something easy! We don't want another juggling debacle. 

Professional: 

• More studio time! I sat down with my schedule this week, trying to plan out production & firing...and MAN! No wonder it feels like I never have enough studio time! I just...really don't have enough time for all the stuff I have to do. I am hoping the FitDesk will help - don't have to find time to work out any more - as will Mobot. But to get enough studio time, I'm still going to have to de-prioritize something else. I'm still cogitating on this one - what can go without making me some version of crazy? 
• Contained in the above paragraph is part of the solution: make a schedule & stick to it. It's harder to go down a rabbit hole of household projects if it says right on the schedule that I am supposed to be in the studio right now. 
• I need to get better at assessing opportunities - so many times I have a show or sale that I know would have gone better if I had brought the right inventory. Example: the Common Ground Fair. Now, I did well at that fair, but I would have done better if I'd had more small items, and looking back, that was entirely predictable - it's actually an agricultural fair (that doesn't do it justice, but the point is, it isn't primarily an art fair) and it's HUGE, and the parking is sometimes miles away - so unsurprisingly, people don't want to carry big serving bowls around. Often you can make a good guess as to what will sell; I just need to make a more deliberate effort to do that. 

Many of my resolutions seem to come down to "I will work harder!" like Boxer from Animal Farm. Story of a potter's life, right? Nevertheless, I wish you all the best in this year of 2019. 

RIP Warren MacKenzie

Just read that Warren MacKenzie passed away this morning. He was and will continue to be a great inspiration to thousands of potters and ceramic artists, and a towering example of a life well lived.

Rest well, giant.

In the Nineteen

Longtime readers will know that I am fond of the week between Christmas and New Years': the hullabaloo surrounding Christmas has died down, but we are not yet back into the regular routine. It's a tiny little slice of calm which I call the Week of Reflection. I use it to think about the passing year's successes and failures, and what I would like to accomplish in the coming year.

I do this both personally and professionally; there's a great deal of overlap between them, for me. In 2018, I think I could have hustled harder! (No point doing this if I'm not going to be honest with myself.) I'm not especially good at time management at the best of times, and this past year was definitely not the best of times. The world is on fire, and it distracted me a bit! Sometimes in good ways - I spent a lot of time writing postcards to voters - and sometimes in just time-wasting ways - reading new websites and twitter for far longer than is useful. Then I read pottery blogs & Pinterest to soothe myself.

That's always been a pitfall for me, actually, but I just recently found a way around it that I haven't tried before, that seems to be working: A FitDesk!

It creates kind of a win-win situation: the longer I noodle around online, the better workout I get. If I don't feel like working out, I'm going to have to find something constructive to do.
I know there's a logical leap in there - there are lots of ways to waste time that don't involve a computer - but those don't tend to be traps that I fall into. It seems to be working! I don't even have to put "Gym" or "workout" on my to-do list - it just happens. So I'm excited to start the New Year with a new good habit already in place.

I also treated myself to one more little gift: a mopping robot! I am a tidy person by nature (yes, I know, I made a strange professional choice) and two people, six cats, a turtle, and a pottery studio are more conducive to mess than cleanliness. Dirt is distracting to me (to a point! I like to say I 'm neat but not a neat freak) but cleaning is basically an infinite job. Now when I start to stress out, I can put the mobot to work and forget about it. The house is cleaner, I save time, and my mind is at ease.

There's lots more I have to reflect on, in the brief time I have left in the week; most especially I have to set business goals. I am feeling tempted to make a change, in the form of a storefront...talk me out of it!

Then There Were Six

Hey, pull up a chair! Pour yourself a coffee (in a handmade mug!) & tell me what's new with you. Me? Making pots, trying like hell to sell them; teaching classes, still at Portland Pottery & now at Hallowell Clay Works; and - oops - got a new cat.

That makes 6.

Skinny Cat joined out family in October. We've known him for about a year & a half - he was a neighbor's cat who just liked to hang out on our deck when it was sunny. Somewhere near the end of August/ beginning of September, we noticed the cat we referred to as "skinny cat" (to differentiate him from "scruffy cat," "little gray cat," and "chubby cat," all neighborhood visitors) was not looking too good. He was now VERY skinny, with scabs under patchy fur. Shortly after that we noticed that he wasn't actually going home anymore; at night he just found a hiding place in our garage.

Doug went over & knocked on the neighbor's door, meaning to ask them if they were missing their cat...and they had moved away. Without Skinny! We called the shelter, thinking maybe on moving day they hadn't been able to find him, though that seemed a long shot - they never came over & asked if we'd seen him, even though they knew our deck was a favorite spot of his.

We spent six weeks trying to find a home for him, and in the meantime tried to make the garage comfy. Doug often smokes out in the garage, so he and Skinny spent a lot of time together. By the time I was able to persuade someone to take him, it was too late! They had bonded. Doug's mother has been ill & it has generally been a pretty stressful time for him, so I decided: if one more cat provides him with some comfort, is that really too much to ask?

It's not.

SCORE!!!

Like most of you, the last thing I need is more pottery. Also like most of you, I adore using other potters' work! On Thursday - opening night of Portland Pottery's annual Holiday Show & Sale, I became enchanted with a mug & just couldn't resist. The potter is Janna Dewan (follow her on Instagram at @JannaLikeBanana ), the clay is earthenware, the vibe is....melancholy circus? Minor-key carnival? Can't quite describe it but it's that tension that appeals to me, the rollicking, busy decorative marks, toned down with a somber wash of black underglaze.

Merry Christmas to me. And to you.

Mind the Gaps

One of the themes I keep returning to with this blog is the business of art. Like artistic talent, people often think business sense is an inborn trait, but, also like talent, is actually a set of skills you can learn.

 

I can't say I have learned them yet, but I keep trying! One thing I have learned is to maximize output vs cost. That sounds so dreary and dry! But it can be fun, like fitting together the pieces of a puzzle. In the case of firing, the cost is propane, via kiln space. Fill as much of the kiln space as I can without compromising the ware (a logic problem of its own) and my cost per piece goes down. Fill it with something fun to make, and charming and easy to sell, and I've got myself a win-win-win. 

I do love to make these mini-bottles! I throw them off the hump and can get myself into a very relaxing, almost hypnotic rhythm. I've just finished glazing them with dots, stripes, and curliques, a simple and fun task like filling in a coloring book. They fit in the space between the bowls and butter dishes, that would otherwise be wasted. When they emerge from the kiln - god willin and the creek don't rise - they will be like jelly beans or gumdrops, sweet and full of bright cheery appeal. I find that sometimes a person who doesn't feel like spending $60 on a bowl still wants to take something of the day home with them...sometimes that person will be happy to spend $15 on a tiny little bottle. 

White Tea & Bamboo

The Fine Mess online store will be open for just 5 more days this season! I will close the store on the 12th, to guarantee any orders will arrive in time for Christmas, and because I have a show on the 13th for which I will need the pieces. I just listed a new soap - check it out here!

To order, click here

Apple Green Conversion

It's been a couple of years since I expanded my glaze palette. Mixing glazes is not my favorite thing to do (if it's yours, please let me know! 😄 You might be utterly unique.) The glaze kitchen tends to get cluttered up with bikes and gardening equipment, so I have to clear it out before I even begin. Every firing seems to be pushed against a time limit (and whose fault is that?) so adding an additional task - mixing a test glaze - isn't feasible. But! I am starting to get antsy for new colors & surfaces. The green in currently have I rarely use - it's a little dark for the candy-coated vibe of my ware. This, though: this promises apple green! That would be right up my alley.

It's not currently chemically quite right for soda; and I will want to do a ^6 conversion on it also, to have both possibilities. I am doing a lot less ^6 these days - I find the soda glass itself is just not quite as luscious, somehow, so I've been unwilling to quit ^10 entirely. Keeping two sets of glazes and two sets of claybodies is actually something of a strain on the space limitations of my studio, in addition to the ever-present risk of getting a piece or a glaze in the wrong firing, with results either disappointing or disastrous, depending on which way it goes. Right now I fire to ^6 for a couple of orders, both of which have more glazed ares and less bare clay or flashing slip. It works well for these,but one of the questions I need to answer in the new year is whether it's worth the storage space & the risks.

I look forward to the Week of Reflection to decide this and other questions.

The easier conversion, obviously, is the one to make this glaze (hopefully!) appropriate for soda firing. It has the necessary percentage of whiting, so I would only need to replace some of the silica with boron. There's a goodly amount of silica in this recipe, too: 28%. I am thinking to switch out 3% of it with boron and run it up the flagpole. ETA: NOPE

Which is to say, run it through the glaze calculation software & see what  it turns up.

Here's the recipe as-is, which I got from Claybucket. 

COLEMAN APPLE GREEN CELADON*

Coleman Apple Green

Cone: 9 – 10

Color: transparent green

Surface: glossy

Firing: reduction

Recipe:    (percent)

Whiting …………… 17.95

Custer Feldspar …. 43.59

EPK …………………. 10.26

Flint …………………. 28.20

Totals:        100 %

Also add:

Chrome Oxide ………  0.25

Red Iron Oxide ……… 0.77

Here's how it looks when Elaine Coleman uses it over porcelain:

Here's the recipe with the alteration I hope will adapt it for soda, with the changes highlighted:

Apple Green for soda

Cone: 9 – 10

Color: transparent green

Surface: glossy

Firing: reduction

Recipe:    (percent)

Whiting …………… 16
Gerstley Borate............1.95

Custer Feldspar …. 42.59

EPK …………………. 11.26

Flint …………………. 28.20

Totals:        100 %

Also add:

Chrome Oxide ………  0.25

Red Iron Oxide ……… 0.77

Now, this recipe also has a large percentage of potash feldspar (Custer Spar) at 43%. It's probably worth trying a 1-for-1 substitution of Custer for Neph Sy - that might be enough (again, GlazeMaster might have something to say about it.) If that doesn't do the trick itself, I'll have to remind myself which frits are best for these colorants and for soda.

The first mix is on my to-do list for today; I'll be testing it in my own kiln next week and in the Portland Pottery stoneware kiln as well, so I can see how it performs without the influence of soda.
Photos next week!
After all this, I decided it would be smart to mix it as-is first, because every now & then a glaze surprises me & does just fine in soda. 

*Why why why doesn't spellcheck know the word "celadon?" I mean "tenmoku" & "shino" I get but celadon is just the name of a color. 😕

One Thing I Love About Potters

We are endlessly resourceful! When I arrived at Hallowell Clay Works yesterday to teach my Beginning Throwers, I found that Malley had devised an ingenious solution to thoroughly mixing her terra sigilata overnight:

😃

When October Goes

The great Barry Manilow captured the melancholy of late October, as we spin into the dark half of the year. My wallow in that bittersweet feeling needs to be brief, however, because October's end means a very busy time in the studio.

First, I've got new pots in the online shop! Here are a couple of my special favorites:

Got several nice butter dishes out of the last firing! Check this one out at this link. 

Several sweet little sugar bowls too! Check this one out at this link.

Three big beautiful vases available too! Check this one out at this link. 

The online store will be open & adding new items every week until the first week in December. 

I'm also preparing for the opening of the Holiday Pottery Shop, which opens in about two weeks. This year the shop is at 160 Water Street in Hallowell. OMG you should see this big beautiful space!! It's the site of the former Harlow Gallery, and has me musing about renting it to open a year 'round store, after the Holiday Pottery Shop pops back down. That's probably little more than a daydream but...it could work. There's space in the back for a wheel & work table & even an electric kiln to bisque, so I wouldn't lose studio time....it could work....

ANYWAY. I've got enough to think about in the present. Orders, consignment stores that need inventory, oh and....

A new cat!

I didn't really mean to get a sixth cat! Actually I tried pretty hard not to get a sixth cat, but cats happen, especially to me. SkinnyCat has been hanging around our house for about a year & a half - he was our neighbors' cat, although they seemed to be a little rough with him; they had small children and Skinny was always limping or seeming injured. Around the beginning of September, we started to notice that Skinny was not looking too good: he was even skinnier, was losing fur and covered with scabs. Then we noticed that he wasn't going home anymore, he was just living in our shed. When we walked over to speak to his people, their apartment was vacant! They had moved away without SkinnyCat! We'd been leaving food out for him anyway, but we started making sure he got two meals a days & had a safe warm place to sleep in the shed while we looked for someone to take him. I actually did find someone willing to take him, but it took about 6 weeks...by which time my husband Doug had really bonded with Skinny, who is an affectionate little lap cat. He (Doug, not SkinnyCat) just looked at me and said, "I don't think I can let him go."

Doug's mother is very ill, & the whole family is having a hard time with it; if one more cat provides him with some comfort, that seems a small ask. So here we are, introducing SkinnyCat to his new family.

Anyway that's my autumn so far! How's yours?

The New Messy Minute is out!

Hey all - long time no post! I'd say sorry but honestly I'm probably the only one who notices. 😊 Hoping you are having a fabulous fall. I just sent out the Fine Mess Newsletter, the Messy Minute - you can sign up for the mailing list by emailing me at info@finemesspottery.com. To check out the Messy Minute in .pdf form, click here. [ETA: A reader clued me in that that .pdf opens as 127 pages long! They are all the same page, but even so it takes like 40 seconds to open. I have no idea why that happened; I built it in Publisher & saved it as a .pdf, nothing fancy. Anyway, you can still read it there if you want, or just shoot me an email & I'll send it to you. ]

I missed a couple of editions, but hopefully back on track now!