#ironyisironic

Hot on the heels of yesterday's post: I am expecting about $1200 in the form of checks & Paypal deposits, which could - should! should! -- arrive any day now. Some of it is late; some of it is way late. No dinero in today's mail, e- or otherwise. Where the fudd is my money?

I think I'll go actualize my potential.

What is the Business of Business?

Spending so much time in the studio with only the hum of the wheel (and a parade of cats) for company allows my mind to wander down various coves and alleys of thought. Such as: what makes a successful business? No, really think about it.

Many people would say that the purpose of a business is to make money, and if it is doing so, it is a successful business, period. Too broad for you? Let's stipulate legally; and even go a step further, and say ethically, within conventional standards. Is it enough that this so-stipulated business is making money, to make it successful?

At the risk of sounding like the ghost of Jacob Marley, I've concluded that, no. That's ass backwards. A business has to acquire money, of course, but that is a step in the process of its purpose. Like this: the purpose of a power plant is not to create steam; instead, power plants create steam as a necessary step to achieve the end result: electricity. It's not correct to say steam is a side effect or a by-product; the creation of steam is a key step, without which the plant would not function. Money, in business, is like that. You want some money, and you need some money - you have to live. You can't do your job unless you have enough money to live on. Your business can't function if the people within it - including you - can't. But it's among the means, not the ends.

So, if the goal isn't money, what is it? I submit that the purpose of your business - the true purpose of any business - is a dual: to provide the best product or service that it can in the process of realizing of human potential. There is great overlap between these goals. The realization of your potential, the entrepreneur, is the utilization of your skills and knowledge. The same goes for your staff, if you have staff. A successful business will provide an opportunity for both the owner and the employees to realize the promise of their aptitudes. To the extent that the aquisition of money interferes with the actualization of either owners or employees, it is over-emphaiszed. It has become an obstacle to the success of the business.

Maybe you're waiting for the twist, the part where I conclude that, if you do business in this fashion you will make even more money, in the end. Well, you probably won't. You tend to get what you prioritze, and if you prioritize money only as an avenue to personal growth, your business may well make less money, and that's okay. Because I am advocating for a different model of success. If you have enough that you and your family are comfortable and secure, consider that perhaps you have enough, period.

Yeah, I hear you, there in the back: I should stop smoking that stuff, it'll make my teeth all yellow. But as Marley discovered, you really can't take it with you, and a legacy of material things is an impoverished one indeed. I'll let ol' Jake have the last word:

Glazes to Try

...via Vince Pitelka:

Killer Tomato Red
Kona F-4 48.2
Flint 25.9
Bone Ash 11.6
EPK 7.1
Magnesium Carb. 7.1
+ Red Iron Oxide 7.1%

Caramel Yellow
Neph Sye 19.0
Flint 17.9
Spodumene 17.8
Dolomite 16.9
G-200 14.3
EPK 14.3
+ Titanium Diox. 8%

Honey Luster
G-200 Feldspar 40.9
Flint 19.1
Talc 14.0
Gerstley Borate 11.5
Dolomite 7.3
Ball Clay 7.2
+ Mang. Dioxide 8%

That last one sounds like an exterior-only glaze.

Also, is it just coincidence that all of the glazes from the list that got my attention have food references in the name? I must be getting hungry!

And thanks, Vince, for publishing these; and thanks to other potters who do the same. I've always thought it completely silly when potters get all possessive about their glaze recipes; as though bodies of work might become indistinguishable if someone uses your glazes! Painters don't do that: "Oh, I've got my special blue, and no one can use my blue except me." I often find glazes online, and almost always alter them to work in my kiln, and when I do, I am more than pleased if someone else can use the recipe. either as-is or with their own alterations. In this way, we all benefit.

Not sure how these will play in the soda atmosphere...but I can think of a good way to find out!

October Goal Setting

1. The soda fire workshop! I am so excited about this. There are a number of small things I need to take care of for this, so this first thing on my list is Make a List, of things to make up (all the glazes should be full , for example), things to type up (recipes, a rough firing schedule), things to link up (mapquests for participants, local accommodations), things to cook up (meals I can freeze, so I can offer something at least passable to participants, without cooking.)
2. I plan to do two firings this month, in addition to the workshop. It looks like I will have enough stuff roll right into the next glaze firing without bisquing, although i still have to wor out whether that will get my October 22 order to its purchaser on time.
   
3. In September, I had it on my list to get another consignment account. I've re-thought that, as I think the three (ish) accounts that I have are not yet at their potential; so I've decided to bring them more and better work, and see how that goes.
   
4. This is all very dull and business-y. (Although oddly, I am finding that part fun, too, in a Sim City kind of way; that is another post.) However, I am still an artist and in that vein I have an idea for some sets - salt/ pepper, sugar/creamer, and cruets - involving dissimilar shapes that seem nevertheless to belong together.
   

Between Leaping and Landing

It's been two months since my last day at the IPTOG, though let me tell you, it seems a lot longer than that. My cubicle days seem like the memory of a fretful dream, and when I have stopped back in the office to visit friends or deliver ware, it's been a bit disorienting. In a real sense it is behind me.

I knew what my goal looked like: financial stability, and an orderly work life as a full time potter. I knew I could get there, but it required leaping a chasm between that last paycheck, and the steady stream of small checks that is the potter's income, not to mention summoning the discipline to work even when the delivery deadline seems far away. I'm not at the goal yet, but I can see the first light of it, on the horizon; I now have something more than faith to go on, that this is indeed ahead of me. In some ways, though, the transitional period has surprised me.

• What I expected: I thought money would be a Big Problem, and that I would have to spend down my small savings during the first couple of months of this venture. What I got: Not. Just...not. And I don't know why. I thought I was being crazy-frugal before I quit, but I must have been wrong about that, because even though I am not yet bringing in as much as I did from the IPTOG, the money thing seems somehow easier. Whereas before, my account would be in the single digits (no lie) the day before payday, now that never happens. I am conscious of greater care at the grocery store: more lentils, rice, dry beans, potatoes, and eggs; but since I was already pretty cheap this doesn't go far to explain it. One BIG thing: I used to get lunch out & about in Portland twice a week, or more; and sometimes dinner, too, on the days I stayed in town to teach my classes. Nothing much - Tic Tac O rather than DiMillo's - but it added up, apparently more than I thought. Money that I could have been saving. Which makes me think: where's the waste now, that I am clueless about? NOT that I am complaining. The money thing was my big worry (Thanks, Captain Obvious!) and having it turn out okay (so far -- still got winter & oil bills coming up) is a relief the vastness of which cannot be overstated.
• What I expected: With the dead weight of cubicle work cut out of my schedule, I thought I'd finally have time to garden, organize my closets, make sculpture...I thought my working days would themselves be more leisurely. BWAH-HAHAHAHAHAAAA! Leisure? What's that? That earlier post when I envisioned spending the morning preparing deposits and strolling to the post office - yeah, not really. I roll out of bed, feed the menagerie, and head into the studio. After an hour or so I get hungry and go get breakfast, check my email, and go back to the studio. Lather, rinse, repeat, until 7 or 8 pm. Once a week or so I look around and think: This place is a dump, and then I run around for an hour vacuuming and putting things away. I have less free time than I did before. On the other hand, my working time is so much more enjoyable that it is totally worth it.
• What I expected: I didn't so much expect this as fear it, but I worried that Doug and I would get on each other's nerves, since we are both self-employed and working from home now. What I got: That hasn't happened. We work in different parts of the house, and bump into each other when we come down to the kitchen for more coffee. I do kind of miss the "Honey, I'm home!" moment, and I feel like we need to create a new ritual of sorts to take its place; otherwise we risk never focusing on ourselves as a couple, because we are just always there.
  
• What I expected: Though I pride myself on my rationality, it's clear that I haven't quite stamped out superstition in my own mind, since I was convinced that, once I no longer had the security of the paycheck, something would happen. Not something truly catastrophic, just something. I'd break my wrist and be unable to throw. Or, the car would die and render me unable to get to class or to my sales calls. Or, worse, my elderly mother would get ill, or...or...or... What I got: Speaking of superstition, knock wood! Nothing like this has happened. And really it's sort of narcissistic to imagine that the universe is just waiting for me to be vulnerable, in order to pounce.
  

Things that are what I expected: 1)Making stuff is miles more fun than comparing endless columns of numbers. I never tire of it, no, never. 2) Making the leap is the hardest part. Once that's done, the rest follows on.

Thursday Inspiration: Ronan Peterson

See lots more here. Ronan Peterson also blogs at Nine Toes Pottery, a most intriguing name. Check it out!

It's NaBloPoMo!

Well, technically, every month is NaBloPoMo; but this month I am participating! I won't necessarily be posting to this blog every day, but I will post to one of the three (two and a half, really.) The theme for October is Between, which causes lots of clay-related ideas to pop into my head: things like negative space, process ideas, business-y thoughts.

I hope some of my fellow clay bloggers will come along for the ride!

Europa, Persephone, Miranda All Dressed Up

Europa, Persephone, Miranda

"Women" By Adrienne Rich

My three sisters are sitting
on rocks of black obsidian.
For the first time, in this light, I can see who they are.

My first sister is sewing her costume for the procession.
She is going as the Transparent lady
and all her nerves will be visible.

My second sister is also sewing,
at the seam over her heart which has never healed entirely,
At last, she hopes, this tightness in her chest will ease.

My third sister is gazing
at a dark-red crust spreading westward far out on the sea.
Her stockings are torn but she is beautiful.

Something Fun in Progress

More to come.

Thursday Inspiration - Liz Zlot Summerfield

See lots more of Liz's work here.

Over-fire, or Under? The Burning Question

You'll remember that for due to a thermocouple failure, my last firing was quite uneven. I had to choose between letting eleven fall on one side, or failing to reach 9 on the other. I usually would have chosen to let one side be too cool, thinking that I can always refire the unfinished pots, but this time, in the interest of science, I went for 11. When I shut off, I had nine over on the west side, with 10 just barely soft, and 11 fully over on the east side. And you know what happened? Nothing much.

The pots on the Cone 11 side were very nice. I had to do some grinding, but only where the soda was so plentiful as to form a river. The glazes on the Cone 9 side were fine; not as spectacular as I know they can be, but still perfectly nice.

So: I learned something! It depends on the specific glazes, of course, but this is still useful information.